Priorities

I love this story and hope my friend isn't offended.

Moments ago I received an email from a friend, who is a doctor, telling me she was pregnant (yay, babies!).  So I immediately called her.  The following is our conversation.

B: Hello?

Me: Hi, B!  Congratulations!

B: Thanks.  I'm in the OR.

Me (laughing uncontrollably): I can't believe you answered your phone!

B: Yeah, that's how I roll.  I'll call you later.

Easter Fun

The Easter Bunny came this weekend. 

Actually he came midweek when my mom sent Dave and I a box of Chocolate Covered Oreos (thanks, Mom!).  They barely lasted to the next day.  And Taco was quite upset with us because we forgot how to share.  He did not want to discuss how chocolate is poison to him.

On Saturday night, Dave and I decide to dye Easter eggs and Taco wanted to help.  When he hopped up in my lap, I thought he was shaking uncontrollably, but it turns out his sniffer was just working overtime with the six glasses of vinegar and colored dyes sitting in front of him.  He was pretty interested in what we were doing and hung out with us during the whole process.

You know you're gown up when your egg dyeing glasses are all beer related.

Our egg kit had stickers in addition to the dye.  Taco couldn't figure out how to get them onto the eggs.  I had to explain to him that he didn't have thumbs.

On Sunday morning, though, Dave and I exchanged little Easter baskets with a few treats and let Taco take a look in his basket.  He may or may not be spoiled.

He legitimately needed new toys because last week he destroyed his shamrock. 

He took out every little bit of stuffing and kept going back for more.  The funny part is, he still plays with the deflated shamrock shell. 

Just like any little kid, Taco dove right into his basket before breakfast and ate his entire rawhide stick.  He plucked it out of the basket and took it into his crate.  When he was about two-thirds through, he joined us on the couch.  Once he was through, he went back to his basket.  In one of the eggs was a bacon treat.  He picked up the egg, figured out how to open it and scarfed the bacon before Dave and I even realized what he was doing.  He was decidedly less impressed with the pumpkin cranberry treats I've been trying to give him. 

Taco continued to be spoiled when we went to Dave's parents' house and he found Easter Bunny had left him yogurt covered Milkbones.  After licking off most of the yogurt, he went to town on the Milkbone and then came to me looking for the other one (he's smart--he saw there were two in the package).  He lost interest in that when Dave's dad starting carving the ham.  Taco positioned himself next to the counter and learned that anything that falls on the floor is for him. He also learned that he likes ham. 

Despite our little guy being involved in everything and having everyone he meets wrapped around his finger, he's a good pup.  He has a few applications pending, so we're hopeful that there is a family out there ready for him. 

The most amazing thing is that my Mom, who is the antithesis of a dog (or any animal) person,  has commented on how cute he is in his pictures.  That's pretty impressive, so I figured I'd lay it on thick and share the following:

Bloggers Bake for Hope

Today I stumbled upon (literally, I was blog hopping and stumbled upon this link) a volunteer effort that I'm excited to join and something I think you might be interested in as well.

I hope you'll join me in supporting this cause.  If you're a baker, please register to donate an item.  If you like sweets, please consider bidding once the bake sale begins.

During the first week of May, a nation-wide, all volunteer virtual bake sale will take place to raise money for breast cancer research.  As a baking blogger, I am donating a batch of cookies I've featured on my baking blog.  Bloggers have until April 30th to register their goods, and already a lot of yummy treats are listed.  I'm sure you'll find something that catches your eye and teases your taste buds. 

Beginning May 4th you'll be able to bid on the treat (or treats) of your choosing.  If you win, your treats will be shipped directly to you.  The goal is raise $2,000 for the Komen Foundation, and I'm sure that can happen.  For more information, visit Bloggers Bake for Hope.

It's Not Christmas

We don't really have much of a relationship with our neighbors.  On our kitchen side we have a family that we chat with mostly because the husband is a Chatty Cathy and they have two dogs, so they (the people and the dogs) have enjoyed our revolving door home for wayward dogs the past six months. 

Directly across the street we have a family with three grown children all living at home.  We are perplexed by them because it's a small house and at night you never see any lights on in any of the windows.  It's just weird.   Since we have a large picture window that looks right into their large picture window, you'd think you'd see someone go into the kitchen to get a glass of water every once and a while, but no that's not the case.

On one side of them is another extended family that includes grandchildren.  The granddaughter does Irish step-dance and is taught by my friend Erin, but otherwise, we don't really know them.  And on the other side is Boat Guy--named such because he had a boat for two years that he worked on in his yard but never took to water.  Then he got rid of the boat and got a pool and was temporarily renamed Pool Guy, and then he got another boat so he's Boat Guy again.

