It is getting pretty hot outside, which means we can put away our winter coats and bring out the flip flops! Unfortunately for our puppies and dogs, they don’t get to put away their coats. So, this year, give your dog what it needs this summer…a chill collar.

The chill collar is a collar for your dog to keep it cool in the hot weather. If your dog is going to be playing outside, just fill up the chill collar with ice cubes to keep your dog’s temperature cooler. You can also use the cool gel freezer pack that comes with the dog chill collar for while your dog stays inside.

Your dog will love you for the chill collar. Your dog will be cool in the hot summer months with the chill collar, and you will be the proud dog owner who made your dog happy with the chill collar.

What do you and your girl friends do to get out and hang out on a random Wednesday night? We used to give each other a call and say something like, “Let’s grab a drink.” And particularly on a Wednesday night (the celebration of it almost being close to the weekend) one night turns into more than one, and you’re “quick drink” turns into a whole night out. But it’s funny how things change when you get older.

Yesterday during the day I asked my friend if she wanted to get dinner together. We live just a block away from each other, but we definitely do not spend as much time together as we could (or should). During the week, it’s easy to get dinner because we are sometimes lazy, and we live in a great little area with lots of restaurant choices that we love and can walk to without going out of the neighborhood. As it turned out, I had to work, and my friend had errands, so she called me on her way home. Instead of “Want to get a drink?” she said “Do you think the frozen yogurt place is still open?” The frozen yogurt place has become our “regular bar.” We have easy places to go to in order to grab the quick drink, but frozen yogurt just sounds so much better anymore!

So, what do you think the talking scale would say to this decision that we have made as we have gotten older? I have been friends with this girl for 10 years. We are both in pretty decent shape, we generally eat right, but there is no doubt we live for fun, which includes indulging. So, do you think we are better off, health-wise, by grabbing a drink, or by grabbing some frozen yogurt on the nights we just need to get away for a minute?

I have a friend who is a serious beer fanatic! He loves beer. He loves trying new beers, brewing his own beer, rating every beer he drinks on some website (and I am pretty sure he has rated over one hundred kinds of beers), and keeping his fridge and my fridge stocked full of good beers. We are currently on a beer mission…let me explain.

Whenever he wants a particular beer, he finds a way to get it no matter how difficult it proves itself to be to find. Part of the fun of our, what we call, “beer adventures,” is the adventure. We will go to as many stores as it takes to find what he is looking for. When we walk somewhere we might take the longer route just because we know we will pass more liquor stores to go check in on our way to our destination. So, you might ask yourself, “Why not just call the stores to see if they have it?” Like I said, part of the fun is the fun in the adventure – going, looking, finding new things, and hopefully finding what he came for.

The current mission: Samuel Adams Utopias. We had some time to go on a little adventure this past weekend. I think we hit 6 stores in hopes of being able to fill up his brand new Samuel Adams Glasses with the Sam Adams, what seems like impossible-to-find, Utopias. Since we failed in our mission this weekend (we will not quit!) we bought some other beer, and filled up regular pilsner glasses, watched a movie, and continued to brainstorm other ways and places we would go to accomplish our Sam Adams Utopias undertaking. In the meantime, I have written a letter…maybe it will bring us luck!

Dear Samuel Adams People,

If you are currently, by any chance, reading this blog post, we have been all over Washington, D.C. looking for Samuel Adams Utopias. Every place we have been has given us sad looks with the same story, “So sorry guys…we were only allotted [1, 2, or 3] of them and we are sold out.” We even went to one place in Virginia. Finding Samuel Adams Utopias would be simply heaven to him…I’m in it just for the fun. While I really enjoy going all over the place with him to find Samuel Adams Utopias, I really, really wish it could somehow just land right outside my door so I could give it to him because he would be so happy to have it in his hands. He is a huge Sam Adams fan (he makes posters with your beer cases, is the first to buy the newest flavor, and no matter how many beers he tries, he always uses Sam Adams as his staple and go-to beer) – he deserves this! So, if anyone from the Sam Adams brewery is reading this, please comment, or contact us, so hopefully we can work out how I can get my hands on Samuel Adams Utopias.
Thanks so much!

Kindly,
Alissa

One thing I love, particularly when work is way too busy to stop and take a break for lunch, is having fresh fruits and vegetables waiting for me ready to eat. It is so easy to grab pizza, fast food, or something pre-made on the way home after a long day at the office. But every time I know I can cook and eat out instead out of pure laziness, the food doesn’t taste as good. Plus, I always feel better from the inside out when the food I do eat is fresh and cooked by me.

