After last week's successful bread-making, I was all set to do more. I wasn't sure what "more" was going to look like, but I started casting around for ideas. And I found some great recipes to try this weekend.
And I even found somewhere that I could buy a large amount of yeast - which has been such a hot commodity lately. (In case you're wondering, I found it at The Golden Fig in St. Paul, MN - an amazing specialty food shop that we love visiting in the best of times, and where the world seemed to be alright for the half hour that we shopped last week. Not to foreshadow too much, but it was "comforting" to be there.)
But, well, the weekend came and I really just wanted to not deal with hours' worth of working on yeasted doughs that might or might not turn out. I bake to relieve stress (which, when we're both going to our offices has a tendency to make our coworkers very happy), and I realized that I wanted to make something tried and true.
I did *not* drink out of the jug. I promise. (I honestly just don't have that much dexterity.)
So (as you might have guessed from the photo above) I dove back into a recipe that first appeared on this blog in September of 2017: Betty Crocker's 1950 Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Basically, I wanted some "comfort" in my baking this week. Let me explain.
I really look half asleep in that screengrab, don't I?
If you didn't watch the video (I know not everyone does), you will have missed my quick and easy tip for refreshing cookies which have dried out. I got it from a friend of mine a number of years ago. I don't know why the chemistry works, but it does. (No - I'm not telling you the tip. You're going to have to sit through the video if you want to find out.) If you *did* watch the video, I feel I should mention that I only put that slice in for about a day prior to the video.
As for my foray into yeasty baking... I do plan to try to tackle more yeasted bread products next week. I'm sorting recipes and figuring out which one(s) to attempt first. I just need to get myself into the right headspace before trying something that might be a spectacular flop.
In the meantime, since we're talking about comfort, and since I only have the one new photo of cookies to share, I offer you this photo of a sleeping Cocker Spaniel. May we all feel that level of peace and calm sometime in the coming week.
----- Donuts and croissants and pain au chocolat - oh my! I wish I could give you a teaser of what I'm going to make next week, but I really have no idea. What's happening in your kitchen?
I am very happy to say that I have a brand new food-related blog post about 80% ready to go.
Unfortunately, over the past couple of evenings, the pup has been a bit needy. And she's just so darned hard to say no to.
I mean... Just look at this face:
Play with the Kong? Or work on a blog post (or make the bed)? Such a dilemma.
And when you take her to the groomer and she sits on the seat next to you on the way home looking all cute, how can you not just spend the next couple of hours reassuring her that the groomer was a good thing?
"You left me there for 3 hours! They cut my hair! How are you going to ever make it up to me?!"
Of course, then there are the past two nights, when the blog post was waiting to be completed. I was sitting happily in the living room and really wanted to get up and get my computer, but just look what I was up against:
One evening, I was on the couch and this is precisely where I would have had to put my feet down:
The color is skewed a bit, because I didn't want to use my flash. Obviously.
The other night, as I looked at my laptop on top of the coffee table - while I was sitting across the room - I knew that moving would mean interrupting this nap:
I think she started out looking out the front window, but the world got to be just too exhausting.
So you'll forgive me for not having a food post up this week, right?
I mean... just look at what I've been working against!
Next week - back to food.
----- What is there that keeps you from doing work? Do you have a serious issue with some kind of procrastination? Is it food related? Let me know!
It’s pretty rare that I make a recipe that requires too much technical skill. Most of my kitchen skills fit a bit better into the “chop, drop, and stir” cooking method than the “chiffonade, foam, and flooferdoo” school. Lord knows I’d never make it past the knife skills (or clean work area) portions of most cooking shows.
That being said, this recipe is even easier than most that I do. It’s also seriously hands-on and messy.
So if you’ve got beginning cooks (or bakers) in the house, who are learning about measurements and doing recipes in the right order, this might be a good place to start. It’s also good for experienced cooks who just need a chance to relax in the kitchen for a bit and don't want to worry about calories.
And it’s good for people with dogs.
Someone was a little over-excited. Can you guess who?
Let’s look at what we’re working with. (And - tell me - does it sound like I mis-spell an important word in this? I'd swear I said it all, but it sounds odd to me when I listen back...)
