Fall weather and random thoughts...

When we let the dogs out this morning it was a beautiful 54 degrees outside! We actually had to turn on the heat to knock the chill out of the air. The first run of the heater is always accompanied by a lovely smell that fills your nostrils with its beautiful uniqueness. Something about it is so exciting because you know you've actually survived the worst that the TX heat is going to doll out for the year... However, this year I find my nose completely plugged up thanks to a cold my husband was kind enough to bring home from school and share with me. He got to enjoy the lovely aroma while I sniffed and snorted my way through the morning. Oh well! There's always next year! (Or even the random cold front in the spring...)
I love the dishwasher simply because it's use of bleachy soap and heat makes me feel like every germ in there is obliterated. I tend to stick everything in there just to make sure it's clean. Since D.J. and I have both been fighting the aforementioned colds, I stuck our indestructible Nalgene water bottles in there over the weekend. A bit later, we began to smell an odd smell that was quickly filling the house. We traced it to the kitchen and then to the dishwasher. We opened it mid-drying cycle only to discover that the lids on both bottles had fallen through the grate and landed on the heating elements. Sadly, little remains of them. On Monday, I opened the dishwasher to find one of the lids from our cheap Glad "Tupperware" had melted from the heat. It was on the top rack, so I'm still not sure how it happened. I just know it no longer fits on the Glad ware it's supposed to tightly seal. Yesterday, I put my pink "Creative Cottage" water bottle in the dishwasher along with all of the Gatorade bottles from the tennis team. I opened the dishwasher a few hours later to find that my wonderful pink bottle had melted and was now "ergonomically designed" and fit the curves of my hand perfectly! Maybe the dishwasher is smarter than I think!!
Yesterday as I was getting ready to go on a walk, the dogs followed me around looking very excited. Cua (the older, grumpy dog) had visited the vet earlier that day for booster shots and hadn't been feeling well so I was excited to see some life in her. Marley (the hyper-active puppy) hadn't played much during the day because his best friend (Cua) had been sleeping. I felt sorry for them and so I took them along. What an adventure it turned out to be! So I grabbed my partially melted water bottle, the iPod, put the dogs on leashes and bounded out the door. The water bottle leaked everywhere and attracted every mosquito in a four block radius. Marley pooped on the sidewalk, did a complete flip (head over heels) when he got tangled in his leash, and knocked Cua over (literally) in his excitement to run up the driveway. Cua was more sore than I thought and limped through much of the walk. She survived, though. What a trooper! (We went 1.3 miles. That's a lot of steps for two dogs that weigh less than 10 pounds each!) When D.J. got home we decided to go walking together before his mom came over to show us all of her new Mary Kay inventory. Once again, the dogs saw tennis shoes and water bottles and came unglued. I felt sorry for them and agreed to bring them along for another 1.3 miles. Marley ran the entire walk. Cua's knees were dragging the pavement. :- ) When we got home, Marley proceeded to run in circles with his toys for another thirty minutes solid. (He was still running when we went to bed at 10:00 last night!) Cua collapsed at the door and didn't move until we fed her dinner. I think she's still trying to sleep it off even now...
My best friend and I finally put the finishing touches on our points/reward system for the weight we intend to lose. D.J. says it's the beginning of a new trend in weight loss and is already thinking up book titles. He is sure that we've hit on an amazing idea that will sweep the obese nation and make everyone healthy once again!! I'm sure that by the end of the day he'll have the first chapter written. I told him to wait and see if it works for us before we start contacting publishers. :- )
Now it's time to get off my duff, finish the laundry that's been waiting all week, and get myself to the gym! Or maybe to the grocery store... We're out of almost everything and if I don't go we'll have cheese and coffee for dinner tonight! But first, BREAKFAST! That is, if we have any...