Since I learned my lesson last week that I will not have time or energy this week to really cook, I decided to focus my meals this week on leftover pizza from Sunday night (made by me with pre-made thin crust pizza crust, pizza sauce, spinach, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese), veggie burgers, fruit smoothies, bagel thins with cheese, spinach, tomatoes, and salad…lots of salad. The better I feel on the inside the happier I will be out on the outside – just have to plan for it. The worst part about it, is with so little energy to actually do anything with food, things like salad can get really boring (which is when I would simply revert to a pint of ice cream…probably not the best decision). So, I do what I can to keep the “boring” food exciting.

I blog, as you know. Many times I will find delicious recipes on other bloggers’ sites. I usually stay away from the salad recipes because I am usually not interested. The other night, I just so happened to come across a salad recipe that actually sounded good. Also, I do not believe in putting fruit in my salad (tomatoes don’t count as fruit in my world), but this salad, made by Caitlin on Healthy Tipping Point has fruit and still looks amazing. This will be my lunch or dinner tomorrow night, and I know it will be amazing!

This week, I will focus on filling up my lunch bag every night before I go to sleep. If I have to work a million hours a day, I might as well have a lunch and snacks to enjoy!

As I mentioned to you last week, my life at work recently has been incredibly busy. This weekend it was crucial to relax, sleep, and lay low. So, that is exactly what I did, and it was just what the doctor ordered…almost!

After such a busy week, and leading into another busy week, nothing was more important than taking care of myself this weekend. It started on Friday, at 5:45 p.m. (should have been 5:30, but like I said, work is too busy) with a happy hour with some people from work. We rarely do a work social happy hour, so it was the perfect week for this to have been planned. Happy hour was followed by a relaxing night in: reading, TV, and off to sleep early. After sleeping until an amazing 10 a.m. my friend and I took a drive together before we made dinner, drank beer, and watched a movie to complete another relaxing night. Would you ever believe that I slept in until almost noon on Sunday!?!?

On Sunday, I was supposed to have some time in the morning/afternoon to continue to re-coup and then go to the movies and grab early dinner/late lunch with some girl friends. As it turns out, in my crazy work week the week before it seems I missed the email about dinner after the movie becoming lunch before the movie. So, after waking up, making coffee, taking a shower, and relaxing before leaving for the movies, I got to the movies to see my friends all sitting there waiting for me (I am always early but they were super-early), which is when I found out that they had already eaten and I went from having dinner plans to no plan and no food in my stomach…great.

After the movie I went back to my friend’s house to hang there for a short while, and then come back home. I immediately parked my car and went to the store…I had 15 minutes before the grocery store around the corner closed. I quickly grabbed some things that I needed for lunch for the week and the very handy pre-made pizza crust for dinner since I suddenly had to cook. One of my favorite kitchen tools is my pizza peel. Let me tell you what – on a night when the last thing I want to do is cook and I have to, the first thing that would happen is me burning myself on the oven I didn’t want to use in the first place. The pizza peel takes the risk of me burning myself more or less out of the equation.

Anyway, I really wanted to bake for my co-workers who have helped me so much during this very busy time, but it was either cook for them, or cook dinner for myself. Hopefully they won’t mind, and I can make it up to them later. So much for a “relaxing” weekend. Maybe another time.

This week has been a very busy week at work for me. I have been in the office early and working late every night. I have to admit, I am extremely tired. I love working and I love being busy, but sometimes it is just really nice to come home.

I had been eating dinner not before 8:30pm every night, which was keeping me wide awake throughout the night – no good. So, last night I made a decision. I decided I was leaving work at 5:30 on the dot. Not that that meant work was over, just that I was going home. At the very least, I could eat dinner early enough so I would not be energized and full of food shortly before I need to go to sleep. So that is exactly what I did. I have the ability to log into my work computer from home, I emailed myself information so I could obtain the information easily, I printed out documents to proofread, and I brought it home.

So, was last night the most relaxing night of my life? Absolutely not! Was it more relaxing than staying at the office until 8:15 and not getting home until close to 9? Yes! I got too relax, eat dinner and watch a little television before I got started on the workload I brought home with me. Then it was lots and lots of work. But, it is so much nicer to work on my couch with the TV on rather than my not-so-comfortable desk and chair at the office. So, I grab my work, my laptop desk, pen, papers, and I worked.

While this may not have been a nice, relaxing night at home – carefree and fun – at least I was still able to finally be home.

What would you prefer: working late night at home, or late night at the office?

Yesterday afternoon I read an interesting article. I call it “interesting” because I would like to say “disgusting” or “strange” but it is completely fascinating and mind-boggling to me. The article was discussing a man who at some point during the day would eat his 25,000th Big Mac from McDonald’s.

