Apple Season Begins!

Last weekend we visited Todd's family and, since the house is built on what used to be an apple orchard, we came home with lots of apples. So yesterday we invited my family over for the afternoon and might have gotten carried away with the apple recipes. We ended up making apple crisp, apple pie, apple walnut muffins, apple cake and apple turnovers (and we still have more apples).
My family left with the pie, but here's a picture of the muffins, cake, and turnovers.

Pyrapalooza 2007

Last weekend we went to Pyrapalooza, an event organized by NorthEast Pyr Rescue. After work we packed up the freshly washed puppies and headed to Westfield, Massachusetts.
We didn't make it to the hotel until nearly 2 am so I will admit that I'm glad that Todd convinced me to book a hotel room instead of trying to pitch a tent in the dark.
Although the event was geared towards Pyrs, there were some guest appearances by other dogs and their owners for the special events. Here is a beautifully outfitted Bouvier (with natural ears) with a custom made cart.
Buddy tried carting and he turned out to be a natural! Doesn't he look at home all harnessed up?In addition to carting they had an agility session. We hadn't originally signed up for this because we weren't sure that Buddy would be up for it, but it turned out that he did a good job for a first timer. After some coaxing Todd got him doing jumps.
Pyrapalooza was great fun and we got to meet the owners of lots of other Pyrs, many placed by NEPR. It was fun to talk to so many other Pyr lovers. They also had many Pyr-related things including Pyr beer, Pyr wine, and even items knitted from Pyr fur. All in all an exciting and exhausting day. Look at all the tired out Pyrs. And here is one last photo opp—here I am with Buddy and Magic, another rescued dog.

Loki gets a bath and goes to his new family

Today our two week puppy fostering adventure ended and Loki went to his new home. Thursday was a frenzy of grooming so that Buddy and Loki would look their best. Pyrs look big but under all that fur, the truth is that most pyrs are knobbly. This is what Loki looked like in his bath:












and here he is squeaky clean and all dry and fluffy:













On Saturday we drove up to Westfield Massachusetts and gave Loki to his new family. They seemed like very nice people and will be raising Loki to be a therapy dog. We will miss him, but puppies are lots of work!

Sea World at night

This past week I was at a conference and one night there was an event at Sea World. It was a very cool and unique thing to do. We got to visit several of the animals and see what they do when the public goes home. The answer for the polar bears is sleep.

The beluga whales were showing off for their fans.












And the penguins looked distinctly like we'd interrupted their beauty rest.

Look mom! They're wearing ears!

While we were in California we also went to the zoo and carried on the tradition my sister started: wearing tiger ears. It all started when we were at the Bronx Zoo when Tiger Mountain opened. Sofia goes "I'll buy you a pair of ears if you wear them for the rest of the day." I say no, but Todd goes "sure" and a tradition is born. I did end up joining in on that first adventure and we have since inducted other people. The great thing about the ears is that they're fairly subtle, but little kids get really excited about seeing adults wearing them. It is great fun and it's a shame that they don't make the ears any more.

Our other activities for the day included walking along the beach and visiting a cheese shop. New criteria for any new town we move to: cheese shop! Mmmmm cheese.