Kids and Grown Ups Love it So ...

The happy land of Haribo! Me lovess Haribo gummy bears. I was introduced to it in college by a friend whose bf was German. Enjoying some now since it's Halloween and what better reason to snack on all kinds of sugar-coma inducing candy? Today I've had candy corn, M&Ms, Jr. Caramels, Smarties, and Haribo of course. Feeling kinda ill now. No thanks to those darned over zealous people at work who bring in candy to 'celebrate'. BLEH OK fine they didn't force me to eat it ... but still ... :(

Snow not Flurries

I can't believe this! It's only October and already snowing. We just skipped right past fall here! I'm not ready to scrape snow from my car yet. And my other peeve is it's hard to look vaguely chic and stay warm once the temperature falls past 30 degrees F. This sucks #*@#*@#!!! :(

The flurries started just as we got back from the park with Moxie. She's posing with the pumpkins outside our apt:


Mintues later: The view from our kitchen window


Just took another peek, not only is it falling fast, it's accumulating!!! WTF!!!

Friends like These

Do you have friends who are too polite? Who insist on bringing gifts every time they bunk over? Who insist on paying all the time? Damnit they make all the other free loaders (like us) look bad. I usually feel just a little uncomfortable accepting the gifts. After all, what have we done to deserve this? Thankfully my excitement about the gift usually banishes that feeling pretty quickly.

Anyway A and N came up to visit us last weekend and of course brought with them more gifts for us. So paiseh, but it's rude to decline isn't it? In addition to some wine, we got some neat Japanese pastries (wagashi) from Minamoto Kitchoan in New York. They are so delicious, I'm addicted. Every afternoon, I look forward to green tea and a nicely wrapped (you know the japanese) azuki cake or persimon jelly. MmmMMMmmm

As you can see, most of them are gone.

A Very Sony Weekend

Hub's friend from college,T, was in town on a business trip and stayed with us over the weekend. Well you see, he's a vet and was here to treat a very sick dog at the Museum of Science.

Hubs with the sick dog. Aibs is cool!


We also got a treat from T (courtesy of sony) at Oga's, my favorite Japanese restaurant! Yum :) In my very biased opinion, Oga's is the best in the Boston area. Even better than the ones in the city proper (Ginza, Fugakyu etc). And according to our also very biased Japanese friend N, the chefs are really japanese (not taiwanese or korean ok), so of course that is a measure of quality haha. It's only other rival is Oiishi which seats only 14 ppl so there is a guaranteed loooong wait. We don't bother to go there except for take out.

Our sushi below. Didn't get to take photos of the rest of the stuff we devoured (too busy eating).


Oh yes and scheduled for delivery this week is a new LCD tv, also from Sony, with a nice employee discount. I tried to convince hubs against this one so we could spend the $$ on purses instead. Sadly (for me) that didn't go down very well.

Time to Buy?

I've recently noticed a ton of for house sale signs everywhere I go. You know, when I'm walking the dog, driving to work, driving around town etc. Decided to put it to a test this morning by counting the number of 'for sale' signs I see on the 10 mile stretch from home to work (wouldn't recommend trying this, if I weren't such a good driver (hah) I'd have driven into the guard rail).

The total count *drumroll please* 17, not including most of the houses on the opposite side of rt9 that I missed! Damn I think that's a pretty big number. It's almost 2 house per mile along a major road. Could it be true? Is the housing market finally coming down? Will hubs and I finally be able to buy a home??? I'm seeing so many more condos in Newton listed for <400k in the past couple weeks. Some pretty nice too. Just last year you wouldn't even get a shack for 400k.

How cute is this one in Brighton? Only 409k?


Oooh or this 1bdrm for $349??


Or this one in back bay for under 500k!

Should we wait till the price falls some more? Nothing pisses me off more than a bad deal!

Moxie's Tooth

Poor Moxie has a fractured molar and we have no idea how she broke the tooth. It's actually not surprising since she is silly and goes through xtra tuff nylabones like doggie biscuits. The vet doesn't think it's the nylabones that caused the fracture but something really hard, like a rock. The sad part is I can totally see her trying to destroy a rock with her bare teeth. *sigh*

So we were faced with the dilemma of how to get the tooth fixed. There are 2 options 1) extraction and 2) a root canal. Yup root canals, I kid you not. Ironic since there are homeless starving people, people with no health insurance, and here is our dog getting a friggin root canal?!??! Anyway after more research and asking around it seems an extraction would be the best option (let me know if you think otherwise) since it is less complicated and heals faster and not to mention cheaper. Not that extractions are cheap, they run like $400! *weeps*

Here's her broken tooth:

A Room with View?

We moved offices several weeks ago and I finally scored one with a window, only to find that having a window isn't all that exciting. I'm not liking the variable lighting conditions brought on by the weather. I actually like it nice, dark, and gloomy in my office. Other reasons why I dislike the new space ...

1) Can't use my glareguard now since the light bounces off the screen. The reflection makes it impossible to read.
2) The door has windows it in??!?! So much for privacy hrmp.
3) It's a pain to walk to the main building especially in crappy weather (which is all the time in NE)
4) The gym is in the building (I don't have an excuse not to go anymore)
5) No more cafeteria or vending machines in the building (only a stupid 25 cent gumball machine type contraption that ate my quarter today. so much for my 3pm sugar fix *@*#!)
6) Shady bathrooms that don't seem to flush properly (but on the bright side they have those fancy motion activated paper towel dispensers)

Yes I'm very whiny. Ok ok check out the view. Nice scenery huh? Haha but I confess I faked it by pointing the camera up. We're only on the second floor so I can see the parking garage below when I'm sitting at my desk. How therapeutic.

Bills Bills Bills

When L told me the other day her first vet bill came up to over $200 I was appalled. Told her that ours was cheaper (yeah right I'd obviously forgotten how much it can come up to :p). Anyway I took Moxie to the vet today for her annual check up, you know the usual round of shots, nothing special. But guess what! The total came up to $227. I was feeling quite faint at that point. Excuse me, but my visit to the doctor's only has a $10 copay. Even without insurance, I don't think it'd be more than a $100 right?? WTF???? At this rate Moxie better be able to double up as a furry designer purse for me ;)

Oh yes and I finally got the bill for my wisdom tooth surgery. A whopping $3k. Luckily half will be covered by my insurance and the other half by hubs'company. But of course the inept idiots at the hospital billing dept still haven't gotten my insurance info right after at least 5 harrassive phone calls from me. So who knows when I'm going ot get my $$ back. Looks like I'll have to call them again tomorrow. :( *groan*