For anyone who has ever wondered what is in the dish that often shows up in the lower right corner of my videos. Now you know - dog treats!
As I mentioned in the video, I don’t know the exact origin of this recipe. I got it from a friend when – a few years ago – I put out a social media call for gluten-free dog treat recipes. (You’d be surprised how many dogs have grain allergies – or you might not, depending on your household pet situation.)
As someone who already has a bunch of gluten-free baking supplies on hand, this was easy for me to tackle. If you’re not stocked up on things like brown rice flour or powdered milk, I’d recommend buying in bulk from a local food co-op (that’s where I go), or – if your grocery store doesn’t have these things (they actually might, these days) – you could look for the flour online. (The powdered milk really ought to be in any grocery store.)
A bigger concern, depending on when you’re making these, might be the canned pumpkin. It’s incredibly easy to find (and really cheap) around Thanksgiving, but can be a bit of a bugger to track down in spring. (Is it in the canned vegetable aisle? The canned fruit aisle? The baking aisle? Wherever it is, it’s probably either on the top shelf or the very bottom shelf – no wasting top-selling shelf space for an out-of-season item!)
You want to make sure you get the plain pumpkin – not pumpkin pie filling (which typically has spices, etc.) – and you’re baking for the dog, so don’t worry about it being high-end. (I know… the stuff I’m using for this is organic. I was in the co-op buying the brown rice flour and didn’t want to go to another store on my way home, and this was all they had.)
Because you won’t be using a full can (unless you at least double the batch), you might consider other things to do with the rest of it. I’ve heard that it’s good as a thickener in soups. Or you could have it as a warm side dish (think pureed sweet potatoes). Or maybe you could also make a pie or dessert roll or something. Or – as I’m going to try to do this time around – you could freeze it in appropriately sized amounts for next time.
As promised, this is a really easy recipe, which is part of why I’ve been stalling.
Here’s my bowl with all of the “first set” of ingredients in it:
Here's what it looks like when you're whisking:
Here are the other ingredients going in. It says you should just stir them in, but since the whisk is already dirty, I just used it.
The parsley is supposed to be good for your dog's breath. It also adds visual interest to this photo.
At this point, as you can tell, it's really liquid-y. Which is where the flour comes in, and turns it into this:
And this is where the messy part comes in. You see, it doesn’t all really want to mix together right away, so you need to go in there with your hands and work with it, and then even knead it a bit.
Before we get to the next step, a caution: Pumpkin has natural colors in it. Those natural colors may transfer onto and into your counter if you’re not careful. I recommend working with these on a cutting board (or even a sheet of waxed paper), so that you can avoid that.
Because the dough can be sticky once it's all worked together – and you want to get it fairly flat – you might need some leftover flour on the surface.
The next few steps are good practice for anyone who wants to make pastry: it’s all about rolling out the “dough,” shaping it, and getting it from the counter to the pan. Basically, it’s the same things you do with pie dough, pizza dough, or rolled/cut cookie dough. Just… simpler.
Honestly, it looks a lot more orange than that in real life.
Here’s something that I was a little confused by the first time I made these: How big should they be?
That’s both a thickness question and a surface area question. First, about the thickness: These are not going to rise at all in the oven. They’re just going to sit there and get drier/harder/crunchier. If you know that the dog you’re working with really likes crispy treats, then thinner is better. If you think the dog really likes stuff she can chew on, thicker would be better. I tend to aim for about 1/4” thick. That seems like a decent thickness to hold them together, without being too thick for an older dog to get through.
As for the surface area – I thought that would be really easy to take care of, but I was sorely mistaken. You see, dog-bone-shaped cookie cutters tend to be pretty big, and we tend to have smaller dogs. So I wasn’t going to buy one of the 4-inch bones and spend all my time breaking the treats into smaller pieces. I eventually just dug around in my Christmas cookie cutters and found the smallest ones I had:
I tend to prefer the star, simply because it's easy to get the dough out of the cutter.
Yeah... the necks on the people were a little hard to work with. Hence the headless form in the upper-right corner of the photo.
After the first round of cutting, you can mush the dough all back together and press it out, again.
This same process works over and over until you're left with barely enough to cut out.
