Riblet.



After seeing Best In Show a couple of years ago, I found out about AKC registered dog names. I didn't quite understand it until we had to fill out Heylove's AKC paperwork. We tossed around some ideas for weeks and finally settled on:
Canter's Black N White Cookie
Still pending approval from the AKC, but I think they'll let us have it.

So here she is, our little black and white cookie, riblet, Heylove.

Stable of Friends 3



This is Loofy Dog.

Loofy is quickly clibming the ladder of popularity with Heylove. He's very long, and if he could stand, he would be about 14 inches tall. Heylove loves to straddle him and bite his nose. The unique thing about Loofy is that he has two squeekers! One, high-pitched squeeker is in his nose, and one sad, low-pitched squeeker is in his tail. Sometimes you'll hear a sad, low squeek coming from Heylove's crate and you just know that Loofy is having a tough time in there.

Stable Part 2



This is Giraffey.

He's special too. He currently holds a high spot in the hirearchy of Heylove's babies (read: toys), but he is not the most favorite. Giraffey was a bargain from Walgreens, and appears to be made by Animal Planet which is Heylove's favorite network, next to CNN Headline News. Giraffey is easily 3 x taller than Heylove, but she has no trouble "killing" him during their play sessions. While his legs and fuzzy tail make great chew spots, she actually loves the Animal Planet tag the most.

He is a basic squeaker. Heylove prefers her plush toys to make a little noise.

Heylove's stable of friends.



This is Piggy.

He is very special. As you can tell he's kinda been around the block. Currently he holds the honor of being Heylove's favorite baby. She has nearly chewed his tail off, but I think she favors his nose. Leon thinks that Piggy is Heylove's favorite because she thinks Piggy comes alive in his hands. I think that it's because Piggy makes the most offensive, highest-pitched squeek of all the plush toys. She threw up on Piggy once, but I think that it only made their bond stronger.

For her to poop on.



The reason why puppies are so cute is so that you don't get too angry when they accidentally get poop on your sleeve.

Late resolutions.



Some things I plan to do this year:

learn how to play poker
learn a little photoshop
take more photographs & post them here
make a vegetable garden
plant ornamental grasses and lavender in the front yard
get my music collection filed and put away in order
go camping finally
see some snow before it melts
take the next Spanish class
and because I have to....re-join the gym

Vegetarian Menudo.

Photo coming soon.

Here is a very basic recipe for vegetarian menudo that my dad came up with. I grew up with him making the real deal with the tripe (no patas in our version), though I always picked the meat out anyway. This is a great breakfast soup, full-bodied and spicy.

Vegetarian Menudo

1 29 oz can of hominy
Enough vegetable broth cubes to make 6 cups of broth
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 1/2 tablespoons of New Mexico chili powder or similar chili powder, but not the kind with cinnamon in it
1/2 tablespoon of mexican oregano, ground

Start with a 2 quart sauce pan and add in the entire can of hominy and liquid from the can. Refill the can about 3/4 the way full with cold water and add that to the pot with heat on medium. Add in vegetable cubes, crush in garlic and add spices and stir. Simmer and stir occasionally until hot, just barely boiling. Turn heat to low and simmer about 5-8 more minutes. Serve with garnishes like fresh chopped cilantro, diced white onion, lemon wedges, more ground oregano and warm corn tortillas on the side.

This could be made vegan if you choose vegan vegetable cubes.

For no other reason.

Things that are bothering me right now:

Dry hands
Cold office
Sore throat
Ate too much lunch
Bad hair day
Nothing good to listen to
So and so

There.

You brute!

Here's me shaking my fist at you...you stupid animal behaviorist!

So I was totally freaking out about my puppy's biting because this one book I was reading had me completly in a fear-state. "If your puppy does not learn bite inhibition by x weeks, they'll never learn it!" So, my puppy is quickly approaching this supposed "developmental deadline" and the no-bite training is still a work in progress. After talking to some friends who raised dogs from their puppy stages, which the books I'm reading stongly suggest not to do, everyone basically says, "oh yeah, I remember the biting stage. It takes a while to break them of that. Like months."

I feel about 200 x better now and so does my puppy because I'm not demanding that she learn something really hard to grasp in one week, when it should take a lot longer.

Ooo-fronting

I watched a program on pbs about american regional slang and pronunciation. This topic facinates me! I learned about California ooo-fronting. It's the distinctive way that most of us West Coasters pronounce words like do, sue, blue and true...which is at the front of the mouth. Aha.

Now it's time for the weekend stats:

Nights went out: 1, Sunday to Centro.
Homebrews drunk: 2, I think.
Delicious breakfasts cooked: 1.
Crayon-sized puppy poops cleaned up: too many to count.
Episodes of 24 watched: 3.5.

Don't let me forget to listen to Ice Cube on Fresh Air today!!

I'm getting so boring. Please send help....or social activity.

We are human nylabones

Remember how I was gushing about the puppy? I still love her to bits, but she's chewed my heart into a million pieces. She's been biting us, hard. She drew blood on Leon at least 4 times already and it doesn't seem to be getting better. We're doing everything that the books tell us to. Yelp, have a time out, leave the room. The yelping seems to freak her out and then she bites harder. The time outs and leaving the room just direct her attention to other items in the room we leave her in like her bedding or her wee-wee pad. I really feel like these methods are just not working at all. Am I being impatient? How long is this supposed to take?

Pasta in the manner of a call girl.



This is the spaghetti puttanesca that I made last night, served with a nice Villa Antenori Chianti. I have it for lunch today too, except the wine. Maybe I'll have Pepsi instead.

It came out quite yummy. Three cheers for Everyday Food!

Bitey.



Our sweet little Heylove has a new fascination. Biting. We're trying everything, yelping, leaving the room, calming sessions, but she's not responding like the books and internet say she should. At least not as quickly as we'd like her to.

Like this.

And this.

It's certainly frustrating. I wish I could get the Dog Whisperer out to our place to see if we're doing this wrong. The little squirt is so cute, but her teeth are so needle sharp and she's drawn blood on more than one occasion.