Have you ever seen a sadder looking face. Waffle has a way of using her favorite “woe is me” look to get strangers to talk to her. With her pouty lower lip and her long coppery red eyelashes and her sad puppy dog eyes she knows how to look pathetic. It is kind of funny because she is actually a very happy go lucky kind of pup other than not always being sure about new or different situations.
(Photo credit: karendotcom127)
For Bill’s birthday we ordered a Juniors Cheesecake. When we were in Brooklyn we enjoyed Juniors Cheesecakes and we brought a couple back to Utah with us when we moved from Brooklyn so I thought it would be a fun way to also celebrate my 50th year. We have invited his mom and brothers over for a birthday dinner, so that will make it a fun day for him. I need to make some sort of fruit sauce for the cheesecake. We have a bunch of pomegranates so I might try that. But I should probably have a more traditional flavor too. I think I might pick up some birthday candles too. We haven’t had birthday candles recently and I think it would be fun.
Waffle has a fun way of interacting with the world. When we first got her she was such a busy-body getting into everything. She is curious and loves games and finds ways to play them anytime she can. She tries to start games with our cat and he usually plays along. She is very smart and perceptive.
Zodiac curled up under my desk
Nothing major going on with the pups but plenty of little stuff. First off Zodiac is part of a three-way puppy swap this weekend. He has gone with Stacey. She is a Jr. High Drama teacher and I wanted him to get some practice being around animated kids and clapping more. He can easily get over excited by such things. Stacey’s puppy Trapper has gone with Karen so he can experience what it is like on a college campus. We have Karen’s pup, Nairobi with us for the weekend. He was transferred to Karen about a month ago and he has made great progress under her care. Nairobi has a good personality and responds well to commands.
Nairobi
I was hoping that Yakira would show up on the phase report this week but she still isn’t there. A couple of weeks ago a fellow puppy raiser was on campus for a graduation and took a picture of the kennel assignments in the kennel kitchen and sent it to me. It was so nice of her to do that. I love getting any bit of info on her. None of the other pups in her kennel have shown up on the phase report either. Next week for sure she will be their. Today Yakira turns 15 months old. It is probably good that it has taken a month for her to get into training. You don’t want them too young when they graduate.
Yakira’s kennel assignment on November 3rd
We will get Zodiac back on Monday at puppy class. Beacon will come home with us that night too. His raiser is going out-of-town for Thanksgiving so Beacon will be with us until Friday. One of the good things about having only one puppy in training is that we are available to puppy sit for other raisers when needed.
When Waffle is tired she is tired and her favorite way to sleep is on her back. I’ve learned that dogs only sleep this way when they feel safe and secure in their environment. It sure makes her look like she is dead to the world. Sometimes I wonder what she has done to make herself so wiped-out by the day. Probably it is just growing up.
mini Frosty the Snowmen
The last few days I’ve been working on the houses and the figures for the two little scenes that I’ve planned on each side of the large Frosty. The one on the left is about Frosty being built and the one on the right shows Frosty and the kids that built him marching over the hills of snow. I’m so glad that I’m getting to make these two little scenes. I think it will be nice to have something more to look at one people get close to the window.
My original plan just had kids but I’ve added a dog to the scene and a little dog house. He was challenging to make because he is only about an inch tall. A Google search lead me to a couple of great videos on how to make a dog out of fondant. It was very helpful.
I ran into some trouble in making Frosty’s black hat. I bought a box of the natural colored fondant but the black was missing from the box. It looked like someone and purchased the box, removed the black, then resealed the box and returned it to the store. I don’t have any black food coloring and didn’t really want to buy any. Plus getting a really dark color can be hard. But I decided to take the dark brown fondant and add some of the food coloring I had. By mixing in orange, green and purple I got a satisfactory black. Yeah!
I decided to use some licorice snaps from my candy stash on one of my houses but then didn’t have enough. I spent a couple of hours of three days looking for snaps but everyone seemed to be out of them. Finally I went to the Candy Barrel in the South Towne Mall. When I asked about snaps I found out that they had been recalled because of high lead content. So I gave up trying to find any and figured out a way to work with what I had.
Waffle’s pronounced under-bite got her pulled from breeding watch but it is hard to imagine her without it. The first time we took her to the vet for shots he pointed it out to us thinking that we already knew about it. Now that we are aware of it, it is there it is obvious and adds to her charm.
We Are NYC by Micah Heiselt
I came across this project via DesignMom this morning. Besides being a great way to do something positive and raise much needed money for the victims of Sandy I was struck as I looked at the poster how they tell a story about New York and it many people and personalities. We spent part of a year living in Brooklyn and I have fond memories of the people and the place. Click on over to Print Aid NYC and see all the poster. All proceeds go to the Mayor’s Fund for Hurricane Relief. Even the site and the printing are being donated. I love it when groups and individuals work together to accomplish such worthwhile purposes.
Here Comes The Sun by Linsey Laidlaw
Waffle has a very well-developed willful side. When she doesn’t want to go somewhere she will dig in her heals and do everything in her power not to move forward.
When she wants to go somewhere that you don’t want her to go she puts all her weight into it so that she actually is leaning way out from her legs. When she was little it was a standard part of her relieving. Now it only happens some of the time. She often does this on slick tile floors with her toe nails out. Then when she gets a correction for pulling Waffle slips and falls on the floor. Silly girl!
Like most labs, Waffle has moments of wildly racing through the house. She has one funny habit. She is a toy collector. There is a spot in the living room that she likes to collect most of the dog toys. And her favorite thing is to have two toys at once. One to chew on and another toy underneath to hold the toy up to make it easier to reach.
telling family tales 