San Fran Fan!

The first in our "whirlwind weekends" series! Hubby was sent to NASA's Ames Research Center for work the week of April 13-17. Since the company was already footing the bill for his airfare and the hotel through Friday, I decided to buy a ticket and join him for a long weekend the 16-19. We spent Thursday evening and Friday morning in San Jose, California and then took the CalTrain up to San Francisco Friday evening through Sunday. Tied House brewpub in San Jose. A very nice hefeweisen to be had here! Pretty cool little brewpub. Completely different than most you see in Texas or Colorado. Ames Research Center. Hubby took me on-site at Ames to check out the wind tunnels.
Winchester Mystery House. This was definately one of my suggestions, but Hubby seemed to enjoy it as well.
The Winchester Mystery House
21st Amendment Brewpub in San Francisco. Arguable the BEST hefeweisen I've ever had in my life. Hubby and I stopped in here on our trolley-car way to a San Francisco Giants game.
Hubby getting all artsy-fartsy with his beer pics. ;-)
The Bay Bridge
AT&T Park - home of the San Francisco Giants
Baseball fans. :-)
Ghiradelli square early Saturday morning. They had a special: buy a chocolate filled croisant, get a free coffee. YUM! I LOVE San Francisco!

Cable cars are ridiculously cute! I think they signified San Francisco more to me than the Golden Gate bridge! LOVE me some cable cars!
Lombard Street - "the crookedest street in the world"
Lombard Street
While we were walking through Chinatown, we noticed a large group of people in one of the alleyways. They were having a "Art in the Alley" festival complete with a parade. We got some delicious egg rolls from a street vender and watched the "dragons" pass us by.
San Francisco Brewing Company. This brewpub is set up in a turn-of-the-century bar in Little Italy. The bar was a masterpiece of wood carving. Loved the ambiance and the beer wasn't bad either!
Coit Tower - the view from the top was awesome. The ride up in the old fashioned, operator-controlled lift was a little claustrophobic and hectic...especially with the piped in music playing "Free Falling" by Tom Petty. :-)
Alcatraz as seen from Coit Tower
We had planned to visit the Golden Gate Bridge Saturday afternoon, but while we were at Coit Tower, we could see the fog rolling in. And BOY was it rolling! A truly amazing site!
Hubby and I enjoying the best Irish Coffees either of us had ever had at Buena Vista in Ghiradelli Square Saturday night. I was doubtful about the "famous Irish coffee" at a place with a Spanish sounding name, but I can easily see how they got to be famous. I do not like whiskey and these things were GOOD! The highlight of the trip for me? Other than just getting away with Hubby for a quick weekend, I would have to say the SEA LIONS!!!! We made it over to Pier 39 to check out the wild sea lions that congregate there. I could've stood there for hours!
Yup! I'm a nerd!

A Garden Update w/o Pics - SORRY

I was looking through previous posts earlier today and realized I hadn't made a garden update in a while. WOE IS ME!!! Unfortunately, I didn't get home in time to get any pics tonight, but I'll give you the details anyhow. :-)

What's doing well:

The TOMATOES! Good grief! They have taken on a life of their own (oh wait...they're plants, they actually DO have a life of their own...)! All plants are covered in little green tomatoes AND little yellow flowers. I expect to be swimming in tomatoes before long. Which is A-OK with me! Can't wait to make spaghetti sauce and perfect my salsa recipe.

Speaking of salsa - the cilantro is totally out of control right now. I had to go out earlier and grab a handful to give to our friend Phil (champion salsa maker). It's getting so big and bushy that it's threatening to kill things near it. Kind of like Phil's goatee. :-D SHAVE ALREADY! FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!!!!! ;-)

Also doing well are the cabbages. I have three heads of cabbage coming along nicely right now. Another two to three weeks and there will be sauerkraut!! YES! yum yum yum

All told, Hubby and I planted something like 40 strawberries. Some of them are doing fantastic (we even have a few flowers already!), and some of them never really got started. As long as I get at least 10 strawberries this year, I'll be pleased. I've been taking note on what they seem to like and will remember my lessons for next year's garden.

OMG! How could I forget my #1 producer?! LETTUCE!!! and Spinach! Salads have become a daily affair around here. All 5 varieties of lettuce have done exceedingly well. We've even had to "go country" and give away Romaine. In fact, if you want any Romaine or spinach and you have a salad spinner (gotta clean it folks!), let me know and I'll bring you some.