If you’re used to baking cookies, you’ve probably dealt with them puffing up and expanding in the oven – and sticking together. Trust me when I say that you don’t have to worry about that with these. They aren’t going to grow. You can put them millimeters apart on the sheet, and you’ll be fine.
Did I mention that you’ll be making a lot of these?
Halfway through the baking, you take them out of the oven and flip them over. I highly recommend using a spatula for this. However, if you’re having trouble getting them onto the spatula – and having them stay there long enough to flip – they are solid enough that you can use a pair of tongs. (Or – though I would not recommend this for kitchen novices – you can flip them with your fingers. Just be very careful not to touch the pan, the oven rack, the interior of the oven in general, or… well… anything that might be 300-plus degrees.)
Back into the oven they go for the next round of drying.
And then onto a rack to cool. Unlike most cookies for people, these must be fully cooled before you give them to a dog.
I actually left them on the pan and set it on the rack. It was easier than making the rack dirty.
By the way, these are – technically – people-grade and edible. I mean… all of the ingredients are in other things that we eat, just not in this combination. (In fact, I’ve heard that – because they are a bit bland – the thinner ones work well with a good Brie.)
For my part, I think I’ll leave the taste-testing to the pooch.
And there we go! All the stress relief of baking and no extra calories for me. It's like the perfect setup. (And I think the pup would agree.)
-----
Is there anything you've been looking for a recipe for? I found this recipe by calling out to the cybersphere and asking for help. If there's something you're hoping to find, let me know and I'll see what I can do!
I have been so ready to put together a cooking post this week.
I've had ingredients stacked on the prep table in the kitchen since at least Tuesday. (Christopher can attest to this - he was trying to cook dinner last night and kept running out of workspace.)
I've stocked up on ingredients we don't usually have on hand. We've had our oven temperature recalibrated (it's been having issues for a few months).
I was ready.
And then this happened:
We've had a dog in the past (many of you read about her - or met her in person), but our house has been pet-less since last summer.
We started looking a few months ago, and stumbled across this girl at the end of February. She's a 6.5-year-old rescue from a local service called Underdog Rescue. (Consider this my not-so-subtle push for adopting pets, not shopping for them.)
BTW: She snores.
She's adorable. And loving. And - because she was a "breeder mom" for most of her life - is having a great time figuring out what it's like to just be a dog.
But... She's also a brand new dog, with minimal "people skills." So she's been taking up a lot of the time I might otherwise spend in the kitchen.
I've got time set aside this weekend, though. So by next Friday we should be back up and running. (We'll see if we can get this sweet face to make a cameo.)
She was wagging so hard that I'm amazed she's not just a blur in the photo.
-----
With Easter fast approaching, do you have any foods that really make you think of the holiday? Or maybe you're more Seder-inclined? I'd love to hear about your favorite spring holiday foods! And, okay, one more photo, just because she's so danged cute:
We are becoming one of those pet families. Oh, who am I kidding, we've always been that kind of pet family. So what is making me feel differently this week? Steps.
We have purchased steps which now live at the foot of the bed, because the pup turned 11 a little bit ago, and has been having trouble jumping up on the bed.
We've also started her on Glucosamine, and now I'm kind of jealous because hers is apparently a very tasty chewy treat, while the kind I take is a huge pill I have to swallow.
But the important thing is the steps. We put them next to the bed and had to spend a few nights coaxing her up them. She was not a fan - we're guessing it's a combination of the texture of the fabric on the treads, and the sound of the plastic - but she has begun to adjust.
She's choosing to use them from time to time, instead of waiting for one of us to lift her up. And I think she's kind of enjoying the freedom that gives her.
I, on the other hand, am also learning to adjust to the steps. They're not small - and our bedroom is not large. So when I walk around to my side of the bed I'm now dodging the steps. Most of the time it's fine, but when I got up yesterday morning I almost killed myself as I bent to pick something up off the floor and came within inches of taking a header across the room.
But I survived, and she's happy, so we're just taking one more step toward our lives as those people.
Having spent a bunch of the past 3 months with the basement bathroom under renovations, we've been putting off doing some of the final clean-up stuff until it was all done.
Well, we're still in the same weird 95% complete stage on the bathroom(s), but today we had someone come out to clean our air ducts.
