My little flight risk

This coming week is National Dog Week.  Last year I had a post during the week and I talked about my three dogs - Max, Harley and Brewsky.

About two months later I lost Brewsky.

Over the last few years my blogging has dwindled down quite a bit but I managed to get at least one post up a month.  That is until I lost Brewsky.  I think that's because I wanted to recognize him but it was hard to talk about and I didn't want it to be a sad post that would make me cry.

Okay, probably going to make me cry anyway but I want to talk about the kind of dog he was, and why I loved him so much and still miss him today.

Brewsky came into my life a few months after I'd lost a doberman I had.  Max had loved her dearly and he went into a serious depression when she died, to the point I honestly believed I was going to lose him too.

Enter Brewsky.

I was taking Max on several walks a day, trying to keep him engaged and active after we lost Cleo.  Then one day this cute little puppy followed us home.  It took more than a little encouragement to get him to come play with Max, once we reached our house, that first day.  But after that, he was content to play for as long as I would allow him to and then he'd go back home until the next time.

It got to where Max would stop and sigh if his little friend didn't come out to play.  That's when I decided to talk to his owners and talk about regular play dates for our dogs.

Turns out that they were looking to get rid of Brewsky because he was always getting loose and disappearing for days at a time.  I wasn't really looking for a new dog but Max was so in love with him that I offered to take him in.

I learned quickly that the reason he would "escape" from his former owners is because he did NOT like being locked outside.  I have a doggy door and he was perfectly content being left home if he could get in the house.  And, despite what I'd been told, he was housebroken.  But if I left him locked outside (it only took two times for me to see the issue), he'd break free somehow.  I always referred to him as my little flight risk.  :)

Anyway, Brewsky was different than any dog I've ever had in my life.  He did things I'd never seen before - or since.

Max had grown up playing tug of war with Cleo.  Brewsky didn't like to share his toys.  So Max would try to engage Brewsky to play with him and he'd get nothing.  That is until Brewsky decided to take the toy away from Max.  He did this so effortlessly.  He'd lay down under Max and take his little penis in his mouth and suck.  I'm not kidding.  Max's eyes would roll back in his head and he'd groan in pleasure and the toy would fall out of his mouth.  When that happened, Brewsky would snatch the toy up and run outside with it.  Worked every single time.

Brewsky was so independent and fearless.  We used to go visit my step-father in Arkansas (the two pictures above and one below are taken there).  He lives at the top of a mountain and the dogs would have the run of the mountain.  His neighbor has cattle on his property.  This one day I had gone for a walk with the dogs and they'd slid through the barbed-wire fence and around some brush that I couldn't see past.  I wasn't overly worried until I heard a cow moo.

All three dogs came running from the behind the brush.  Max came and hid behind me.  Harley took off up the road that leads to my step-father's house - never looking back.  But Brewsky stopped as he came around the brush, turned around and went back.

I hear Brewsky bark at the cow.  The cow mooed back.  "Woof."  "Moo."  "Woof."  "Moo." back and forth until finally Brewsky rounded the corner again, chest all puffed out.  He'd "tamed" the cow and came out the victor!  :)

Brewsky also loved to play chase.  If he got out the front door at home, he'd take off down the street.  I'd call his name and he'd stop, look remorseful and then tear out running again with a huge doggy smile on his face when I got close.  Because of this, I wouldn't let him go out with me to get the mail unless he was on a leash.  I could let Max and Harley but I didn't trust Brewsky.  Then about a month before I lost him I decided to test him and see if he'd run.  I'd just gotten off from work and the garage door was open, the house was unlocked and my purse was sitting on the passenger side seat of the car.  Oh, and I was dressed in work clothes (obviously).

He reluctantly came out with me.  I mean I literally had to force him to come out because he knew he wasn't allowed.  But once I'd convinced him, he wasted no time in running down the street.  I took off after him, as fast as my work shoes (fortunately I don't wear heels but still not the best running shoes to be chasing a dog down the street in) could carry me.  He rounded the corner, looking over his shoulder to see how far behind I was.

