What Am I Going To Do With This Dog?

So this is my dog, Stella.  She is licking my leg to make up for being such a terrible dog. It's a good thing she's so adorable. She's gotten in the habit of asking to go out then not doing anything once we're out there. She will then proceed to do her business in the hallway outside our apartment. Chris sends me angry texts about wanting to get rid of the dog every day now. But then she comes up and is so cute and wants to cuddle and play and all is forgiven.

Thank Goodness for Leftovers

So since Chris and I are only going to be in town for two nights this week, I decided it wasn't worth it to grocery shop and just got creative with what I had. I ended up making a Rotel/Velveeta pasta with leftover taco meat.  Not super healthy but definitely tasty.

Puppy Friends

Being at home this weekend means that I got to bring Stella up to play with my parents' dogs.  Our little dog, Winnie, hates Stella and runs away from her every time she tries to play. But our bigger dog, Bella, likes it when Stella comes since I always take them out and play ball. Stella isn't quite fast enough to get the balls before Bella, but she still loves being able to get out and run around for once. One of the reasons I'm ready to get out of our town is so that Stella will have a yard to play in and we won't have to take her down three flights of stairs to take her outside. Yay!

Oops...I forgot

So I totally forgot to post something yesterday. I even took pictures for it an everything. But I only didn't post since I was having such a good time, so I'll give myself a pass. I spent the morning making cookies because it was dreary and rainy and basically a perfect cookie day. Then we ended up at Jaspersfest, which is a big Memorial Day party that involves a lot of food, beer (or hard cider for me) and a big crawfish boil. I ended up with a lot of blurry pictures but some great memories. And a bit of a headache today.

A Vegetarian Dinner

I was driving all day today so I didn't end up taking a picture. But I do have an extra from yesterday to share.

I made this for dinner yesterday and it was seriously so tasty and filling that I didn't even care it was vegetarian.
Chris did though. But even he agreed with me that it was good enough to make again.

Stelly Bean

The weather was beautiful today so I took Stella for a walk to go visit Chris while he studied. Mostly I walk and Stella stops and sniffs things, but it's still fun. 

 

Someone brought in a puppy to the library today that I seriously almost brought home as a friend for Stella. She was a chihuahua/beagle mix and she was just a tiny tiny puppy and I loved her. So if anyone wants a puppy, let me know!
 

Also, Stella made a friend on our walk today. She has no fear. 

Box Brownies Are Always A Good Choice

Today was kind of rough. Pretty sure I'm getting a sinus infection (yum) and just was grumpy with a headache all day. So after work I came straight home and made these bad boys.  Duncan Hines Fudge Brownies. I've tried to make homemade brownies before and they've always just ended up as expensive failures. Box brownies never fail me though.  Add all the right ingredients and they're always there to comfort you. So here's to you, box brownies. Thank you for making my life easy and delicious. 

I clearly couldn't wait to eat these until after I got a nice picture. Oops. 

My New Phone

Ok I'm seriously kind of obsessed with my new phone. Having gone so long without a smartphone, I am all kinds of excited about it. What makes me happy about my phone today? 

THIS. 

That is a remote. That I can use to control my tv. Seriously. I'm in love. Why do I need to control the tv from my phone? I don't. I already have a remote. But I can and that's the important thing. It's the little things in life, right? And that's what this whole 365 Project is about. Celebrating the little things.

365 Project Starts Today

So a lot of the other blogs that I read talk about doing 365 projects, which is basically taking a picture per day. I've decided to start. I'm going to take a picture everyday of something that makes me happy.  It's probably going to be a lot of pictures of my dog.  But that's ok. I want to do this for myself because I've been feeling really uninspired lately. Just kind of stuck in the same old town doing the same thing every day. I want to do this to remind myself that there should be at least one thing every day that makes me happy. Also, I just got myself a fancy new smartphone that takes awesome pictures and I want to utilize that.

Today, that thing is Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network.  Her voice is just so calming. And Chris isn't here watching baseball so I actually get to watch her today. And that makes me happy :)

Book Review: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg  

 

I checked this book out to listen to on my ride back home to see my brother in a play (which he was fabulous in) and have been listening to it ever since. I have been finding it incredibly interesting. I honestly don’t know if I would have made it through reading it though. It gets boring and repetitive at times, as non-fiction can do. It also jumps back and forth between examples a lot, which I find annoying. Just finish one story at a time. Seriously. 

However, the perspective of looking at business through the lens of habits is a stimulating exercise. I will never shop at Target the same after listening to this. They’re a bunch of data-collecting creepers. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and is incredibly helpful for their business, but the idea of how much they know is a little disturbing. I'd actually heard the story of the pregnant teenager before, but listening to it from this perspective was new and insightful.

The insight into history is fascinating and definitely makes the book worth a read. I'm currently at the section about the civil rights movement, and how to change the habits of societies. And while I'm not a church goer, the idea of the habits of weak-ties that is discussed in a section about religion makes a lot of sense to me. It's like a lesser version of peer pressure, without any actual pressure attached. Just the idea of it is enough to make people change their wants and habits.

I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who has any sort of business backround. Hearing about Target made me think about all of the case studies I did during business school and made me look at them from a different perspective. The insight into changing habits and the human brain is also appealing to anyone looking to change something about themselves. To really change, the book says you have to overwrite one habit with another that fulfills the same need. I found a lot of the book really thought provoking and think that it would appeal to a lot of people once it gets going.

What I've Been Reading

I haven't been really keeping up with my lovely blog lately. I think it's because I follow so many blogs that post every day, and then I get really intimidated by how little I post. But I'm back at it now, mostly because I've been reading some great books that I wanted to share. 

1 & 2. In The Woods by Tana French and The Likeness by Tana French 

I liked both of these books, although I much preferred The Likeness. I kind of hated the main character in In The Woods, which made it hard to like the book even though I appreciated the writing style. I also didn't love the ending to In The Woods, but I'm not sure how else I would have ended it. It didn't wrap up nicely like a normal story does, which was unsettling. I would still recommend both of these books to anyone who enjoys mystery books.

3. The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To by DC Pierson

This book was surprisingly captivating to me, even though it's set in a high school and is very male oriented. It's a great example of science fiction without being too isolating or out there. I'm always able to identify and empathize with an outsider, which is exactly who Darren and Eric were. The ending was a point of contention in a lot of reviews that I read, but I think it's exactly where the book needed to go. What else were they going to do with a boy who never sleeps? This does seem like much more of a teen book, which a lot of science fiction these days is. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy it, just that I felt a little old while I was reading it.

4. Splintered by A.G. Howard

Splintered was a quick read, and had an interesting idea, but was very teen oriented, which drew me out of the story at times. I'm sorry, but I really don't need a description of what kind of striped leggings Alyssa was wearing. But I always love a revamped fairy tale, and the new take on the Alice in Wonderland world was entertaining. The darker side of Wonderland really drew me in, but the awkward love triangle between Morpheus, Jeb, and Alyssa was very teen-angsty and kind of expected. There would have been enough conflict in the story without having to bring that aspect in. I still liked the book, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who has roots in the Alice world, but it's probably not something I would read again.

5. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

This story is a great example of a teen book that doesn't isolate it's older readers. John Green is basically amazing at that, and I would really recommend any of his books. Will Grayson, Will Grayson is set in high school and deals with teenage homosexuality in a funny and musical way. I even laughed out loud at some of the songs in the book, and that's rare when I read. Usually only funny dog pictures or stupid autocorrects can make me do that. I read this book to see if I should get it as a present for someone, and I pretty much went straight to Amazon and purchased it as soon as I finished.