Is Your Dog a Player?

Last week I was watching Kathy Lee & Hoda on the infamous 4th hour of the Today Show.  As usual, they were discussing important news-worthy information that everyone needs to know to stay up-to-date on current events and world happenings.  The topic of the day was the top dog breeds for landing a date.

I was instantly glued to the TV, waiting for them to tell me that of course the Boxer is number one on the list.  I mean, obviously the Boxer is the best dog breed ever.  Ever!

Apparently I was wrong.  Turns out the top breeds for girls to attract guys are Chihuahuas, Labs, and Golden Retrievers.  The top breeds for men to attract women are Labs, Goldens, and German Shepherds. 

Are you serious?!?  Chihuahuas beat out Boxers?!? 

This is an outrage. 

I immediately decided that this study was bogus.  Because on what planet is a Mexican Rat Dog* more attractive to the male sex than a stoic, silly, handsome, and amazing Boxer?!?

But then they claimed that you should avoid (avoid?!?) men walking Boxers, Bulldogs, and Rottweilers because they are players. 

Players?!?!

I texted Drew at once alerting him to this news... and also maybe accusing him of being a player.  Can't you just see Ari and Drew walking through the neighborhood scamming on chicks?!

No?  Well, I can't either.  But its a funny picture none the less.

Now Mya on the other hand... we've always known she's a bit of a player.  I guess at her age the word player is replaced by Cougar, but you know what I mean.  She likes the younger pups and she's not afraid to make some moves.

Player Haters.

So this study got me thinking and wondering about what else our silly Boxers say about us.  I did a bit of Googling and found this article that just about nailed it.

"Boxer owners love life and are usually quite busy. To them, strangers are just friends they haven't met yet. Their lives are busy with lots of loyal friends. Some may find them a little too busy and somewhat high strung. These people handle life's stresses with silliness and playfulness. To them life isn't worth living if it isn't full of fun and laughter. Favorite TV show: Seinfeld."

Busy with lots of loyal friends?  Check.

Handle life's stresses with silliness?  Check.

Favorite show Seinfeld?  Check.  Well, maybe not a favorite, but we don't really watch any TV that isn't funny or that has an actual point to it.  Just dumb, funny TV. 

Some other descriptions matched up pretty well with friends who own certain breeds too:

Dachshund:  Love people and good parties.  Somewhat stubborn.  When they want something they won't give up on it. 

Yorkie: Very organized, keep a neat and clean house, independent.

Golden Retriever:  Laid back, love the outdoors, have jobs where they help people.

Labs:  Always looking for fun, love sports especially water sports, will try anything once.

I think it's safe to say that your dog's breed really does say something about you.  I'm glad that ours says we're fun and silly... and players.

*RAT DOG!

Fat Dog

I came home last night to a dark house and thought maybe Drew had gone to bed uber-early.  I walked in to find him and the dogs sitting by candlelight.  No, he wasn't planning a romantic evening... the power went out.  I guess the heat was too much for PV to handle.  Our whole street was dark, except for the lights from the fireworks the WT family was setting off.  Awesome.

I joined Drew and the dogs on the couch and Drew made the comment*, "See Ari, this is what people did in the old days.  They sat around by candlelight and... talked."  For some reason this made us laugh... a lot.  I'm not sure we've ever talked without the TV on in the background.  It facilitates our communication.

So, we sat there for awhile... talking.  It didn't take long for that to get old.  So Drew decided to measure Ari's body fat.

"I feel so fat."

This isn't dog abuse.  And lucky for Mya the power came on before it was her turn.  And lucky for us the TV came back on so we didn't have to worry about... talking.

*Other people have conversations with their dogs, right?  Right?!

Replacement Needed

Okay friends, thanks for all your support and no, I haven't completely gone off the deep end (yet).  To prove it to you, here's a post full of silly dog pics.

I'm looking for a garden assistant.  My old one (Jack) got fired because he kept trying to pick my one and only tiny little pepper... the only thing growing so far.  He kept telling me he was going to pick it and eat it.  Finally I had enough... now I'm looking for a replacement.

I've only seen one candidate, and he's lacking some important gardening skills.  When I asked if he has a green thumb, he showed me that he doesn't actually have any thumbs.  This could be a problem.  Let's take a look.

"Must water tomatoes... wish I had thumbs."

Note:  it is super classy to put your tomato plants in Lowe's buckets.  Although, it might embarrass them so much that they refuse to grow.

"Okay, I got it.  Now just tilt my head like this..."

"Bah.  Stupid watering can.  This is a lot of work."

