Entries Tagged as 'dog'

OYSY Sushi

February 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

oysy_grand_chicago

Last week we went to OYSY sushi again. I think this makes OYSY our official downtown sushi spot. As I mentioned before, the fish is good and the prices are reasonable. .. unless your Dallas and you eat 15 nigiri in one sitting. Then complain you’re full and order mochi ice cream anyway! That can add up.

We used to always refer to the restaurant by the letters in it’s name – “O Y S Y.” I mentioned to Dallas that I saw on the restaurant’s website that it’s actually pronounced “oh-EE-she” and he recognized it as a Japanese word that means “delicious.” I looked it up and “delicious” in Japanese is actually spelled “oishii.” I guess OYSY looks better on the sign, I don’t know. But the restaurant is delicious indeed!

After dinner we went to Charles and Alpana‘s condo for a small cocktail party. Little did we know that Alpana is a great cook and had made homemade carnitas, guacamole, quesadillas and pineapple upside down cake. Wish we wouldn’t have eaten so much sushi, but oh well. We still packed it in somehow, along with large quantities of wine, of course. I hadn’t seen Alpana for a while and Charles even longer, so it was good to see them again. We got to meet their little pug, Haruki as well. He was so cute. I told Alpana that even if Dallas and I don’t get a dog, I’m still coming over for play dates with Haruki!

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Milo

February 4th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Milo the Dog
Milo, Logan Square, Chicago

Over the holidays my brother’s dog, Milo, was visiting with his family. I took a few photos of him but never posted them. He does look a bit like Vegas but not as much as I thought before I sat here and compared their photos.

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Hosting a Super Bowl Party

February 2nd, 2009 · 4 Comments

Super Bowl 43Originally we were going to spend Super Bowl 43 at Jen & Chad’s house, but Jen and Quinn are visiting relatives in California and Chad was traveling on business and got stuck there longer than he’d anticipated. So Dallas and I volunteered to host the party at our house.

It ended up being a fabulous food party. Dallas made 4 pounds of slow cooker pulled pork and blue cheese cole slaw to eat on the sandwiches or on the side. I made cocktail wieners and guacamole. Loden made cheesy potato casserole and mini football-shaped brownies. On each one there were the frosted football details. Kristin made cornbread and chicken fingers. Jill made pumpkin cake and chocolate chocolate chip cake. Liz made cookies. And everyone brought beer and wine. So much food and drinks. So delicious.

The game? I thought it was ok. Everyone keeps saying how it was such a good game, but I don’t think any of us really got into it until the 4th quarter.. and specifically Brian and Loden were just cheering for their numbers at the end (they both won money). I don’t really even remember any of the commercials. They weren’t that great this year. Some were even old commercials that were already playing on TV. We did like the Cash4Gold commercial, though. It sparked a long discussion about Snuggies and ShamWows.

Killian and Liz brought their new dog, Sandy, over to the house. She’s only about 6 months old and they’re still training her so they couldn’t leave her at home the whole time. I thought she was going to be a crazed puppy, but she was really relaxed and listened very good. .. and no accidents! Sandy is the 4th dog (Maggie, Milo, Jackson) to visit our house and we’ve only lived there 3 months. Guess that means we have a dog-friendly condo. Jill and Brian brought their extra Wii controllers and the Mario Kart game. After the football game we all played Wii.

Abby and Phil’s wedding was Saturday night (more on that later) and I was so exhausted that I couldn’t bring myself to take any photos yesterday. I know. Crazy!

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Dogsitting for Jackson

January 27th, 2009 · 16 Comments

jackson_laying_down

This past weekend Dallas and I watched Jackson while Kristin was attending to family affairs out in the suburbs. Dallas and Kristin were roommates and at the end of their cohabitation Kristin brought Jackson came to live with them. He was still just a baby when Dallas moved out. I’ve seen Jackson a few times since then, either at Kristin’s house or at Jen and Chad’s house. When he’s at Jen and Chad’s it can get intense because Jackson plays hard with Cortez and Drake.

