Life Archives - Page 6 of 52

dogs

Clean House

April 29, 2016

My apartment is usually not this clean on a Friday.

On a typical Friday, my apartment looks like something between a police raid and episode of Hoarders.

But not today! Today my apartment is fabulously clean.

Why? Because my labradoodle puppy is sick. It started with horrifying scene in the kennel this morning and continued throughout the morning and afternoon.

So today has been a series of emergency dog walks, laundry cycles, and floor/kennel scrubbings.

Ingrid even had to get a bath or two. Good thing our building has a full “dog spa” with professional wash tubs and dryers.

Life

I recently looked at my Facebook “connected applications” page after experiencing a connectivity issue with Bufferapp and I was surprised to see over 80 applications connected to my Facebook account!

These apps stuck around after every smartphone and easy “login with Facebook” button – collecting all of my information.

Life / Oak Lawn

Lingering Concerns

April 26, 2016

I ran into one of my neighbors in the hallway today:

Jill: “I am almost done moving to my new apartment!”

Me: “Nice. I hate moving. Are you doing Rug Doctor for the carpets?”

Jill: “Rug Doctor?”

Me: “The carpet steamer.”

Jill: “God no!”

Me: “…but aren’t you cleaning your carpets?”

Jill: “No.”

Me: “…but what if the building charges you?”

Jill: “Then fuck’em. I don’t care. I’ll fight that battle if I get to it.”

I wish I had this attitude to moving – the recent move would have been vastly less stressful.

Just Sayin / Life / TV

Real Housewives of Potomac & Race

April 21, 2016

About those light skinned girls…

I recently finished the Real Housewives of Potomac reunion show and whew, that was some drama.

Real Housewives of Potomac was appointment viewing for us this spring.

Like every show in the Real Housewives franchise, there are mansions, one-line zingers, the Andy Cohen-hosted reunion, and shade.

This is the second installment (after Atlanta) to feature an all-black cast, and race was constant source of drama.

blog theory / Life

5 Blogs That I Actually Read

April 20, 2016

I have a cyclical love-hate relationship with blogs and social media networks in general.

Here are the phases:

Discovery: Gorging on great content and conversation, meeting new people. All is good.
Silence: People get busy, fall silent.
Spam: Bots and “brands” flow into the network and clutter my feeds with crap.
Despair: I feel like the social network (and some blogs) have become an echo chamber of low-quality content
Rediscovery: I find new blogs, start new conversations, and the cycle begins again.

I am currently in stage 5: rediscovery.

Here are the blogs (new and old) that I am excited about currently.

The Jenny Journey

Jennifer is actually one of my neighbors! When I am not bumping into her at the Cedar Springs Tap House brunch, I’m keeping up with her excellent travel photography.

I recommend:

Life / music / Oak Lawn / TV

Weekends with Yonce

April 18, 2016

This weekend was delightfully quiet.

We spent our time chowing down on Gardein and watching TV.

This is what 29 looks like.

One of the best things about the new apartment is that we have HBO Go, which means that I finally got an opportunity to watch the Beyonce On The Run Tour special.

The timing for my Beyonce binge was perfect because she’s apparently going to release a new video album/TV special/whatever-the-hell soon:

I am so excited.

This must be how diehard Apple fans feel when a new product is about to be launched.

However, the brooding preview video looks like the silly clips that preceded Rihanna’s ANTI album.

Life / Miami

The University of Miami Girls

April 15, 2016

I recently came across this hilarious sorority recruitment video from my alma mater:

The video is pretty epic – and says a lot about the Miami fantasy – yachts, multi-million dollar condos, hanging out with your closest 30 friends on the beach.

Of course all of the girls are also in great shape, and there’s even a black and a Latin girl “for diversity.”

There are a few shots on the actual University of Miami campus, the message is very clear: rich girl’s vacation.

Dallas / dogs

Puppachinos

April 5, 2016

Aka, “Why my dogs love Starbucks”

One morning I noticed a woman exit Starbucks and give her yippy dog a small cup of whip cream.

Apparently this is a “secret menu item” called a “Puppucino.” Some Starbucks locations insist that you use that cheesy name when ordering, but most baristas just look at me crazy when I ask for one.