I am not here to judge this man who not only eats 25,000 Big Macs but keeps track of every last one. Apparently he is 57 years old, has been eating about two Big Macs from McDonald’s every day for 39 years, and is healthy. According to this article this man has been dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder since he was a child. So, while this may seem like a huge milestone to celebrate for some (and probably even for him) this has become an obsession. He saves his receipts of each Big Mac he buys. If he is worried that in his travels for work there will not be a McDonald’s he will either pack them or have someone mail them to him. He even has back-up Big Macs in case of “emergency”. None-the-less, he has officially celebrated eating his 25,000th Big Mac, and you can read about it here. While 25,000 seems like a good stopping point, there is no stopping this guy from continuing his love for Big Macs.

I just cannot see how he can do that. As we all know, I love mac and cheese and ice cream. But even after just one night of my two favorite foods, the next day my body simply craves something light for breakfast (maybe even a fruit smoothie from my blender), for lunch I’ll bring a salad to work in my salad saver, and something like stir fried veggies or a veggie burger for dinner. No way could I ever eat greasy, heavy, fast-food everyday let alone twice a day. Could you?

What do you think about the man who has eaten 25,000 Big Macs?

We always want our pets to be in great health. Just like humans, we take our pets to see the doctor, we give our pets their medicine, make sure we feed them healthy food, and we give them lots of exercise. But do you brush your dog’s teeth? Do you take care of your pet’s breath and gums? Now there is Plaque Attack to help keep your pet’s teeth healthy.

Plaque Attack makes cleaning your pet’s teeth and mouth easy. No more brushing your dog’s teeth. Simply spray Plaque Attack to prevent gum disease and bad dog breath. In about two weeks of using Plaque Attack your pet will begin to have less plaque and tartar on its teeth.

Not only will you be keeping your pets teeth in great health with Plaque Attack, you can sleep easy knowing that Plaque Attach is made with 100% all natural ingredients – only the best for your furry family member.

Sometimes in life, especially living in a busy city, it is really nice to get a break. I love the city and the goings-on, but sometimes it’s just annoying to drive and constantly hear horns honking, and everyone running across the streets because there is always a rush. While I have not been having good luck in shopping, my mom and her friend had gone on a girls road trip for a day, so I met them on Saturday morning to go shopping.

When I talked to my mom on Friday night she told me to start looking up places we could go shopping. This was her trip and somehow I got stuck with the hard work…I had no idea where to go shopping…they weren’t even staying in my state! So, I did some Google-ing and found a few stores and places we could go – nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary, but at least it was something to do. I got to their hotel early and thank goodness for that since they had just sat down for breakfast, and I hadn’t eaten! They were about to eat without me! So, I ordered yogurt and granola to keep me going for our shopping day.

When it came down to it, there was really no cool or interesting place to go shopping. So, we made a final decision just to go to a local mall close to their hotel – easy for them to drive back home from and easy for me to drive back home too. First stop: shoes! I know, you’re probably thinking that I planned that, but there are three things you need to know: 1) I am not shoe-crazy because of me, I get it from my mom; 2) My mom’s friend is not any better (she might be worse); and 3) We couldn’t have planned it, we didn’t know the mall – this was pure luck! Long story short, in all of my bad shopping luck, I wound up with 2 pairs of shoes! Yes, two new pairs of beautiful shoes to add to my shoe rack. These are not the shoes I really need (can anyone tell me where I can find nude round toe pumps that are comfortable in a size 5?), but they are amazing. These 2 pairs of shoes were also the only purchase made by all three of us all day.

Thanks mom and Miss Mel for a perfect girls day out! I needed the mini girls getaway.

Who is your favorite shopping partner? What do you like to do to get away from the hustle and bustle of life?

Love to take your pet with you everywhere you go? The new Wander Carrier might be just the pet carrier you need to take your dog or cat from place to place.

Kurgo’s Wander Carrier is the perfect bag for carrying your pet. The adjustable shoulder strap makes it comfortable for you, and the padded mesh interior makes the Wander Carrier comfortable for your dog or cat. The Wander Carrier is safe enough to carry small dogs and cats up to 18 pounds. You can even use the Wander Carrier to not only carry your pet from place to place, but the Wander Carrier fits nicely on a car seat and you can use a seat belt to buckle your small pet in.

No longer worry about uncomfortable carriers for your dog or cat. With Kurgo’s Wander Carrier, you and your pet can travel with ease. Don’t worry about storage either, the Wander Carrier folds up nicely when you need to put it away.