Tanning Carpet

While I work, they tan. So not fair. I want to be my dog.

The king

All he needs is a crown

Back in time part 2

Going back in time again and looking at past doggies. It’s so bittersweet looking through the doggie photo’s. I miss every single one of them.

All of our puppy pictures for Humphrey, our Boxer, were taken with our film camera. I have the pictures, but we just haven’t scanned them yet. Humphrey was my dog. I swear we could read each others minds. I miss him each and every day. Jim used to get so frustrated when Humphrey would walk into the room, look at me and I’d get up to get him more water, let him out, find a lost toy, whatever it was at the time he was thinking. Jim never could figure out how I knew what Humphrey wanted. I’m not sure either. I just knew.

I’m sure you’ve heard stories like this, but there was a period of time before we moved to Colorado when Jim was between jobs. Jim was at home with the dogs and I was commuting about 40 minutes each way. I had an 8-5 job, but if we were busy at work, I might work late on any given evening. I never had to call home. Jim knew when I was on my way home just by watching Humphrey. About 15 minutes before I arrived Humphrey would go sit by the door. Whether it was 5:45 or 7pm, Humphrey would not go to the door until I was almost home. I miss him so much.

Atlas, our English Mastiff was practically raised by Humphrey. Humphrey pottie trained him, played with him and taught him both good and bad habits. As usual with English Mastiffs, Atlas was truly a gentle giant. He loved everyone. He loved children, adults, other animals, everyone.

Funny story. Atlas loved peppermint. Not to eat, just to smell. If you had a peppermint in your mouth, or peppermint gum, he would stick his nose up to your mouth and smell. It was kind of freaky at first, then it just got to be funny.

Atlas loved to play tug of war. And, playing tug of war with a 150 pound dog is not easy. When we wanted to be lazy, we would sit on the ottoman, give Atlas the tug toy and let him pull us around the house.

Atlas had a sense of humor, too. He would play tug and just as you were pulling really hard, he would let go. Many a time I would plop on my butt and I swear he was laughing.

Humphrey is two and Atlas is about 4 months old.

Why Atlas like tug of war, maybe?

Oh, and one of the bad habits that Humphrey taught Atlas. Cleaning dishes.

This is a love seat, their favorite spot. Dogs get the couch I got the floor.

My human baby being cleaned.

Atlas had a short life as most large doggies do.

Atlas we miss you.

Project weekend

What a weekend. I”m finally getting to sit down. We started off with a list of to-do’s. Not all of them have been finished, which means we’ll just have to work on them next weekend.

The funny thing is when I look at the list it makes me wonder where did the time go. Really, the list didn’t look that long. We should have been able to complete them all, right? Obviously not.

What I did get done:
Cleaned and organized my pantry. I’m embarrassed to say it took me almost 3 hours. I really thought out the organization process and didn’t rush. Perhaps had I moved a little faster I could have gotten more done. Oh, well, it’s nice and organized and I actually know what’s in the pantry now.

Menu for the week is all done. This means when I shopped this morning I only purchased what was needed for the meals this week. Let me tell you that was really hard, too. There was so much food that was calling to me. The eggplant looked good this week at the store. The cookies looked good, the brownie mixes. But, I was so good and only bought what was on my list.

Played with Callie. Worked with both dogs on training. Little at a time. Throw the ball for Callie, reward Bubba when he did not bark at people. Made Callie stay while I threw the ball, rewarded Bubba when he did not bark at people. Hid the ball and made Callie find it, rewarded Bubba when he did not bark at people. See a pattern?

Saturday night we made homemade pasta and it was oh, so good. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture. Next time.

A few of our tiles in the kitchen had broken, so Jim got that all fixed up.

All of JIm’s laundry is done from his trip. Towels, sheets all done too.

Bills paid.

This morning I made some granola. First time, too. We love it for breakfast with fresh fruit and yogurt. Boxed granola cereal is so expensive and so full of calories. I found an easy recipe and after making it wondered why it had taken me so long to make it.

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/146/Homemade_Granola38838.shtml

We’ll have that with fresh fruit in the morning

Almost can’t wait for Monday morning. At least to eat.

We worked in the yard, ran errands, worked in the basement and the weekend flew by.

Things we didn’t get to.
Winterize the RV, which we must do next weekend.
Install the new ceiling fan.

Wash the patio windows.

Why is it that with dogs the windows are always icky? Why is it that it really doesn’t bother me all that much.

I did get them to “stay” while I took this picture.

So, Sunday night and Jim is home, some things are done, the doggies are sleeping and snoring and all is right with my world.

Pro’s and Con’s of Business Trips

So, hubby was out of town this week. Good news is he’s on his way home now. Yea!

We’ve been married for 21 years, and they have been 21 great years with him. We love being together and doing things together. I miss him when he travels but at the same time I get so much done.

This got me thinking. I can certainly list more negatives when he’s traveling. But, what about the positives.

Pro’s of Hubby traveling:
I get so much more done around the house.
No washing dishes.
I can watch chick flicks, HGTV, shows he hates.
I can wear sweats all day and not feel bad about looking icky when he gets home in the evening.

Now let me say that if I were to wear sweats when he got home from work, that if I didn’t make dinner and that if did watch chick flicks, etc. that he would not complain. He’s a great hubby. I like making dinner for him and looking nice when he gets home.

Now, for the Cons’:
Well, he’s not here.
The bed is empty-ish. The doggies are still there, but it’s emptier.
I tend to stay up later and get less sleep.
I have to get myself up in the morning and I am so not a morning person.
I miss him.

Now, lets talk about the food.

This is what he gets to eat when he travels:

It was Duck Confit. His mouth was faster than the phone camera.

Scallops, my favorite all time shellfish.

Can you believe it’s an appetizer?