Christopher had this done a few years ago, but we can't remember when. Even so, when the guy turned on his mega-vacuum, he started pulling out all sorts of stuff. Sure, there was dog hair and dust in it. We knew that would be there.
But, as I listened to things rattle through the hose, circling around the living room floor, I started to think we were getting a little more out of it than we expected. Masonry, to be exact. Quarter-sized chunks of it, coming up from the bottom of the ductwork.
On the plus side, by the time he got downstairs most of the chunks were already gone, so it got much quieter, which meant that the pup was able to calm down a bit.
And... quieter... calmer pup... meant that I got to relax a bit, too.
Yeah... it's nice to feel like we're getting our ducks in a row.
It has been a stressful, exciting, wild week or so. Between all of the bathroom renovations (more updates to come, I promise), and the Supreme Court's ruling on marriage equality, the emotions have been running just below the surface - and frequently bubbling over.
And, with all that in mind, I thought I'd share some things that have made me happy this week.
This posting from Buzzfeed about a bunch of really big companies that decided to show their support for same-sex marriage by putting their rainbows where their money is: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarrylee/love-wins#.wy1QmEJ1d
Seeing all of the happy people posting on social media, or on the news, or pretty much anywhere.
Being able to spend Twin Cities Pride weekend hanging out with Christopher - on Thursday as we went to a one-woman show put on by Lily Tomlin, yesterday while we were shopping for shrubbery, and today as we've been hanging out at home before heading out to dinner with good friends.
And, finally, this photo of our dog (who doesn't really care about politics or rainbows), and who napped over my shoulder while I worked from home on Wednesday:
I had planned to write a holiday-themed post this evening, but - as the photo below demonstrates - I currently have lost the use of my right hand.
You see, a Cocker Spaniel, with no opposable thumbs, needs a little help from her friends to be able to lie in front of a laptop and gnaw on her antler**.
(A little hard to figure out, but my right hand is in the lower left of the picture, holding the antler, which she is gnawing on, while facing to the left.)
What you cannot see is her paw currently on the track pad, or that I am typing this all with my left hand, reaching around her as she is stretched out between my torso and the keyboard. Hence, no contractions, and few capital letters... but lots of backspacing and re-typing.
I hope to have my right hand back in time to blog on Wednesday.
**the antlers, we have been assured, were cast off by the deer as part of the annual cycle, and were scavenged for in only the most humane of manners. we buy them from a good company with good ethics, so we believe them.
No. You didn't miss a blog post this week. I did. I completely missed Wednesday's blog post. It wasn't intentional. I had planned to write one - though I hadn't thought about a topic, but that's pretty normal for me. I just found myself going to bed on Wednesday night thinking "I was supposed to have blogged today."
I thought about posting something yesterday, and moving ahead from there, but I decided to wait so that I could stay on the same every-other-day schedule, simply with a missing one in the middle. Which brings us to today.
I have to admit that this kind of "oops" is not confined to the blog, lately. I'm only 10% of my way through reading a novel for my book club - a book that I recommended - and I'm close to realizing that there is simply no way I'm going to get through it in the next 10 days.
I've decided to blame pretty much all of this on the change of seasons and the time change that happened last weekend. Suddenly I'm getting home after the sun goes down, and walking the dog in the dark. Oddly enough (because I'm not a massive snow fan), I was thinking last night that some snow on the ground would be nice, because then it would be easier to see her.
The office at work has suddenly gone from being too chilly because the air conditioning was on to being too chilly because the heat isn't flowing properly through the ductwork. My mousing hand is constantly cold, but I refuse to work while wearing gloves or sitting under a blanket.
Hmm... a blanket might be nice... and a pillow... maybe just a short, autumn-inspired nap...
I think that Christopher and I have set all of the clocks back tonight. At least all the ones in the house. (If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that this is a relatively large event, with more than a dozen clocks, not including watches, car clocks, etc.)
I haven't tackled my watches, yet, and the car clocks will have to wait until tomorrow. But the majority of them are done.
I wish I could say I was excited about the extra hour of sleep. I mean... I am excited about the idea of an extra hour of sleep, but there's one catch to that that every pet owner knows: pets don't pay attention to clocks.
