The Lost and the Found at the Cheesecake Factory

"Chandler and Rachel eat a cheesecake that was accidentally delivered to their door and it's the best cheesecake they've ever had. Another cheesecake gets delivered and they try to resist and drop it off to their neighbor that was supposed to receive it - but they eat it instead."

Anyone remember that episode of Friends? I loved that sitcom. Even though I myself was never a Friends-insane-fanatic like some people I know, I did love the show. And I do remember sitting in my Belmont University apartment, spring of 2005, with 400 people piled in (okay, 5 people?), watching the last and final episode of that wonderful piece of television history. Why am I going on and on? (Because thats what I do....) But... when my sister posted on my Facebook wall that I should update my blog, uh-hum, excuse me, my blawg, the only thing that happens to be on my mind right now is cheesecake.

I had quite the cheesecake experience about 52 hours ago. Picture this: a weekend trip-with-a-purpose-not-really-a-weekend-but-a-good-35-hours-or-so, and in the biggest, fanciest best city in the sweet state of Tennessee (hey, I can spell it): I, a bff, and an unassuming tag, zoom northeast after overcoming several obstacles only found in the Olympics. Eight, or nine hours later.... we finally reached our destination. Over the course of the entire day, the tag almost fell into a stranger's shower stall, we were arrested for breaking and entering a vehicle via a tennis racket, we crashed Mardi Gras, wrestled a Bruin, climbed a rock wall, (or... rode the elevator.. I can't remember..?), learned how long it takes to cook cheese sticks at Sonic, and successfully got completely lost in 2 square blocks of residential neighborhood. Exhaustion set in. Then Sonic grease. Then some stupid E! Network show that resembles a news show, but really looks like a bunch of uneducated bozos who happen to look great in short dresses and hooker shoes who like to talk about other folks. Aka: some retarded gossip show was on tv and no one knew how to work the remote to change the channel. I learned who Julliana is. I think that's her name.

Anyway, so... all of a sudden after this huge, busy sequence of events went down,... there it was. It was as plain as anything I've ever seen before in all of my life. The cheesecake. I'm not really that big of a cheesecake fan,.. I mean.. I LOVE anything with those four letters attached anywhere to it.. C-A-K-E.. but.. cheesecake holds a close 2nd to vanilla cake with confetti all over it in my book. Ice Cream is about number 12. It was amazing. Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake. Are you freakin KIDDING ME????? Oh no... the bff had to tell me to "keep it down" when I first put that slice of pure ecstacy in my mouth. (This, from a chick who danced solo to "I'm a Slave 4 U" in a Pizza Hut during dinner hour once upon a time.... !!! lmfao.Hhahaha!!!!) I screamed out loud. I mean... nothing is better than this cheesecake. NOTHING. 

So in my reckless abandonment of making love to this cheesecake slice, which was $8.45..(!!!), it had better been great!, I LOST my !@#$%!! scarf! Not the ones that my sister knitted for me, or the one that my other bff's mom knitted me for Christmas one year, or the smelly one that I have no idea where it came from.., but my big wide red and black houndstooth scarf that I could put over my head like a rain bonnet that my husband just bought for me last fall on his trip to Chattychat!!!!!!! When I finally got back to where I was staying.. the scarf was missing. I checked the car. I checked the trunk. I just KNEW I had that scarf with me in the Cheesecake Factory. Alas, it was gone. I think someone stole it!! 

But, could someone really have stolen a scarf off of my body? Well knowing me, I was so enamored with thinking about this Cheesecake and how stupid it is for me to be in love with it, I think I left my scarf sitting on a bench. Either that, or I just had to have flushed it down the toilet, and I think I would have noticed if I did that.

BOOOHOOOO.!!! I can't believe I went to Nashville and lost my scarf!!! Well.. its not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last.. 

