I had Wednesday night off so I decided to make Slayer a little treat. After scouring recipes online I came up with one for Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits. Slayer tends to give me the death stare any morning I eat peanut butter and don’t share, so I thought they’d be perfect.

1 c flour
1/4 c oats
1/2 T baking powder
1/2 c peanut butter
1/2 c milk
1 T apple sauce

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until the dough begins to pull away from the sides. (Let your dog, who is sure to be standing near by, lick the spoon)

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead a few times to finish mixing.  Roll dough until it’s about 1/4″ – 1/2″ thick. Cut out using cookie cutters and place on a baking sheet.

Bake for about 20 mins or until slightly browned. Cool and request a trick before serving :)

Slayer loved them and yes…I tasted one too. They weren’t too bad!

This is my favorite time of day, when the whole house and whole neighborhood is quiet, light filtering through the front window. My sister is still upstairs sleeping. The only sound is the refrigerator running and the furnace warming the house. Slayer sits near me, not moving a muscle, eyes trained on my fried egg and veggie sausage. When I’m finished eating he crawls under my arm and leans against me or hops up onto the one couch cushion I allow him to crush so he can look out the window. There are no emails, no designs, no errands crossing my mind yet. I just sink into the couch for 30 minutes and slowly sift through my reader.

Sunday was the third annual gingerbread house building party at my parent’s.

My sister and I decided we were really only interested in building things to eat…like sandwiches.

So we played with all the kids instead, chasing them around the house, over furniture and under tables.

My mom dug the Lego town out of the basement and we launched little plastic people off a sinking Lego boat.

Slayer made a friend, but only liked her while she had a sticky, slobbery Dorito in her hand.

And he got an early Christmas present, which he wasn’t terribly interested in, so my mom helped him climb inside.

Look who is my new screen saver :) I’m off to go on a date with Pants tonight. We almost never go out to eat on account of him being such a good cook, so I’ve been looking forward to tonight all week. Makes it a little more exciting that we planned a date a few days ahead instead of just randomly deciding to go out. I’m also looking forward to hang out with Mandy & Mae at Mandy’s new apartment, making pierogi with my mom AND working on the syllabus for the aerial class I’m going to start teaching in a few weeks. Yep! If any of you Michigan (or non-Michigan) peeps want to learn to fly you can come downtown and take a class from me!

How did my sister get so cute??
I made her test out my new POP Booth app before we went out last weekend – so fun! We saw Motion City Soundtrack perform and ended the night with strawberry milkshakes and fries. She just got a new job down the street from my house and we’re talking about her moving into my spare bedroom!

When is that last time you hung out with your siblings?

P.S. I couldn’t resist this hoodie for Slayer when I was out buying dog food the other day =)

This weekend I went to my first football game. We got free tickets from work, but I really just went for a soft pretzel + nacho cheese :)

I’m not really a football fan (except for FNL!) and I don’t understand the rules, so Pants was very entertained by my interpretation of the game. I know, he’s not looking too stoked in the above photo, somebunny was a little hung over, but it was actually really fun!

Sunday I woke up to sun shining though the windows and a cool breeze and knew we needed to spend the day outside. We took the piglet for a walk and sat outside the coffee shop for a bit where he whined and shook like a leaf while barking at most people who walked by. I’m trying to take him into town more often so he’ll be less anxious around strangers.

We took Slayer back home and then rode over to The Rust Belt to see who was selling what. While we were browsing, a little boy found the microphone on the tiny stage and proceeded to sing a little rap before his mom caught him. It was adorable and everyone in the market applauded his song and his boldness. The hot dog vendor didn’t have veggie dogs this week (but I think we convinced him to start selling them more often) so I made spinach salad and garlic bread for lunch. Then Pants headed off to soccer and I settled on the deck to work. Another lovely, relaxing, productive weekend :)

On Friday Pants took me to the Tigers game at Comerica. I was in an impressively bad mood, but hanging out in the sun and a giant slice of pizza helped cheer me up. The post-game fireworks were my favorite part. Initially I wondered why they weren’t shooting very high into the air only to remember climbing four flights up to the nosebleeds. Completely worth it :)

This weekend seemed to revolve around food. (Though when do my weekends not?) I made pita bread (from this recipe) on Saturday and then headed over to my parent’s house to swim. Unfortunately the air turned chilly and a huge storm blew in just after I arrived, so my mom and I found episodes of Hoarders On-Demand and made veggie chili for dinner.

Slayer spent the night at my parents on because we were planning to go to Cedar Point on Sunday, but in two days the weather forecast changed from sunny skies to thunderstorms. So we stayed home instead and watched Karate Kid 2 while eating crunchy and sweet oatmeal with granola. We’re both on a kick to save money by cleaning out the pantry instead of grocery shopping, so we used the basil growing on my deck and almonds to make pesto.

After picking the piglet up from my parents (they sure wore him out!) I sat on my deck and worked on a couple templates. I don’t know why I spend so much time parked on the couch when I could be outside enjoying the summer sun and cool breeze.

At night we met up for a bike ride, cruising through the darkened neighborhoods, Pants leaving my slow ass in the dust. We made our now weekly trip to the ice cream shop where I figured out how to make Pants smile for pictures…lavender honey and salted caramel ice cream in a waffle cone. I had vegan dark chocolate peanut butter, which I am oh so thankful for because I’m starting to think I might be lactose intolerant :( They have enough vegan flavors to keep me satisfied though, so I might just survive.

He was not a fan of the hoop at first and would only hop through after lots of coaxing. I started with the hoop on the ground, having him walk through it and slowly moved it higher and higher. Now he knows exactly what to do, though as you can see, will only jump through from one side!

A little video of my happy pup to end the day. He was maybe just a little excited to go for a walk. And yes I’m totally taunting him and calling him silly nicknames >_<

We spent last night downtown drinking tallboys and singing along to The Get Up Kids. The show was kind of empty and very chill – it was nice to have a little space to dance. Two girls standing behind us were talking so loud to the point that I turned around and sternly told them ‘I really love this band, but all I can hear is you talking. Can you please be quiet or move to the back?’ I think Pants got a little nervous that he was going to have to break up a girl fight, but with my circus muscles and fist full of rings I could have held my own!

Toward the end of the show an a capella choir from U of M came out and sang…wait for it…Ann Arbor. (For my non-MI readers, U of M is located in Ann Arbor) It was really cool and I was maybe a little jealous of the girl singing lead.

After the show we turned down all invites to go out (actually I turned them down after Pants passed his phone to me because ‘I can’t say no to Royce!’) and opted to stay in and avoid the impending snow. Definitely a good choice :)