This means that the pup will still be getting up at 5am (make that 4am) because that's what time Christopher usually gets up to feed her.
And she'll be sure it's time to go for a walk at... umm... I guess it will be about 7am, since I usually take her out for a walk around 8am.
It's going to be very strange for her, I know. And it's going to be kind of difficult for us, too, I'm sure.
Oddly enough, although we lose an hour of sleep in the spring, it makes this kind of thing easier.
You'll forgive me if I yawn a lot the next few days. But, of course, if I'm doing it when I walk her in the evening it won't matter - starting tomorrow, by the time I walk her at 5:45pm, it'll be too dark out to see my face.
As you may remember from last week, I was talking about "sleeping like a dog" and how that phrase seems to make more sense to me that "sleeping like a log."
Well, there's a reason why we've been spending a lot of time watching the dog sleep at our house, lately.
Ever since the pup has been home from her 36 hours in the ICU, Christopher and I have been tasked with watching her sleep and counting the number of breaths she takes per minute while at rest.
The optimum number of breaths per minute would be less than 30. She averages around 32 when we're counting. Which isn't perfect, but it isn't too bad. (For reference: When we took her to the ER that morning, she was breathing at an astronomically high rate of 120 breaths per minute.)
There is something very zen about watching a dog sleep. Almost more than with watching a person (which is sometimes referred to as "creepy" or "stalker-ish"). After all, as a dog, she's hyper alert to everything around her, even when you think she's completely out of it. So you have to be very quiet and still while watching her so that you don't wake her up. (Because, of course, a sudden awakening results in a spike in quicker breaths.)
Yes, one of her favorite places to sleep is on the back of the couch.
We gave up on keeping the cushions looking good ages ago.
So every so often one or the other of us will kind of zone out and stare at the dog and watch her breathe. Yes, there is a little anxiety in that (hoping that the time ticks by before she hits that 30-breath mark), but mostly it's very peaceful.
I highly recommend it - though I don't recommend the anxiety part.
I have no idea why someone decided that a good sleep is "like a log." I mean... logs aren't ever awake, right? So when do they sleep? And - even if they do sleep - how do we know they don't spend the entire time having fitful dreams?
On the other hand, when our dog goes from 60 to 0 and decides that she is too pooped to party and needs to nap, she is out like a light. No fussing involved, she just goes to sleep.
Sure, it may only be for a couple of minutes, but when she wakes up she's fully recharged and happy to be back at her top speed. Somewhere in that couple of minutes she seems to be getting all of the rest that it takes me 8 or 9 hours to accumulate.
So I have decided that I would like to sleep like a dog. Even though she sometimes dreams in the middle of the night, she still wakes up easily and happily. And then, moments later, can go right back to sleep.
Sorry I missed out on posting, yesterday. We had a little trauma around here.
Our pup wasn't feeling well the other day, and when her breathing got really labored we ended up taking her to the University of Minnesota's Small Animal Hospital. She spent about 36 hours in ICU - much of which was in an oxygen tent.
But we were able to bring her home after work tonight - along with another 3 pills that we'll need to keep her on for her heart and lungs.
Christopher worked from home today so he could be available for any follow-up calls. I'll be staying home tomorrow to monitor her recovery, and he'll be home again on Wednesday to be sure that we're back to up to speed and able to be back to our new normal on Thursday.
Christopher and I are mainly just happy to have her home tonight so we can get a good night's sleep. Hopefully she will, too.
Christopher and I decided that we were going to have a few people over for brunch last weekend. And, since it was just after my birthday, we decided to have cake. But we also decided that it wasn't going to be a birthday brunch, since we didn't want to put any undue stress on people who were coming.
So I started looking around for cakes to order, and I stumbled across an amazing deal. One of the local grocery store chains is currently offering 1/2-sheet cakes for the price of 1/4-sheet cakes. More cake. Same price. How could I turn down that offer?
Sure. We weren't inviting nearly enough people to eat a 1/2-sheet cake. But we weren't really inviting enough people to eat a 1/4-sheet, either, so we were looking at leftovers - yummy, cakey leftovers - no matter what.
So we decided to go for the larger cake. One catch: It had to be a Graduation cake. Yep. They were only offering one design for the discounted rate. A very nice "Class of 2014 Congratulations!" cake.