So, approximately 16 hours later, I am back at the Cheesecake Factory. I'm really not sure why, this time. The Cheesecake wanted more cheesecake I suppose. My stomach had to be pumped full of Immodium all day because of the first cheesecake episode... Anyway, so while I'm there, I ask for the lost and found from the previous evening. I knew my scarf would pop out of that cabinet that LeQuiontakeesha was looking through, but it DID NOT!!! :...( !

Well, that settled that debate then, I must have flushed it down the toilet. Attention all female Cheesecake Factory diners in the next few days: stall number one in the women's room is stopped up because of a wool wide red and black houndstooth scarf. Sorry, ladies. 

Anyway, nothing about dogs or living with dogs in this edition, but I did make mention of a Bruin in the third paragraph. That's a big bear who happens to live on campus at Belmont and stands very erect in front of the Plant Operations Building and is made of bronze.. or concrete and is painted brown. 

So, the cheesecake caused me to lose my dang scarf, but I did find some rreeeeaaalllllyyy good Cheesecake in the process...

Snow and Beds

Snow in Memphis is a pretty rare thing. Well, rare, meaning it only happens in the winter - pretty much every winter we see some snow, but not a lot. It's fairly early for it to be snowing the first week of January, but anyway... it DID snow last night!

Not only did it snow and all the schools were closed today.. (no work for me, then!!) but our brand new bed was delivered promptly at 9:00am, exactly 2 minutes after we woke up. Haha.

Dr. H and I have been sleeping on a California King bed since we were married, five years ago. Actually, he's had the bed since 2004, a whole year before we were married. Since we both are folks of festive plumpedness, (a new word!!) we were in dire need of a new bed. A king size Serta Perfect Sleeper Euro Top bed has officially joined the family!

Last night in preparation, he "made us" move the other bed to the guest room, which I thought was quite ludacris since the movers were very much going to be able to move our current bed to the location we wanted it, take any old beds with them, and place our new bed in our bedroom! "Not so!," cried Dr. Harrell! So around 10pm last evening, we cleared the old queen size out of the guest room, propped it up in the dining room, (Julie, come get this bed!!) and then quickly realized that in fact, no, that bed frame will not expand out to hold our California King bed that was henceforth coming into that room. Oh my. What to do? Just put the dang bed on the floor! (You can take the girl out of Lauderdale County, but you can't take the Lauderdale County outta the girl !!)

We made our huge Cali King up (on the floor with no bed frame.. lol) and slept quite nicely in there, after all, that used to be the master bedroom! Jack assumed his normal position at the foot of the bed on his dog cushy. I think the whole process thoroughly confused him, though. The guest room is also HIS room during times when we have to leave him home alone, (His kennel is in there.) and I think he thought we wanted him to sleep in his kennel or something. Brad said he didn't sleep too good because Jack didn't sleep too good. I slept fine except when I woke straight up at 5:30 wanting to know if it had snowed or not and whether or not schools were open.

Obviously I went back to sleep, because I woke up again at 9am, just like I do everyday by my internal clock, to the sound of a large truck outside the bedroom window! "Its's 9:00!!," I yell, at which point I then yell, "They're here!!!" With lots of gusto Brad jumps out of bed and says, "Where's my clothes??" I throw them at him, grab Jack, to try and corral him in the office, and then the phone rings. Brad is trying so hard to pull his clothes on, and I get Jack in the office only to find that the phone is missing! Where's the phone?!?!? (It was the movers trying to call and let us know "they're on the way," when in fact, they were in the @&$^#& driveway !!)

Anyway, to make a long story short, the bed was delivered and set up. We ate breakfast and then began to sit in the office and work on our computers when we looked up and couldn't find Jack. Where was he?

Yup - piled up (which he knows he isn't supposed to do) on the big bed that is now at his perfect height (since there's no frame) in "his" room.

