something about the beginning of a new school year always makes me pensive, so maybe i'll try blogging again. a cold-ish front tonight left me obsessing about fall; here are the things i'm most excited about:
10. gray becomes an acceptable nail polish color.
9. new seasons of all my shows!
8. plants in texas suddenly start blooming again.
7. gray, cloudy days are BACK!
6. simon and garfunkel wrote the perfect soundtrack to this season.
5. CHILI.
4. halloween.
3. dog halloween costumes.
2. halloween movies (not the scary ones...i'm talking about the nightmare before christmas, ghostbusters, and hocus pocus).
1. PUMPKIN-FLAVORED EVERYTHING.
here's to you, fall!
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
what kind of mother...
...lets a two-year-old get a lap dance on his birthday?!?!?
i guess this one does. i think he liked it, though:
happy birthday to the funniest lookin' dog in the world. i'm shocked that you've survived two years.
ollie, 2/1/12
so much for snapping a few cute pictures...i may have to send joni to live with an aunt soon.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
a little splash of christmas cheer
we had almost as much fun taking christmas pictures as we did taking halloween pictures, but they are worth sharing anyway!
later in the season, i even got my act together enough to snap a few pictures of human christmas. the humans rallied and were able to have, in the words of clark w. griswold, the "hap- hap- happiest christmas since bing crosby tap danced with danny f**king kaye!" we had new babies to celebrate, my brother was home for the first time in a few years, and most notably, no one cried. here's hoping you and yours enjoyed an equally joyful and drama-free holiday season, and if there was chaos, i hope it was the good kind!
ollie always looks like he's up to no good...even if he's guiding a sleigh.
sadly, this is the best picture i got of all three.
oops.
this one is hilarious to me for some reason.
the best gift we got in 2011!
my beautiful boy
obedience...finally.
ha.
santa paws visited the pups, and they have since expressed their gratitude for their generous pile of gifts by playing exclusively with a red light bulb toy from the dollar aisle at target. we'll be scaling back considerably next year...i'm thinking: sticks from the yard and maybe some american cheese slices.
max absconded with joni's toy...
and later with her stocking.
max is an expert at the woolly mammoth bone...
while ollie just licked his (most of it is still in my kitchen somewhere).
joni ignored her joni-sized bone until she was comfortably indoors.
later in the season, i even got my act together enough to snap a few pictures of human christmas. the humans rallied and were able to have, in the words of clark w. griswold, the "hap- hap- happiest christmas since bing crosby tap danced with danny f**king kaye!" we had new babies to celebrate, my brother was home for the first time in a few years, and most notably, no one cried. here's hoping you and yours enjoyed an equally joyful and drama-free holiday season, and if there was chaos, i hope it was the good kind!
happy holidays!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
a series of unfortunate halloween pictures
many sensible americans out there believe that it is ridiculous to put costumes and clothes on animals; they are not wrong. in fact, i used to be one of them. however, dressing up dogs is jolly good fun, and i figure that if the dog isn't trying to eat the costume, then it isn't too miserable.
unfortunately for my dogs, i love halloween! max always gets by without having to wear anything too horrible since he is the best one (and he already doesn't want to live with me). with ollie's comical ears, he has made a fantastic bat for both of his halloweens. and finally, poor, poor joni got a brand new bee costume. i thought it would be a hit, as it just velcroed around her, but something about the bee costume did not work for her.
i set out to get a few cute halloween pictures of the wolf pack over here. all i really wanted was a good one of all three...
these dutiful boys take halloween very seriously...notice who's missing.
bat dog here has the most ridiculous costume and was the happiest about having it on.
joni said, "i don't know what y'all are doing, but i'm getting the hell out of here."
ollie tried to counsel her...
...to no avail.
at long last, a picture of all three, and somehow, there's a black plastic flower container in the background.
the dark knight flew away after that...
...leaving me with this loyal subject (who had apparently failed to rescue that toy in the background).
the bee, it turned out, was more comfortable on human furniture than in the untamed wilderness of the back yard.
i busted out their pumpkin shirts in a last ditch effort to get a decent picture of all these dogs:
this ham was happy to wear his...
...and the diva agreed to be photographed in hers.
i gave up, though, when our photo shoot disintegrated into this:
once we went back inside, some little chihuahua was happy to pose for a few shots:
we are a mess. anyway, happy halloween (now that it's the middle of november). at the rate i'm going, i'll be ringing in 2012 sometime next april.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
pumpkin pancakes: a saturday morning adventure
my dad is, irrefutably, the greatest pancake maker on the planet. after every childhood sleepover, we could expect to wake up to an array of blueberry, strawberry, and chocolate chip pancakes. he became a legend among our friends. more recently, he began making these magical pumpkin pancakes from a recipe he found in the newspaper. he had a great phase of whipping up a batch of them almost every weekend throughout the fall and winter months. thanks to my dad, making pancakes was never something i needed to be able to do well.
unfortunately, since this fall began, no one has seemed very interested in making pumpkin pancakes for me. after a few weeks of grieving, i decided to attempt them myself. we've been unable to locate the newspaper recipe for a while, and none of the recipes i found online appealed to me, so here's what i threw together in a moment of inspiration this morning:
pumpkin pancakes
2 C. baking/pancake mix
1/2 C. plus 1 T. canned pumpkin
1 C. evaporated milk
1 egg
2 t. vanilla
2-3 T. brown sugar
2 t. baking powder
1 t. (plus a few sprinkles) cinnamon
1 t. (plus a few sprinkles) pumpkin pie spice
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 t. nutmeg
mix evaporated milk, egg, pumpkin, and vanilla in a medium sized mixing bowl with a whisk. add brown sugar, baking powder, and spices. mix thoroughly. add baking mix and blend with the whisk until just wet. the lumps in the batter are ok; if you mix it too much, your pancakes will be tough!