And on our bedroom side is a house that we think has 2 or 3 apartments.  It's not that they are transient (we think there have only been two tenant changes in 6 years), but they are just weird.  Since it's our bedroom side, we notice them leaving at odd hours of the night.  But not like going to work because they'll be back in 15-20 minutes.  I can only think that they go our for cigarettes or something.  We notice these comings and goings because the cars are old and noisy and the people talk very loudly.  I've been woken up after midnight on more than one occasion.  It's quite obnoxious.

However, they've been driving Dave crazy for the last few months, and now I've started to become annoyed.  Every night, we get a little glimmer into our bedroom from this:

There are so many things wrong with this that I don't know where to begin.

• There is no rhyme or reason to this display.  It is haphazardly cast through the yard, not even remotely outlining the actual building or part of the structure.  Although I will stop there because there used to be a string of multi-colored lights too, but sometime between Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, those disappeared.
• They manually turn on these lights, so it's not like they forget every night until the timer switches them on.  We know this because they don't come on at the same time each night.  But they always come on.
• In addition to the strings of lights, they still turn on their beacon of a porch light each night, making the display that much more of a monstrosity.
• They keep them on all night.  I regularly wake up and find these lights still on at 6 am or later.
• And finally, it's April.  Even people who leave their Christmas lights up all year round have the forethought to stop turning them on sometime in mid-January.  

Dave is trying to figure out if he can cut the strings with hedge clippers or something "accidentally."  Because these people clearly didn't get the memo that Christmas comes but once a year and never in the spring.

Maybe I should be blaming them for the long, cold, snowy winter we've had.

Blue Meets His Match

We did not expect a 10 pound Chiweenie to destroy his toys.  Clearly after 4 dogs, we can still be surprised.

Taco loves to play with his toys.  He's not aggressive, but he does this little growl thing when you play a little tug with him and either his shamrock or blue dog (aptly named Blue--we're so creative).  He'll play with us or by himself and is incredibly happy.  He shakes them, licks them, chases and pounces on them, and throws them in the air.  When he gets really excited the growl starts a different intensity and other weird noises come out.  That's when we wonder why he's so mad at Blue or what the Shamrock did to him while we were away.

Last night he was amusing himself with Blue while Dave and I had dinner.  We weren't really paying attention, but at one point Blue flew a good 5 or 6 feet in the air, practically landing in Taco's water dish.  We laughed at pure oddity of him being able to get that much gusto into the toss and then went back to eating.  While cleaning up, I saw something on the floor.  It was Blue's ear!  Blue must have been a really bad boy.

Now, for frame of reference, Panda also had one of these toys, though bigger and yellow.  And she did not destroy it.  We thought she took off its eyebrow, but it turns out they only come with one eyebrow over the right eye.

Luckily there was no love lost between Blue and Taco because later in the evening they were cuddled up on the couch.  Blue doesn't quite enjoy TV as much since he can't hear as well, but apparently they are still friends.

Meet Taco

Yes, he's super adorable.

No, he's not what we expected either.

Earlier this week, our rescue group, All Dog Rescue, learned that the Animal Control Officer in a neighboring town to Dave and I was basically shutting up shop, effective immediately, and had 5 dogs that needed places to go.  Dave and I agreed to help, first by Dave offering to help with evaluations and transportation, and then deciding to foster one of them. 

Yesterday Dave went to the kennels and helped Donna, the evaluator, determine which of the dogs were suitable for our organization and the fosters who had space in their homes.  Ultimately 3 of the 5 dogs were taken into our group--Apollo, a young male yellow lab; Bo, a young male pit bull; and Taco, a young male chihuahua mix.  We thought we'd take either Apollo or Bo.  Another foster showed interest in Apollo and Dave was comfortable with either Bo or Taco.  Donna suggested that we try Taco since we'd never had a small dog and the other open foster home wouldn't have any problem taking a pit bull.  And that's how we ended up with this little guy.

After a little research, we figured out that he's part chihuahua, part dachshund.  Also known as a Chiweenie.  Also known as a Mexican Hot Dog.

And before you get all bent out of shape, we didn't name him.  He was already named Taco.  We are just choosing not to change it because it's awesome (although if he were female, I might opt for Chalupa).  I am considering renaming him Jose Hector Rodrigo Dominguez Silva and just calling him Taco for short.  But I think Dave will say no.  Plus I'm not sure the PetFinder entry will support that many characters.  When he talks (read: when we say things to pretend were reading his mind), he does have a Spanish accent, though. 