Hmmm... dogs. They think they know everything. Haha

Freezing

Today is the second day of 2010. (I began this post on January 2nd.) It is also the last day of the Harrells' Holiday Hiatus from all things hellish such as teaching lessons, school, and work. Big sad face here. :(

But! Got some things done today and had some fun too.. We did end up taking Thurston to the vet the other day. Turns out, his platelets were very low and he had been bleeding from his gums for atleast 3 days. Poor little thing. He was wiped out. Doc prescribed him a few scripts, namely, put his little ass on some steroids, and in 12 short hours, the little man was back on his feet!

This morning was the follow-up appointment with the doctor, and all is well that ends well with Thurston. He's perfectly fine. 

Julie, you.. know... the GMOP, (Godmother Of the Pup.) met us at our MOST FAVORITE breakfast joint in the entire country this morning after Thurston came and went, (yeah, of course he went back home with my mom and therefore is now 'Noodle..') and then she and I went trasping off to the mall to do some after-Christmas Christmas shopping, then to her house to get her two boys (a Bull Mastiff, Argus; and a Rodesian Ridgeback, Romie) only to come back to our place to get Jack and head to the dog park for a nice afternoon stroll in the sub-zero temperatures. Oi.

I literally froze my legs and my bum off. The things we do...

Opposites

As I sit at our still-extended-from-Christmas-Day dining table and enjoy my last little slice of heaven, also known as white bread toasted with my Aunt's homemade strawberry preserves, my mother calls me from the local Military base shopping center and tells me that Thurston is sick. Oh lord. Now, my mother, God love her, is one of the biggest non-homo drama queens I know. I have learned to pick and choose which of her dramatic monologues of certain situations that invariably will crop up in her life are actually important, and which ones are just dramatic monologues for the sake of having a dramatic monologue.

The poor little guy didn't eat yesterday, wouldn't drink, didn't bark at all, and wouldn't go outside to do his thing. Sunday morning, he threw up on their bed... a bunch of black dirt, as she described it, and constantly "licks the air." Hmm. She says he may have eaten too much dirt and has gotten a splinter in his throat. He kept my mom and stepdad awake from 1:30am to 4:00am this morning, which if it were me, I would have just medicated him and put little Thurmador in the dang closet! (Nothing interferes with the sleep of Dr. and Mrs. Harrell, mind you, which is the precise reason why we are perfect to have canine children, instead of real children.. we'd be put in jail for putting them out on the patio to sleep. haha.)

Well, needless to say, the decision was just made for me to make the 50 minute drive to my mother's house to pick up Thurston and bring him home. If I know him, (and I do !) he just wants to come home. They keep their home very cold in the winter.. and we do too, by comparison, but he is also chilled for some reason and keeps shaking all the time. But I think he's putting on a show to come home. Wouldn't that just beat everything if he gets home and he's fine?? *Chuckle.*

Maybe he is sick. Maybe he has pneumonia! But... he hasn't been coughing... just licking. Why would someone lick the air? I know!!... I need to call Julie and ask her, since my doctor-nurse hubby seems to be of little help. His suggestion is to look in Thurston's little throat and see if there's anything in there. How can we do that without him gnawing off my hand? And what the crap difference would it make if there WERE something in there? Heimlich?

Well... looks like I'm going to Covington today!

Will post what the outcome is in the following edition...

Holiday Craziness

Greetings to you all from the Harrell Household!

Christmas has come and gone once again and all the hustling and bustling is now over. It is the third day after Christmas, and it brings me great pleasure to announce that we all are relaxing and doing a whole lot of nothing this week.

November and December went by very quickly as Brad and I both were SLAMMED, with a capital S, with school work, work work, church work, and everything else - work.

During all the crazy holiday business, Thurston took his normal retreat to the Chastain plantation in Covington, and sweet Jack was left to his kennel. :( .. until the day we came home to a shredded $200 shock collar and an almost collapsed great dane-sized kennel. So... we called up the newest doggie daycare in town, Camp Bow Wow, and registered him up for camp!