"Maybe if I shake it all around like this!"

"Wait, why won't this thing hold water?"

This guy has gone through two watering cans this week.  I don't think this is going to work out.

In other news, the black thumb is in full force.  I have tons of vegetable plants growing, but no vegetables are being produced... except my tiny little pepper which I'm guarding with my life*.

Patience Grasshopper.

*Don't even think about it, Jack.

Beast Master

If you have small children and have been to visit the Gibson house, you know that it can be quite a dangerous interesting experience.  Ari + Children = Disaster.

Well friends, the dogs have met their match.  And his name is Jack. 

Now don't get me wrong.  Ari gave it his best shot.  There was a lot of jumping, woofing, and inappropriate "hugging".  But Jack didn't back down.  Eventually this happened:

Dead Tired Mutts.

They were back on their feet when Jack started in on his Easy Mac.

Ari wants some mac & cheese!

Inappropriateness by Mya.

But eventually, they gave up due to utter exhaustion.  That kid kicked some puppy butt.

Must nap!

In UBER-EXCITING news... Jack is getting a little brother!!!  I was ready for a girl and planning a big push to name her Jamie.  Come on, Jack & Jamie.  That's just fantastic.  Now I'm thinking James.  There's some stiff competition from Tom... so I've got to work hard to really push for the baby to be named after me. 

Whatever his name, we're so excited to meet this new little guy in October!!!  And way excited to see Jack as a big bro.

Cheerio!

This weekend we headed back to Ta-Town to say some goodbyes.  The BFF is moving to... England?!  Yes, England.  For like 5 years.  I am heartbroken so excited for her!

In all actuality, the move probably won't affect me much.  I don't really see Sam a whole lot.  We only live 3 hours away from each other, but life kind of has a way of making that 3 hour drive seem a little impossible at times. 

I was just worried about the phone bill for making calls to England.  No really.  I talk to Sam pretty much every day.  Sometimes multiple times a day.  Sometimes those phone calls are what get me through a rough day.  And sometimes they are just calls to share hilarious/embarrassing stories.  And sometimes I just call with a shoe problem.  Regardless, my day is not complete without a chat... or at the very least a voicemail from Parker singing Justin Bieber.

So you can imagine how I felt when Drew told me I had to get a new BFF because there's no way I'm calling England every day!  Sam to the rescue.  I don't know what kind of plan they're on, but she swears it will be just like making local phone calls.  Thank heavens! 

Connie's cookies!

Sam's mom threw a little going away party for the Alexanders' at Spirits in Valley Center, complete with beer, cake, and cookies shaped like... England?

I'm gonna miss that face.

Meg didn't want to take a picture with me because she said I'd put it all over the internet.  Yep.  You were right!!!

Love ya Megan!

The party ended as the band got ready to play.  We had to stick around for a few songs from Lady and the Tramps. 

That's Lady.

This picture is so so so blurry, but this was the best mullet I've ever seen in my entire life!

Party in the back.

And... this gal danced to every song.  She was the only one on the dance floor, but she was really working it.  I couldn't tell if she was actually with the band, or just a Spirits regular.

Work it girl!

It was a really good party to say goodbye.  Except... it turns out they bumped back their moving date and the family won't be moving until the end of June. :)

I know it sucks for them because they are so ready to start their new life, but I'm selfish.  And this means I can see them more.  Now I just need to start planning my trip to England.

I love you Sam, Brady, and Parker!!!!

***Bonus Picture***

We always take the puppies to Wichita with us, because they love terrorizing visiting their grandparents.  On the way home, I swear they were posing for senior pictures.  Unfortunately we were driving and I didn't have a good shot.  So their heads are kinda chopped off.

Butts together.

Or maybe they were just in a fight and not speaking to each other? 

Whatcha Been Up To?

You know its been awhile when you log on to Blogger and the entire format has changed.  I'm uber confused...

... I just turned in my last final.  I have never written so much in my life.  Who knew grad school would require so many ridiculously long papers? 

The good new is it is summer break!  Well, until Monday when I start summer classes.  You betta' believe I'm going to enjoy the next few days!  So let's catch up on what's been going on in Jamieland besides paper writing and final taking.  Since I'm a little burnt out on words, this will mostly just be pictures.

The Gibsons participated in the world's largest game of Jenga.  It was intense.

Shaky shaky.

Jenga Stud.

I took some time off writing to create some super fabulous Easter desserts.  Drew has a very endearing nickname for me: Jamie Drama.  After seeing me rushing around the kitchen on Easter morning he renamed me Jamie Chaos.  I asked him to try his best to keep the kitchen chaos out of the pictures and make me look like a cool & calm kitchen-ista.  How'd he do?

