2013 -- week 27 -- a kitten birthday, homemade pizza, and a lazy holiday weekend

i can't believe it's already july; i feel like this year just started. but i guess we've been busy and, as they say, time flies when you're having fun. and this week was definitely fun.

on monday we had a birthday party for cornelius, our cute but precocious kitten. he turned four, and one can only hope that as he ages, he's finally starting to slow down. he's a super lover kitten -- he's always looking for a lap to take a nap on, or a body to lean against -- but he's also wild. over the years we've called him a raccoon, a black bear, a panther, and a master buggy hunter because he's always getting into things he shouldn't and rummaging around. he's become quite adept at opening cabinet doors, and any day now he'll be able to get into the bathroom by himself. despite all of his hijinks, he's still my baby kitten. happy birthday bug.

on wednesday night we decided to try making homemade pizza. we cheated a little -- we bought pizza dough from trader joe's, but that's only because we were so nervous to make our own dough and we really wanted to try out our pizza stone. we had some problems at first rolling out the dough, and then again when we tried to take the pizza off the peel and put it on the hot pizza stone, but we were resourceful and made a calzone instead. and it was delicious.


we especially enjoyed the holiday and the opportunities it provided for us to hang out with friends and eat well. on the fourth we ate at new restaurant, robert's. we'd heard that it's supposed to have amazing cinnamon buns, so we got up early on thursday to give it a try. and we were pleasantly surprised, because not only were the cinnamon buns huge and delicious, but they also had homemade pie! and i can't resist homemade pie for breakfast; i am my father's daughter after all.

for the weekend, we met up with friends at the salt river and went tubing. we went tubing last year, so we had an idea of what to expect, but it's a lot more fun with a large group of people and beer! it's so relaxing floating down the river; there's nothing to worry about (except reapplying sunscreen!) and it's refreshing being in the chilly water when it's 100+ degrees out. if you live anywhere near a river and tubing is an option, take one day and float your river -- you won't regret it.

what did you do for the holiday weekend?

2013 -- week 22 -- a half birthday, the beginning of hot weather, and may day in the life

oh man guys. it's official; i'm 28 and a half. i think it's safe to say that i'm now solidly in my late 20s. gross. on the upside, i'm doing pretty good. i just went on a pretty rad road trip. i'm engaged to my best friend. we have two amazing furry friends/demon children. we go to lots of really cool places and eat some awesome food. and our friends are great. all in all, not too shabby. here's to the next 6 months!

it's officially hot in arizona right now. like 100 degree days, regularly. which i'm loving, because hot weather is infinitely better than cold weather. i mean, cardigans are cute and all, but ugh, so boring. give me a tank top any day, please. since it's all sunshine all the time, i basically have two modes -- hibernate inside or soak up the sun, in equal measure. now comes the hard work of staying hydrated and sun burn free. 

for my may day in the life i decided that instead of taking tons of pictures of me sitting in front of the computer, it might be fun to document the kittenz' day. i figured it would be a million pictures of them sleeping, and they did do a lot of sleeping, but i was pleasantly surprised to find out they do get up and do things during the day. it's nothing especially noteworthy, just eating and some idle exploring, but they weren't total logs. i wonder though, if i wasn't home, would they still get up and walk around, or do they just crash out as soon as we leave for work in the morning and wake up 30 seconds before we get home. ah, to have a nanny cam on the kittenz, my dream.

is it hot where you live? how are you surviving it?

my new favorite app: vine

how often do you get half way through a video and get bored? i mean, in theory we want to see the entire video, but, ugh, how boring. at the same time, watching tiny clips of videos is just as annoying. vine is a new app that tries to be the best of both worlds.

the way it works: you take 6 seconds of video and then vine puts it all together and loops it. you build your video, or "film", by touching your finger to the screen, taking it on and off, as you film different things. then you can share your video via twitter or facebook.

my complaints: you can share your videos on facebook, but you can't find out if your facebook friends are on vine. annoying. i realize that there's a huge war going on between the different social media platforms, but everyone's social media accounts are totally integrated, not allowing us to benefit from that is rude. my other complaint is that i can't even find friends in my phone's address book. maybe i don't have any friends who have vine -- it is still pretty new -- but it seems unlikely because some of my friends are pretty techy.

complaints aside, this may be the coolest thing i've found since instagram. i kind of want to use it all the time.

do you have vine?

(what's your name? i want to follow you!)

(follow me on vine: vmboda)

happy winter!

and a merry 2013!

a special thanks to csv for taking these pictures for us!

saturday morning

every day is a constant battle 

between me and the kittenz

because every day

they try and escape our little apartment

to explore the outside world. 

so a couple times a week

i take them out

and walk them. 

like they're puppies. 

normally it's after work,

when i'm tired and it's hot out, 

but this time we went out 

super early in the morning

before the construction workers came

and we explored the courtyard. 

 

 

 

the end of the terrible twos?

puppy turned three on july 1st. 

for three years,

black bear has been terrorizing 

me, 

mildred,

my cabinets,

my refrigerator,

and my apartment.

he climbs things.

 

 

he walks on things.

he gets into things.

 

 he is a hooligan.

 

 

but he hunts buggies. 

and he is absolutely adorable 

when he sleeps.

happy birthday kitten.

the great dominican buggy hunterz

this is the story of the 

kittenz versus the huge bug.

yesterday, while i was packing

i heard a loud noise

and came into the living room 

to find cjb running away

with something in his mouth.

this is not uncommon.

so i attempted to follow him

to get whatever it was

out of his mouth.

(he's kind of a like 

a two year old

or a dog;

he'll eat anything.)

only to find out it is a huge bug.

um, gross.

needless to say, 

he spent the next 20 minutes playing 

with his new buggy friend.

mmb even got involved.

(which is kind of a big deal, 

because she is kind of a princess.)

this was the end result.

not dead.

but missing some legs.

i eventually had to throw him out the window

because cjb would pick up the bug

carry it around, drop it some place,

play with it a little, 

and then get distracted. 

so, of course, 

the bug would try and escape. 

it was getting too precarious,

i mean, what if the bug escaped?

 grosssssss.

seeing cjb with a creepy crawly bug

in his mouth was totally gross

but it reminded me of mmb's mouse.

although it was way cuter to see 

a puffy, furry mouse in her mouth

than it was to see a big gross bug in his.