He crossed a street and kept going.  I crossed the street but kept thinking about the unlocked house and purse on the front seat of the car and wondered if I should go back and get the car or at least lock up the house.  He ran another block and crossed another street before I decided I had to turn back.

I looked back in time to see his body sigh in defeat and he came trotting back towards me.  Once he reached me, the chase was on again.  Only this time it was towards the house.  For seven and a half years I always thought it was about being "free" and running wild.  But for Brewsky, it was all about the chase.  The game.  And winning. 

He was my little snuggler.  But it had to be on his terms and his timing.  And almost always in the morning.  I'd wake up and stretch and he'd come curl up under my arm with his head on my chest and be so sweet.  He was the only one of my dogs to do that, and I still miss that.  It was our time and our thing.

So, my little flight risk was the first to fly the coop.  It was unexpected and devastating but I'm so very grateful for the time we had together.

And with that in mind, and National Dog Week upon us, for those of you who have four-legged furry friends, go hug them and appreciate them because you never how much time you have with them.

Brewsky (May 2003 - October 31, 2011)

September Book Review

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It's time for a new book review!

This month I'm reviewing The Meryl Streep Movie Club by Mia March.  I heard of this book through Jessica Brody's Free Book Friday website.  It was spotlighted and a designated number were to be given out.  I registered to win but, alas, didn't.  But my interest was strong enough that I purchased a copy to read.  :)

At the heart of this story is an extended family (cousins and aunt), broken and shattered by a tragedy fifteen years ago.  As humans do, they each process and deal with the tragedy in their own way - in a way that creates distance (physical and emotional) and hard feelings between them.  They only see each other at Thanksgiving and Christmas anymore but they dread it like the plague.  So when Aunt Lolly calls a "family meeting" and expects everyone to come in for a huge announcement, alarm bells go off.

Aunt Lolly owns an inn on the coast of Maine and the belief is that her big announcement will be that she's selling the inn.  When they find out that's not the case, they all pitch in to help run the inn.  Among the tasks of running the inn is hosting a weekly movie night for guests, friends and family.  Meryl Streep is Lolly's favorite actress of all time and she has all her movies so when the movie selections are made, it's not a surprise that Meryl's movies are featured.

Each movie they watch addresses an issue that one of the family members is dealing with.  Discussions after the movies help them to reflect on their individual situations and move forward in their lives.  It's through watching movies with Meryl Streep that the family is able to heal itself and begin to work as a family unit again, as opposed to the fractures souls they'd been before.

The story itself was fairly predictable but it's the ending you want for the characters so you don't care.  In the discussions about the movies they give away major plot points and spoilers so if you've wanted to watch a particular Meryl Streep movie but haven't yet gotten around to it, you may want to watch it before you read the book (unless you're okay with knowing the ending beforehand).

I watched The Bridges of Madison County for the first time a few years ago.  My friend had warned me that I'd find myself crying unexpectedly so when I watched it I was waiting for this big thing to happen that would affect me this way.  Two hours into the movie I was still waiting and thinking my friend was nuts.  Then all of a sudden I was bawling for reasons I couldn't even say now.  Well, there's something similar to that in this book.  I was reading and all of a sudden I realized I was crying in a "Hm, my face is wet.  Ohmygosh I'm crying." kind of way.  I couldn't tell you what was going on at that point in the book or why it impacted me that way but if you had a similar experience when watching The Bridges of Madison County, well, let's just say, you've been warned.  :)

June Book Review

I almost forgot that today was book review day so please forgive the lack of links and pictures.  I'll try to add them later.

That said, the book I'm reviewing today is Nearlyweds by Beth Kendric. 

I love the premise of this book where three women with issues with their husbands discover that they're not legally married.  And how does one respond to that?  They get a do over, so will they re-marry or start over single?

Stella is young woman who married a man twice her age.  The town believes she's a gold digging trophy wife but she really loves her husband.  But on the wedding night he unceremoniously announces that he has no intentions of ever having kids with Stella, who has dreamed her whole life of being a wife and mother.  Then she has to decide if she wants to stay with a man who would deny her dream.