Mixing up some frosting.



G-phi, you know!

 Nope, I'm not taking shots while baking.  That Kahlua went into Maureen McInerney's famous Brownie Trifle.  In case you didn't know, brownies + Kahlua = A-mazing!

Armed & Dangerous

We made it to Easter lunch... only an hour late!  People forgive lateness when you come loaded with sugar.

MM Brownie Trifle & Lemon Coconut Cheesecake.

My most amazing creation to date.  For real.

As you know, we Gibsons are serious about our cheesecake.  I think Cheryl might have been on the verge of tears when I told her I'd chosen Lemon Coconut Cheesecake for our Easter celebration.  We don't take cheesecake lightly.

Cutting it open.

Layers of love.

 From the bottom up: lemon sponge cake, lemon custard, coconut, whipped cream frosting (from scratch), vanilla bean cheesecake, lemon custard, coconut, and the entire thing is covered in whipped cream frosting.  Don't hate.

This was seriously a huge undertaking.  And it was totally worth it.  The only hitch was the lemon custard.  I made a batch the night before and it didn't set up, so I tried to scramble to get another batch made that morning.  It was better, but didn't have enough time in the fridge to fully coagulate.  I'll get it down next time. 

The Easter Bunny rewarded me for my efforts with... more sugar.  Does the Easter Bunny bring you your candy in fabulous new casserole dishes?  I don't know if I was more excited about the candy or the thought of how beautiful mac & cheese will look in this sunny orange dish.

Baskets are over-rated.

Jack kept us waiting while he napped off his sugar rush from the morning.  Watching him dig into his basket was totally worth the wait.  He totally went after it, dumping one egg out at a time and shoving jelly beans in his mouth like it was his j-o-b.

Mmmm....

Quick!  Eat 'em up!

There's no stopping this guy!

Mouth full o' beans.

Going for more!

Get 'em in there!

And we're still going.

Now on to the Peeps!

"I'm gonna eat you!"

Look at Drew.  He's super jealous cause he wants some peeps!

Yep, we had a pretty fun Easter.  In other news...

... here's a picture of Drew eating a banana.

True story: Mya can hear a banana being peeled in the kitchen even if she's on the other side of the house with the door closed.  Our house isn't that big, but still.  That girl loves her some banana.

We went to a wedding on Saturday and I got to see my BDFF. 

I can't really say much about the wedding except for this:  me and the Overland Park Marriott DO NOT get along.  Some day I'll tell you the story of Lambda Chi Formal.  Not today.  Let's just say that I'm pretty sure they put something in their wine... and I have a camera full of pictures that look like this:

Apparently we got a ride home in a limo.  You know I was in a bad place because if I'd been at all coherent, I would have been all about taking pictures with a limo... and a limo driver!  Nothing.  Not one picture.

In neighborhood watch news:  I called the police last week when I saw a crackhead parked on our street.  My neighbors are so lucky I look out for them.  They are unfortunate in the fact that they hire people who look like crackheads to mow their lawns.  My bad, crackhead.

In brilliant revelations news:  I discovered that one Modelo (with a lime) makes words pour out of me and onto my 40 page research paper like... well, beer out of a bottle.  So you'd think two Modelos would work even better, right?  No such luck.  While it did make me think I was writing a brilliant statistical analysis, it turns out I was just writing a bunch of garble.  Lesson learned: One Modelo = Brilliant Writer.  Two Modelos = Nonsense on paper.  Note: Husbands are not happy when you drink all of there Modelo and may use phrases like, "Are you drinking again?!" and "Who drank all my damn Modelo?!"

On that note, I'm still waiting for my student teaching placement.  WHY DON'T I KNOW YET???  Is it because they read my blog?

Ummm.... okay.  I think that's it.  We're all caught up on life.  Regularly scheduled blogging will resume tomorrow and continue until probably the middle of July when I'll realize that I have procrastinated my school work to the point of no return and have to spend every waking moment writing.

Pet Worms

Okay, what did you think of when you read the post title?  I for some reason thought of Screech from Saved By the Bell.  Didn't he have pet worms?

This warm weather has be so excited for Spring and Summer!  So much so that I spent a good portion of my Research Methodology class this weekend* plotting out my garden.  I'm sure its going to be a huge success this year, mostly because I'll have lots of organic compost to get things started right.  It has to be good, right? 

