For the Peeps

Who needs to keep up with the news when the annual Peeps dioramas show everything noteworthy from the past year?

I'm partial to the Peep-Pope, PeePsy, and RG Peep.

Nightmare Surprise

Let me start by saying that I like broccoli.  And I like baked goods such as muffins and cornbread.

But these are just wrong.

I'm pretty sure that children who see this will start having nightmares about biting into a muffin and finding a big ol' chunk of broccoli inside.

Hiding veggies by pureeing them and adding them to sauces is fine.

Doing this is not fine.

This has been a public service announcement from J+A.

March Madness

It's NCAA Basketball bracket time, folks!

Here are J's picks:

Here are A's picks:

Who would've thought that both J and A would pick Florida to win it all?!

And here are Allie's picks:

Although Allie's handwriting looks suspiciously similar to A's handwriting, Allie had a system for her choices. Schools with veterinary programs ranked in the top 25 by U.S. News and World Report automatically win their matchups.  Higher ranked veterinary programs beat lower ranked or unranked programs.

If neither team in a matchup is ranked, the winner is based on mascot.  Mascots that Allie likes such as dogs and people win, whereas mascots she doesn't like such as birds lose.

And for anyone who hasn't completed their bracket yet, here's some food for thought - using statistical modeling to predict the tournament winner.

Go Gators!

Cool Runnings

We've discovered that Allie is a runner.  She loves to run and does a surprisingly good job of staying in the heel position while running.

To make it more comfortable, we got her a harness to wear.

It will also be nice to use the harness in situations where we might need to grab her quickly since it has a handle on the top.

Purple is definitely her color!

Pope Humor

It's very exciting that the Catholic Church has chosen a new Pope, and I wish him well.  However, I can't help poking a little fun at the selection process.

"Meanwhile in the Vatican"

The Pope of the Gator Nation.

Test Drive

I have a new appreciation for the humor and acting skills of Jeff Gordon thanks to this video.

Partners in Crime

It seems that Allie has found a partner in crime at doggie daycare.  His name is Parker and he's 5 months old (sorry, no photo available).  Not only do he and Allie play together all day long, they've started making trouble together as well.

How can such a cute little puppy
get into so much trouble?!

Today they decided it would be fun to knock over the water bowl and then roll around and get all wet.  Not once, not twice, but three times.

Bless the patience of the sweet girl at doggie daycare who works with them in the "little dog room."

W.W.W.

The warmer weekend weather means it's time to work in the yard!

Our first project of the season is installing a stone walkway around the side of our house where we keep the trash cans.

We found the cutest stones at Home Depot.

Luckily, they passed inspection when we got home.

And we started laying them out to decide where they should go.

The path curves around from our driveway, straightens out past the rain garden, and then curves around to the back door.

J was able to install 11 of the 26 stones yesterday afternoon and here's how the path is looking.

I think it's becoming a charming addition to the side yard.

Growing Up

What happened to our tiny puppy?!  Seemingly overnight she has become a 30+ pound dog!

2 months old (left) and 7 months old (right)

She's finally grown into those big paws and is starting to get her lady-like (or not so lady-like) schnauzer beard.  And don't get me started on her crazy eyebrows!

I can honestly say that I miss the cuteness of the 2 month old puppy but I'm relieved to see Allie's adult personality start to develop.  She's beginning to entertain herself for longer periods of time and is becoming more trustworthy about not getting into everything.*

So happy 7 months to our young adult Allie Gator!

* In an ironic twist, Allie just ran past me carrying one of my slippers!

Snowquestration

After all the recent news coverage, we can't stand the term "snowquestration," but I'm using it anyway (sorry!).  This link tells you everything you need to know about what the storm was like.

I would say that we survived snowquestration, but a better description might be that we slept through snowquestration.

It's too bad sequestration won't be as painless as snowquestration was.

Training: Then and Now

Week 2 of basic obedience training:

Week 8 of basic obedience training:

Training works!

Obedience

Last night was Allie's final exam for her basic obedience class.

Here she is completing the rally course with J:

As you can tell, she passed her exam and graduated!

Next step - advanced obedience class to prepare for the Canine Good Citizen test:

We start in two weeks!

Home-iversary

Exactly one year ago we closed on our house.  Remember this?

Here's what the living room looked like after we moved in the new furniture we'd bought.  It consisted of a pub table and stools that J assembled and two teak chairs with cushions that were awaiting assembly when this photo was taken.

And here it is after everything got moved in.  The teak chairs have now moved to our back patio along with our new picnic table.  My grandpa's recliner that used to be in the office has replaced one of the chairs but we're trying to figure out what to do about the other.  Sofa?  Love seat?  Big cushy chair?  We'll see!

It's amazing how far we've come in a year.

Beard-a-licious

Oh, hi.  Allie here.

I just want to take a minute to show you the awesome beard I'm growing.

It makes me so happy!

Thanks for stopping by - back to yoga!