Attention

My picture of the soup I made was the first one taken for all recipes and so now if you go to find the recipe...viola, there is my picture!

Tube

I thought this video was well made.

Awwwwww

Look at the lovely roses Roland got for me! Aren't they pretty?

Shutter

I hope ya'll like the nature pictures because I've got more. I snapped this one of some sort of bird of prey (hawk, eagle, osprey?). I thought it was cool because the sky was so clear and blue.



Update: Some help from a fellow scuba-boarder and my mystery is solved. This is vulture...probably a turkey vulture.

I also got a few of a neat tree in bloom that is along the route I normally take in the morning. I thought it was just lovely with the pink flowers and green leaves contrasting with the blue sky. I couldn't decide which picture I liked better so I'm putting in both and you can decide.

Mini-marshmallow

While looking around online today, I saw this. If you want one for your very own, click here.

My question is...why? You can't leave an ice cream cone with the ice cream in there, and if you used it as cone storage they would all go stale. There isn't a handle so that you could use it to transport four cones to your family waiting out on the deck either. So...why?

Your Suggestions Needed - What else could you use this for?

Tick Tock

When I was out walking I thought I would just take some pictures of the area around where we live and this was one. This canal runs along one edge of our aparartment complex (ours is on the right). There is another canal the runs perpendicular to this one that hems in the back of the complex.

Soup for everyone

I made soup! And it worked!! I made some Spanish Style White Bean and Sausage Soup from allrecipes. It took a long time because you start with dry beans, but after it was simmering I was able to do other stuff for a couple of hours while it cooked. We had it for dinner and it was delicious. I did change the recipe a little because I didn't have some of the things in it. I switched out a green bell pepper for the red one (another reason for this is they taste the same, but red peppers are comparatively expensive). I also used turkey sausage instead of andouille, and instead of adding in sweet paprika I browned the sausage in some cajun seasoning that my sister gave us. It's good on just about everything. I especially like at little in my scrambled eggs. Oh, one last thing, not really a change so much, but Roland got this chicken soup base for Christmas and man is it good. I used that to make the chicken stock for the soup and I highly recommend it to anyone. And if you don't dig that flavor they also have beef, turkey, seafood, and even vegetable. Just drop a teaspoon in the water for your rice and, voila, simply divine. Here is a picture of my wonderful soup.

I think I'll go for a walk

I came upon this tree and from a distance I thought, dead tree.



But then I got closer and behold...it's not dead yet.

Belated

In our stockings for Christmas my sister and I both got a bookworm. I really love this idea and some of the others are really awesome. My current favorites include:

White Blood Cell (leukocyte)
Giardia (Giardia lamblia)
Sea Sparkle (Noctiluca scintillans) - I actually experienced these during a night dive, very cool!
Sleeping Sickness (Trypanosoma brucei)
and
The Pox (Treponema pallidum) or Lyme Disease (Borrelia burgdorferi) - they are pretty similar, both being spirochetes.

Petapalooza

Yesterday Bleys and I trekked over Petapalooza. It was a good time and there was a lot of dog related fun to be had. There was an off-lead dog play area, booths for rescue organizations, people who make and sell dog food and treats, and doggie day care/boarding centers, a Frisbee Dog demonstration, and a flyball tournament. Since we just tried out flyball for the first time last Sunday we wandered over to watch for a while. For anyone who doesn't know what a flyball course looks like, here's one.

In case people were interesed in what a flyball run looks like I took a video (although keep in mind the course is longer than my camera is wide - each side has 4 hurdles...and my video isn't very good).



A lot of the dogs that run flyball are Border Collies. They are very, I repeat, very fast, extremely smart and incredibly focused. All the traits that made them fantastic herding dogs make them superlative flyball dogs (and are all reasons I wouldn't own one). The hurdles' height are set by the shortest dog on the team though, so many teams have one small dog on them to lower the bar for the rest of the team. Yesterday there were all sorts of breeds out running.

Border Collie and Miniature Australian Shepherd


Schnauzer and Westie


Sheltie and Rottie


Weimaraner and AMBOR


Some other cool shots I took include this one of a dog turning at the box.


And one of two dogs jumping hurdles at the same time.


And one of a cute little ruby Cavalier who was also visiting the park.

Fuzzy

These are on a tree outside our apartment building. Only one half of the tree is in bloom though. It's sort of split down the middle, maybe one side gets more direct sun? I like how they sort of cascade.

Hey, wait a minute.

Okay, this absolutely cracked me up, but I don't know if I can explain it in a way that imparts the full funny. And perhaps it won't be as funny to you. I'm going to tell you anyway.