Lobster Pie. He said it was so much better than it looks in the photo.

Filet Mignon

This was over a three day trip.

What did I eat? No cooking.

Did the dogs miss him? Bubba did.

Isn’t that sad?

Callie, well…Callie does what she always does.

Glad he’s coming home. Back to normal, back to cooking and washing dishes and glad for it too.

More vacation pictures

Poor Bubba. Callie just plain wears him out.

Before Callie, Bubba was pretty active with me. We’d walk and play games. Then Bubba brought Callie home. Or, did she follow him home? I forget. Now Callie plays so hard that to get him to walk is like dragging a sack of concrete around.

Now for scenic pictures.

This bowl in the mountain was just so cool.

A sunset of course.

I never know which pictures to post as I”m my own worst critic. Hope you enjoy.

“The Hungry Artist”, Callie and Weeds

Are you looking at the title and wondering “What the heck?”

Well, first. I follow The Hungry Artist’s blog. This recipe looked so good, I had to make it. Jim begged. Then, I told the ladies at work and Whitney wanted to know what the cake looked like cut. She wanted to see the actual layers.

First, go to this link:
http://thehungryartist.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/chocolate-cake-with-raspberry-mascarpone-filling-and-chocolate-ganache-frosting/

Look at her photo first. What a beautiful cake. She does such a nice job. The cake is straight, it’s frosted so prettily.

MIne…not so much.

Two things. I made a rookie mistake of stacking incorrectly. I was rushing, which added to the second mistake. The frosting. In “The Hungry Artist’s” blog, she says to take your time frosting the cake. Frost a little, let it cool 30 minutes, frost a little more, etc. Well, obviously I didn’t follow instructions. Lack of patience.

Now, for you Whitney.

Notice, you don’t really see a lot of the raspberry-mascarpone filling. That’s because the cake doesn’t need a lot. The flavor was perfect.

For those of you who want to try the cake and live in a little town like me and can’t find any mascarpone cheese, don’t despair. I found a substitute recipe on foodnetwork.com:
http://www.food.com/recipe/substitute-for-mascarpone-cheese-28620

A note to “The Hungry Artist”. My husband thanks you for posting the recipe. My thighs thank you too. And, it was well worth it.

Oh, and Jim was doubly happy Saturday evening. During the week I baked a pork loin. I sliced up the leftovers, seared the sides in a hot pan. To go with that we had Spaetzle topped with a homemade mushroom gravy. Ummm.

Now on to Callie and Weeds.
Tonight after work I went out back to throw the ball for Callie. It was a beautiful 68 degrees and the flower beds were calling to me. They were saying “weed me”. So I did. Pull a weed, throw the ball. Pull another weed, throw the ball. An hour of pull and throw. I got all the flower beds weeded, tired Callie and burned calories.

I also wondered. Why is it that we have bare spots on the lawn, but the flower beds are full of grass? I was almost done pulling weeds when I reached behind a shrub to pull a weed and came out loaded with burrs. We have this awful weed here that is full of stickers. It took me about 15 minutes to pull them all off. They stuck to my sweats, my shirt, my gloves (thank goodness I wore them), my shoes.

And, man oh man, you should hear what words I can say when the dogs track in the burrs and I’m barefoot.

But, at least the back flower beds are weeded. Now, I’ve got the front bed to weed, but that is going to wait until the weekend.

Spaetzle with mushroom gravy

Please adopt, Bubba says so

Four years ago we adopted Bubba. Or, rather, he adopted us. Bubba was roaming our neighborhood and weighed about 20 pounds less than what he weighs today. He was skittish as there were quite a few people in the neighborhood at the time. He did come right to Jim, my husband, but it took an entire box of dog biscuits to get him to stay with us. He wasn’t vicious, he was just wary. We believe that someone abandoned him.

Of course, we’re not sure how old he is, but our Vet was certain he was under a year old at that time. This year, we assume, he will be around 5.

The first few months with Bubba was challenging. He was absolutely out of control jumping, mouthing and just trying to take over the house. We probably wouldn’t have kept him if it weren’t for the Colorado Prison Canine Program.

We literally took Bubba to prison. They gave him manners and helped us to work with him. Now, we’ve had many dogs, but never one as challenging as Bubba. All of our past dogs have loved people. Bubba does not generally trust people. He is, however, a great watch dog.

We were also able to board Bubba at the prison when we traveled, and by boarding him there they would also keep up with his training and socialization.

The last time Bubba was at the prison, he chose Callie as a friend. Callie was donated to the Canine Program. She was only 3 months old when she was donated. We adopted her when she was 5 months.

My point: Please, the next time you want a dog, adopt. Whether it’s from a local prison, if they have a program, or from a shelter.

What made me write this post? This morning in the news there was an article about Beatrice, a German Shepherd in a California shelter that has only 48 hours to live.
http://www.examiner.com/article/stunning-german-shepherd-has-48-hours-to-live-california-shelter

I’m praying someone adopts her. It makes me sad to think that there are many more dogs that need to be adopted.

So, please adopt. Bubba says so.

http://www.coloradoci.com/serviceproviders/puppy/

Praying Mantis

This little guy has been right outside our front door for about a month. I can’t decide if it’s getting fat due to all of the flies and spiders it’s feeding on, or if “it’s” a “she” and she’s pregnant.

I went out today and it was gone.

Where do praying mantis go when they lay eggs? Perhaps it’s in my flower garden?

Bubba reflections

It rained all day yesterday. Not much happened, other than all I wanted to do was lay on the couch. Instead I worked and the dogs rough-housed inside. Amazingly no furniture was overturned, no knick knacks damaged.

Looking through photo’s I found this one of Bubba. He’s anxiously waiting to be let out of the truck:

“Stop taking my picture and let me out”