Quick Snap Saturday!

 

 

Piper In The Snow!

 

 

Piper doesn't get outside much. Okay barely at all. She's a fully indoor cat. Her only exposure to the great outdoors has been 3 trips out on the balcony. This pic is her 3rd balcony experience! And her first ever experience in the snow. Way to go Pipe!

 

It was Brad's idea to take her out to see what she thought of the snow. She sniffed it a little at first, then felt comfortable enough to begin walking around. Her daddy followed close. She's young and has unpredictable tendencies so following as well as watching her close is a must.

 

She was quite cute tromping around in the snow. She didn't seem to mind the coldness, at least for the short term. Cody at one point peaked his head outside to witness his little sister's first snow experience. Meanwhile Simon remained snuggled up inside in his bed. Fun times in the snow! Perhaps she also experienced being hit with a tiny snowball courtesy of her mommie! ;)  

Let It Snow!

Holy geez! We've had our fair share of snow this week. Today was quite the snow day. It started about 9:00 AM and was still lightly coming down at 5:30 PM. The biggest share of the day it's been snowing! Our balcony is filled with fluffy snow. It's still quite fluffy, I'm sure overnight it will turn icy in areas.

I believe this is the first time I've walked the boys while it's been actively snowing for each walk of the day. Cody is not a happy camper. Simon is so funny. He just charges right through any conditions. No worries in his opinion. We took the boys out and threw a few snowballs earlier this evening. I got Brad good!  All I have to say is, make sure you have your hood up when you're around me and you are instigating a snowball fight! ;)

This is a week that has gone by so slowly, likely due to the tough weather conditions we've had to deal with. At the same time it's been kind of nice to have a bit of a break from the monotonous norm. No work on Monday and late starts to work on Tuesday and Wednesday. Should I talk  about the temperature? I know people in AZ will be jealous....NOT! We've hovered around 14-19 degrees with the wind chill factored in. I think Wednesday was the best. Wednesday was warm enough to melt all the snow then yesterday it turned super cold. Then this morning the skies started pouring down snow. There were quite a few moments when the snow was coming down fast and furious. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I think just coldness, I don't believe there will be anymore snow. Maybe we can escape February without anymore snow? Here's hoping March is warmer!

Let It Snow, Let It Ice!

Today was a snow day for big D! No work, no going anywhere. Schools were closed. More than 1000 flights were cancelled. I'm sure lots of things were closed. Yesterday I knew what was predicted for today so I went thru a checklist in my head that would have looked a lot like this had I written it out.

1.  food to make for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.....check!
2.  dog food....check!
3.  cat food....check!
4.  toilet paper....check!
5.  coffee....check!

If we have those 5 items in the house, we can likely survive being snowed in! Of course if you want to get technical the top item on the list is much more involved than it being just one simple item. We(or I) keep this household's kitchen quite stocked. Making sure there's enough frozen meats to drag out for dinners is the key in my opinion when you can't get out.

Preparing for such days as this is something I had to get used to. Obviously, I didn't grow up in a place where you had a day or two or more where you couldn't emerge from the comforts of home for a simple drive to the store. I remember the first year I lived in Dallas and was snowed in for a few days. I had to get a little creative to come up with a new way to eat baked chicken. But you know what? The glaze I prepared during that snowstorm I still use. It's a glaze for chicken that is in our meal rotation frequently. It's my serendipity glaze! Likely never to have been invented had it not been for the snowstorm of January 2010!

The weather started getting icy last night. Yesterday was cold and rainy. The temps continued to drop as the day progressed. We came home from spending the day with my in-laws just in time before the weather truly got nasty. Overnight it got colder and colder as sleet fell rapidly. By the time we woke up to look out our windows...well there was no looking out the windows, the ice had developed on the glass. No looking through the sheet of ice covering our windows. I opened the door to the balcony to see out, I quickly decided I wasn't about to venture out onto our balcony, too much thick ice. Getting the pugs and Piper up for the day was no easy task when they had listened to the sleet all night long. It was clear to me Piper slept in the area with the pugs, she didn't sleep in the closet like she usually does. Listening to loud sleet is still a bit new to her. This is only her second sleeting-ice storm. Last year we had an ice storm and then a couple snowstorms. Snowstorms are quiet, ice/sleet storms are not.