So it’s a thing, sort of.

Gunter and Ingrid at Turtle Creek Park with Puppuccinos.

LGBT / Life / Oak Lawn

5 Rules of Gay Brunch

April 2, 2016

Some people go to church – others get mimosas.

Bottomless mimosa brunch is a time-honored gay tradition.

You pull yourself out of bed, slap on some sunglasses, and sashay to the local bar-restaurant for day drinking.

Over the years, I’ve learned that there are 5 cardinal rules for surviving a mimosa brunch.

Brunch at British Beverage Company in Dallas, Texas. They have a mimosa bar that allows you to choose your own garnishes and juices.

dogs / Oak Lawn

A Very Dallas Easter

March 28, 2016

Easter in Lee Park and Pooch Parade in Dallas

My mom came to town this weekend for a business meeting, so we showed her how Dallas does Easter.

We had Easter brunch at Quesa MX, which is a Mexican restaurant on Cedar Springs.

I recently became re-interested in Quesa after they hosted a happy hour at iLume – the new manager said that he overhauled the menu and promised that the food was better.

We also passed Quesa on Saturday afternoon and realized that they still did bottomless mimosa brunch.

The way we could tell is because there was a guy on the patio laying in his own vomit.

His friend looked so upset…

Quesa was considerably calmer on Sunday, and the food was surprisingly good. I think Quesa will be a nice alternative to Mattito’s and Cedar Springs Tap House, which both get incredibly packed.

After brunch, we grabbed the dogs and went to the Easter dog parade near Turtle Creek.

It was quite the production.

The crowd at Easter in Lee Park / Dallas Pooch Parade.

Guys with matching outfits and bunny ears at Easter in Lee Park

A guy with a matching dog at the 2016 Easter Pooch Parade in Dallas.

A pink poodle at the Dallas Easter Pooch Parade.

Spectators taking a selfie during the Easter Parade – is that Dustin in the background?!

Picnics at Lee Park near Arlington Hall

dogs

Trouble

March 22, 2016

I thought that I could trust him.

Gunter is almost three years old now, so I thought that I could trust him outside of the kennel.

He no longer cries when I leave the house, which is half the struggle of puppydom. Gunter also hasn’t had an accident inside since last winter, when the weather was so cold in Minnesota that he went on strike – refusing to poop outside.

It was very distressing for both of us.

Life / Productivity

Why Keeping Up With The Joneses Isn’t Worth It

March 11, 2016

About those Joneses…

I often occasionally find myself distracted by the Joneses – those frenemies with glamorous careers, clothes, bodies, blogs, Instagram feeds, etc.

This leads to the occasional happy-hour griping, which my friend Jill often shuts down –
“Remember that for all of your “troubles” you are still in an elite position,” Jill says.

And sigh Jill is right.

The Struggle Isn’t Real – I have a law degree from a top school, whereas only a third of Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 have completed bachelor’s degrees or higher, and only 8% of that group had completed a master’s degree or higher.

Most of my coworkers and I make well above the national median for income as well.

Life / Oak Lawn / Tax

Still Festive

January 5, 2016

Christmas lights in Perry Heights, Dallas, Texas

The holidays are over, but the lights are still up.

The busiest part of my winter is always after the holiday season ends – my clients are ready to start ambitious projects, we have an all-team meeting in Minnesota this coming February, and tax season is rearing its ugly head.

I’m volunteering with a community tax center again this year. That means that I am joining a hoard of accountants to provide free tax services to low-and-moderate income individuals in the Dallas area.

Life / Oak Lawn

A Quiet New Year’s Eve

January 1, 2016

Eating with neighbors at Dish Restaurant at iLume, Oak Lawn, Dallas

I was in bed well before midnight on New Year’s Eve.

I had a fabulous time going out with my neighbors the day before. We went to Dish, BJ’s, and Pegasus bar, among other places.

Shots at Pegasus Bar in Dallas, Texas

After partying it up on December 30th, I decided to decline the New Year’s Eve invites.

I spent my day working while eyeing loops of the Dubai hotel fire on CBS News. I then gave my apartment the deep clean which I should have done before my mother came to town for the holidays.

