Friday Things
1. Einstein is slowly getting acclimated to the new house and finding lots of new sun spots. He’s also loved running around after tennis balls in his new fenced-in yard. Now we just need to get him to sleep in a little bit!
2. Now that most of the boxes have been unpacked, I’ve moved into organization mode. One of my favorite things that I’ve got so far is this Large Acrylic Makeup Organizer from The Container Store. Having all of my makeup organized and not having to dig through a bag has been awesome. I love it!
3. We have been knee-deep in flooring samples this week. House fun! We’re planning to pull up the carpet in our family room, dining room and den, and replace it with hardwood floors. The entryway, kitchen and breakfast nook have ceramic tile, which we’re keeping. Who knew there were so many different shades of the same type of wood?!
4. If you use Google Reader to keep up with your favorite blogs, you may have heard that Google is discontinuing it, effective July 1st. If you’ve been searching for an alternative, there is a great comparison of Bloglovin’ vs Feedly on Nosh On It. Based on your personal preferences, you might be able to figure out which will work best for you. I have jumped on over to Feedly; I like the customization of the interface, as well as the iPhone and iPad apps. Have you found an option you like?
5. If you watch Game of Thrones, how insane was that last episode?! Not only was I totally shocked by what happened, but wow was it graphic!
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6. Last Friday afternoon, the UPS man dropped off the best Friday afternoon treat ever – a cooler full of ice cream! Graeter’s, which is out of Cincinnati, OH, just released new flavors to be stocked in Giant Eagle stores in the Pittsburgh area. They sent me some of the samples to try out and I’ve been enjoying the Black Cherry Chocolate Chip, Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip and Salted Caramel for the last week. If they’re sold near you, definitely pick some up (and if it’s not sold near you, you can order online) – some of the best ice cream I’ve had in a long time!
7. Speaking of ice cream, don’t forget to enter the Ice Cream Extravaganza Giveaway – I’m giving away an ice cream maker, my favorite ice cream cookbooks and a fabulous ice cream scoop. You have until midnight tonight to enter… Good Luck!
8. On Tuesday, my best friend and I are going to “The Package Tour” – New Kids on the Block, Boyz II Men and 98 Degrees all in one show! Our pre-teen selves are insanely excited! (Well, 98 Degrees got popular when we were in college, but the other two really take me back!)
9. We were originally worried that the concert would conflict with a potential Game 6 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals, which we would both not want to miss. However, it looks as though the Penguins are going to make it a conflict-free night for us… such a bummer!
10. TGIF! Enjoy the ride!
I LOVE dark hardwood floors and chose them for 2 levels of our house. As a fellow golden retriever owner (I have two of the hairy beasts!) my best recommendation to you would be to go with a lighter (read golden retriever coloured) floor. The yellow hair on my dark floors drives.me.crazy!!!!
When I moved into my new place last year I went through the whole wood floor ordeal. I ended up settling on Teragren Bamboo. It’s stronger than wood and of courses sustainable.
The one thing you want to do *for sure* when you are looking at samples is press a nickel into them HARD. If it leaves a dent then move on. Many hardwood types these days are pretty thin and can’t stand up to real wear –especially if you have kids or pets.
Graeter’s Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip is incredible!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have been seriously fretting about the demise of my beloved Google Reader. I signed up with Bloglovin as I’m still low tech enough to use internet explorer. Just so happy to have this problem handled!
Graeter’s Ice Cream is amazing! My aunt lives in Cincinnati and brings some whenever she visits. It might be my favorite part of her visit ;) Their sorbet is delicious too.
Thanks for the info! I honestly didn’t even know that “Google Reader” existed until I started hearing everyone complain about it ending. I just started “Feedly” and I love it, makes my blog surfing so much more time efficient! :)
Never heard of Graeter’s… Wish we had it here in the south!
Good luck with your floor decision. We are building a house right now, so I know how daunting those decisions can be! Our current house has beautiful dark hardwoods. Everyone comments on how pretty they are, but I will tell you they show everything! Sweeping up pet hair is a daily task
I live in Dayton, Ohio and we have Graeter’s here. The toffe chip is my favorite sometimes you can get pieces as big as a candy bar!! To die for!!!
Awwww, Einstein is too cute! And ups bringing ice cream – doesn’t get better than that!
Love the pics of Einstein and the ice cream sounds sooo good!
You’ll love your new wood floors. While you’re deciding on color and style, do some durability tests too. Some hardwoods are much more durable than others. My dog didn’t leave a mark on my last hard woods, but we moved and the hardwoods are much softer. The samples are great for testing. Try scratching it with your high heels, bang it with a coffee mug, rake it with a a plastic fork or knife, rake it with a coin, and don’t forget the tiny rocks you’ll track in. Of course youcan always have your floors redone, but it’s not something you want to do very often. Good luck with your move!
Einstein is beautiful, look at that fly fellow!
The Container Store is a super dangerous place for me!
It’s a good thing you don’t have my golden retriever Lucy there with you with all those flooring samples over the floor. She would definitely by now have tried to steal most of them. Lucy’s favorite activity in which she does I’m SURE just to tease and irritate me is to go after sticks or any piece of wood and chew or them. The wood chewing danger was the very first thing I was told about when I took Lucy to Puppy Kindergarten when she was about 3 or 4 months old. Just as with chicken bones, one of the worst things you can allow your dog to chew or eat is sticks or pieces of wood. It can splinter and cause punctures or problems in their digestive system. Now Lucy is an extremely intelligent dog and she KNOWS she’s not to be going after sticks. You know this by the sneaky way she grabs the sticks and how she runs and teases me while I’m trying to snatch this forbidden item from her – ALL THE TIME! This is one reason I carry health insurance on her. I wouldn’t know what I would do if something like a digestive crisis would happen and I wouldn’t have the funds to pay for her surgery to correct the problem. I can’t think of much worse in life than having someone like Lucy or an Einstein in your life and having to make the decision to “put them down” because of the cost of the medical treatment. People who don’t have dogs and in particular, don’t have a golden just will NEVER understand how these dogs work their way into your lives and your hearts. Lucy is as dear to me as any child, how could I treat her any other way?
My husband told me about Graeter’s when we got married inthe 80’s. I
couldn’t imagine an ice cream that is that good…..that is until I had it in RI this year. The chunks of chocolate are like eating candy bars in your ice cream!