By the time the pugs and I made it outside this morning it was snowing. The ice storm had turned into snow flurries. With the wind chill factored in it was 13°. I don't believe it's gotten above 25°. Like I said we've stayed home all day so I'm not sure exactly what was open today but I doubt much. This week will be quite cold for us. The second round is due to hit on Wednesday. I don't think it's supposed to rain, sleet, or snow tomorrow, but I doubt the temp will be much above freezing if it even gets there. I guess the last February had a little trick up it's sleeve for us this year! It's been rather mild for a February and now this! Oh well, it's nice to see the snow flurries. And it's fun having an unscheduled day off with my husband!

As for the Bambi moments when walking the boys today. None for me. I've stayed on my feet during each walk. The most treacherous walk was the one we just got home from. The early morning walk was the easiest because the snow was fresh, it hadn't frozen to become ice yet. Now though as the temps drop tonight it will be a bit more slippery I think. Simon had one minor Bambi moment. None for Cody yet either!

Bonus Quick Snap Saturday!

 

Behold The Dylan Cookie!

 

I have been working on these cookies for a little while now. I've made a few different versions. I had this idea to incorporate a couple of my nephew's fave flavors into one cookie. He loves chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate chip cookies. So my idea was to throw crushed up pretzels into a decadent gooey chocolate chip cookie dough. The tricky part has been finding the right cookie dough recipe that helps the pretzel flavor versus distracting from the pretzel flavor. During this batch I was tweaking it as I baked more and more cookies. Every time the oven door opened out came a sheet of slightly different looking cookies. I had to laugh at myself as I looked at the entire bunch cooling on our table. At a glance one could notice the differences.  

 

The flavor is good. They passed Brad's approval but I wanted them to bake up puffy. I like puffy cookies. So I got out my jumbo cookie sheet and tried it. The puffiness was better. Oddly enough I bought the jumbo cookie sheet with Dylan in mind. When he comes over I always serve up some jumbo cookies. Seems fitting for these cookies to only turn out right on that particular cookie sheet. 

 

I think they are good enough to present to him tomorrow when the family meets up for a random Sunday get-together. However, I could have a change of opinion come morning. Perhaps they need to be tested further? Yes, I'm most always prepared with a back up baking plan!

 

Quick Snap Saturday!

 

Messy Eater!

 

Look at what a mess little Piper can make with her food. Why certain pieces get singled out then eaten later is beyond me? I guess there's a method to her madness. She's not always this messy, thank goodness. For some reason she has her days though when she's quite messy with her food. This was one of those days, I looked over to see her food scattered about, I then lunged for the camera. She doesn't stop eating until it's all cleaned up. That's a good thing!

 

So she may make a mess while eating but at least she cleans it up. Simon has taught her well! LOL! The funniest part is Simon seems to sense when she's going to be a messy eater and he sits under the table she eats on. Smart boy! Always hoping for a morsel or a crumb to drop! 

Want To Be My Valentine?

Cody says: Do you want to be my Valentine? I'm loyal to the max! I love staying up late. I'm always willing to give away food I'm skeptical of. I live for warm weather and enjoy long naptimes. I'm a good boy with a heart for my family.

 

Simon says:  Do you want to be my Valentine? I love the great outdoors. I'm an adventurer. I like to live life testing my limits once in awhile. I'm super protective of those I love the most. Shh, don't tell anyone this but I like to snuggle!

 

Piper says: Do you want to be my Valentine? I have my hyper moments yet I'm quite tame. I'm easy-going and casual. I love ice cream. I'm the quiet type that likes to observe. My daily hobby is sitting by a window watching birds.  

Quick Snap Saturday: Valentine's Edition!

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

I couldn't decide which pic I liked better so there's two quick snaps today!  The boys got spiffed up for the occasion. Pugs in tuxes, is there anything cuter? Apparently this photo shoot was interrupting Cody's nap time. He looked half asleep in every photo. Simon and Piper were thankfully wide awake. In the second pic Piper is fixated on the cord hanging from the camera.

 

There was some sibling love during this photo op.  At one point Piper leaned into Simon to give him a few smooches, appropriate on Valentine's day. He promptly backed away and the photo I snapped was a blurry mess as Cody looked on. So weird how cameras blur anything that moves in a photo. Sometimes the photos of the trio look like their heads are independent from their bodies or worse thanks to the crazy blurriness from their movement.

 

Enjoy your Valentine's Day! Hope you get a box of chocolates!  

Pause The TV, I Gotta Watch This!