Dallas / dogs / LGBT / Life / memories / Minneapolis-St. Paul / Thomson Reuters

From Minnesota to Texas: 2015 in Review

December 31, 2015

The Dallas Skyline as seen from Reunion Tower

I celebrated last New Year’s Eve in Minnesota and now I am ending the year as an official Texan.

2015 was wonderful, but exhausting.

James Sanna and Aaron Kraemer getting married in Boston.

A bloody Mary and the New Yorker Magazine at the Washington DC airport.

Alyssa Edwards at the Dallas Gay Pride iLume block party.

Dancers at the iLume block party.

A dramatically lit mansion in Highland Park.

dogs / Oak Lawn

Night Party

December 22, 2015

We all walked the dogs at 3 a.m.

I’ve alternatively described my apartment building as a dog-friendly residential hotel, Melrose Place, and an adult dorm.

In true dorm fashion, my neighbors occasionally trigger the fire alarm in the middle of the night. This happened today at 3 a.m.

Dallas / dogs / Life / Oak Lawn

Becoming Texan

December 21, 2015

It’s Christmas time in Dallas.

There are leaves on the ground, but the temperature still hits the low 70s almost every day.

Although it is not quite tropical Christmas experience that I had in Miami, it is still way more pleasant than Minnesota. At least I can still trot around in shorts!

Life has been very full lately with work, sprawling dog walks, dates, holiday parties, and marathons of The Good Wife.

My cup runneth over again.

Elaborate Christmas decorations in Highland Park, Dallas.

Gunter’s leather doggy jacket.

Dallas / dogs

Meet Ingrid

October 28, 2015

So there’s a new member of the Jansen household – Ingrid.

She’s a Labradoodle (Labrador + Poodle mix) and about four months old.

I’ve contemplated getting a second dog ever since moving to Texas because I left Hugo back in Minnesota.

There a ton of dogs in my building, but Günter was still getting increasingly withdrawn at home.

Dallas / Life / memories

Endless Summer

October 19, 2015

It’s strange to see Facebook pictures of my friends wearing coats.

Fall hasn’t quite arrived in Dallas yet – everything is still green and the temperature is way too hot to wear anything but shorts.

However, it is not as if I’m really spending a significant amount of time enjoying the weather – I’m inside working for most of the weekdays, and my weekends are spent freelancing inside neighborhood cafes because it is too hot to sit outside.

Freelancing at OakLawn Coffee

A random I.T. problem knocked out my company’s web applications and email systems for most of the morning, but instead of enjoying the weather at the pool, I took some time to page through this blog.

Life / memories

A Boston Wedding

October 13, 2015

I spent the weekend in Massachusetts attending the wedding of my friends Aaron and James.

My experience with weddings is very limited:

My mother’s extremely informal wedding to her second husband.
Some distant relative’s wedding in Germany when I was in 4th grade.
The ex-boyfriend’s brother’s reception in Minnesota.

I was a groomsman in this wedding, so it was somewhat nerve-racking, but nothing disastrous happened.

The photographer extraordinaire taking a picture of the rings at the Pierce House!

I think people were a little amused by my (utter) ignorance about how weddings work. For example – I had never heard of a receiving line. They don’t show that in movies!

The wedding was at Pierce House, which is a historic mansion in Lincoln, MA.

The Pierce House in Lincoln, MA.

We were also really close to Lexington and Concord…so history.

Life

My apartment is usually not this clean on a Friday.

About those light skinned girls…

This weekend was delightfully quiet.

Aka, “Why my dogs love Starbucks”

Some people go to church – others get mimosas.

We also passed Quesa on Saturday afternoon and realized that they still did bottomless mimosa brunch.

I thought that I could trust him.

About those Joneses…

And *sigh* Jill is right.

The holidays are over, but the lights are still up.

I was in bed well before midnight on New Year’s Eve.

After partying it up on December 30th, I decided to decline the New Year’s Eve invites.

We all walked the dogs at 3 a.m.

It’s Christmas time in Dallas.

So there’s a new member of the Jansen household – Ingrid.

It’s strange to see Facebook pictures of my friends wearing coats.

I spent the weekend in Massachusetts attending the wedding of my friends Aaron and James.

And sigh Jill is right.