The green beans and wax beans are also growing like crazy. All the plants ended up coming up and now they are starting to flower. The plants have gotten very busy and are currently threatening the cucumbers that are next to them. I will be outside this weekend trying to device some contraption to keep them from shading the cukes too badly.

Radishes are always a success for me. It's funny - I'm not really a radish fan, but I know they are good for me so I plant them. I can only make myself eat them in salads or sauteed with butter and poured over asparagus though. :-)

All the onions are doing famously. They've had to get their "hair" cut several times as they tend to mooch sunlight from everyone around them. I'm a big green onion fan, so I've been chopping it up and throwing it into different recipes. I make a good green onion. :-) Hubby assures me that we are still months away from actually getting a full size onion though. *sigh* We use a LOT of onions around here. I'm thinking of putting more in the ground as soon as the cabbages are harvested...

We've also got our first jalapeno of the season growing right now. It's still pretty small, but it's also pretty early in the season. Hubby normally has a jalapeno-green finger, so I'm not worried about it. I'm sure we'll get more than our money's worth.

Broccoli has also been a huge success. We've gotten 4 heads of broccoli so far and still have one or two plants in the ground. I'm actually getting a little sick of broccoli. :-)

What's not doing as well:

As mentioned before, the beans are overshadowing the cucumbers a little. They're doing really well for plants that aren't getting a lot of sun right now. We also had a problem with the backyard rat eating the seedlings every time they got about 3 inches tall. Right now, we've got 5 plants going and two of them are getting to be 6 or 7 inches tall. We've got a long way to go with these guys, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. I've found 3 pickle recipes that I want to try, so these guys HAVE to work out for me!

The snowpeas got off to a REALLY slow start. I think our seeds were old, cuz we had to've put a hundred in the ground before we got 8 plants. So far, all the seedlings are doing really well and taking to their trellis, but I'm not sure how many snowpeas we'll get as it's going to be getting hot pretty soon here in Texas. Snowpeas generally speaking don't like heat...

I FINALLY got a carrot to grow. That's right! Out of the 16 planted, ONE is growing! I'm just carrot-cursed, I guess, which is actually fine as I feel the same way about carrots as I do toward radishes.

What's doing fine, but isn't enough to write home about:

The bell peppers seem to me like they're getting off kind of slow, but Hubby doesn't seem too worried about them and he's the Pepper Man. I'm taking a wait and see approach.

The corn plants are about 10 inches to a foot right now. We are a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way away from sweet corn!

And last but not least, Hubby's horseradish JUST broke ground over the weekend. The thing was planted in February! Talk about a slow developer!

The basil, chives and flat-leaf parsley are also taking their time (hahaha! So should've spelled that "thyme"). They're all cute little plants, but a long way from harvest unless they start growing like maniacs soon.

So! That's your garden update for today. I promise to get out in the garden this weekend with Hubby's fancy-shmancy camera and take some pics for ya. I still can't get over how cool it is to eat out of the backyard. For all of you considering it or asking for advice, GO FOR IT! It's so rewarding! oh! And make sure you buy a salad spinner!

Poor, Poor Precious Princess Pooh

I think I've mentioned before that Abbey is our vet-lover. With one thing and another, it seems she is ALWAYS at the vet and we joke with him that it's because she has a crush on him in particular.

Abbey is prone to sebaceous cysts. She has had one on her rump for 3.5 years that the vet has been supremely unconcerned with. This last year, we also noticed four others, though they were much smaller than the one on her hiney. We've asked numerous times about having them removed and always gotten the same response: "It doesn't seem to bother her and they're usually not worth putting the dog under anaesthesia to remove them. Unless they burst..."

...yeah....unless they burst. :-)

The last time we went to see our vet, we brought up the cysts again and I guess he was tired of hearing about them since he consented to doing surgery to remove them. The surgery date was set for Friday, April 10.