this batter is thick, so once it was on the griddle, bubbles do not rise to the top. 2-3 minutes per side on medium heat seemed to do the trick! i always use a 1/3 measuring cup to ladle pancake batter onto the griddle, but that is, of course, a matter of taste.
i will probably tweak this recipe in the weeks to come, but, all in all, i was satisfied with the finished product:
this cuddly winter chihuahua looks pleased as well.
unfortunately, since this fall began, no one has seemed very interested in making pumpkin pancakes for me. after a few weeks of grieving, i decided to attempt them myself. we've been unable to locate the newspaper recipe for a while, and none of the recipes i found online appealed to me, so here's what i threw together in a moment of inspiration this morning:
pumpkin pancakes
2 C. baking/pancake mix
1/2 C. plus 1 T. canned pumpkin
1 C. evaporated milk
1 egg
2 t. vanilla
2-3 T. brown sugar
2 t. baking powder
1 t. (plus a few sprinkles) cinnamon
1 t. (plus a few sprinkles) pumpkin pie spice
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 t. nutmeg
mix evaporated milk, egg, pumpkin, and vanilla in a medium sized mixing bowl with a whisk. add brown sugar, baking powder, and spices. mix thoroughly. add baking mix and blend with the whisk until just wet. the lumps in the batter are ok; if you mix it too much, your pancakes will be tough!
this batter is thick, so once it was on the griddle, bubbles do not rise to the top. 2-3 minutes per side on medium heat seemed to do the trick! i always use a 1/3 measuring cup to ladle pancake batter onto the griddle, but that is, of course, a matter of taste.
i will probably tweak this recipe in the weeks to come, but, all in all, i was satisfied with the finished product:
this cuddly winter chihuahua looks pleased as well.
Monday, October 31, 2011
back in action
i have a moderately functional foot and a fabulous new camera! here's hoping i'll feel more like writing in november...
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
perfect.
i've never been all that interested in perfection. i can remember being in elementary school and starting to notice the people who wanted to be the best at everything. maybe i had just taken the old "nobody's perfect" thing to heart, but i was annoyed (and not because i felt threatened, either). don't get me wrong...i'm comfortable with working hard, trying, and "doing your best." i guess i just always thought aiming for perfection was futile.
needless to say, with one working foot, my life is far less than perfect right now. you know who doesn't want to know that, though? people who ask, "how are you?" they're being friendly, and it's a nice gesture, but i'd love to see their reactions if i answered with, " well, i was up for an hour in the middle of the night because my foot was throbbing and then i was worried that i will have to have surgery and then i'll lose my job because i'll have to take so many days off of work and then i'll still probably never walk again and i'm only 27 and i didn't even do anything to myself and on the off chance that i have kids someday i won't be able to play with them and i'll probably just end up living on a bed in my parents' living room like the grandparents from willy wonka." that's exhausting. no one wants to be burdened with that nonsense, so i've been doing my best to spare them.
after two months of fake smiles and "oh, i'm great. don't worry about me"s, i am tired, but i move too slowly to avoid anyone. i'm pretty resigned to acting like this is all going to be better in a day or so and then grinning apologetically when able-bodied acquaintances notice that it's not. however, yesterday, i ran (ok, hobbled) smack into perfection, and i liked it! a principal at my school, whose good sense i've always appreciated, passed by me in the hall and said, "i'm not going to ask how you are anymore. i'm just going to say that i'm happy to see you." perfectly, absolutely just what i needed.
it's taken me until today to figure out why: i was relieved. there was no pressure to pretend, and all i had to say was "thank you."
now, i'm icing the offending foot while eating chips and guacamole and polishing of the rest of my shiner ruby redbird beer...i think this is more perfection that i can get on board with!
needless to say, with one working foot, my life is far less than perfect right now. you know who doesn't want to know that, though? people who ask, "how are you?" they're being friendly, and it's a nice gesture, but i'd love to see their reactions if i answered with, " well, i was up for an hour in the middle of the night because my foot was throbbing and then i was worried that i will have to have surgery and then i'll lose my job because i'll have to take so many days off of work and then i'll still probably never walk again and i'm only 27 and i didn't even do anything to myself and on the off chance that i have kids someday i won't be able to play with them and i'll probably just end up living on a bed in my parents' living room like the grandparents from willy wonka." that's exhausting. no one wants to be burdened with that nonsense, so i've been doing my best to spare them.
after two months of fake smiles and "oh, i'm great. don't worry about me"s, i am tired, but i move too slowly to avoid anyone. i'm pretty resigned to acting like this is all going to be better in a day or so and then grinning apologetically when able-bodied acquaintances notice that it's not. however, yesterday, i ran (ok, hobbled) smack into perfection, and i liked it! a principal at my school, whose good sense i've always appreciated, passed by me in the hall and said, "i'm not going to ask how you are anymore. i'm just going to say that i'm happy to see you." perfectly, absolutely just what i needed.
it's taken me until today to figure out why: i was relieved. there was no pressure to pretend, and all i had to say was "thank you."
now, i'm icing the offending foot while eating chips and guacamole and polishing of the rest of my shiner ruby redbird beer...i think this is more perfection that i can get on board with!
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