Friarfest

Baseball season is just around the corner. Wohoo! Bring on my boys!

To get us excited about the up coming season the Padres invited fans to Friarfest. It was our opportunity to check out areas of Petco park we don't normally have access to. Check out pictures of my day.

Catching Up

I'm back online! Wohoo! Thank you Craig.

It's been more then a week since I last posted. I'll fill you in a bit.




Last Saturday I tried Twinkie French Toast. They are so much better then the Twinkie Pancakes. They are easier and less mess to make too. All I needed was Twinkies and eggs. (The brown bits in the egg are from the Twinkies. I forgot to take this picture before I started.)






The Twinkies fried up nicely. Frying the ends proved to be a task. I just used some tongs to hold it up until it stayed on it's own. The cream got warm and delicious too.








Here's the finished product. Do you have any Twinkies lying around? I highly recommend this recipe.










I also made some new dog friends this week. My friends Janet and Wilma each got a chihuahua puppy. The darker pup is Tama. Tama is Janet's. The lighter pup, on the bottom, is Mina. Mina is Wilma's. They're so cute and so much fun.










I also finished a few dog sweaters this week. This cream and green raglan is for Willie the pug.












This tiny red number is for Mina.














This argyle beauty is for my Texas bed buddy, Junior.

Virus!

Apparently, I have a virus. Well, not me but my computer. UGH! My IT guy (a.k.a. my brother) is on it. I have so much to post! I can't post all my pictures and good stuff from work! *ghaw*

A very slow Friday

It's Friday. Here I sit. Trying to look busy without actually accomplishing anything. This day is dragging on forever!

I want to get on with my weekend. I have knitting to do. I have cleaning to do. I have a new Twinkies recipe to try. I have more knitting to do. I have 5 DVDs sitting at home waiting to be watched.

Is it 4 o'clock yet???

Twinkies Pancakes

I finally had a Saturday morning with no reason to get up and rush out the door, so I decided to put one of my Christmas gifts to use.



Santa brought me The Twinkies Cookbook and a box of Twinkies. I am not Twinkies biggest fan or anything but Santa knows I can not pass up such a novelty.








This morning's recipe would be Twinkie Pancakes.







They are simple enough. Simply use the pancake batter of your choosing and slice some Twinkies.







Batter mixed. Twinkies sliced.










The instructions say the pour the batter onto a preheated griddle and place three Twinkie slices in the batter. Flip pancakes when bubbles begin to form.



So that's what I did. As you can see here, and as indicated by the picture in the book, the one side of the pancakes does not reach the griddle. I'm not too happy with this. I like my pancakes nicely browned on both sides.






Flipping the pancakes seemed to be just for browning the Twinkies. I noticed the Twinkie 'ends' burned very quickly. While the Twinkies burned my pancakes did not brown at all. Ick





I decided to try it again, my own way.
I placed the Twinkie slices on the cool griddle.







Then I poured the batter over the slices and turned the heat on. I waited for the bubbles and then flipped them.




As the batter on the other side browned, the cream from the Twinkies bubbled out of the pancakes. In the recipe version most of the cream melted and disappeared. I like the look of the gooey cream bubbling up.



Here is the finished product. I like my version of the recipe much better. While in the end the Twinkies do not add much flavor to the pancakes no matter how you cook them, cooking them my way did give you the sweet taste of the cream.

I'd make this again for the novelty of it but definitely not on a regular basis.

I can't wait to try another recipe! Next? Perhaps Twinkie Sushi.

The Dog Wash

My good friend, Janet, invited me to come along with her and her dog, Vegas, to South Bark Dog Wash on Sunday. Dog + Water = Mess. Mess = Fun. I'm in!

I'm a little disappointed with my pictures. I don't feel they really convey how great South Bark is. The people are VERY nice. The facility is very attractive. It really was a fun place to be.

At South Bark each wash starts with a soothing Blueberry facial. Vegas seemed to really enjoy her facial.

They offer various organic shampoos and conditioners to suit your dogs needs. Vegas didn't have any special needs to consider so we chose based solely on what would smell pretty. She was washed with a Eucalyptus Shampoo and conditioned with a Lavender conditioner. (I am not positive about the conditioner. It my have been Ultra Silk)










The shop is small but plenty large enough for the four tubs and those of us doing the scrubbing. There is also smallish retail area at the front of the shop that offers food, treats, toys, accessories and more.

Vegas did great. We think she appreciated the warm water of the faucet as opposed to the usual cold water from the hose in the yard. The sprayer was really nice too. It had several spray settings and the water pressure could be adjusted simply by squeezing the trigger with more or less tension.






