Monday, Monday....

Dudes, I am a special kind of exhausted today after this weekend!

Friday we hit up happy hour with some of Mike's friends and some of my former PwC coworkers. Saturday was breakfast/brunch with the Reuters and another of Mike's coworkers. Then my friend Amy is turning 30 and we met her at the festivities at around 1 in the afternoon. I didn't get home until like midnight! Then yesterday we did alot of sleeping, eating, and did the tile backsplash in our kitchen.

My fingers are RAW from ripping the individual tiles off the fiber backing and cutting them to fit in the top row of the backsplash. As I type this I have a lime-green bandaid with neosporin on my left pointer finger.
As for the backsplash, I think it's turning out well. We still need to grout it next weekend, which I'm a tad bit nervous for. But overall I think it looks pretty darn good :) The whole excercise wasn't THAT bad, but it was NO walk in the park like the DIY channel makes you think. I mean, they make it look like all rainbows and unicorns and it definitely was more difficult than that!

I am so tired, but have a ridiculously busy week planned. More painting, need to scrub the extra adhesive off that tile, seeing Em's new place, a LOST date with Jay and Kim, and having some friends over for drinks on Thursday. Yowsa!!

Poop on the porch

On Saturday, I had a super weird dog day. I'll just sum most of it up with: Milly had the flu and also almost fell out our third story window.

Milly is OK, thankfully. But something else upsetting happened.

Someone put poop on our welcome mat.

As a little backstory, about three weeks ago we found some dog doody on our front welcome mat. It was strewn across the mat in such a way that we figured someone's dog just got away from them and thought our mat looked like a great place to go. I mean, hey, it is pretty cool. Grey indoor-outdoor weave with a damask pattern. Who wouldn't want their bathroom to be that cool?

Except on Saturday, I went to take Milly outside and there was poop on our welcome mat again. Hmmm, I thought. I looked around in shock. Who would do this? I grabbed a bag out of our doggy-poo bag dispenser on Milly's leash and quickly picked it up. As I did so, I couldn't help but notice that the poo's were not placed there haphazardly. No, there were three little poo's all lined up nicely in a row. It was very obvious that someone had put them there.

My first thought is that someone obviously thinks we don't clean up after our dog and is going all vigilante-justice on us. This is absolutely NOT the case. Milly is never off-leash and/or out of sight, and never does her business in the main areas of the condo complex (and very rarely IN our condo anymore, woot! Also, knock on wood!!). Also, we ALWAYS pick up her poo once she goes, which is usually in a patch of grass at the end of our alley.

Another more disturbing option is that someone just doesn't like us and put poo on our porch to be vindictive. I really don't like this option, as I think we try REALLY HARD to be good and friendly neighbors.

Either way, I am kind of angry. I mean, if someone thinks that we're not picking up after Milly, shouldn't they come and talk to us instead of being an immature 12 year old and putting POOP on our WELCOME MAT?! Do we just look like people who wouldn't clean up after our dog? And why should I be a diligent dog owner if I'm just going to get rewarded with poo put on my porch?!

Mike wants to install a security camera to catch the poo-dropper. I have notified the condo association and think they'll send out a letter.

What kind of person would put poo on someone's welcome mat?! And what do you think we should do?

Almost April....

I keep telling my boss that April starts this week, and it's my favorite month. Since it's MY month that means everyone has to do what I say all month, right? Right?

I got some major accomplishment done on the home front and, boy, I am exhausted.

Painted the hallway that seemed like it would never end: Picked out and purchased tile for our kitchen backsplash. Look! Browns and blues! What do you think?

I was going to make a cover for Milly's crate (like a cushion for the top and one for the bottom as well, so it doesn't scratch the floor and so that she can sit on it during the day while we're gone at work), but I ordered the fabric online and it hasn't gotten to me yet :(

Other than that, I was hella lame. I had dinner with the girls and like one drink on Friday, and then we stayed in on Saturday. I don't know, I just have NOT been in the mood to go out. I think maybe I am just feeling fat and feeling like I'm going to be overscheduled this summer, so I'm hibernating a bit! Plus, who wants to be indoors painting when the weather is gorgeous in Chicago? Not me... I would rather get it out of the way now, during monsoon season!

Home Improvement

Yesterday and today I have become obsessed with home improvement. Last night I painted our hallway and I would like nothing more than to touch it up early in the AM tomorrow morning before heading off for a day at the Children's museum with my little sib through Horizons.

As I was painting the hallway a dark tan/light brown last night I realized that the color was just close enough to the fireplace color that it was going to look weird once I extended the color through the dining room (we're planning on using the same color in the hall, living room, and den). So this is the idea I had... paint the living room the light brown, find some backsplash tiles for the kitchen (attached to the living room, where I am standing while taking the above picture) that are a bright/light blue and put up backsplash with those tiles in the kitchen (with brown grout). Then match the tiles to some paint and paint the fireplace that same color. I also ordered these Flor tiles (to replace our current green area rug that Milly does so love to gnaw on), as they are mostly brown with touches of blue.

On the way back from Oak Park, and the museum, tomorrow I'm going to check in at a tile place one of Mike's coworkers recommended at Fullerton and Western and hope I can get a deal on some tile for the backsplash. I've never put in tile before and am kind of excited to try it, as when we redo the bathrooms I would really like to do that myself. Plus I need to put tile in the upstairs closet for underneath the washer-dryer in the event that we would get new carpet sometime later this year. So I am getting excited to learn.

Is it incredibly lame of me to get SO. VERY. EXCITED about home improvement? Probably. But on this sunny Friday, noboday can get me down off my home improvement high.

Other than that, my weekend consists of sushi dinner with the gals tonight and (hopefully) grilling and a movie with the boy tomorrow. I gotta tell you, the weekend plan sounds sooooo great to me!

Almost forgot to add: Last night when I started painting, Mike said "So you know how sometimes when you paint a kid's room you let them put a handprint on the wall? I said yes, and he said that maybe we should put a Milly pawprint in the hallway since that is *kind of* her room. Yeah, fat chance, Hubs! hahaha....