We decided we were okay with that. So I went ahead with the order.
They required a name to be on the cake. As in "Congratulations, NAME!" When I mentioned that to Christopher, he jokingly suggested we put the pup's name on it. So I did.
So we celebrated her graduation last Sunday. Not sure, exactly, what she graduated from. And since the cake was chocolate she didn't get to eat any of it. But we had a nice time, just the same.
If I'm being honest, the "errands" part of the day is relatively common for me on a Saturday. Because the pup tends to wake me up on Saturday mornings, I usually just go ahead and throw on some clothes and a hat and go run errands just as the shops are opening - before everyone else is there.
Typically, though, that's only 2 or 3 errands. Today, it was 10. Spoiler Alert: I actually got them all done and was home by 12:30 this afternoon.
Just to give you the quick rundown, here is the list: ATM for cash, Haircut, Trader Joe's, UPS Store, 1/2-Price Books, Surdyk's (wine store), Bone Adventure (pet supplies), Macy's for the flower show, Post Office, Art show (okay... not really an errand, but it was on my list). And, yes, I had my list broken out by when places opened, so that I could maximize the time.
I'm very happy to say that I left the art show for last, because a cousin of mine (well, she's a "first-cousin-once-removed-in-law" - but "cousin" is much easier) was showing her pottery, and her husband (my first-cousin-once-removed) was there with her. Added bonus, two of his cousins (again my first-cousins-once-removed) were there at the same time I was. So I definitely spent more time there than anywhere else.
I refuse to confirm or deny whether or not I purchased the bowl in this picture. Just because it was photographed in our kitchen is no proof of anything:
After a bit of a nap - strictly for the sake of the pup, I promise - I got up and got ready this evening and went out for the most uncommon portion of the day: Matthew Morrison in concert with the Minnesota Orchestra.
The first half of the program was the Orchestra playing their version of showtunes - so it was "Candide" and "Cavaliere Rustica" (which is probably misspelled, but I'm too tired to google it), as well as "My Fair Lady" and "The Sound of Music." I love when they do this stuff, but I do kind of wish they'd find some showtunes from the last half century... (Maybe some symphonic Sondheim? or even some orchestral arrangements of "Les Mis" if they want something a bit more well-known these days?) It was incredibly sweet, though, to watch the older couple next to me hold hands during these pieces - and the gentleman next to me hummed along (just slightly off-key, which made it even better, really).
The second half of the program was all about Matthew Morrison. If the name is familiar, it's probably because he is the teacher on "Glee." But he's actually done a bunch of theater, including being Tony-nominated for his role in "The Light in the Piazza." Before he came out on stage, the voice-over was introducing him, and eventually (I was sitting near-ish the front) we could tell that he was actually doing his own introduction from just off to the side of the stage. And that's kind of what the evening was like.
(His promo photo from the MN Orchestra website - the hat worked much better in person)
He was suave, cutting some great dance moves in a perfectly-tailored tux. He was funny - self-deprecating in that "but now I'm cool" way. He was debonair and flirty, and had just a bit of a naughty glint in his eye the entire evening as he worked his way through jazz and theater standards. He jumped off the stage for a quick dance in the aisle with a (very lucky) young woman while singing "Sway With Me," and he jumped up on the director's podium and danced with the conductor during one of his other numbers.
I got the feeling that he was really enjoying himself - and that fronting a big band (an orchestra is sort of a big band, right?) is where he kind of belongs. And since he was enjoying himself, the audience did, too.
The evening ended with a single encore - "Singin' in the Rain" - which he performed complete with an umbrella and some more serious dance moves.
About 14 hours after I first left home this morning, all of my weekend errands are done, I may or may not have a new bowl, the pup is ready for another nap, and I have a bunch of old standards running through my head.
Yet, I'm kind of glad that this was the uncommon day, because tomorrow I'm going to be pooped. Happy, but pooped.
I totally understand the idea of leaving well enough alone much of the time. Unfortunately, in our house, the whole "let sleeping dogs lie" thing tends to be more literal.
You see, the pup has a tendency to want to sleep just in the wrong places. And she's remarkably difficult to move for a dog weighing only about twenty pounds.