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jackson_window

I was kind of afraid how he’d be in the house after hearing the puppy stories and seeing him roughhouse. Turns out Jackson is completely mellowed out. He was as good as we could ask. Mostly he just sat on his bed in the sun and watched the world go by. What a life. We walked him around the neighborhood and he was a great walker. He didn’t really tug at all. It was funny how his habit was to jump in deep snowbanks up to his face and pee.

jackson_from_up_high

One odd thing was that he didn’t want to go down our stairs. He’d just look over the rail and wonder how we kept disappearing. Dallas was downstairs watching TV for a while and Jackson just sat at the top the stairs and whined. I tried to put pieces of dog food on the stairs and coax him down but he wouldn’t go. I tried to tug his collar but he was too strong (he weighs over 100 pounds, I think). Finally Dallas helped me and he was able to go down but then when he wanted to go back up it was the same ordeal. I don’t know if the hardwood and the steepness of our staircase frightened him, or what. The floors are brand new, so they are a bit slippery and he did bump his chin a time or two. Poor thing.

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Dallas and I have talked for years about getting a dog and I think we’re finally ready with the new house and all. Even though Maggie and Milo have visited us since we moved here, having Jackson for the weekend convinced me that we totally have all the space we need for a dog. Jackson is a big guy (he could lick my head from the backside of the couch!) and he didn’t really seem all that big in here. I don’t want a huge dog, but I think we have a nice home for one anyway. If only we had a yard. Oh, well. It was kind of nice to go on walks. Gave me an excuse to get off the couch.

Jackson approves of Angel Soft, but not the stairs:

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Dakoda and Bailey… and Introducing Benji!

September 13th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Dakoda came to live with my parents a few years ago as a puppy after our family dog Max died at a very old age. As you can see he’s grown very large compared to his puppy photos.

Bailey is kind of a delinquent kid of my brother’s family. He was acting up at home and they tried everything and he wouldn’t behave so they sent him to live with grandpa and grandma. He’s actually doing well at my parent’s house, as far as I can tell. Shorty used to be his bud at my brother’s house. (Shorty used to be my cat – and don’t forget the ShellB saga!.) At my parent’s house Callie was his friend, but she passed on. Now Bailey is the last cat living there, although I’m sure he sees plenty around the woods and neighborhood. Our family’s cat history is kind of like a Springer episode, I guess!

A few days before I went to visit my parents they adopted another dog. A little Lhasa Apso. My niece, Stephanie, had been asked to name Dakoda so this time around they let my other niece, Jessica, name the new dog. Somehow they settled on Benji. I heard she was trying to name it Matt, after one of my cousins, and also that Fluffy Wuffy was in the running as a name. I was a little surprised that my parents were interested in a small dog because we have always had medium to large-sized dogs (springer spaniel, retriever, great dane.. although there was that one random beagle for a while… ), but Benji is a nice dog and a lot easier to handle than Dakoda, that’s for sure. I think Benji is going to be my mom’s dog, where Dakoda will hang with my dad more.

Dakoda outweighs Benji by about 88 pounds. I’m not sure if he thinks that my parents got him a new play toy when they got Benji or if he knows Benji is a dog, but he tried to play with him constantly. And sometimes it’s ok and sometimes it’s way too rough and you have to break them up. Before you go feeling sorry for Benji know these things:

1. Benji teases Dakoda and comes back for more every time.
2. Look at his face when Dakoda looks like he’s going to bite him. He seems to be saying, “Yeh? So?”
3. Dakoda is kind of big and dopey and runs around and wrestles where Benji’s nips are a lot more precise.
4. What Dakoda does to Benji, Benji tries on the cat. Well, more like he’s just interested in the cat. Dakoda learned as a puppy not to mess with Bailey or Callie and Benji has yet to learn that lesson. But I think he will soon. It just takes one good swipe.

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