However, things in the compost bin haven't been moving very fast.  Probably because it has been so cold.  But the thing is, when we built the compost bin, we were maybe supposed to get some worms to put in there to speed things along.  Then I read that worms will just find their way on their own.  So I thought I'd just let nature do her thing.

Well, I decided nature needed a little kick in the pants.  So I went in search of worms.  I did my research and knew that I needed Red Wiggler Worms.  I called around to a bunch of bait shops in the area (why do we have so many bait shops in the area?) and none of them had red wigglers. 

Lucky for me, I found the cutest little organic farm right here in Kansas that would ship me my very own red wiggler worms.  

Yes.  You heard right.  I ordered worms.  Off the internet.

Never thought I'd say that.

Well, the little guys showed up on my doorstep today.   

Someone call Screech.

The puppies were very excited for their new pets. 

"Hello?  Who is in there?"

"You are my pets and you can sleep in my crate."

I was so freaking nervous opening this box.  I did not know what to expect.  I'm an online-worm-buying-virgin. 

They were packaged all nice and comfy in a little bag of dirt.  I was so relieved I didn't have to touch them.

Say hello to my little friends.

I put the worms in their new home and let them go to work.  These little guys will eat their body weight in less than two days.  That means my one little pound of worms will eat a pound of food every two days. 

Good thing I got the worms to safer pastures when I did.  Ari snatched the empty worm bag from me and took off with it.  He and Mya tore it to shreds in a game of tug-of-war.  They aren't very responsible pet worm owners.

So there you have it.  I guess you can order anything off the internet these days.  Hopefully these guys will work their magic and in a few months we'll be on our way to a happy vegetable garden!

*If anyone ever ever tells you that it is a good idea to take a weekend class, they are lying.  It is a very very bad idea.  

Random-o-city

It has been a crazy week, right?  I hate when real life gets in the way of blogging... and blog reading.  I promise to spend the rest of the evening catching up on all of your blogs.  But first, I have all these random pictures I took with the intention of blogging.  But then silly things like school got in the way.  Priorities people.  So let's do a quick recap of super random things that I felt necessary to photograph.

1.  I found my No Meat Athlete shirt at the bottom of my running-wear drawer!  I totally forgot I had this thing!  It's a carrot with a sweatband.  Hilarious.

 

2.  Ari has been getting pretty comfy on the couch.  Don't act like you don't want to cuddle with him.

Paws in the air.

Dog-blanket.

Stretch it out.

3.  I made Drew do a photo shoot before we headed to a friend's engagement party...

 ... then I looked at the photos and realized my face is like three shades darker than my neck...

... looks like someone hasn't been doing a great job on blending the self-tanner.  Whatevs.  At least you can't see my ghost legs.

The party was so super-fabulous.  There were bartenders and Mexican food.  It was like the party was thrown just for me. 

3.  I was inspired by Foodie Fridays and made some pumpkin whoopie pies for the super bowl party we attended.  They were yummy.  Thanks Kelly for the great time!

Whoopie!

4.  I had a meltdown at school when I walked into class late and my bag completely fell apart in the middle of the room.  Remember last year when I made ya'll vote on which bag I should get for school?  And then I ended up just using a bag that I already had and Drew promised to get me a really nice bag when I graduate?  Well, it turns out I really loved that bag.  It served me so well for the last year.  Then on my last day on campus last semester I overloaded the poor thing and it kind of fell apart.  I tried to ghetto-rig it back together, but that didn't last.  So after class on Wednesday I booked it to TJ Maxx and found this super cute bag that I love love love.

It's yellow.  I love it.

5.  We secured our spot as KC's #1 lame-o couple by going to Culver's for dinner tonight.  We had a coupon.  After sitting down, Drew commented that we weren't really the right demographic for Culver's on a Friday night.  I looked around and realized that we were the only people in the restaurant that weren't either post-retirement age or parents with a million screaming kids.  Duh.  We're supposed to be eating somewhere that at least serves beer.  Not using a coupon for concretes and butter burgers.  Losers.

But I have to say, I was seriously impressed with their garden salad!!!  So much so that I had to take a picture.

Check out those veggies!

Don't worry.  I supplemented the salad with fries... and a Snickers concrete... with hot fudge.

6.  Most exciting news of the week... new running shoes!!!

I was trying for instant gratification by going to Garry Gribbles today but they didn't have my size.  They never have my size.  For real.  So these babies should be on my doorstep sometime next week... just in time for warm (ish) weather!!!

That's it.  That is all I've got.  Now, I've got to get to some much-needed blog reading.  I have no idea what is going on in your lives.