I went over to my favorite evening entertainment, Brotherhood 2.0 and watched today's installment. It made me smile, even though John (I feel weird calling him John, it's not like I know him or anything) has pink eye which looks like anti-fun. He sang a nice ditty about putting stuff on your head. While singing he, naturally, put many different things on his head...for effect. Examples include: a cereal box, a map, a magazine, and a bowl. Then I clicked on the comments and started skimming them. I wasn't really reading all of them, just the ones that caught my eye. This one did:

"Dood! We totally have that same bowl! See the proof. Hope your pinkeye is better soon."

So I had to click on the link (and so should you) and nearly fell of my chair with the laughing.

Blooooood Suuuuuuckers

I noticed this wierd palm tree parasite plant while out walking. It looks sort of like the suckers you sometimes get on roses. If it continues like this and gets very many more of the root-looking things wrapped around the tree, it could look pretty creepy.



Also note the strange little dead tree in the lower right. Poor teeny-tiny little guy.

Some help please?

No walk today, it is and was raining buckets. But, I also saw this bird on yesterday's walk. I think it's a Lousiana Heron, but I'm just not sure. Any ornithologists out there?


I also had a dentist appointment today for a routine cleaning. I'm going back next week for him to play with one of my cavities. About 2 years ago the original filling had cracked and I had it re-filled. Then that tooth started to be really sensitive to cold and to a lesser degree heat. I went back and the dentist thought maybe it wasn't filed down properly making my bite not line up. So he filed it down a bit and that helped some, but still not great. So now this dentist is going to pull out the old one and try again. It would be great if worked!

Repeat

All my plants have arrived now. They are all potted up and I'm just waiting for some growth now. Since they were all dormant bulbs or seeds it will probably be a week or two before I see anything. My sister posted pictures of her bulbs which are starting to appear and it made me miss having a patch of dirt to play in...in a zone that I'm familiar with. I really don't know much about zone 10 gardening.

Out on a walk this morning I saw another Great Blue Heron. It was all tucked away in this neat little foliage alcove. Very cool (although much better embiggened).

Playing

Yay, some of my plants came! So far the balcony still looks like pictures from my last post since what came where all bulbs. I planted some gloxinia in the long planters, and some neat looking begonias and a calla in some round containers. Hopefully coming soon are some caladium that I think are gorgeous, and some herb seeds that we are going to give a go. Again I don't think we get enough sun for them, but since they are seeds, if they don't work we are only out a few dollars. I'm also trying out another seed that looked cool, but again, I have no idea if it will thrive. We will just have to wait and see. I also ordered another begonia, but I don't think that will be shipping until the middle of April.

Duct

I've joined the dark side. I'm breaking the rules. Yesterday I went out and bought a charcoal grill for Roland. I've been thinking about it for a long time and finally did it. I think we are technically not supposed to have it on our balcony, but I kind of don't care. The grills they have down around the building are 1. just that down on the ground floor 2. the kind you find in a state park and 3. really disgusting. I don't think I would eat anything that had touched them. A lot of our neighbors have grills, smokers, and whatnot on their porches so at least we aren't alone in our evil-doing. I think brats are on the menu this evening so maybe Roland will fire it up and we can test it out! I also got a cover for it (I'm at least not going to flaunt it), a mat to put under it (the person before us installed astroturf so I don't want it to melt or something), and a chimney starter. I thought about buying some grilling tools, but I figured that Dave might want to pick those out himself.

In other news some of the plants I ordered for the balcony should be arriving today. I already have some rosemary out there but that's it. I'm don't think we get enough direct sun for the rosemary, but Roland convinced me to just give it a whirl anyway. It only cost $2.50 anyhow. The rest of the porch is empty pots at the moment. Hopefully soon it will be all colorful and more like home!





Now all I need are some deck chairs. Those foldy up ones aren't so comfortable for long term sittage. Unfortunately the only ones I can find are at least $200 for a set of two. The only ones cheaper than that only come as a set of four chairs and a table, and we certainly don't have room for all that. I just want two cushy deck chairs.

I miss Mary Beth

Whilst I was visiting my sister we went to a local dog show in Detroit. It was cool to check it out and fun to watch the Best in Show action. We saw the Boston Terriers being judged as well as the Cavaliers, it was okay, but not as cool since they weren't announcing the classes so we weren't sure what was going on when. There were also some booths and some dog related demonstrations. The flyball demonstration was awesome because one team had a Boston Terrier and the other had a Cavalier. Guess who Anne and I each rooted for? Anyway, I got to thinking about trying Bleys out at Flyball. So tomorrow we are going to go over to watch a couple of teams have a scrimmage. I have no idea is Bleys will be interested at all, but I think we might go back again next Sunday when the lady who runs one of the teams holds a free class. I have a feeling that he will struggle with catching the ball out of the box, but who knows maybe he will love it.

