Poppies

Spring time means poppies everywhere, even on our berm. There are less than some years, but still, it's a nice pop of color.
Via BlackBerry

Down to two

I just found out that our neighbor Lou had to have her dog Rhy put to sleep on Monday. We knew he wasn't doing very well, but at the end of last week, he was still wandering around the neighborhood. If you've ever been to our house & walked to the beach with us, you know Rhy. He was the golden retriever/chow mix that lived a few houses down on the left. He kept busy investigating the street, and we always thought of him as a "Zen" dog. He was very quiet - never heard him bark, and he used to sit in the front yard, very quiet and contemplative like, just watching the world go by. He was a sweet boy and we'll miss him. That means our boys, as $$ as they are, are the last two dogs on the street...

Beautiful Sunday

This was Sunday at Still Waters winery. Beautiful sunny spring day. The vines still look like they are sleeping, but I'm sure that will change soon. It was Zin fest weekend so we came later in the day and were happy to see that the crowds had gone. Not a bad place to spend the last hours of a weekend!
Via BlackBerry

"A guy walks into his vet...."

So the boys went in for teeth cleaning yesterday. We skipped last year so felt like we had to do it this year. If we are lucky, we get out of that for about $175 a dog. But of course, it doesn't end there. Decker has had a few fatty tumors we've been watching, and we decided that since he was going to be under anyway, they should go ahead and remove them. While they were getting him ready for surgery, our vet called & suggested that we have corrective surgery on Decker's sheath because, well, let's just say for the past few years, he hasn't been able to zip his fly all the way. OK, fine. And, while we are at it, Riley is going to get his sheath scoped because he has an infection he can't shake. The vet wants to make sure there isn't some foreign body of something up there. The vet said that two of Decker's tumors looked like normal fatty tumors, one looked "different." They are all getting biopsied.

Long story short - Decker currently looks like Franken-Dog and has to wear a cone for two weeks. Riley needs a root canal (I didn't even know they did those for dogs!) and yesterday's bill was $2500! Any guesses on how much a dog root canal costs? Crud.

And to make things even more complicated, our vet wants to rule out food allergy for Riley, so he is eating some hypo-allergenic dog food (that the vet conveniently sells....) I'm not sure I buy that, but until we get the lab results back, we'll play along. I tell you, those two have got to get jobs!

Black Mountain

This is the view from the top of Black Mountain in Morro Bay. Actually, it's the view looking one direction. From the top, you have a 360 degee view; it's pretty cool. This is looking toward Cayucos. A gray day & the cruddy camera on my phone don't make for a stellar photo, but it gives you the general idea. It's spring time & the hills are green, which always makes it pretty.

We got rain last night & this moring, but the storm has already passed and the skies are blue. It's supposed to get really windy today though. We may head up toward Paso and visit a few wineries for the Zin fest...if we get motivated enought!

Spring has sprung!

I just realized today is the first day of Spring. Maybe it doesn't seem surprising because we really didn't have much winter to speak of. Here's a lovely ceanothus (California Lilac) that I saw blooming on campus yesterday. It was a good sized shrub - probably seven feet tall, and it was covered with blossoms.

It's Zin festival weekend in Paso. We usually avoid the wineries whenever a festival is going, but we may head out to a few on Sunday. An Air Force friend of Jeff's is in town and we thought it would be fun to go. There's also a 70% chance of rain for Sunday, but looking outside right now...you'd never know it!

Doppleganger

What are the chances of this? My friend Lisa sent me this picture from Belmont Shore last night. Here's a whippet, white with fawn brindle, named Riley! How funny is that? I wonder if this one eats everything in sight...

Wow...that's red!

Can you believe the color on this? Swiss Chard from The Cookie Crock. It was insanely fresh, and because in season, cheap. I needed some greens for "pot sticker soup" and this fit the bill. After I washed it and it was in the sink, the color seemed so intense against the black sink, I had to take a picture of it. So once again, I submit you to pictures of vegetables. Sorry, but hey, it could be worse...

I sliced it thin and sauteed it with garlic, ginger & some soy sauce. It then went in bowls with the potstickers that had cooked in chicken stock along with some ginger. Dressed up with some more soy sauce, sesame oil and Sriracha, well, it's one of our favorite soups.

Oh that Whippet

Riley's new obsession at the beach: kelp. He loves finding big, long strands of bull kelp and breaking it up into pieces. Sometimes he runs around with it, sometimes he's just into mass destruction, and sometimes (like today) he eats it. He actually dropped his ball to spend some time noshing on this bit. Luckily, it was a sunny warm day, and the cold water of this tide pool didn't seem to bother him.

Spring is springing

On my lunchtime walk Wednesday, I came across this patch of Lupin on campus, just starting to bloom. I wasn't expecting to see spring flowers yet, so I was a bit surprised. Pleasantly surprised though :) I'm guessing we'll be seeing poppies next, they always seem to come early.

The rain is over for a while and it's gotten cold at night again. The forecast calls for continued cold weather at night & low 60's during the day. Colder than January, go figure. I always think of March as the "unstable month" weather wise, so I guess it fits.

I found an added bonus to the new freezer: I made gnocchi last weekend and wanted to freeze them. Ideally, you make them, lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet, freeze them, and then bag them. Well, the freezer in our side by side is no where near big enough to fit a baking sheet in. I as happy to find that a 1/2 sheet pan fits just fine in the new freezer. We at half the gnocchi the other night (with Gorgonzola cream sauce) and the other half are waiting for us whenever we want them....

And I thought Decker moved around when he dreams...

Oh this poor dog! I can only wonder what he was dreaming of....


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Happy Birthdays...

Today is Stephanie's birthday, and would have been Margo's 101'st birthday. It's a warm, rainy day on the coast, but we still plan to take a new arrangement over to Margo's grave later today. Stephanie, sorry, no flowers for you, just our best wishes :)