Erin has the mother-in-law from hell.  She reminded me of Lily Tomlin's character in 9 to 5 when she has the fantasy of being Snow White poisoning the boss with all the animated animals dancing around her.  She speaks to Erin in the syrupy-sweet tones while working to get her out of her precious son's life.  Erin has a severe allergy to peanuts and the mother-in-law can't seem to make scramble eggs without smothering them in some kind of peanut sauce.  And Erin's husband (or not-really-husband) can't seem to stand up to his mother.  When Erin realizes she can have a do-over, will she stay or start over?

And Casey.  Casey "married" Kyle by dragging him, kicking and screaming, to the altar.  He was a reluctant groom the first time so when it turns out they're not really married, can she get him back down the aisle?  And does she really want to?

I loved this book because I really had no idea where the author was going to take it and whether or not the couples would stay together or break up.  Erin and Casey had been friends before this all happened and they didn't much care for Stella because of the shared opinion of the town but once they bonded over this shared experience and came to realize that Stella wasn't what they expected.  It was a story of friendship and shared experiences.  Fast paced and fun.  I highly recommend it.  :)

February Book Review

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So, last month Barrie asked if anyone was interested in an ARC of Lisa Gardner's upcoming book (out next week, by the way) Catch Me. As a fan of her work, I said I was interested and I did get a copy.

Amazon and B&N aren't allowing reviews on it yet so I'll be starting with my "less formal" review here.

Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant - aka Charlie - is the lone survivor of her childhood friends. The other two are dead . . . murdered. One on January 21st a year ago. The other on January 21st the year before that. So, with January 21st just a few days away, Charlie believes her number is about to come up and is doing what she can to prevent it. She's spent the last year honing her skills at self defense and alerts the local police of what she believes will happen so that if she doesn't prevent the murder, at least they might be invested - having met her - and will do everything they can to solve the murders.

Detective D.D. Warren has just gone back to work after having her first child and is somewhat sleep deprived and working on a case where someone is killing known pedophiles when she meets Charlie outside of a crime scene. Charlie pleads her case with D.D. but the more D.D. digs into Charlie's past, the more she wonders whether Charlie is victim or perpetrator. And why was she outside of a crime scene? Could she be involved in these murders as well? All she knows is that January 21st is fast approaching and if she doesn't come up with some answers soon, it's not going to be pretty.

I liked this book a lot. It drew me in and I couldn't wait to find out what happened next and how it would all resolve itself. This is one of a series of books with D.D. Warren as the "lead" player in the story and even though I haven't read the other books, I didn't feel like I was coming in late to the story. Definitely a stand alone book, which is a big plus.

On the negative side though, I figured out the "who" and "why" fairly early on - and I almost never do that (oh I guess, but I'm very rarely right) so that was kind of disappointing to me because I, oddly enough, enjoy the "OMG I did NOT see that coming!" aspect of reading a "whodunit" book.

Another thing that was a little unsettling was the POV of the characters. The story was told from the point of view of three characters - D.D. (third person deep POV), Jesse (third person POV) and Charlie (first person POV). In the beginning, before I really got deep into the story, I was a little confused with the POV transitions because I tend to read deep POV the same as first person POV so I was getting confused with whose POV I was reading. Once I figured that out, it was okay but then it kind of bugged me that Charlie would be the one getting first person POV, considering she's basically a guest starring role in D.D.'s story. I just kept thinking about how it would be like reading Stephanie Plum's story with Stephanie's perspective being third person and one of her skips being told in first person. It was just a little weird to me.

Having said that, I did like the book. I would recommend it. AND, I will check out the books in the series that came before it (as well as those that come later. Overall, I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. :-)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Donuts Take Two

Since I have a donut pan, I've really wanted to make some good donuts. My first attempt was a creation of my own (by the way, when I mentioned in that post that I was listing the original recipe - I meant MY original recipe, not the "tried and true" one I had based mine on). It wasn't a total bust but definitely needed tweaking.

I wanted to make donuts today but I really wanted to use a recipe that I knew would be good - no need of tweaking. So I searched the internet.

