The Great Outdoors

I am going to start by owning that I know I love my cats too much. And that you could probably care less about their "adventures", but they amuse me, so here we go...

Despite Chris' previous protests, I really wanted to take the cats outside. We saw a cat on a leash outside the other day, and I thought, why not?

So I got the harness and leash out, shimmied it around a squirming Bucky, and took him out the back door to the backyard. Before Chris got home, of course. Bucky and I may have met him in the driveway when he pulled in.

At first he was not totally sure what was going on. He does not like loud noises, so it took a minute to adjust to the sounds of kids, cars, etc. 

But then he started rolling around in the grass, and decided he was lovin' life. 

Eating grass? Yes, please!

He managed to find the dirtiest place in the yard and roll around in it over and over. Awesome. 

He could have stayed out there all day. But unfortunately we only have one leash. And I wanted to give it a shot with Stella, who had been sitting in the window, watching Bucky and I outside. 

She was much less excited and was sort of on edge for awhile. She was really not a fan of the harness, and kept giving me dirty looks for being so close to her. 

She stayed on the perimeter for awhile, and kept trying to duck under these bushes. She really wanted to explore on her own. 

But then she found a squirrel climbing the garage, and was a little more interested. She eventually ate some grass too. 

Sitting on the driveway seemed to be more her style. Unfortunately when I took her inside the house, she bolted up the stairs, pulling the harness to the point that it released her. Loose cat in the hallway! She may not be going out again for awhile. 

Bucky has chosen to stay posted by the door in the kitchen, and cries anytime we go near it, just to make sure we know he wants to go outside again. He was originally a farm cat. It's in his blood.

Pets are funny.

Now Hiring: Personal Assistant

My schedule seems to conflict with Stella's desire to lay on my head. She'll have to deal. 

Earlier tonight, as I was formatting party invitations and signing up for a 5K, I took a look at my June calendar and became slightly overwhelmed by the all of the things ahead. Somehow I went from "slow summer" to fitting in two professional travel commitments, several baseball games, a 10-mile race, a staff retreat, hosting a get together, a 5K, an out-of-town guest.

July doesn't seem to be any slower, when you consider that between July 1 and July 8 we have tickets for a baseball game, plus at least three nights of Summerfest, followed by two nights in a row of Dave Matthews Band tickets. I don't even know when the last times is that I did that many things in one week. Six. Things. Eek!

I enjoy being busy...most of the time. And a large majority of the things on my summer schedule are fun ones. I get to celebrate my bestie at her bridal shower and bachelorette party. I get to see friends from all over. And the majority of my time at work is going to be spent on developing really cool projects. Who can complain about that? Plus, I am going to continue to work towards checking stuff off of my 30B430 list. Did I mention that I get to run A LOT?!

I think I just need to take a minute to stop and plan it all out, so that it doesn't seem quite so crazy. Plus I should probably get a massage and/or a mani/pedi. Yep, that is definitely needed.

Pulling It Together: The Living Room

Now that we have lived in our apartment for about two months, we actually want to invite people over and have visitors. Chris' parents came to Milwaukee for Memorial Day, and we are planning for some weekends with friends a bit later. Which means that it was about time to whip our apartment into shape. I thought I would share some updated apartment pictures, one room at a time! Let's start with the living room.

The place was unpacked, but was still slightly unfinished looking. We were in need of a rug to hide some of the wear on our hardwood floors, and to pull the seating area together. The room is one long rectangle with a giant cutout in the middle, and so the furniture doesn't exactly line up in a logical way. We were hoping a rug might hide some of that. We also needed a larger coffee table that was not a small storage ottoman. I would love to eventually get a giant square tufted ottoman rather than a coffee table, but our current funds were not going to support that, nor would it fit in the space. We also wanted to add some seating. At least one more chair. This necessitated a trip to Ikea. We came back with a very full car load. After some assembly... TA DA!

We ended up getting a second end table, a coffee table, and this new rug. I am loving the rug, except we cannot get the edge to lay flat. I keep tripping over the darn thing!

We also got a second chair and an ottoman, and a new set of matching cushions. I am loving the red! Chris found the little side table at Walmart earlier this week. Gotta have somewhere to put your drink down. 

You might be able to see that we moved the storage ottoman under the window in the corner. Our own little nook! The cats are loving having another place to watch birds, cars, the kids next door. Little snoops. 

  

We also finally removed the cardboard box from in front of the fireplace that was keeping the cats out. Our solution? I don't know if you can see, but Chris took a piece of clear plastic from a poster frame and put it behind the sliding screen. It fit perfectly, without being a big eyesore like the cardboard box. And it means that they cannot roll around in the soot or use the place as a litter box. 

One of my favorite purchases for the apartment were these little red bird votives that I found on clearance from Crate and Barrel. They have a nice home on the mantel right now. It will be even nicer when we get around to hanging our new round mirror. It will have to stay in the box until we can find the right hardware. 

We also finally found baskets to hold all of the dvds in the media center. After taking measurements and looking at Ikea, Walmart, and Target (twice), I finally bought these. Glad they have a home. We have so many dvds that they are in every storage basket in the room!

Well, except for these. I found two red ones for each of the end tables. (Don't mind the dirty floor or the posters waiting to be hung). 

One of the other little details that I love is this red honeycomb vase that I found at Target. I may or may not have broken one of these while I was at the store. The crash was loud enough to bring over the sales associates pretty quickly. How embarrassing! I know they cannot make you pay for something you break, but I felt like I should definitely still buy one. Good thing it is so pretty.

So that's the living room. We still have lots of items to hang up, and I'm sure we will continue to change things as we live here longer. But I am really loving the place!