I've been meaning to post this. I'm finally going to before calling it a day. The other night there we sat on our couch as we watched something on TV. I heard Simon messing about. But he messes about frequently so I thought little of it. Next thing I know Brad is laughing as he loudly exclaims, "pause the TV, I gotta watch this". I look over to see our Simmie-Boo-Boo stuck in his little sister's pop-up cube. There's a pic of the pop-up cube at the bottom of this post, to help set a visual!

So here's what happened, as far as what we could assess. Piper nabbed one of the boy's rawhides. A frequent occurrence, she's a thief! She then placed it inside her pop-up cube. Her cube is quite big and has holes on a few sides, but it's made for feline body-types not pug body-types.  Simon is taller and basically when he leaned half of his body inside the cube to retrieve his rawhide the cube got stuck on his back. He's like a bull, he has an inability to be light on his feet! He wouldn't have been stuck if he had more feline tendencies. LOL!

There he was with half of his body inside the cube and half of his body outside. He looked kind of like Winnie the Pooh stuck in a honey tree. He moved to the right. He moved to the left. Nothing helped. Piper looked on as she was likely thinking, "well so much for my cube, he's going to destroy it". He then got too close to where Cody was, so Cody began to freak out a bit. Finally Simon decided to forget it. Likely thinking, "I don't need to grab the bone and go, I'll just lay down like this". That's what he did, he laid down half inside the cube and half out. However, it must not of been comfortable because he quickly had yet another idea to free himself....walk thru the cube! Ding, ding, ding....we have a winner. Don't stop and then try to back out of the cube. Just walk thru to the other side! That's what cats do. He couldn't quite get his body to perform the right maneuver to back out of the cube but walking through was his ticket out!

Oh man, we sat there watching the whole thing play out for quite a few minutes. Watching the different pet expressions to the issue was the best part to me. Cody has priceless expressions so often. He didn't disappoint. Piper looking on was cute, as she seemed
confused as to why Simon was having such a hard time inside her cube. As for Simon it was classic-Simmie. He gets himself into some interesting predicaments.

Long Week or long wait?

Was it a long week or did it just seem long because of the anticipation of Valentine's day? You know me, I love holidays! All of them! Red roses are plentiful and nearly all other items in the shade of red populate store aisles right now....so of course I'm a fan of Valentine's day!

I've made lots of treats in preparation for Valentine's day. We've given about 95% of the treats away as the week progressed. Last night I made cupcakes for Brad to take to his office. I'm a bit obsessed with red velvet. Never ate it while I lived in Phoenix. But red velvet is a Southern tradition here. So in the last 2 years I've been slowly working on some red velvet recipes. Just in the last couple of months I've truly upped my red velvet game. ;)

So I have Brad's gift all fixed up and ready for tomorrow. All week long he's found something "Valentine's" related in his breakfast-on-the-go container I make for him every morning. I got a little creative using napkins and such to disguise the Valentine goodie/note. I didn't want him peaking at things before getting to work!

We plan a quiet evening at home for tomorrow night. We rarely go out to do something too big. We've gone to a restaurant only 1 of the 5 Valentine's we've shared. Our usual is to pick up food, go home, and watch a movie. A movie I get to pick! Which means he has no veto power if I choose something romantic. LOL! All kidding aside, he's rather fair. He doesn't expect me to always watch his "guy-ish" movies without enduring a romantic comedy here and there. For us it's a double feature with pizza and Valentine's day munchies. We'll likely be checking in on the NBA All-Star festivities as well.   

Quick Snap Saturday!

 

 

Joint Effort!

 

Today was the day of the combo birthday get-together for my in-laws. We took them out to an early dinner at a Cajun-New Orleans themed restaurant. Brad and I have been to this particular restaurant one other time. I got a dish that was so spicy it was a bit tricky to eat. This time around I was set on ordering something in the non-spicy category. I went with a classic and was supremely satisfied!

 

After eating we came back to our place for cake, ice cream, and movie time. I baked them a strawberry cake as was their request this year. We then watched The Judge. Worth seeing! A fun time was had by all! Good eats, good movie, good time spent! 

Busted!

What a day! We have this lovely new issue with our little Code-ster! He enjoys punking his little brother every morning. As soon as breakfast is over he's on the prowl to destroy Simon. Simon is well aware and does his best to steer clear of Cody.

