Barry and the journey of the Plastic Ficus Tree

Stand proud mighty Ficus and shade us with your plastic leaves.

So Peanut was sick. 2 nights ago I woke up several times to hear him in coughing fits. So yesterday we stayed home and he coughed in the morning but we drank a lot of juice and took it easy most of the day and as the day went on he coughed less and less. After nap time I put some flour, yeast, water, salt and oil in the bread maker and turned it on. I got some chicken dethawing and when Heather got home we cut up and slightly sautaed red, yellow, and green peppers and some onions. Then I grilled the chicken and pulled the dough out of the bread machine and rolled it into a pizza crust. I made a 90% BBQ chicken and a 10% double pepperoni pizza. Then we ate it up with salad and green beans. The BBQ was really good and the cold piece of pepperoni I had before bed was not bad either.

During dinner I had a hard time keeping my eyes off a book. While Peanut was taking a nap I started to read the "New Complete Dog Training Manual" and amazingly the book really caught my attention and I could not put it down. I read before dinner, I read when I was cooking and I had trouble not looking over to read a few sections during dinner. So after dinner I picked it up and started reading again and Heath got on Craigslist to see the new free stuff. Any guesses what she found???

A plastic ficus tree on the curb in brookside. It had been put out for big trash pickup this morning. I’m not real sure why but this was very exciting for Heath and she quickly got Peanut and I on board so we dressed and in the car and were off to Brookside. It’s a quick drive but not quick enough as we pulled up everything went into slow mo and we watched as a couple walking down the street neared the pile of trash treasures. They immediately grabbed the plastic plant and pulled it out of the pile and began to examine it. Heath swerved the car right up to the curb beside them. Peanut and I knew it was all over but Heath had a shred of hope as she peered at the happy couple. They carried the plastic away from the scary lady in the Vue and too the front door of the house to either ask if they could have the plant or to ask for protection from the black vue on the street.

We gave up on the plant and calmed Heath down a bit and did some driving arround the neighborhood. We wanted to see my old house and check out some of the other piles for treasures. It only took us about another block to find 3 old wood chairs on the curb that were somewhat similar to the ones arround our dinning room table. They just had an old green/yellow fabic on them instead of the pretty red that ours have. I got out and checked the structural integrity of the chairs and decided they were about as good as ours so we folded a seat in the back down and loaded it up with the chairs.

Heath is a good upholsterer and did our current chairs and our ottoman so I am sure she will have them looking good in no time. This nearly filled the back of the Vue but we drove on, Heath still venting a bit about the plant. We pulled up to several piles and several other vehicles of scavengers. We did hit another good pile before we left and pulled out a bunch of those wire tomato planter things that we will need this spring when we plant our garden. This pile also had a child carrying backpack in it and a rocking horse in great shape we can give to Heath’s cousin with a baby on the way.

Here is our Pile of cool stuff minus one of the chairs.

The car was really full now so we headed toward home. On the way we passed Ward Parkway mall and stopped to look at the puppies at Petsmart, the weights and turkey fry oil and Dicks, and the jeans and SJP collection at Steve and Barry’s.

Petsmart had no puppies but some great fish. It’s not as cool as Waldo but worth checking out when we need another fish. (I’m thinking of seeing if Jumpy the big Oscar and Sam the frog get along or maybe feeding Sam to Jumpy {same thing})

Dicks had no Cottonseed oil and weights were $0.89 per lbs. (we are getting a better deal on craigslist for some weights)

I had not been to a Steve and Barry’s in a long time but I remember getting a decent dress shirt and pair of jeans for cheep.

Once in we split up and I immediately located a pair of jeans that appeared to be perfect.

-Dark Blue
-Big Cell Phone Pocket
-No weird stitches or anything
-$8.98

If are not familiar with the store almost everything in there is $8.98. Shoes, coats, jeans, sweater, t-shirts etc. I almost got some shoes too but could not find any my size that were great. Heath found a shirt she liked and escaped with only 2 items. She did not get to examine the SJP collection as much as she wanted but I’m sure she will be back.

 (scary face?)

I’m wearing the jeans today and so far really like them, I’ll let you know if they fall apart soon or something. After that we went to Target to look for a humidifier for Peanut but did not find one. We quickly got him in bed and us shortly after. We coated Peanut in vapor rub and gave him cough medicine right before bed and I did not hear him cough all night until I woke him this morning he had a couple coughs then seemed ok.

Now when I used Barry in the title it had 2 meanings. Yesterday Heath, Kelly and I came up with a loaner dog plan. Tomorrow Kelly and I are going to meet 1/2 way between Pittsburg and KC and we are going to borrow Barry the brown stray dog for 1 week. We want to see how we work with a dog.

how much time we have
how our yard handles a dog
how to do the new training I am learning
how we remember to feed and water
and just get an idea if we are ready for a dog or notSteve on Left, Barry on Right. I promise it is just a coincidence we went there yesterday.

We are going to try and not fall in love with Barry and take him back. We really want to get a puppy that Peanut can dominate while it is little but eventually get bigger.