Here's the thing about the internet, apparently I'm not a good searcher. For one thing I don't have a lot of patience because my computer is a thousand years old and slow as molasses. I like quick/good results. If I don't get that, I tend to give up easily on searches.

That said, I did go to a number of sites looking for a good vegan donut recipe - despite my slow response time on my computer. But I wasn't happy with any of the results I found, and I'll tell you why.

All the recipes required a frosting for the donuts and I don't want a frosted donut! And even if I was willing to go the extra way to make the frosted donuts, the frosting recipes are all too similar to the frosting recipe for the cinnamon buns I made a week or two ago - which was a disaster. They call for huge amounts of powdered sugar and very small amounts of liquid to mix with it. What I ended up with was a large amount of wasted (because you can't re-use it) powdered sugar and about three drops of frosting (which, for the record, was actually good). So I'm not looking to repeat that on a donut recipe.

So I decided to give the chocolate peanut butter donut recipe I was working on another shot. Here's what I used and did:

Ingredients:
3/4 cup spelt flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1tablespoon flaxseed
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup raw sugar (meant to half this but remembered too late)
3/4 cup soy milk
1/4 - 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (didn't actually measure this)
1/4 - 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (again, didn't actually measure this out)

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


• Mix flour, baking powder, flaxseed, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and sugar in a bowl.


• Combine milk, peanut butter and chocolate chips in a sauce pan and heat until chocolate chips melt and peanut butter "melt".


• Mix the chocolate/peanut butter mixture with the dry ingredients


• Pour into donut pan and bake for 12-15 minutes (I started with 12 minutes and put it on for 2 more - probably could've gone for 15 minutes and removed)

I'd halved most of the ingredients from last time because I'd had the "muffin top" donuts. This time they came out looking like donuts. They were more moist this time around but I still feel like the recipe needs more tweaking.

Meanwhile, I'm still looking for a good vegan donut recipe that doesn't require a frosting. If anyone out there knows of one, please share! (Note: I can pretty much veganize a recipe so if I have to look outside vegan recipes to find one, that would work too!)

Stuff

I don't want to say that I'm not blogging much lately but I had to make four tries at my password before I guessed the right one. In my defense, someone hacked my google account last summer and it always takes me a couple of tries to get the "new" password right. *sigh*

Anyway, I recently bought a donut pan and decided to create my own kind of donut. It was based on a tried an true recipe but the final result was one of my own making. I was going for a chocolate peanut butter donut because that sounded good in my head. I wrote down the ingredients in case they came out okay, or if they came out good enough that I'd want to "enhance" them at a later date (which was the case, by the way). I haven't played with it since but here's the original recipe:

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/2 teaspoon baking sode
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons chocolate hazelnut butter
1-1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup raw sugar

I forgot to write down the temperature and how long I baked them but looking at the base recipe, I would say 350 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes.

When I decided to make the donuts I thought I would melt the peanut butter and chocolate but didn't feel like wasting the time it would take so I just combined everything into a bowl, mixed it up, poured it into the sprayed pan and popped them in the oven.

Next time I will melt the peanut butter and chocolate and will use more of both. But I guess the point is, I will make them again.

In other cooking news, I made Mushroom Turnovers the other day. You'd have to understand that I'm kind of afraid of mushrooms to understand the importance of this act. For a year or so now I'll periodically buy mushrooms because I want to try them (mostly because of their vitamin D content) but I seem to end up throwing them out a few weeks later as the science project begins in my refrigerator. But this time I cooked them. And ate them! The recipe doesn't say anything about chopping up the sliced white mushrooms but I did chop them into as small of pieces as I could get them into because I didn't think I'd be able to even try the turnovers otherwise. Turns out, they're not that bad. I had a mushroom turnover this afternoon for lunch and I actually forgot about the mushroom content. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal but I'm telling you, it was history making! :)

I watched Friends with Benefits with Justin Timberlake today. I liked it much more than I thought I would. Some might wonder why I'd get the movie if I was anticipating not liking it. I can't answer that because I honestly don't remember adding it to my Netflix queue and I apparently bumped it up the ranks after doing so. But the point is, I did like it - a lot.