We are also going through a refresher course for pet therapy. It's the same class we took before we were certified, but I'm feeling the need to *ahem* bone up on our skills. I'm a little confused by the instructor though. On Thursday she had us doing something called a walking sit. This is where you are walking along with your dog in a heel, then you tell the dog to sit, and (hopefully) the dog sits while you continue walking. Then you can release the dog to catch up to you. I've never done this skill with Bleys and she didn't cover it in the class we took. She seemed to assume that we all knew this skill although most other pairs struggled as we did. What really confused me was that she didn't provide any suggestions on how to learn this skill. No baby steps to the elevator. Needless to say I got very frustrated...with her. She kept reiterating that we weren't supposed to stop walking when we ask our dogs to sit as if we didn't understand the exercise. That was not the problem for us. The problem was she wanted us to perform a skill that we didn't know and hadn't worked up to at all. So this week Bleys and I are working hard to learn it.

Since he already know that when I stop he is supposed to sit, we started with that. I put a rope on the floor and I would walk Bleys at a heel up to the rope, stop, and tell him to sit. We did this for a long time until I hope he associated coming up to the rope with sitting. Then I told him to sit when I reached the rope and then kept going. He's doing pretty well at it in the house now, but not what I would call reliable. And outside is worse yet (transfer of knowledge to different locations has always been a struggle for Bleys). But we are working on it, and we have until Thursday to get better. Hopefully by then I can add in the walking down as well.

Wheeee-ii

While I was visiting with my sister I got to play a little bit with their Wii. I have to admit it was pretty cool. I got to create a Mii and made one for Roland too. That was way more fun that it probably should have been. And apparently now my Mii might end up wandering around Moses' Wii or something. I played tennis, bowling, baseball, and some mini-games on Raving Rabbids (a Rayman game). There is also a cool option where you can participate in a Wii-wide poll, then a few days later when the poll ends you can see how everyone voted. You can even predict which way you think the majority of people will vote. All in all a good time.

Snappy

I'm liking these. They would be awesome for a craft room. I don't really need the four-shelf one which is clearly for scrapbooking paper, but the others would be perfect for organizing and hiding your stash.

Orson

On the trip home I finished a book Roland got me for Christmas. It was a little stupid of me to read it in public but I didn't do too badly. I read one of Katz's other books and actually met him at a vet conference in Vegas. Well, met is probably too strong an implication. I stood in line and got an autographed copy of his book. I really enjoy his writing, it's pretty light reading overall, but gets me thinking. Plus he is dog people.

This book is about his lifetime dog Orson. Orson was a troubled Border Collie who changed the author's life radically, but positively. He loves this dog and spends many years loving and trying to help this dog. Anyway, at the end the author ends up having to euthanize Orson. Now you can see why I wasn't too bright to read where other people could see me. It was interesting to read someone else talk about his views on how far to go for their pets, when it's time to say goodbye, and the way people rationalize about their dogs who nip or bite. His views are similar to my own. Most of my views in this area have been formulating for a long time, but working at the humane society helped solidify them further. I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say here, but it was a powerful book for me.

They all rolled over

Welp, I'm back in the sunshine state. I got back today and it's nice to be back at the apartment, especially since Roland is here. I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed a great deal. In fact I may go to bed a little early just to enjoy it a little bit sooner. I had a good time visiting and it was really neat to be a part of Mila's first few weeks. I wondered if being a part of a birth and first days of someone's life maybe it would trigger something in the maternal department for me. However, signs point to no on that front. I enjoyed doing jigsaw puzzles and hanging out with Mom C. I ended up buying a changing table for the nursery so that she didn't have to give up her sewing machine table. Since all the kids moved out of the house she had just gotten a sewing/craft room started. Before that she was doing the whole get out the sewing machine and set it up on the dining room table, then put it away again thing. Very uncool. I just felt really strongly that she shouldn't have to give up more than she already had. Of course I was projecting a bit because I would have a really hard time giving up my sewing table.

I also got to see more of the people I really miss in Michigan. I totally surprised the bejeebers out of Laura by showing up at her house. I didn't have their new phone number or either of their cell phone numbers so I just stopped by to say hello and get their numbers. The look on her face was pretty awesome. So I got to see Ryan, Laura, and Jackson a few times, Chad and Christina too. We also went out to Da Hu with Ryan, Laura, Jason, and Jocelyn. I really, really miss them.