Tag Archives: dogs

Four Girls Four

Posted on March 27, 2010 by tdl1501| 3 Comments

This girl group (I should say ladies’ group) was composed of Rosemary Clooney, Rose Marie, Helen O’Connell and Margaret Whiting.

They were fantastic singing classic big band and other songs, and I was lucky to see them in the early 1980′s at Chautauqua. Tonight I’m surrounded by Two Guys Two, my husband and a work pal are here, for the weekend for skiing (not my Jim). I’m working on dishes and while they set up a movie, they start into total work mode and start talking tech.

In the midst of the work conversation and had settled on a movie, I broke in and told them I’d been to a seminar this past week. We learned that while the Greater Sandhill Cranes mated for life, one guy asked why the male bird had to show his feathers for the gal every year. I said it was like dinner and a movie. Most people laughed.

While we’ve been together over eight years (seven married) it’s always interesting to meet fellow colleagues. Yes. it is always better to have other guys, gals/wives around for a social event. At home, taking care of weekend guests, it’s different.

It’s always a treat to have guests here, we wouldn’t have had an extra bedroom except to have people visit us in this gorgeous location. Several folks have and it’s always good to see them, cook for them, and see them off.

Now there are folks who want to kick us off this place and we don’t want to leave. What I hate more is that someone who sees me regularly on a public route with my dog on a leash (when his is not) goes home and has wife send a letter saying we’re not allowed to have a dog.

This morning I picked up a beer can that had been buried in the snow and put it in the trash, my dear husband shoveled the trail himself after he got home from work yesterday, and now I’m wondering why we’re such bad neighbors. After all, our dog is six now and we’ve had her six years so why are we supposed to get rid of her to pay a fortune for a lovely home that we care for diligently, and are recognized as great neighbors.

It would be nice to just have a break, to be recognized for being good neighbors and not be ostracized by one couple for having a friendly, special needs dog who does nothing to hurt anyone. Hope y’all are having a good weekend. We enjoyed our long drive today! Cheers, Dee

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For the Dog Who Has Everything…

Posted on November 16, 2009 by tdl1501| Leave a comment

Do you remember your grandmother’s ice cream machine? A big wooden tub that encased a small can, which was hand-cranked (the kids lined up for that one) or electric. She placed ice and rock salt around the metal can inside the wooden enclosure. Why salt? To make the ice colder and freeze the delicious blueberry (or whatever) ice cream was inside.

As we settle into our first long winter of deep snows, one ski resort is already open. We anticipate much plowing will be done and also, the HOA here is salt-happy. What happens when your dog goes out on ice and snow saturated with rock salt? Her paws freeze and she limps until the hurt is gone, then when she arrives home, even after toweling off she licks her paws.

There are two solutions: booties, which most dogs hate and I can’t imagine doing that first thing in the morning; and a new trick we’ve found out from neighbors, paw wax. We can’t find it at the local pet stores so had to get it online, it should arrive later this week. Looks like it’s going to be a very cold but sunny, snow-free week so if we stick to the trails instead of driveways and roads, she should be OK.

So, what do you get for the pup in northern climes? Try paw wax. We ordered a brand called Mushers and will let you know how it works. Zoe didn’t understand why it took me so long to get ready this morning in 13 degree Farenheit weather. It was the boots! Coat, hat, gloves, but my feet were protected by socks and boots and hers aren’t, at least until later this week. Oh, I gave away her grosgrain ribbon jingle bell collar to a pup last year, so we got her a green velvet one with golden bells. She has to be bathed and groomed before we take her photo with that collar!

I’m still trying to find a capon. There’s a new farmers’ market in walking distance, indoors. I bought a “culotte” of lamb, that is frozen. I’m going to thaw it out later in the week, marinate it in good olive oil, garlic, rosemary and perhaps some balsamic vinegar and we’ll grill it. It’s local lamb. I also bought a fresh loaf of artisan cranberry-orange bread that I immediately wrapped and froze for either cranberry trifle or bread pudding. It may become the base of a Thanksgiving dessert.

I made pizza last night, from scratch of course. It was very good and we still have an entire pizza left over to heat up another night. I wanted to make roasted winter squash soup today but may run out of time as I’ve been cleaning and doing loads and loads of laundry, winter jackets and all. Fabric softener in the wash seems to make a difference. Right now inside is 23% humidity, a desert-like environment in which skin dries and cracks and electricity crackles every time I touch something or take off a sweater. Let’s hope this helps.

