Sunday laziness

Yesterday started my return to working Saturdays. I only worked a half day, but it was work none the less. David picked me up before lunch and we went to the Pitt game. I enjoyed my first ACC game - and Pitt defeated Wake Forest handily. We finished off the day with a visit to The Strip District, which is definitely my favorite part of the city. We picked up some awesome dry goods at Penn Mac (and some smoked mozzarella ravioli and cheese curds) and fresh tortillas from Renyas. Yum!

Today was a lazy-ish day - yoga and major dog walking followed by a yummy dinner of lasagna rolls!

Tour de Lebo between the two dogs. The time is embarrassing, but they are slowpoke sniffers. 

We de-Christmased the house and rearranged the living room. I think D likes her new hidey hole. 

Frick Park

It was a gorgeous spring afternoon so we headed to the dog park.  The dogs double deserved it since they didn't get much of a walk when I overslept this morning.  We went over to Frick Park, one of the three large parks in town.  Frick is more natural and wooded -- lots of rolling terrain that looks great for picnicing, trails, and an off-leash area for the quadrapeds.  JG's had  a great time.  It had been so long since they had played with other dogs that they didn't really play too too much with others. They were more interested in going sniffing without me pulling them back.  Whatever, it tired them out and they had fun!

Mt. Washington Mist

It was a gorgeous morning with gorgeous foggy mist on Mt. Washington in the distance as I walked to work today.

A walk in the park

We have taken lots of walks along the river front. 

Today we scared lots of geese and goslinges into the water.  not exactly sure why???

We tired ourselves out and had a little sitdown at the Confluence of the the three rivers.

Daisy was so tired out when we got back that she flopped over in the hall waiting for the elevator.

All in all, a fun time!

A beautiful weekend

This weekend my mom came down to visit for easter. We had a fun little weekend.

She arrived on the train on friday afternoon. It was a little late since the frieght train ahead of them hit a truck, causing a 2 hour delay. After she got into town we headed to the Flowood shopping district. Unfortunately the grand-puppies had finished up their treats this week, which is a major tragedy at 721 Lake Forest dr. A short stop at Petsmart solved that problem. Friday night we enjoyed a nice, traditional 'southern' dinner at Walnut Hills, a.k.a. Round Table. it was qutie complete, including fried dill pickles and ranch dipping sauce and fried chicken. Mmmm

Saturday was a lazy affair - we hit the park in the late morning. We took the dogs over to the Vicksburg military park and took a little hike. unfortnatley, it was a bit warm for the furry ladies, and they got quite warm. luckily, I had some water with me and we stopped at the Illinois monument for a little rest. You can see that the girls found the one piece of midday shade and cozied up on in it. They also made a point of hugging the nice cool limestone wall. I can't blame them - I got a little sunburnt myself!

We followed up with a trip to the boutiques of downtown Vicksburg. Mom fell in love with my favorite store, Twigs. We took a nice long stop at my other favorite store, Lorelei books. We spent a long while chatting with Laura, the owner. She is so sweet, and obviously knows her books. I would love to be that well versed in what I've read! We ende the evening with Chinee takeout and Babysiting. Unfortunately Amanda's babysitter dropped off the planet, so I offered to fill in. They brought Virginia over and we played for a while before she hit the hay. Madison was a bit overwhelming to Virginia -- her energy level is too high for me some days. So, the puppies played outside while we had our baby time.

Sunday the Easter bunny visited and brought mom some sugar free candy! wasn't that sweet of him? Who knew he visited even when you aren't in your own home!?!?!? We went to the Ameristar and gorged ourselves on the champagne brunch. The food there is excellen, and the desserts are even better!!! we drove by the Vickburg Murals, a cool new addition to the 'Burg. We finished the afternoon off with a little yard work and I took mom to Jackson to catch her train home.

The puppies enjoyed having grandma here - they were exhausted after the end of her visit!!! So did their mom come to think of it. And yes, if you were wondring, it was Wonderful to eat cheese again! Who cares about chocolate, I wanted cheese!!!!

Kitchen Escapades

tried a new recipe this weekend. it gets given the checkmark of acceptance - it will be repeated. this one was a Sausage and Beans recipe out of the Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook. I'm loving this book! This recipe was reminiscent of Red beans and rice, but didn't have the cajun seasoning.