Guess what happened Sunday, April 5? :-) I'll give you a hint!!!! *pop*

Since it was a Sunday, Dr Larry was not available, so Hubby and I had to improvise. We flushed the area with hydrogen peroxide and put guaze on her wound and then realized we didn't have any Ace bandages, so we tore up a t-shirt and tied that around her to get her through the night. Abbey sporting her t-shirt bandage look

First thing Monday morning, Abbey got to do what she loves most - go see Dr Larry! I guess it was a slow day at the office and he realized that, now that one had burst, we were going to bug him something silly until the rest came off. I got a call at 2ish saying that Abbey had gotten through surgery just fine and would be ready to come home in a little bit.

Our beautiful golden now has four bald spots and stitches everywhere. The vet tech said she looked like "Franken-doggie." I couldn't agree more. :-( But at least now they've been removed and hopefully we can go a little while before heading back up to Marina Bay Animal Hospital to see Dr. Larry. Don't tell Abbey that though!

Angels and Demons

It has occured to me more than once that I have a bipolar relationship with my pets/kids/Brats. When I talk about them it is either with eyes brimming with love and adoration or snapping with anger and frustration. Like all parents (I don't care if my "kids" have fur!), I have to love my angels, even when they're being demons...


Rion likes to lay on the back and sides of our sofas...and drool...DEMON! He's also my Big Barker...
Tiki, also known as the Tiki-Demon and/or Chupacabre (google it) has earned her nicknames. This cat is into everything...at all hours...
My very, very good friend Lil' Boss's dad had given me an article about gardening/goats/chickens from the paper. Wormie ate it. He also likes to wee on my floor when he's angry...
But look how cute my little Chupacabre is when she's sleeping!!! So soft and warm and fuzzy!
This is our other cat Wiggle. You'll probably never see her again. WE hardly see her. How can she be a bad cat when we never see her?
OMG! What a cute Worm! Schnitzel is the KING of looking cute to get out of trouble.
The absolutely Perfect,Precious, and Pretty Princess Pooh. Abbey has all kinds of faults, but Hubby and I are both pretty blind to them.
My little angel. Stinky is my bud. He's the only one of my dogs that acts like a dog and I love him so much for being true to himself.

The Things I Do For Those Dogs I Love...

If you have a pet, you probably know about the rash of pet food recalls over the past few years. All kinds of things have been discovered in pet food and a lot of pets have died. Every time a recall list has come out, I've held my breath until I verified our food wasn't on the list. We also check for expiration dates on our kibble because expired food is often not removed from store shelves and can kill your pet. We've also always paid attention to the nutritional information on the kibble bag. Dogs are omnivores, but they need a lot of protein. There should be at least one meat substance in the first five ingredients on the bag. We give each of the dogs multivitamins every day to help keep their fur glossy and Schnitzel and Abbey get Glucosamine every day as well (Dachshunds are very prone to back problems and Abbey's already had two knee surgeries at 5). We've felt pretty good about what we put into the Brats.

Imagine my horror then when a friend of mine sent me an article a few weeks ago about some of the stuff in most commercial dog foods. "Animal by product" for instance, can actually be euthanized cats and dogs!!! Cannibalism is not my idea of a proper diet! Haven't we learned anything from the outbreaks of Mad Cow disease??? You cannot feed an animal one of it's own and expect good things to happen.

This little bit of info was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Enough is enough. My cubie at work, Robbi, has been feeding her dogs a natural diet for at least a year now because of different medical conditions and dog food scares, so I went to her for some advice. The last two weeks, I've been cooking my own dog food! I know...maybe a little obsessive, but I think my Brats are worth it. So far, I've tried two different recipes. One consists of meat-loaf type muffins and the other was a seafood and veggie mixture. The dogs loved them both, but Hubby and I agreed that the mackeral mix stank to high heaven and think we'll try salmon next time. :-)

A little homemade dog food for you:
1 lb lean ground beef (or turkey, chicken, whatever)
4 stalks celery
4 carrots
1 apple, cored
4 medium sweet potatoes
1/2 bag frozen broccoli
2 eggs
1 c regular rolled oats
2 c cooked brown rice
1 (6oz) can tomato paste
I ran all the veggies through the food processor to help with digestion and then mixed everything together. I sectioned the mix into muffin tins and baked at 350 for 50 mins.
I had two different sizes of muffin tins, so we had Schnitzel sized muffins and big dog sized muffins. The recipe above made enough muffins for six days. The kids get a muffin each for breakfast and dinner with a half portion of their kibble. We're going to use up the rest of the kibble we currently have and then switch to Solid Gold's "Barking at the Moon" brand. This is the only dog food I can find in my local Petco that earned high marks on the websites I've looked at.