They have several different drying options. Pictured here is a sort of blow dryer with a nice long hose so you can get into all those nooks and crannies. There is an enclosed cage dryer as well. The dog sits in a cage, about the size of what I've seen in many vets offices, while warm air blows gently thru the cage. They even have plain old fashioned towels.

And here she is... TA DAH... Vegas! All clean.

I had a great time. There were lots of other dogs there. They were so pretty and so sweet. I thought the owners might think me a freak for wanting to take pictures of their dogs so I don't have any to show. Next time I will face the possibility of judgment and ask for the pictures. The other beautiful dogs were part of the fun. *ghaw* I should have taken pictures of them!

Janet plans to take Vegas in once a month or so. I hope I get to go again!

Oh! Janet also wanted me to say that she (the dog mommy) loved the place and highly recommends it.

Go Pats!

Pats 37

Jets 16

Holly Crap! Next weeks Patriots/Chargers game is going to be HUGE! I definitely need to watch this in some public place such as a bar or restaurant.

OMG! Is it Sunday yet?!

How I spent my holiday

I had just about the bestest holiday break ever!

Every year between Christmas and New Years, my office shuts down. This year I was really trying to get out of town for the holiday. Both of my brothers were out of town with their in-laws and we'd decided to put off our family Christmas until everyone was back in town. None of my plans where coming together. I was facing a boring week. Sure I'd get plenty of rest and all but what fun would I have? I was beginning to think this was going to be the biggest waste of a week off in history.

Then my luck changed. My luck changed for the good. My BFF, Traci, called. Her sister would be leaving for Italy in the morning and her dog sitter called just moments earlier to cancel. (on a side note: We can't be too mad at him. I'm told he was offered a trip to Hawaii.) Traci apologized for the short notice and asked if I would be able to dog sit for 10 days. My heart jumped for joy! I responded calmly, "I could do that". Wohoo!!! Who needs to get out of town??? I've got dogs for my vacation!!! Wohoo!!!

I had the best time! The dogs were so very much fun. They are both so fantastic in there own ways.
Willie, the Pug, is just a lover to the core. Every time I sat down he raced to my lap. And OMG! He's so cute! When he gets excited, he snorts. He provided me with many giggles over that 10 day span.
Pepper, the Miniature Schnauzer, is a little fireball. She is so full of energy. She has lots of toys with squeaky centers. Those toys are great for fetching or playing a little tug-of-war. She provided many laughs too. She like to get right in your face. She is not so interested in licking your face. She just gets right up into your face and stares at you. What is with that? I could not really figure that out but it made me giggle when she did it.

Willie, Pepper and I walked around the neighborhood a bit but they knew there had to be more. So, we loaded up and ventured out to Balboa Park. I think it was pretty exciting for them. We listened to a little music at The Organ Pavilion.


We checked out some pretty big fish in the lily pond.



Then we headed over to check out the fountain.



The fountain seemed to meet the their approval so we decided to hang around there for a little bit to watch the people go by.



Now here's were things got a little crazy. While we were peacefully enjoying the fountain. The kids noticed a handsome English Bulldog approaching. They apparently had something very important to tell this Bulldog. They immediately began barking and desperately try to get closer to him. It did not seem the Bulldog was so interested in what Willie and Pepper had to tell him, so I held on to Pepper's harness and attempted to calm her down while I tried to grip Willie's harness with the other hand. Sure that this dog would want to talk to him, Willie did his best to squirm out of my grip. In doing so, Willie managed to slide himself right out of his harness. Still sure the Bulldog would want to hear what he had to say, Willie ran toward him as fast as his little legs would allow. Luckily, that's not very fast. Having seen what happened and heard my cries a very nice woman reached down and stopped Willie. Thank you kind woman, thank you.
After all that excitement we took another moment or two by the fountain to settle down, and then headed home. It was a mighty fine day.


I realize that had Willie and Pepper's Mom and Dad been home the actions pictured below would have been... well... frowned upon. But, I left my sock unguarded and I thought they looked pretty cute, so I let them go ahead while I took pictures of the madness.


There was much excitement in those 10 days. At the end of each of those 10 exciting days were 10 cozy lap dog nights.



Most nights while they snuggled in my lap, I knitted. I knitted this little number for Pepper. Unfortunately I did not get to finish Willie's sweater while I was there. I'll have to post pictures of that when it's done.



I did get to finish this Argyle sweater for Kung Fu. I am very pleased with how it turned out.


I had the best time with those crazy kids. I hope I get to do it again some time.