In unrelated news, the weather is fabulous. I can't believe it was snowing two days ago. today the high was about 65 degrees? I tried to take the dogs on a walk. It was a complete disaster. We walked out the door and nearly got attacked/tried to attack another dog. The entire walk they were pulling themselve. You would think that they had never been on a walk before. We had to stop and sit several times because they were panting so badly. In fact, Madison was at the point where she was panting and white tongue turned into slightly blue tongue. Apparently we can't handle walking any more.

For those parties interested in these types of things, the recipe follows--
Ingredients

• 1 lb fresh sausage such as turkey italian sausage or 1 lb smoked or full cooked sausage such as bratwurst, chicken apple sausage, or kielbaa
• 1/4 water if using fresh sausage
• 2 tbl olive oil
• 2 small bell pepers, seeded and cut into strips
• 1 medium ellow onion chopped
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 1- 15 ounce can white beans (great northern, butter beans, or cannellini) rinsed and drained
• 1- 15 ounce can red beans, such as small red or kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, with thier juice
• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• salt and frehly ground black pepper to taste

1. Lighly brown sausage in ungreased skillet over medium heat. If fresh add water, voer, and cook until cooked through. uncover and cook for a few minutes more.
2. Let cool and slice
3. Warm oil over medium heat. Add peppers, onion, and garlic. cook, stirring, until just tender.
4. Transfer to slow cooker adding sausage, beans, tomatoes, and wine. cover and cook on high 3-4 hours, or on low 6-8 hours. ear the end check consitence and cook with the lid off to thicken if desired. Season and serve.

The weekend, Bring it on

It is pretty common for us to walk around the lake and see deer tracks over by the dam. I know that we live ‘out in the count’, and I know that there is undeveloped land practically around the corner. I try to remember to be careful when coming home from work around dusk. But, the other night I had a crazy experience. I was coming home late at night. I was in my subdivision, not three houses up the road, when I noticed the neighborhood dogs running around. I said, gee those are some big dogs, that looks bigger than the tan dog from across the street. Suddenly, the realization hits me, it isn’t a pack of dogs, it is three deer running across the street! Thank God I wasn’t five seconds earlier or the Camry would be toast.

We had some beautiful weather here in the ‘burg. This evening the girls and I went for a little walk around the lake. Everyone is starting to take advantage of this weather to get things done. We stopped to chat with the family next door for a few minutes – it turns out we go to the same church. A couple of weeks ago I followed them to mass, and recently she had notice me at church. We are really starting to fit in around Lake Forest. On the way back around we got to stop by and talk with our other next door neighbor. Luckily, he hadn’t even noticed the excessive dog barking lately. I wish that were the case for me. He has noticed that our neighbor out back has put up a spotlight that shines directly into our back yards – not so cool for trying to sleep at night.

It has been a productive day in the Jersey house. I didn’t do the yard work that the weather was asking me to do. Instead, I started to finish off last weekend’s paint job. The minute I decided to put an offer in on the homestead I had a few visions of thing I wanted to do. Today I finally put my living room paint vision into practice – painting the beams in the vaulted ceiling to set them off from the ceiling. I never had any doubts that it would look good, but it looks even better than I thought it would. It really defines the room. I don’t understand how the previous owners thought that it was a good idea to paint it any other way!!! You need to check it out! I’ll be posting pics soon.

Busy little Bees

It has been a fun time in Vicksburg lately! This weekend was happening! Saturday afternoon was an exciting time. I spent the afternoon working my booty off in the back yard. After several weekends of work I finally got the fenced in portion of the back yard cleaned of leaves. The crazy thing - there was more grass under there than i thought! While there is plent of mud, there is some real green stuff out there too. The girls had a ball with me in the yard. They didn't even need to play with me, they were just happy to roll around in the dirt and lie in the sun.

Saturday evening I moseied over to Jackson, and hit the PetSmart for a crapload of food. The spoiled babies got new toys too. I hit the Borders while I was over that direcion. We enjoyed a delicious dinner over at Keifer's. Keifer's is a fantabulous place over in Jackson. They have great food - all sorts of greek/midle eastern foods. The hummus was absolutely to die for, and the gyros are pretty tasty too. The cottage fries are crazy huge! The atmosphere there is great - they have this awesome patio, and sometimes they have live music.