Anywho, I just thought I'd throw a little more wood on the flames for all those that think I've lost my mind. You might just be right! But I'm somewhat happy here in Crazytown. They're talking about making me mayor. :-D

The Dogs I Love

Saturday was a very busy day for the Butler Brats.
We started out with a very good and thorough brushing. When one is going to undertake dog grooming in our house, you have to equip yourself properly. You need the shedding brush, the slicker brush, the stripper comb and the knot comb. You also need a leash, a LOT of patience and one of these...

Very important dog grooming tool

The two big dogs in particular have under coats that insulate them from the cold during the winter. In the spring, the under coat starts coming out in little tufts of white fluff. In the interest of preventing allergy attacks and killing our vacuum cleaner with overuse, we usually try to brush the fluff out rather than just let it fall out on it's own. There was a LOT of fluff!
What you can't tell from the picture is that the ball o'fluff is at least six inches tall as well as 18 inches long. I think the dogs actually lost weight we got so much hair off of them.
To reward the Brats for letting us brush them, we set up their kiddie pool in the back yard so they could enjoy a good romp. Abbey and Rion LOVE water. Abbey is 100% water dog and taught Rion how to swim and water romp when he was a puppy. I almost wish we had a real pool so they could swim regularly, but then we would probably never get them out of the pool...
Dachshunds are notorious for hating water. On rainy days, Schnitzel is a lot more likely to go to the bathroom on our patio than to venture into the rain. He's the same way about dew in the morning. But, I think the big dogs are trying to teach him that swimming is actually fun. At any rate, he voluntairly went in the pool with only a little nudging from us.


When we set up the kiddie pool in the backyard, the big dogs go NUTS. They jump in the water and splash and then chase each other around the yard (freshly mowed) and then through the flowerbeds (new topsoil just put down). Needless to say, the water turned brown and so did the dogs. It was definitely bath time!

I just thought this was a funny photo. Worm looks so funny just hanging there. :-)

Our dogs may love water, but they do NOT like baths. They think it's pure torture and it would've been cruel to take a picture of their misery (that and my hands were wet). After much stuggling, Hubby and I managed to get all the Brats squeaky clean, dried, brushed again and looking ready for Sunday school.
What to do with these clean dogs? Let's go a'calling! Our friends Nikki and Phil recently adopted a Rat Terrier puppy named Koda, so we took the herd over to their house to meet a new friend. Rion wanted so badly to play with him, but didn't seem to know what to do with the little guy (he's like 5 lbs). Abbey laid on the ground and let him crawl on her. Worm sat in my lap and moaned all night. It must be a Dachshund thing. Nikki and Phil's other dog, Katie, is a terrier/dachsy mix and she wanted nothing to do with all that socializing either. Guess they're above that. :-)

Abbey ice diving in the water bucket. I swear this dog snorkels. She'll dive for anything she thinks is edible. Rion used to be the only boy of all the "kids" in our group. Now there's competition...Katie was much happier sitting on Daddy's lap, "Thank you very much"Pretending we don't exist...She just lets everyone walk all over her!Super cute tiny puppy!!

Wow! What a busy day! All the fun from yesterday has apparently taken it's toll on the Brats. They've been completely lazy all day today, hardly lifting their heads from the couch at all...We should do this more often!!

I leave you with a funny video of the Tiki-demon birdwatching. The water-sucking pond mentioned in a previous post is right outside our kitchen window, and there was a Mourning Dove hanging out this morning. Tiki wanted very badly to eat it. She seems to think that if she talks sweetly enough, they'll just fly into her mouth. ;-)

An Evening with Billy Joel and Elton John

Hubby is a huge fan of Billy Joel. He played the piano for years as a child and is from Allentown, Pa - a town that Billy Joel wrote a song about. My very, very good friend Kris is a big fan of Elton John. So, Hubby, Kris, her husband James and I went to see them last night. :-) The guys are getting up there and can't really hit all their high notes anymore, but it was still a fantastic show. Lots of singing along and screaming. :-)

Kris and James

Don't ask ;-)

The boys playing together

Billy Joel singing "Allentown"

Thanks for a great night!