Weekend wrapup

The last (and upcomming) few weeks at work are pretty crazy. I think stressful might be a good word for them, among other things. I had considered taking a half day on Friday, but that didn't happen, what a surprise. After work I considered a trip to Jackson, but thought I was a little too tired out to hit it. Instead, I decided it would be a good idea to go grab a book from the bookstore and grab hit the couch at home. Well, once again the evening didn't work out as expected. I wound up stopping in at the bookstore and getting into a conversation with Laura and another customer. I couldn't turn down an offer of a glass of wine, that would be just rude, so we spent the early part of the evening chatting away. When I got ready to leave Laura realized I hadn't gotten a chance to find a book - my primary reason for going to the bookstore. She gave me a galley that she thought I might like, and sent me on my way. In all seriousness, it was probably better for me to have spent the evening hanging out instead of reading a book! This is what I love about Vicksburg.

Saturday was spent at the Fall Market on the square. Paws had a booth at the market, so I went to give Leigh and Alissa a hand. We passed out lots of goodies, met some new potential volunteers, and saw some old friends. I got to spend much of the day hanging out with one of our foster's, Landry. He is the sweetest dog, despite lots of energy! He is a 5 month old Treeing Walker Coonhound mix. Landry was pretty tired by the end of the day - it is hard to be cute all day long!

Paws Garage Sale

This weekend we had our annual garage sale for Paws Pet Rescue (http://www.pawsrescuepets.org/). Some of Vicksburg’s finest gave some great donations, and the sale was an overall success. Of course, I am reminded that I’m just not a grage sale person. Getting up early, hunting through junk, and haggling are not my deal. In particular, folks who haggle over $0.50 when the money is going to charity really annoy me. We had some folks come through the night before and try to buy off all of our good stuff before we even finished organizing for Saturday morning. It is hard to feel considerate for people who tell you how much work they do for animal rescue and how you should be donating money when they act the way these folks did. Grrr. However, the garage sale was a success, and that is all that is important! Plus, where else can you find a real Prada wallet for $0.25?

While at the garage sale we got to play with one of Paws' current foster dogs, Owen. Owen is absolutely a hoot, and the sweetest dog ever. He is a black lab, and approximately 11 months old. A kind man found him when he wwas about 3 months old, and Owen was in severe pain. His eye had been damaged by a barbed wire. Owen was a bit of a crazy dog. Unfortunately he lost the battle with his eye recently. Since then he has healed and become a crazy fun dog. His entire body shakes when he whacks his tail around, and he only stops wagging to sleep! He will make a great pet for some lucky family.

Hot times in the city!

Ladies and Gentlemen it has been a fun filled week at Chez Jersey. Monday was obedience school. Madison seems to be doing well. We haven't practiced very much this week, which is totally my fault. I have a feeling we won't get good grades tomorrow. After obedience we went out for Cinquo De Mayo dinner with our friend Stephen. the folks at Sol Azteca were so kind as to give us the drink special and to let us close the place down. I thoughroughly enjoyed my chicken chimichunga.

Wednesday night was the Paws Rescue meeting. We got together to discuss the puppies and kittens we are currently housing as well as fundraising, advertising, and other issues. There are several new pets taken in recently - check them out online. I have several favorites - I just hope someone takes them into a loving home. After our meeting the Leigh's, Alissa, and I met JR and went out to dinner. Always a fun time! I think JR enjoys looking like a pimp at a table wtih 4 women ;-) I don't blame him!!! I definitely owe JR and Alissa for watching the girls when I went to Philly - I think I'll be returning the favor and watching their cats when they go to NY next week.



Thursday I hit the town! We went to the Warehouse Lobby for a drink to celebrate the safe return of Julie and Tommy from their recent deployment to Iraq. Unfortunately one of the guests of honor couldn't make it, so we plan to repeat the fun next week! After the martini bar we wandered over to the sports bar to grab a bite to eat. Apparently the lounge serves food, but it is more along the lines of meat and cheese plates rather than FOOD. The sports bar continues to increase their menu. I'm happy to see these things happening in our tiny town!


Friday night my friend Vern came to town, so I joined some of our friends and we grilled out. Vern used to work with me until he decided to return to his native land of Slidell, LA. He is really happy to have made the change, but I still miss him. This is how small town we are: Vern's best friend from college is Will. Will is married to Carolyn. Carolyn was the college roomate of my coworker Haley. Will's brother Chase is also good friends with Vern, and works with me now. 3 Degrees, if that! Gotta Love it.

Saturday was a fun day! I pulled out the old lawnmower (I really need to give her a name- any suggestions?) and hit the lawn. I also did some hedge/bush trimming and sprayed some poisonous bushes. I brought Stephen's dog, Astro, over to play with the girls while he was out of town. They played, and played, and then played some more. I think that it will take about a week of sleep for them to catch up! Later in the evening I headed over to Al and Christina's for the annual "it's not hot yet" cookout. True to form, it was warm, but not hot yet. The others brought their dogs, but I decided to keep the girls at home since they were tired from a day of play. It was a good thing I left the dogs at home - 8 dogs in the back yard would have been a bit much! For my contribution to the potluck i brought Golden-lemon crusted tomatoes. They turned out pretty darn yummy if I may so. It was the first time I made them, and I enjoyed! I've decided that since I'm an eating right kick - I'm only allowed to bring things to potlucks that I will be OK with bringing home and eating if there are lots of leftovers. Gone are the days of pans of brownies.

