Apartment Blog

During this holiday season it is important to factor in the safety of all of your family members; even the little furry ones! You’d be surprised what dangers are lurking for your family pet during this festive season. So to help out all of our pet-friendly readers, we have compiled a list of items to watch out for this year. A trip to the veterinarian hospital would not be a pleasant thing!

Ingesting items:
Everyone knows chocolate is bad for dogs. But did you know that onion, grapes and raisins are horrible for them too? Fatty foods like turkey skin or gravy is not good for their stomach and alcohol is toxic! And be aware of things they can get into and eat such as plastic wrap, toothpicks, napkins, disposable plates or flatware. Items likes these can definitely do some damage to their internal organs.  If you are traveling with your animal or having friends staying at your home, make sure all medications are put in a place where curious animals cannot find them.

Safety for your pet:
This is not only about the safety of your animal, but also safety for humans around your animal. A pet that lies down in the middle of the kitchen is an accident waiting to happen. Make sure all of the left-overs are properly sealed and stored away where counter surfers cannot reach.  If serving turkey, make sure the carcass is in a plastic bag and taken out of the apartment. You don’t want to leave it around where any animal can take interest. And be sure to tell your family/friends visiting that feeding your pet is not good for him/her.

And finally, make sure you keep your animals’ routine as normal as possible. If your cats are terrified of people, let them have one room (perhaps a bedroom) to themselves. Or if your dog doesn’t like to be pent up in the house for too long, take him/her out for long brisk walks (for small dogs make sure they are dressed accordingly). Since there will be people coming in and out of your apartment, make sure that your animal wears proper ID tags should they escape in the confusion.

Wishing you and your family, all of them, a very happy and safe Thanksgiving!

For some people Halloween means as much to them as Christmas would to another person. As such, this occasion would be deemed gift giving. I have actually received a card and flowers from a friend on Halloween because it is her favorite holiday. Regardless if you are the gift giver or receiver, here are some great Halloween gift ideas.

Get Creative! Potion labels are a cool way to personalize a bottle of your friend’s favorite drink or bottle of wine. Just add a themed label appropriate for Halloween and you’re set!  Or creating a collage scrapbook already decorated, just waiting for the photos of this year’s party to frame or bind.

Homemade goods are a unique way to show your friends, or guests at a party, that you appreciate them. Everyone loves a good homemade treat. For this holiday, why not do a candied apple or pumpkin spice bread or ghost shaped cookies. 

Tickets to a fun Halloween themed event. There are bound to be places in your city that will celebrate this spooky holiday. Why not help the Halloween enthusiast in your life celebrate by buying them a ticket. It could be a hayride, haunted house, roller coaster theme park or maybe even a special movie premier.

Provide some type of entertainment by purchasing a Halloween book or movie. If your friend is into the whole scary experience, there are plenty of Halloween movies guaranteed to spoke him or her. Check out our list of 10 Awesome Halloween Movies.

If there are other Halloween gifts you have given or received, let us know! It would be nice to see all the imaginative ideas for this holiday.

I, myself, am not a scary movie fan; however, I know many people who LOVE the thrill of a good horror movie. Taking into account some of their favorites as well as nationally recognized favorites, here is a list to help prepare you for the creepy holiday on October 31^st.

1. Halloween (all of them)

2. Nightmare on Elm Street (all the sequels)

3. The Silence of the Lambs

4. The Exorcist

5. Psycho

6. Pet Sematary

7. Saw

8. Texas Chainsaw Massacre

9. The Shining

10. Jaws

What are some of your favorite scary movies?

While on one of my favorite question and answer sites, I saw a question for July 4^th that really stuck out in my head. It was about a cooking contest this individual’s family does on July 4^th. I thought, how fun? A July 4^th cook-off between friends & family would be an awesome party idea!

Imagine it, you call and invite a couple of your friends over for a July 4^th party. You ask them to bring over a dish as it makes less work for you. But instead of just any ordinary dish, one that will be entered into a cook-off challenge that will be judged based on presentation, creativity and overall taste.  Everyone at the party can vote, whether they have entered the contest or not, and the top three can have a prize. Suggestions from other members on the site included something like a gift certificate or a chef apron with mention of the events title ‘Geller’s 5^th Annual July 4^th Cook-off’ or something to that effect.

This competition actually reminds me of an episode of ‘Friends’ where Monica and Ross were playing football on Thanksgiving for the ‘Geller Cup’ which was really just a troll doll nailed to a piece of two by four (see photo).  However, hopefully your cook-off competition won’t become as brutal as the Monica, Ross face-off where Ross was sent to the hospital with a broken nose during “Geller Bowl VI”.

This idea is a new spin on a usually traditional gathering. This can really add some fun and make it a July 4^th party to remember!

Most people in the United States celebrate July 4^th with barbeques and fun in the sun with friends & family. But do you really know why the holiday is so important to our country? I read a terrific description on Kaboose that really breaks it down for kids and adults to understand the significance of this Saturday. Take a look…

Imagine how you would feel if someone older than you (maybe an older sister or brother) kept telling you what to do all of the time and kept taking more and more of your allowance. That is how the colonists felt in the years leading up to 1776. Great Britain kept trying to make the colonists follow more rules and pay higher taxes. People started getting mad and began making plans to be able to make their own rules. They no longer wanted Great Britain to be able to tell them what to do, so they decided to tell Great Britain that they were becoming an independent country.

The Congress met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and they appointed a committee to write a formal document that would tell Great Britain that the Americans had decided to govern themselves. The committee asked Thomas Jefferson to write a draft of the document which was officially adopted the on July 4, 1776 after some changes were made. That is why it is called “Independence Day.” Congress ordered that all members must sign the Declaration of Independence and they all began signing the “official” copy on August 2, 1776.

As you may know, the Declaration of Independence is more than just a piece of paper. It is a symbol of our country’s independence and commitment to certain ideas. The signers of the Declaration of Independence wanted the citizens of the United States to be able to look at the document and immediately think of the goals we should always be working for, and about the people who have fought so hard to make these ideas possible. The people who signed the Declaration risked being hanged for treason by the leaders in Great Britain. They had to be very brave to sign something that would be considered a crime!

So every time we look at the Declaration of Independence, we should think about all of the effort and ideas that went into the document, and about the courage it took for these people to stand up for what they knew was right — independence!

On this Fourth of July, it is important for you to remember those people as well as the people who are still to this day fighting for our right to be independent; for our rights of freedom.  And that is largely done by our military countrymen. 

Whether you’ve made the perfect Father’s Day card or bought something from the store, you need something to put inside of it. A little sentimental phrase to tell your father exactly how much he means to you is hard to come up with on the spot. So we’ve put together a little list to help you this Father’s Day.
Take a look:

From a daughter to her father:

First guy to ever love me.
First to sweep me off my feet
or plant those scratchy whisker kisses
gently on my cheek.
First man to take me seriously.
First pal I ever had.
First guy I ever gave my heart to…..

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”  ~Elizabeth Stone

“A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again.” — Enid Bagnold

        
From a son to his father:

“The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get.” -Tim Russert

“Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap on a rope.” -Bill Cosby

“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.” -Charles Wadsworth
               
This is something my father would particularly like:

“A father carries pictures where his money used to be.”  ~Author Unknown