An Actual Date Is Happening Soon!

We survived another Ramadan. Well, the hubby survived and I watched him survive. He lost A LOT of weight this time. 20-30 pounds. I'm just trying to keep him hydrated and well fed at this point. I would prefer not to outweigh my husband. How are we supposed to cuddle if I'm worried about breaking him?

Towards the end of Ramadan, my folks came for a visit, which was nice. It was a little much for the hubby with his long work hours plus the fasting, so he was able to stay home with Mav the dog while I ran around town with them.

OMG, the most exciting thing in my life? The new Blueberry Summer Sparkler at Olive Garden. Best drink I've ever had. Thank you, Mom and Dad. The blurb on the menu said it had blueberry juice, cranberry juice, soda water, and lime in it.

I was all, "THIS IS AWESOME! I SHALL RECREATE THIS AT HOME!"

Because how hard could that be?

*Crickets chirping*

So far, the hubby has tasted 3 of my attempts at duplication, each one more medicine-y and cringe-inducing than the last. I should have taken reaction photos. I would say that I'll start now, but I think that would be a lie because I have to quit. Literally, every time I try, it's just getting worse. And I make a glass at a time, so I feel like it's too much of a waste to throw it out, and maybe, hey, I'll like it by the last sip of the straw?

Um, no. No. No. No. I'm sorry, Olive Garden. You win. I quit. I have discovered how to make dumpster-flavored cough syrup but not your tasty, tasty drink.

In other Happy Wife news, the hubby and I left Mav the dog alone last weekend. This was sort of a big deal. We haven't left the house together (without her) since Memorial Day. Of course, the reason we left the house...

2 of our kitties had their yearly vet check up and vaccinations. Heh. Since these 2 were feral adults when we rescued them, they also needed to be microchipped. I mean, what setting and activity could be more romantic, am I right?

Yeah, so... Not so much.

There is a reason vets like to microchip an animal while it is out for its spay/neuter surgery. That is one honking needle, if you can even call it that. Hera and Apollo were troopers, though. Not a peep. And the husband did all the heavy lifting and driving, so I thought that was very gentlemanly. :)

Mav was fine when we got home and has been doing pretty well. Her hips are bothering her and we're still watching her pretty closely, but her little roller coaster of infections have been successfully treated. She is also sleeping through the night most of the time, which I don't think she's done in years. I wish that was an exaggeration. I'm just glad she seems happy.

The husband and I, well, we actually have a fancy smancy, leave-the-house date planned in a couple days. FOR REAL. I am pretty excited. It has been a really long time since we're gone out for ourselves.

Our much-loved pet sitter will be checking in on Mav while we're out. It's overkill, I know. We're not going far - just downtown. We could have just left her and she'd probably be fine for those couple hours, but it's more for our sake of mind.

Also, then I can concentrate on walking in my "these are for looks!" shoes and holding down my dress if there is a sudden breeze. Cross your fingers for us that we manage to get out and back without being knocked around too badly by the aftermath of the hurricane. Just because we're in the Midwest doesn't mean we're not going to get the remnants of that massive storm.

My shoes are not made for nature.

I'll make sure the batteries in my camera are charged. The photos could be... Memorable.

YAY!

Making Plates = Romance

Ramadan is still going strong in the Happy Wife house. It is winding down, though. Pretty soon it will just be another memory in the back of our minds.

The husband has had a lot going on at work, and when he has been home, he's either been asleep or sitting up on the couch while I make and bring him a plate of supper to break the fast. That is really about as exciting as it has been around here. That is as romantic as it gets, right?

No matter how tired I am or how crappy I feel, I always find some contentment when fixing him a meal. That is one reason I was able to marry a man that I considered out of my league - I knew no one would love him more than I would or would treat him better.

Tonight - lamb chops!

I should note my love affair with the cast iron pan hit a brick wall. My bad, though. My bad. I made a new-to-us kind of turkey burger and the teriyaki glaze pretty much destroyed the pan. My fault. Anything with a sugar-y glaze is not for the cast iron. Duly noted. You win that round, cast iron.

I also grated fresh ginger and used that for the first time. When I took a bite of the burger, I winced and went, "WHAT IS THAT?" and then a second later I said, "Oh, it's ginger. Wow. This turkey burger is very... ginger-y. Did I say turkey burger? I meant ginger burger. My ginger burger has a dash of turkey in it."

Hooray for fasting! My starving husband ate them all. Eagerly.

In other news, my folks came to visit over the weekend. I was busy running around with them while the hubby slept and stayed with Mav. Mav's doing better - her last culture came back with no growth and she is off the medication that wants to kill me. I never did tell the vet I have a life-threatening allergy to the one med she needed to take. See? It's fine. Totally fine.

Unrelated to any of that, I am sure, I may or may not have my side effects back from my surgery last summer and I may or may not also have MRSA again. But it is totally fine. Nothing a couple days on the couch can't cure while watching all the shows and eating all the snacks. FINE. I AM FINE.

You just never know. I could wake up tomorrow back to normal. The world is full of surprises.

The other day, I walked into our dining room to find this:

And then my eyes got all water-y.

2 cats? Big whoop in our house, right?

Well, yes. The black kitty is Bernie and the black and grey tabby in the window is Atlas. Bernie is one of the 2 cats we have that goes to a behaviorist.

She has, to our knowledge, never even been in the dining room before.

She has also never been in the same room with Atlas for A) more than 2 minutes and B) without the two trying to kill each other. They can't even see each other from across the house without hissing and growling and just basically losing their little kitty minds...

But there they both were, very close to one another, not a peep. I went and petted them, and they both purred easily and loudly. They stayed like that in the dining room, calm and sleepy, for about 3 hours.

I just... I don't...

Miracles. Happening right here. Right. Here.

I think I know how things are, what will happen in my own house, the minds and personalities of the 4-legged and 2-legged family around me, but I don't. I can and do continue to be massively, massively surprised. And this time, in a beautiful and hopeful way. Wow. The world is just a crazy, crazy place. I'll never have a handle on it, but that's good because things like this happen. Seemingly little or unremarkable things that somehow just shock the crap out of me. It's not all phone calls in the middle of the night.

Sometimes it's just walking into a room in the middle of the day.