Golden Lemon-Crumb Tomatoes
½ cup plain fresh soft breadcrumbs
2 tbl snipped fresh parsley
½ tsp dried basil, crumbled
½ tsp gated lemon zest
2 ounces fat free feta cheese crumbled
Vegetable oil spray
2 large tomatoes. Halved crosswise
1 ½ tb fresh lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a small bowl, stir together breadcrumbs, parsley, basil, and lemon zest. Toss gently. Add the feta and toss gently
3. Spray bottom of a pan with vegetable oil spray. Place tomato halves in the pie pan. Spoon lemon juice over the halves. Top the tomatoes with the breadcrumb mixture. Liberally spray with vegetable oil spray.
4. Bake for 30 minutes or until tomatoes are tender when pierced with a fork and beginning to brown lightly.
5. Sprinkle with salt. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Where can you find a girl like me?

So this weekend was the big Vicksburg Riverfest. It is a highlight of our year - an oppertunity to play downtown. Saturday afternoon there was an arts and crafts fair on the streets around city hall with all sorts of good fair food downtown. I hit it with Angela. The primary goal of our trip was to get food. I had the fried eggplant - not as good as I remember it being. Since it didn't do it for me I also had a polish sausage from the Whistle Stop Cafe (remember Fried Green Tomatoes?). It was fabulous. I ate half then and half later.. which begs the response, you know you are a redneck when place a pork product in your purse to eat more later! In support of local crafters etc. I bought an apron. It was yellow with a blue toile print - perfect for the yellow and blue kitchen I will have one day... Need to get on top of that one. I also got to see my friends from Paws Pet Rescue, the organization that fostered Madison and her siblings. I will say it again, don't "buy" a pet, resuce one - they can be so loveable.

Later in the evening we hit the RICK SPRINGFIELD concert. Yes, you read it correctly, 80's hearthrob RICK SPRINGFIELD! He was our main entertainment for the night. I gotta say, for a guy his age, he is doing pretty well. I was amused, although the only song I knew was Jessie's gir. Still, it was fun. I've got some pictures of Rick to post. We were right up near the stage towards the end of the show! It was a hoot and a half!!

Tonight Madison and I went to Obedience Class. I have to say, I'm really starting to enjoy it. I am seeing that with a little guidance we can become great mamma and puppy. Madison and I are beginning to do pretty well. Thus far we are working on heeling, sitting, come, stay, and down. She is getting pretty good with heel and sit. She is pretty good with stay. Come and down are our biggest challenges right now. We'll be doing our homework this week! I have to say that 4 weeks ago I never would have thought that I could have her in a sit stay, and stand about 2.5 feet away with 4 other dogs in a circle around us. I think Madison really enjoys the classes too - it is her oppertunity to spend time one on one with me. She never turns down an opperutnity for treats or love. Unfortunately, Daisy doesn't enjoy being left at home alone. But, now that it is springtime she is getting plenty of play time with me. She is turning into a pretty good little fetcher herself!

Hot times in Downtown Vicksburg

We had a busy little Saturday. This weekend we are watching my friend Amanda's Dog. Amanda and her family are currently in Orlando Florida on their family vacation. The girls are having a blast in sensory overload at the Magic Kingdom. Allie Dog is a 7 year old Greyhound. I was a little nervous to see how things would go, but she has been able to play the old lady card with the my pups. She is a couch potato, so while they mud wrestle and body slam one another she calmly lies and rolls her eyes at them.

Our morning had a little delayed start. We relaxed and watched some TV. There wasn't anything of real interest on TV, so we watched our 12th Night gift: the He-Man She-Ra Christmas Movie. It was about as cheesy as I remember it being. I did a little housework while the dogs enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was so nice that Daisy Dogg didn't want to come inside. I totally don't blame her!

I headed over to Lorelei Books to catch a book igning. I was really excited by this. Lorelei is a new bookstore in town. It is the first independent bookseller in Vicksburg in Decades. They took an old building on the main drag and rennovated the bottom floor into this cute little bookstore. It is ideally located next door to our coffee shop too! this was my first trip into Lorelei. A little girl was doing a book signing for a book she wrote, her mom illustrated, and they got published. It is a really cute book, Holly's Halo, about how she dealt with her dog dying. A portion of the proceeds from each sale went to Paws Rescue, the organization I adopted Madison from. It was really nifty! The signing was taped and they will cut a video from it to show on our local access network. I even got interviewed to discuss adopting a dog from a rescue organization! So, if you are watching Channel 23 don't be surprised if you see me. Of course, I dont' get Channel 23 since I have directv, so you can tell me I sounded good, even if I didn't.

I really enjoyed being able to go to a book store in town, even if it wasn't huge. The owners are really nice - we chatted for a long while. It turns out that there are a few book clubs forming in Vicksburg. I've always wanted to be in a book club, so I filled out the paperwork, and I belive I will be joining one. A chapter of a nationwide book club, The Pulpwood Queens, has just started up here in town. They will be reading The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair- THompson for next month. I'm looking forward to it already!! Plus, I got a list of other new and noteworthy books that I can't wait to tear through. This could get in the way of my disseration!!!

After the book store I went to the new(ish) coffee shop for the first time. It is pretty cute. I need to go spend some tiem there on Saturdays. I am all about supporting our local businesses. the day concluded wtih a quick stop at the least local business in town, Walley-World, were I stocked up on some new dog toys. The girls had killed most of their toys. They have this one favorite toy - they have gone through 3 of the so far. They adore it, so I keep replacing it! I'm such a sucker.