Monday, May 4, 2020

Lovely Lyrics: We Belong Together

I was outside with Ginny today and tried to get a picture of her sitting on the grass. I was not unsuccessful. Apparently, she was just not in the mood today.

I was deleting all the failed attempts a little while later and and when I saw this, I had to laugh because it pretty much sums our interactions today.

Me: Sit!
Ginny:            


I was debating between a few different songs for Music Monday, but me begging Ginny to pose for photos today made this the clear-cut winner for today! And since the song is from Toy Story 3, I thought I'd include some of my favorite Slinky pictures from around the Disney Parks and Cruise Line!

We Belong Together
from Toy Story 3

Don't you turn your back on me
Don't you walk away
Don't you tell me that I don't care
'Cause I do!


Don't you tell me I'm not the one
Don't you tell me I ain't no fun
Just tell me you love me like I love you
You know you do


When we're together
Gray skies clear up
And I cheer up
To where I'm less depressed


And sincerely
From the bottom of my heart
I just can't take it
When we're apart


We belong together
We belong together
Yes we do
You'll be mine forever


We belong together
We belong together
You know it's true
Gonna stay this way forever
Me and you


If I could really talk to you
If I could find a way
I'm not shy
There's a whole lot I wanna to say
Of course there is!

Talk about friendship and loyalty
Talk about how much you mean to me
And I'd promise to always be by your side
Whenever you need me


The day I met you
Was the luckiest day of my life
And I'll bet you feel the same
At least I hope you do!


So don't forget me
If the future should take you away
'Cause you'll always be
Part of me


We belong together
We belong together
Wait and see
Gonna be this way forever


We belong together
We belong together, honestly
We'll go on this way forever
You and me
You and me



Music and Lyrics by
Randy Newman







































Happy Tails to you!

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Quarantine: Week 7

The highlight of the week was C's birthday, which is today, May 3!

I love this picture!


If you know me, you're well aware of how much I love The Office. Obsessed. I've loved it since we watched the first episode back in 2005. Every year, I would not delete any episode from the DVR until the DVDs of that season were released and in my hand. When we cleaned out all of our DVDs a while back, there was no way I was letting go of The Office. I honestly have no accurate count of how many times I've rewatched the series, but whenever I finish this Ph.D., it will be in no small part to The Office, which is always on in the background while I read and write. My family members roll their eyes at my constant quoting of the show or how in any given situation, I can usually come up with a connection to the show. My ringtone for C is the theme to The Office and has been for as long as I can recall – not just on my iphones, but it was even his ringtone on my Motorola Razr, if you remember that phone! Is my love for this show maybe an illness? Perhaps!

We tend to travel on or around C's birthday, but since we'd be home today, I decided to go with a small homage to Dwight's and Jim's party planning skills. C laughed when he saw the banner and the pitiful balloons, so I'd say it was a success! We also had a family zoom call to sing Happy Birthday and watch C blow out the candles on his cake, so overall, a pretty fun day despite the quarantine!



"I can't believe how bad this looks."

our kitchen table

"It's a statement of fact."

our kitchen

C's cake
it's not mustard yellow,
but it is a button down shirt!


C's favorite ice cream from our niece and nephew

my brother came to visit my mom and
Ginny was able to fawn all over Max

Ginny has had a huge crush on him for ten years
:)



The rest of the week was fairly quiet. Lots of end-of-semester grading to do, lots of zoom meetings, and daily car rides with Ginny. Not really different from the past many weeks, but in some ways, the routine is comforting! Scotty has continued his FB Live performances and Steven Page had another online concert, so entertainment this week has been spot on; we also finally watched The Mandalorian and it was great! I'd already had a fondness for Baby Yoda/The Child prior to watching the series, but now? Oh my! I love him/her!

Scotty

Steven Page

Bananagrams is a super fun game!

We have been missing hockey terribly during this quarantine, so we've been watching re-runs of games, which has been fun because they're been broadcasting some of the big series-winning and Cup-winning games. Well then today, the greatest game ever was on TV...the 2010 Olympics when Team Canada beat Team USA in overtime on the Golden Goal by Sidney Crosby! Being able to re-live that game today was incredible!

be still my heart

the pride is indescribable


C bought me a few new hats! I share my name with the L.A.Kings, so that's a hockey team I've been a fan of since my teen years when I realized the name connection. Well, C found a hat with the team's initials, LAK, on it – and of course, these are my initials, too! LOVE!!!