Thanks for tuning in to the early winter edition of Dee’s mountain cooking blog! Cheers, Dee

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Farewell, Molly

Posted on August 16, 2009 by tdl1501| 2 Comments

Ms. Molly said goodbye to the world she’s had with Val and family for 32 years, today. The horse that was bought by Jim’s grandfather, who died many years ago. The trouble is, our cousin and vet and Zoe’s hip surgeon had to do it herself. I’ve helped several of my pets go to the beyond when they were unable to lead anything resembling a normal life, but this is too much to bear. I had to watch a vet, she is one.

Most people kick children out of the nest at 18 or 21. This horse was hers for 32 years. Val is a strong woman, as a vet she works on small and large animals all the time, but Molly was always there.

We thank Val the Vet and our same cousin for taking such good care of our Zoe, who has no hips but made her own. We wish Val and her family well overcoming this loss while we are assuaged by knowing that several of Molly’s offspring are moving up in endurance racing and there’s a “grandson” who also shows promise in that regard.

My husband won’t miss Molly much because when she was pregnant the first time and the foal started kicking, she thought it was Jim, and it wasn’t but she kicked him nonetheless. Every time he visited the farm she hated him. That’s his story. I still don’t think he’s glad that she’s gone. I will tell you in no uncertain terms that this horse is not going to dog meat. I hope she’ll be buried near Pork Chop. In memoriam, Dee

RIP Molly, Dee

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Texas

Posted on March 6, 2009 by tdl1501| 2 Comments

Dee’s Texas Journal
Sunday, May 09, 2004

Happy Mother’s Day!

It’s funny how someone gets married, or has a baby, or gets a dog, and everything changes. Well we’ve now done the married and puppy things and life is really different.

And so is Texas. After we went to Paris (the Texas one) for Jim’s brother John’s surprise birthday party last month we enjoyed the wildflowers everywhere, en route and here in Austin. We have walked among the infamous Texas bluebonnets, black-eyed susans, and others that were on display for all to see.

The most Texan things that come to mind over the past few weeks include music; receiving presents in the form of CD’s of Lyle Lovett and Jerry Jeff Walker. While we love them we are balancing our lives with some Cheryl Crow, Norah Jones and an old Dave Mason. I try to add to Jim’s work CD selection as needed.

We are enjoying time with our new pup, Zoe. She is growing so fast; fifteen weeks old and smart as a whip. She is selectively obedient. Indoors she fetches, sits, lies down and comes when called. Outside, we may as well forget all of it. Like a cattle dog, she lies 1/3 of the way of a Lab’s route to her ball, and chases the dog in. At least she is being socialized with other dogs and people.

This past week Zoe found the glass doors of the fireplace and, looking into them, whined to see the puppy on the other side! After weeks of going out on our patio with the bird feeder in place, she just realized that there are birds out there!

All of this makes one appreciate life. I certainly enjoy my life with Jim, and Zoe, with its inevitable ups and downs.

Next weekend Jim and I are going on a Magical Mystery Date, the first “date” of ours that I’ve engineered. All Jim knows is that we will be within a two-hour drive of Austin, for two nights, and that Zoe is going into a kennel for the first time so that we can be by ourselves. Don’t worry, dog lovers, we went there to check out the kennel and she’ll be outside on a farm for 7-8 hours per day.

Notes from today: Our magical date was a fiasco of epic proportions. It was at a downtown hotel where we ended up with a corporate party room with a Murphy bed, our car broke down en route and we were late for the boat tour and had spent all cash on the car and the boat didn’t accept credit cards, the ATM at the hotel broke, you get the idea. We went on a bat tour to see the 750,000 Mexican freetail bats head out at night for food. We only saw about 3,000. [I'm bat-cursed as we've done this again and no bats came out when Jim's grandmother visited and we took her out on the paddleboat tour.]

The next morning at the hotel I heard the bats come back en masse to the Congress Street Bridge at 5:30 a.m. I didn’t have the heart to awaken Jim. Letting him sleep was the least I could do, as we still had to take a taxi to pick up our fixed car. Cheers, Dee

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