In bed - especially this time of year - she'll creep up to between our shoulders and then decide to stay there. Sometimes it's fine. Sometimes - like the other morning - it's not so fine. She moved into place when I rolled over to hit the snooze on my alarm and left me lying on about 8" of the edge of the bed.
Tonight, as I sat down to write this post, she hopped up on my lap and stretched out across my legs. Perfectly placed so that I couldn't even set my laptop down. Luckily, she shifted when I started trying to type.
So I guess, in this case, it might just be best to let her lie after all.
I'm sure that, when you read "DinoMutt," you automatically thought of this:
Because, who wouldn't? He was an amazing sidekick for the Blue Falcon back in the 70s. Kind of Scooby-Doo meets Inspector Gadget.
But, as you can see, the spelling is different, so obviously I'm talking about a different dog.
In my case, I'm referring to the lovely, definitely-non-mutt pooch who lives with Christopher and me. When people ask what toys she likes, it's very easy to answer: She likes tennis balls (regular, inexpensive ones - nothing high-end), and dinos.
And she likes them in that order. She likes to run around and play catch (not "fetch," mind you, but catch - it's a game that goes both ways). Then, when she's tired of that, she likes to settle down with her dino for a good chew.
For those of you who are now totally confused, this is a Nylabone Dental Dino in the preferred Tyrannosaurus Rex style:
And, thus, we have our very own DinoMutt running around in the house... or curling up on the couch cushion... or settling in for the night on the comforter.
All that, and we don't even need to don spandex Blue Falcon costumes to have her around. Which is a win-win for everyone, really.
We all know about mystery bruises. The ones that show up that you can't explain - or even think of ways to explain.
And there are the mystery messes. The ones that show up and you can completely guess how they showed up but you don't know when or why.
This evening, we found a mystery clean. Our new tablecloth, which had gotten broken in while my folks were here this week, is somehow clean tonight. It may also have been this morning, but I don't pay attention to much that isn't in my tunnel of vision in the morning. And, heck, it may even have been clean last night - but we went out to dinner last night and never sat at the table.
But, whenever it happened, it is suddenly clean and tidy and very spiffy looking - and neither Christopher nor I had anything to do with it.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that the pup did it. But she's not good with the lid on the washer (you know - when it's open, it's very hard for her to reach to put back down). And I think my folks might have mentioned it if she had asked for their help in washing the tablecloth.
So, for now, we'll just call it a very much appreciated mystery.
It has been a very social weekend around here. A lovely brunch, two very fun dinners, and a trip to Costco. We have been tearing it up.
More importantly, though, the pup went with us to dinner tonight. She spent the evening making a new friend with a Goldendoodle (who, ironically, is black) who is only about 7 months old - but twice our pup's size. And more than twice her energy.
We're used to ours being the dog with the most energy. But ours is not a dog who really likes the company of other dogs. She prefers people. (She was like that when we adopted her at the age of 6, so we figure we're not going to change that.) And being around an actual puppy... well... that was apparently exhausting for her.
Right now, she is completely asleep next to me on the couch, atop a piled up afghan. When I reach over and scratch her ears, she moves just enough to make sure I get the best spot, but otherwise doesn't even open her eyes.
This is the way weekends are supposed to end, though, isn't it? You go out and be social, you have a very nice time seeing people and running errands, and then, tuckered out, you settle in to get your sleep and start a new week.
Definitely going to let the sleeping pup lie - in the hopes that she'll return the favor at about 5 tomorrow morning.
After two days of driving back and forth to Christopher's parents' house to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, she's currently crashed out on a piled up afghan on the couch between Christopher and me.
It's been a busy couple of days for her. There were 45-minute car rides. There were multiple dogs to share the struggle for attention. There were walks with all sorts of strange smells.
There were extra - and highly exotic - foods, like a taste of real steak. There was a treat shaped like a holiday cupcake.
This morning, there was even a brand new Nylabone (which she didn't put down for almost an hour).
Tomorrow, with the return of the workweek, we'll all have to readjust. But, tonight, it's all about the pre-bedtime snooze on the couch.
Here's hoping that the dreams of the night after Christmas will be filled with as much potential as the dreams which came before them.