Ditto for I Don't Know How She Does It with Sarah Jessica Parker, with the exception of I watched it yesterday. I don't know what I expected from these movies but they were light and fun . . . a good thing.

Did you know that the Game Show Network is airing past seasons of Dancing With The Stars? They started yesterday and they started with season 4 - the season Apolo Anton Ohno won. I've watched every episode of the show that has aired and when the "stars" came out, there was one I didn't remember. Her professional partner was also a one season wonder. They were the "Ken and Barbie" couple. The only thing that came back to me after watching the show was that they stayed too long at the party!

Speaking of staying too long at the party, did you hear that Emily Maynard (the one Brad gave the final rose to in his second run on The Bachelor) is going to be the next Bachelorette? I haven't watched the series from the beginning. In face, I saw the very last episode of Brad's first run and started watching then. I skipped Brad's repeat and believe I'll be doing the same for Emily. I have to think the franchise is not doing well if this is what it's coming down to!

January Book Review

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It's that time again . . . time to talk books.

This month I will be discussing/reviewing Rob Lowe's biography, Stories I Only Tell My Friends. There's just something about Rob Lowe that draws me in. I saw some of his interviews when he was promoting this book and I did my dead-level best to fight the urge to buy this book. Why, I have no idea. But, obviously I broke down and bought (and read it!).

There are a lot of things I want to say about this book but I'm going to start with some writer things.

For example, the opening line of the book is: "I had always had an affinity for him, an admiration for his easy grace, his natural charisma, despite the fact that for the better part of a decade my then girlfriend kept a picture of him running shirtless through Central Park on her refrigerator door." I re-read that sentence several times trying to figure out if Rob was telling the story or if someone was telling a story about Rob. I skimmed a couple of pages until I found a name - any name - in the story to tell me who was "talking". Of course it was Rob telling the story about his girlfriend with someone else's picture on the refrigerator, but it kind of threw me with the first sentence.

Then, for a while, the story was told in a way that, well let me back up a minute. When I read books - autobiographies or not - I see the story play out in my mind like a movie. I can envision what's happening. When I was reading this book, the first quarter or third of it, what I was seeing in my mind was clips of his life narrated by the E! True Hollywood narrator. Rob was telling stories about his life but the way he was doing it was such that the stories didn't seem about him. He seemed really removed or detached from the stories. At least it seemed that way to me. It was actually quite comical to me . . . in my head (you know, hearing the narrator and all).

That all said, I couldn't put the book down. It's really the story of his career. There's very little of his personal life in this book. Personally I would've liked to have more of his personal life in the book but what he wrote was also very telling about the sort of person he is.

For example, he tells stories of things that happened to him during the filming of movies and TV shows. Some of the things done to him were not good but he never really calls anyone out on those things. He didn't take this opportunity to trash anyone or throw them under the bus.

On the other hand, he did take advantage of this opportunity to say some really nice things about a couple of people. For instance, he mentions Jodie Foster in the book on several occasions. It's pretty clear that he considers her a good friend and thinks very highly of her and apparently she's been there for him when he really needed someone in his corner. He also took a moment to tell how Thomas C Howell (Ponyboy in The Outsiders, and who is referred to as Tommy Howell in the book . . . took me a while to figure out who he was talking about) helped him out in a filming situation. It came across as a great kindness on "Tommy's" part. Rob didn't have to tell these stories - no one would've ever known the difference. That he did tell them says a lot, to me anyway.

The further in the book I got, the easier the writing seemed to come to him. There were stories that made me laugh out loud. I just really enjoyed the book and feel comfortable recommending it to anyone that might enjoy an autobiography and/or who is a fan of Rob's.

Now, one last thing on the book before I go . . . I had never seen Footloose before. With the re-make, I decided I needed to see the original and it had finally come in after weeks of it being on a "very long wait" list in my Netflix queue. So, as it was sitting on my entertainment center waiting for me to watch it, I read how Rob had auditioned for the role that went to Kevin Bacon. And as I watched the movie (after I finished the book), I couldn't help but see Rob in the part. In a weird way, it added to the experience of reading Rob's book. :)

So, again, good book. :)