After this occurred a few mornings in a row Brad happened to notice something about the punking situation, Cody's tail is wagging the whole time. So apparently he hasn't flipped his lid and gone crazy, he's very purposefully "reminding" his little brother who the boss is. This is Cody's castle! He's king of the pets! Here's the thing...I don't believe Cody EVER wins these battles against Simon. It's either a draw! Or a clear win for Simon. You would think he'd clue into the fact that he's not too successful in these battles.

Yesterday morning Cody stalked Simon until he soon decided to tear into him. Simon retaliated in self-defense.  Next thing I know there's blood. A lot of blood. Cody had a busted nose. Same thing happened this morning, another busted nose for Cody. This one wasn't as bad. As I was standing there holding Cody with his busted nose this morning, Brad comes out of the bedroom to leave for work, promptly looking at Cody and responding with an emphatic, "Gross!". How much more can a pug nose take? I mean, it's already naturally smooshed in quite a bit!  In a way I feel for him in another way I don't feel for him. He's the one in the wrong. At some point I'm hoping he wises up and decides not to attack Simon. Nine times out of ten Simon is going to win. He's stocky, not to mention more of an athlete....he's got game(so to speak). Cody has no game!

In our household a busted pug nose wasn't the only thing to go BUST yesterday. In our fridge if you set things too far back on the bottom shelf they freeze. Somebody, I won't mention any names, but somebody put too many sodas in the back of the fridge which froze. All of a sudden I began hearing a strange noise. I couldn't place the sound. I started looking around soon I looked in the fridge. In the middle of it's exploding job there sat a can of soda. Oh man, what a mess! Skip ahead quite a few hours later, Brad is home relaxing on the couch. He gets up to go get himself a can of soda when he returns to the couch Piper is nearby as he pops open the soda. Upon hearing that noise of the can opening she jumped straight up in the air as if she was a jack-in-the-box, once her feet returned to the floor she sped off as quick as she could. She had already watched one can of busted soda she wasn't sticking around in case this was a repeat performance. Luckily it wasn't, the can was opened without incident. 

Time Check!

Okay so first things first....the Super Bowl didn't go quite as I would have hoped but oh well. I wasn't upset about it. I still like Seattle and if they are going against any teams other than my Cards or my Cowboys then they have me in their corner. At the same time I don't take a lose of theirs as hard as I would if I was still living in Seattle. Our very minor Super Bowl get-together went well. We all had a good time!

I don't know why but I always feel a bit sluggish the day after the Super Bowl. It's like this unofficial holiday almost. I put a lot of planning into the menu. The day comes and I make the planned food. After the game I stay up late cleaning up. By the time Monday rolls around I need a timeout!

It was a bitter cold day here. I think it was 19 degrees with the wind chill factored in when I was walking the boys early this morning. Cody is such a delight in 19 degrees! Even more of a delight in 9 degrees! Total sarcasm!

Anyway after my sluggish day. Then again, aren't most Monday's sluggish days? While keeping the sluggish feeling at bay I did accomplish all I needed to, I think. But late this afternoon there was a check of the time, it was 5:15.  How many women can sympathize with what I'm about to say? You've done your best all day to get everything done. Work is done. House is in order. Dogs are walked. Cat is happy and meowing. Time to sit down, right? But wait check the time? It's 5:15? What's for dinner? Oh yeah, that's the one thing I forgot to do today....plan dinner. My husband is due to get home in about 45 minutes and I have ZERO clue what I'm serving him for dinner. Can anyone sympathize? Yep, that was me this evening. I quickly looked in our fridge, then the freezer. I spotted some tilapia filets. Problem was they were frozen. Oh well, easier to thaw tilapia then chicken, right? Well usually. But my tilapia was bought in bulk and we didn't think to separate them before freezing them and now I was stuck with a frozen block of tilapia filets intertwined with one another. There I was trying my hardest to "thaw" only 2 filets by running the huge block of filets under cold water. It worked in time. But man were my hands frozen from holding the frozen block while trying to pry 2 filets from the block all under ice cold water. Geez! It was worth it in the end. Two filets came loose and the rest of the block stayed frozen. Dinner was good! Must admit I am not a fan of those last minute dinner ideas. That's something I need to work on. When days get too busy I need a few go-to recipe options that need little prep work and can be done with easy to thaw meat. Or perhaps I need to just admit I had no time for dinner planning so lets call in pizza! Yeah, that's not me! So I'll work on acquiring some go-to last minute recipes!