Camp Bow Wow is great! It is VERY convenient - only a 4 minute ride in the car to the next interstate exit, and Jack is off to the races all day long! Our little Jack now has a girlfriend who is a Husky named Lyla. Since he takes after his mom and dad though, the girlfriend came at a price! He STOLE her away from Diego, Lyla's other boyfriend... they had to be separated one day for "fighting" over her ! hahah!

Last week for Christmas, Jack even got to go and play all day on Christmas Eve at Camp while Mom and Dad had to cart themselves all over West Tennessee for Christmas family shindigs. Jack does seem to frequently pose problems in scheduling family events, especially when heading up to visit folks who have anti-dog-in-the-house sentiments. So while I was busy working my magic at the Christmas Eve worship services at the church in Covington where I work.. (yes.. services... plural... one was at 5:00pm, and the other 10:30pm!...) Brad was home all alone on Christmas Eve with sweet Jack. I think I finally arrived back home around 12:45pm.

Christmas Day was a joyous time of my family coming, coralling dogs, tons of food, laughing, talking, LOTS of talking.., and presents. I was VERY sad and disappointed that my litttle sister could not come home for Christmas this year. She was alone at her apartment in Odessa, Texas with her broken knee and little Christmas Tree. Daddy was able to send her presents though, and we all skyped with her while she opened them. It was nice to get to see her - even through a computer screen.

Mom and Don wanted to have more "Noodle" time with Thurston. (Thurston morphs into another Shih-tzu named Noodle when he visits them... ) And so he went back to Covington for an extended Christmas vacation visit.

Jack, Brad, and I are just chilling this week with our bud Julie and her Rodesian Ridgeback named Romy, and her Bull Mastiff named Argus. They are all sweet and we love them. Off to the park later this afternoon, but first... I think another nap is in order!

Sleepover!

Brad and I had the amazing opportunity to go over to East Tennessee for three days this week. We left Tuesday morning, October 6 and drove ALLLL DAAAYY in the pouring down rain over to Sevierville, TN. It absolutely would not be a Harrell car trip without pouring down rain. Hmm. oh well.

SO - what to do with Jack, 115 pound growing Great Dane? Luckily, we have fabulous friends! Cynthia, one of Bradley's oldest friends, said she would be happy to keep Jack while we were away. Perfect. Just so happened that the days WE were going to be out of town, she also had a work related trip she had to go on too. Oi. So she said.. no prob! My son can take care of Jack. Perfect again!

Monday night at 9pm we drove the 1 mile to their house and left Jack there. He had two 11 year old Goldens to play with for three straight days! I can only imagine what went on for those three nights and three days. They have a fenced back yard... we heard Jack wanted out multiple times that first night only to run laps in the yard. lol. I'm sure he was thoroughly confused about going outside, still in the city limits, without a leash attached to him. But I think he got over that real quick. I can just see him cavorting around the back yard, laughing and throwing slober absolutely everywhere.

The older dogs go to the back of the yard to poop. Jack - you know, since we have no yard and only a patio, he goes straight out our front door, on his leash, and poops. So thats what he did over there. He walked straight out the door, off their patio and pooped. Needless to say, the older dogs showed him what was more proper, and the next time he had to take care of business, he did it at towards the back of the yard. Cute.

He slept well, didn't eat anything he wasn't supposed to have, didn't kill anyone or anything, and didn't tear up anything - which is whats I was afraid of. Everything was fine.

We went and picked him up before getting home from our WAAAAYYYY too long trek across the state, got him home, farted around for an hour or so.. and then I took him outside before going to bed. I put his leash on him, and he dragged me out to the yard and which point he usually squats and pees. He did not squat. He, very wobbly of course, lifted his left back leg and peed all over his front two legs!!!

WHHHAAATT?? My little baby... lifting his leg?!?!?!? When did he grow up to be such a big dog? Wait a minute... he learned this from those two Goldens!!! HAHAHAH.... isn't that funny!!