Sunday was yet another productiv day. I finally hit the paint wagon again. Over the course of the long afternoon I was able to paint the ceiling in the living room. I even started on part of the trim. It will definitely look nice when it is done!

This afternoon I had to cut out of work a little early to take Ms. M. to the vet. She has a nasty rash on her belly. When it itches she starts scratching it and it gets really infcted if I'm not careful. It is pretty bad right now. Hopefully it will get better soon. She has a bunch of drugs to try to get her straight. In honor of our productive weekend we took a walk around the lake this afternoon. If I don't walk them fairly often, they start to act like they have never been outdoors before.

Back to the Basics

It has been a while since I've had a book to blog about. Between the house and my qualifying exam i haven't been the avid reader i would like to be. I have a few from Christmas that I read and should probably put up here. For the time being I would like to discuss Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear.

This is the first in a seres of mystery/novels centering on the Maisie Dobbs character. I would classify it as more of a novel than a mystery based on the way it read to me. The novel is set in Lonon/Kent, England. The "Current" day Maisie is a psychologist and investigator in London approximately 10 years after the conclusion of WWI. A series of flashbacks occur as a method by which the backstory unfolds. In this book Maisie has just set out to start her career in detecting. It was a fairly amiable read -- rather easygoing. The book didn't result in any super fabulous insights, however, I it was entertaining and gave cause to consier how one's upbringing and station in life affects verything. It also reminded me to think of the issues associated with war - the emotional scars of WWI sometiems outweighed the physical scars, a well as the fact that everyone is affected by battle, not just the soldier who sees it but also his family, friends, and even complete strangers. These are lessons that we shoul probably ponder considering the current state of affairs in the US with the War on Terror.

In going back to the basics i would also like to comment that we are enjoying some unseasonable weather. I'm trying not to get to used to it since we are still in February. Saturday afternoon I took the puppies on a walk in the Military Park again. We decid to up our mileage to the 3 mile, South Loop. It is always a nice walk. It is crazy to consider how close we are to civilization when you realize how clsoe you are to the Interstate, yet, the park is so serene and natural (monuments not withstanding). This afternoon we didn't brave the park, but rather walked around our subdivision. I added a little leg to our walk around the lake. Using a nifty tool I read about elsewhere I am now able to esimate my milage wherever I walk. G-map pedometer is so cool! Some computery people took the google map software and developed algorithms whereby a person can put in a starting locatoin, pinpoint any waypoints and get their mileage. Since I walk a lot of rather curvy roads following the ridgeline in the park, I need a lot of waypoints! Same with the neighborhood. I hightly reccomend it for runners, walkers, cyclers, etc. who want to guestimate their mileage when hitting the road.

A walk in the park...

Today Daisy, Madison and I took a walk in the Military Park. It was a pretty day, and the warm side of the temperatures got to a point where we could actually walk outdoors. Lately we've been walking around the neighborhood lake, which is about a 1.25 mile walk - sometimes adding a sidestreet in. Since we had the day off and housework wasn't calling my name, we went to the park.


One of the few beauties of living in VIcksburg is that we have this huge military park with 16+ miles of trails in the middle of town. For the low rate of $20/year I can get unlimited access to the park. We re-newed and hit the trails. 2.75 miles later, after enduring the Lousinia hill (it is HORRIBLE - try it and you'll regret it), we returned to the car.


It was a fun walk - we got to see some deer - a doe and her fawn. The dogs got to sniff a million new things. This was also the first time I tried the park with both pups. Actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The pups were EXHAUSTED when we got home. They ate their supper and went to pass out. I guess they are feeling it just as much as me. We'll be hitting Vicksburg and all of the local parks in the upcomming weekends in an effort to get into shape for the Annual Run Through History! This was what they looked like when i was making my supper! Tired little girls.

By the way - wasn't this a wonderful way for them to get out of bathtime. Every time I consider throwing them in the tub I hear a sigh come out of one of them. Such spoiled babies! Right now they are sleeping on my feet, keeping me warm, and snoring away. What a hard life!