I've also done a little more baking – I'm not sure what happening to me, but I am actually starting to enjoy baking, rather than just doing it to pass the time! I made banana bread again, and also tried a salted chocolate chip shortbread cookie recipe. Delicious! I was really proud of them because I don't have a stand mixer and had to do everything by hand, which was a ton of work. It was rewarding to have them taste great in the end because they were a labor-intensive endeavor!



The big outing of the week was a trip to Primanti Bros. for a takeout/car picnic lunch. It was a beautiful day for a drive and it made things seem a little normal for a few hours!



Unfortunately, the Disney Cruise my mom and I were scheduled to enjoy next month was cancelled. In all honesty, I'm relieved, because there are still so many unknowns and my mom's health is the only thing that matters. But we are both a little disappointed because we were really looking forward to it before all of this craziness started! I had also planned to attend a conference in Orlando next month that was cancelled. As the result of both of these things being cancelled, I cancelled two trips to WDW next month that were planned around the cruise and the conference. Again, I'm always in the camp of "better safe than sorry," but it still stinks that those trips were cancelled! I do have faith that sooner or later, we'll be able to take all sorts of trips!

we bought matching pj pants for the cruise,
but since we don't have to save them for that,
we decided to wear them for fun


Happy Tails to you!

Saturday, May 2, 2020

SSS: Oh So Fabulous

While I love souvenirs from the Disney Parks, I like finding more unique or personalized things from small shops. I thought I'd share some of my favorite small shops over the next few Saturdays because even during non-quarantine, I like to support creative people who make awesome things! You know how the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend is called Small Business Saturday? That's the inspiration for my Small Shop Saturday posts in May!

This week's shop is Oh So Fabulous and the shop owner makes super cute glittery cups, among other things. As you can see from the photos, I've bought quite a few cups from her, and I love them! The work is beautiful and her customer service is amazing, too! You can find her on Instagram!










she also made the colorful
Mickey silhouette keychain!


Happy Tails to you!

Friday, May 1, 2020

Furry Friday

Since I changed my daily themes a little bit for the month of May, today is now Furry Friday!

I was going to call it Four-Legged Friday, and then I realized that some of my friends' dogs only have three legs and that didn't seem like an inclusive name.

Do I myself have a tripod dog?

No.

Did I still feel weird about calling it Four-Legged Friday?

Yes.

Did I then think about the fact that some of my friends have birds or reptiles or rodents?

Yes.

Do I have birds or reptiles or rodents?

No.

Did I spend far too much time trying to think of something else to call it?

Yes.

Did I eventually come up with an alternative?

No.

Do I overthink things?

You tell me.

Anyway...it's a new month and I'm going to kick it off with some cute pics of Ginny from the past few days! For a small dog, she's been busy.

ordering herself a cheeseburger

she was sleeping, but opened her eyes at the last second,
so she looks depressed, but trust me, she is not

late night of grading and she kept giving me this look

enthralled with whatever zoom meeting was happening beside her

those ears

I wanted a cute pic and this bed matches my cup,
but you may be able to tell she was none too pleased
I forced her in there

a second late night of grading and she was so over it

happy to be out for a car ride, even though
it was only to the grocery store

I baked some shortbread cookies and she was
extremely interested the entire time;
I let her lick the spoon when I was done mixing

Ginny's feelings when another
zoom meeting is about to begin


Happy Tails to you!

Thursday, April 30, 2020

April Finally Turns to May

It's Thursday and I was trying to think of some big thing to write about that I'm thankful for. The weather was not great today, so I kind of felt trapped in the house, but when I looked out the window, it struck me how green everything was. Why does it seem so sudden to me that the trees have come to life? I look out that same window every day! The transformation from bare branches to lush leaves didn't happen overnight, so why hadn't I noticed it until today? Apparently in all of my staring out the window, I failed to appreciate the incremental changes taking place before my very eyes!



I don't know about anyone else, but I'm thankful to have made it through the month of April and I'm looking forward to a new month tomorrow. This whole month has been spent in quarantine! That is serious business and I'm not sure I won't be saying the same thing at the end of May...but the beautiful trees are evidence that spring is finally here and I'm hopeful that we've all got better days ahead of us!

April 1 seems so long ago! I decided to write a blog post each day, and I'm going to continue that into May, with a few tweaks to some of the daily themes:

Music Monday
Travel Tuesday
Wisdom Wednesday
Throwback Thursday
Furry Friday
Small Shop Saturday
Summary Sunday

I'm going to make a concerted effort to be more aware of my surroundings and be grateful for all of the beauty around me in everyday life!



Happy Tails to you!