"Toy Story" Part I

Lady and Lucky just got to open Christmas presents. Yes, Christmas presents! The gifts had been inexplicably returned to sender in December (problems with our mail delivery could be the subject of an entirely different post), so they just received the gifts on a recent trip to Atlanta. And oh, what fun it was! Lady and Lucky did not care one bit that it was Christmas in March. They think we should have Christmas in March every year.

Watching them open presents is always entertaining. They totally get the concept, eagerly taking the gift and settling down to unwrap it. They mimic human toddlers in many ways, wanting to unwrap another as soon as they see what's in the first one. And no matter how spectacular Dog #1's toy is, Dog #1 wants Dog #2's toy instead. Or, even more likely - Dog #1 wants both toys.

I took photos of our "Christmas in March" extravaganza. See if you can guess what's going on in their little doggie minds by looking at the sequence of photos below. Lucky is so dark he tends to disappear into the background, but hopefully you'll be able to see what he's doing/thinking. There are too many for one post, so I'll do Toy Story Part 1 today, and Toy Story Part 2 will be up tomorrow.

Recipe To Pass Along

I'm departing from the norm today and posting a recipe. And no, it's not even a dog treat recipe, but a people treat. I found this at My Carolina Kitchen. Since I began blogging, I've found so many interesting blogs! If I didn't have to work or take care of daily life stuff, I could easily get online and do nothing but read blogs for hours. Even with scarce free time, I do try to visit my favorites at least several times a week. 

I must have been hungry when I visited My Carolina Kitchen on Friday, because the photo of Wild Mushroom Toasts With Eggs in the post looked so delicious I wanted to lick the monitor. I resisted the temptation, but did try it for dinner that night. Yum! And so easy! A couple of substitutions had to be made - Baby Bella mushrooms instead of the assortment of wild mushrooms, and regular onion in place of the shallot. But even so, it was such a treat. I think having "breakfast for dinner" on occasion is fun. If you'd like to give it a try, the recipe can be found by clicking the link above.

And lest today's post be completely devoid of fur and feathers, I have to share this photo I snapped with my cell phone out the front windshield of my car this morning. In my neighborhood, it's not uncommon to find yourself in a "turkey jam." This is sort of like a traffic jam, but caused by turkeys. Even though cars are considerably bigger than they are, the neighborhood turkeys show very little inclination to move out of the way. And when they finally do, it's with this attitude and posture of "oh all right, if you insist." Slooooooowly ambling out of the way, taking their sweet time. And then it never fails - you'll almost have a clear path, and one of them will suddenly remember leaving something on the other side of the road and turn back. There have been times when I've practically had to nudge a turkey out of the way with my front bumper (going 0.2 mile per hour of course). 

"Feel free to go around."

Laundry Day

Brenda vs. Jack

Jack Frost, that is! When I left for my 6 o'clock workout this morning, it was snowing. Yes, snowing! This is just plain wrong. Mother Nature playing an April Fools joke maybe. And what is the forecast high three days from now? The high on Monday is supposed to be 77 degrees. Oh, the joys of being a gardener living in the mountains!

The hilarious photo above was not actually taken this morning, but on April 30, 2008. I walked out the morning after that predicted hard freeze and actually laughed out loud. As I'd scrambled around in the dark the previous night covering things, I had no idea how ridiculous it looked. It's a good thing my hill of roses, daylilies, phlox, and other perennials is out of view of the street, otherwise the neighbors would be talking for sure. "Have you met that crazy plant lady two doors down?" 

And now, the final results of the Garden Cat Naming Campaign. Thanks to all who participated, and congratulations to those of you who picked the winners! Rusty thanks Vicki Lane for picking out a fine name. This is Rusty when he had no name but two eyes.

Alexander thanks Two Pitties in the City. He loves his new name.

With a new name, MonaLisa is looking even more smug 

than she did before, thanks to Darla.

And last but not least, Pablo thanks Deborah for his new name.

(although I have to say "Jay Leno" really made me laugh. 
He DOES look like Jay Leno - I never noticed!!)

Where Did Spring Go?

Everything is in bloom, and the grass is a supersonic green color thanks to the recent rains...but it's cold! 45 degrees for a high today, and a freeze warning tonight. Of course I realize cold is relative, so for some of you, a 45 degree day might sound downright toasty. But it's been 70 here! Where did 70 go?

However even as I look forward to summer, I realize there are things I miss when the warm weather is here to stay. When the nights are balmy, you don't get to enjoy the coziness of a fire in the evening, or the simple pleasure of snuggling under a down comforter. I received an electric throw for Christmas, and honestly I'm not sure how I'm going to survive without it this summer. Each dark, cold evening this winter when I'd settle down on the couch for a bit of TV, I'd pull the electric throw over me, flip the dial and ahhhhh....so cozy! Lucy is addicted to it too. We may just have to crank the air conditioning up so we can use it on occasion.

For now, while we await the return of warm weather, we'll enjoy a few last naps by the fire.

Crazy Dreams

I would caution against eating a BBQ veggie quesadilla too late in the evening. That's what I did last night and I had the strangest dreams ever. I awoke at 3:24 am from a dream in which I'd just given birth to triplets. It was such a surprise, because I hadn't been expecting triplets. The bigger surprise however, was that the triplets were puppies! I most definitely had not been expecting puppies. The first two were healthy, but the third had something wrong with it, and it was in respiratory distress. The nurses whisked it off to the NICU.

Now quesadilla notwithstanding, I'm sure I had this dream because of an email I received yesterday about a fundraiser for an acquaintance whose baby was born with meconium aspiration syndrome (you can read the story here). Baby is now at home and doing well, but her parents had no health insurance and are now dealing with astronomical medical bills resulting from over a month in the NICU.

Information about the fundraiser and an email address for how to donate can be found here along with an adorable photo of the family.

But puppies?? You know how dreams are though - whatever happens in them feels both extremely real and completely normal. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to be the proud mother of triplet puppies.  LOL!

The next dream wasn't as fun. Lucy had been hit by a car, but I didn't know it and just thought she was sleeping. It wasn't until I returned home from work that I saw the blood. It was AWFUL. But, this dream also had a happy ending. I rushed her to the vet and soon was told that she was fine - all her bumps and scrapes were superficial. Whew!! I was so relieved! So, all was well that ended well. Even so, I think I'll have something besides Mexican food for dinner tonight.

Starting A New Week

"Lord, help me to be the person my dog thinks I am."