Big Girl

When we adopted Zoey, she was kennel trained. So we bought her a kennel. She has lived in a kennel while we have been at work or away every day since then. We have talked off and on about giving her the run of the house, but we have heard and read that dogs are used to routines and if you mess with it, they have the tendency to wreck havoc. So, she has remained in the kennel. I used to feel guilty, but on days when we are home you can often find her in the kennel, so obviously she doesn't mind. Until last Thursday.

I was the first one home and went downstairs to let her out. I heard the usual thump-thump of her tail against the plastic sides. When I rounded the corner, I stopped. She had somehow managed to rotate the kennel so I was looking at the back, not the side. And here, in the back she had chewed a gigantic hole! In one day! When Ben got home we discussed our options. We decided to let her have a little freedom to see how she does.

We moved her kennel and one of her beds along with some toys into our mud room. We put away all of our shoes and any other "temptations." When we left for work we locked her in there. When I got home from work, she was happy to see me (as always) and everything looked fine (we were concerned that she would scratch up the doors). So for now, she has her own little room for while we are away.

Changing subjects... Yesterday I was looking for a good-for-you soup that would use ingredients that I had on hand. I came up with this one: Jacob's Middle Eastern Lentil Soup. I doubled the recipe, added 1 pound of cooked ground beef and omitted the lemon juice. It was pretty tasty! Although, we both had to sprinkle some salt on top.

Sighting

This morning I was sitting at a stop light. I saw a huge bird flying towards me (well, in my direction at least). I watched it approach because I was curious to see what kind it was. When it got closer it looked like it had a white head. I think it was an eagle! How cool is that?

(Unrelated) The other night I decided to use up some of the extra shrimp from Monday night. I decided to doctor up a recipe that a friend gave me. It is very simple and I think it's tasty. The original recipe is:

1 pound whole grain pasta
1 package edamame (shelled)
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
some water to thin out the sauce

I added the shrimp to the sauce and soybeans. It was very tasty! The funny thing was that when I asked Ben what he thought, he asked why I put the edamame in it.

Seven Years

On Monday, Ben and I celebrated seven years of marital bliss. We went out to lunch with David and Heather (who were celebrating their one year). We went to Bahn Thai. Yum! When I got home there was a huge bouquet of roses waiting for me. We decided to stick with our commitment to eat at home, so we went to Costco and Byerly's to pick up some food. I don't think we saved much money, but we had fun and I'm sure it was better for us. Here was our menu:

1st Course: Fancy pants cheese, raisins and wine
2nd Course: Crab Cakes
3rd Course: Peel and eat shrimp, bread and some more wine (same bottle)
4th Course: Freshly baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and milk

We also watched "Sweet Home Alabama." Ben didn't really like it, but he was a good sport.

YIPEE!!!

The crew on the freighter made it!!!!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/09/13/ike.rescue/index.html

Worst Feeling

I've been kind of watching the news about Hurricane Ike. Today I read a bit about a freighter that is stuck in the path of the storm. It was trying to get to shore but the engines failed. I just walked by the TV and the rescue attempt has been called off for safety reasons. It must be the worst feeling to know that you are stuck and a storm is coming. Please pray for the 22 on board on their families...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/09/12/hurricane.ike.texas/index.html

Peaches!

Every year a lady at work sells Colorado Peaches as a fundraiser for her community. Last year I split a crate with a friend. They were so good that I decided to buy a whole crate this year. Boy, that's a lot of peaches! Ben is convinced that we won't be able to eat them all. He may be right. So we decided on some peach experiments in the kitchen...

First thing we tried was a peach smoothie. It was pretty tasty. We didn't have the vanilla soy milk, so we used regular milk and a splash of vanilla. The only problem with this experiment was our equipment... we realized that our blender doesn't work. So I made it using a food processor. It worked ok, but there were still ice chunks and there was a little too much smoothie and it started to ooze out the side.

Then we tried peach salsa. It turned to be a longer project than we had thought. Turns out it takes a long time to chop everything! We used only three cups of peaches and two pounds of tomatoes. It's not very tomatoey, so next time we may add even more tomatoes. It's got a little kick (at least I think so) but it's pretty darn good. Since we were running low on time (Chuck, Michelle, Liam and Grant were over for dinner) we didn't can the salsa. And I'm not sure if we will. Due to using less peaches, we don't have the volume we expected, so I think we will just eat it. :)

Our last peach experiment is slated for this afternoon - Peach Lemonade. I'm looking forward to it!