Taco's a really good boy. He settled in nicely and is enjoying having us as his people.  He doesn't know many commands--we have to work on sit, down, come and stay.  But he does want to dance and will do so willingly.  Eventually I'll get some good video of it, but until then, enjoy this cuteness.

He does this thing were he walks upright on his hind legs and just bounces around  He'll do it when he's really interested in something you have.  I call it his meerkat pose, but it's hard to get a photo of.  I'll keep trying.

He loves to play and enjoyed picking out his toys at Petco last night.  We got him a little blue dog (like Panda's yellow one, but smaller) and he was very friendly with the other people at the store and on his best behavior.  He crates well, and although he whined for us to come back last night when we went to bed (for about 20 minutes), once he stopped, we never heard another peep. 

Dave and I certainly never considered ourselves small dog people, but having this little guy snuggle up next to you on the couch or in your lap (all 10 pounds of him) was pretty nice.  There's no way any of our other dogs would have gotten away with this.

Taco should be able to find his forever home very soon--small dogs, especially healthy, tame ones like this one--tend to go quickly.  Until then, we'll enjoy being a part of small dog rescue.

Willing Spring to Come

This winter has been painful.  Aside from the 80+ inches of snow we got, it's been so cold and windy throughout March and into April that I'm beginning to believe winter will never end.  EVER.  I've been willing spring to come--refusing to wear my heavy winter coat (I've been layering underneath my fall/spring jacket), pulling out my fun and funky spring/summer sandals and heels, even getting pedicures in March with Cindy was a signal to spring that it was welcome to come around.

Seriously, this is what I woke up to on April 1st:

April Fool's, suckers!

But alas, none of this is working.  To the point that a colleague who was born and raised in Boston commented that this winter has been so bad and has lasted so long that its enough to drive someone out of New England. 

Wow.  I expect a comment like that from me, but not from a lifer.

Of course by now you know that one of Dave's and my favorite warm weather activities is mini golf.  And I'm eager to continue the dominance that I relished in last season, what with my holes in one and beating Dave on more than one occasion (yes, beating him twice is considered dominance in my world.  As my dad says, you're only as good as your last game).

At Christmas-time, I'd noticed that our local mall had replaced the Gap/Gap Kids store with an indoor Glow Golf course.  Very intriguing.  While we had no interest in checking it out during winter break (mall rats and all), we kept saying that we should go do it sometime.  Finally, we decided that it might be an indicator to the Spring gods that we were ready if we did some mini golf.  So we went to the mall the other night and started our season early.

Guess what?  If you go to the mall on a school night after dinner, there won't be as many mall rats to annoy you.  In fact, there won't be anyone at all in the glow golf.

We had the place to ourselves and it was a pretty good set up.  They actually have 2 eighteen hole courses that wrap throughout the two stores (the stores adjoined in the middle) and for $9 each, we could do both courses and then if we wanted to, we could pick our favorite and do it again.  It's like less than 17 cents a hole.  Awesome date night value.  Although the clerk told us they had apparently run out of the little pencils so we weren't able to keep score.  Not necessarily a bad thing.

That dark circle thing in the middle of this hole is a loop-the-loop (two side by side).  And it's metal.  And when you miss the lead into it and hit the side, it makes a very loud noise.  Every time you hit it.

You know what's hard?  Mini golf in the dark.  Well, it wasn't entirely dark, because the glowing aspects were quite bright and neon.  And the course was hard.  They had a lot of stuff in the way (I know that's the point, but I mean there was A LOT of stuff on the greens in the worst places).  Plus, since it was dark, seeing the slight dips and bumps was very difficult.  And even the holes that didn't have a lot of obstacles required a 180 degree turn to get remotely close to the pin. 

The good news is that I got a hole-in-one on the second hole.  The bad news is that I was otherwise terrible.  The first course was a disaster--I probably mulligan-ed my first shot of the tee on at least 7 of the holes.  Dave had some do-overs, but wasn't quite as awful as me.  In the end we both ended up with two holes-in-one, but I know on the first course, he probably beat me by 10.  The second course was better and I think we were more evenly matched.  We opted not to take them up on the offer to play our favorite course again.

I don't know if we'll go back--I don't think I could tolerate it had there been a bunch of people.  And it would have been slow going if there were children.  But we did have fun, mostly laughing at how bad we were.  Maybe we were just rusty--after all, it's been months since we played.  Either way, we had a good time. And since we didn't keep score, I was able to convince Dave that I beat him and made him buy me ice cream at Dairy Queen when we were through.