Life in 3D

Summer vacation

Thanks to all of you for your kind words about Nina.  It's been a month now, and we still miss her every day.  We saved a small box of her things -- her smelly old collar, her favorite toys, the toothbrush she would chew on when we tried to brush her teeth (chicken-flavored toothpaste!) -- and gave most of the rest to shelters.  Her bed and a squirrel (and some treats!) went to our dear friends' puppy, Maya, who is making good use of them:

One of the hardest things is coming home to an empty house.  So it was nice that we got to skip town for a few days and head to the West Coast for Henry's much-anticipated First Airplane Ride.

He was so good!  Slept most of the way (it's nice when you can lie down and only take up one seat) and was generally in good cheer when he was awake.  The in-flight dining options were less than satisfactory, however:

He got to meet his great-grandmas!

And his adorable cousin Stella!

He threw up on his uncle!

And learned that his toes are delicious!

Hanging out with family and friends was great, and we had a wonderful trip.  T is convinced we have the Best Baby Evar and wants to tote him around the world; I'm happy letting us all bask in the success of this one trip for a while.  We shall see.

In the meantime, it's hot as can be at home and I've been making lots of food from the weekly CSA basket we get.  More on that to come!

The long goodbye

Last night we said goodbye to our darling Nina.  14 years of rascally sweet behavior finally caught up with her, and it made her so tired.  She had been through a pretty tough week after a few months of ups and downs, and yesterday she let us know that it was time.

We spent the day and evening saying goodbye to her, but as T said, we really started saying goodbye several months ago.  Even Henry seemed to know she was leaving, and lay quietly just looking at her and touching her nose.

The vet made a house call and she went peacefully on her favorite bed.  We all cried.  T and I ate pasta with sauce from a jar and took her usual walk around the block, but emptyhanded.  Last night I dreamed about her.

This morning, things seemed lonely around the apartment.  There was no clickety-clacking of toenails, no bowl of food to fill, no wet nose poking around the shower curtain to check where we were.  It's like we keep forgetting something. 

The vet said that pets have a funny way of letting us know that they're still with us.  There will come a day when we stop finding her fur in our food, and where I stop thinking I hear her shifting or sighing in the other room.  I'm not ready for that day yet. 

Wherever she is, there are thousands of slow-moving squirrels, acres of cheese and carrots and chicken bones, and soft things to curl up on everywhere.  Her legs are strong and she can walk for miles.  Belly rubs and ear scratches are given with abandon.

Nina dolly.  Thank you for bringing us years and years of such sweetness.  We love you so much.

What to do with one meeellion carrots

Hi!  I'm still alive.  The holidays and work meant no time for cooking or doing much else, but things have slowed down a bit now.  Good thing, cause I'm pretty much set at pace: waddle from now until the midgie decides to join us.

The most exciting food news lately is that we joined a winter-share CSA, which means that every month, we get to pick up an exciting bunch of mostly-frozen (and sometimes pre-cut! yay!) fruits and veggies and I get to figure out how to use them.  I've never been part of a CSA before, and I have to say I really like the idea of being handed a bunch of ingredients and then having to figure out what to do with them.  It's especially exciting because most of the frozen stuff is from the summer or early fall, so I have to shake off the root vegetable mindset and branch out.

T has picked up the first two deliveries so far, and Nina has inspected them.  She said everything looked good.

 

(I think she's more interested in the first one because we also ordered meat.)

Anyway, so far I've used the summer squash and peppers (pre-cut!  did I mention?) in veggie chili, the blueberries in Martha Rose Shulman's Oatmeal Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes, the diced tomatoes and sausage in baked rigatoni, the green beans in a riff on this farro salad, and the edamame as, well, boiled edamame sprinkled with sea salt.

This past week they underestimated the amount of frozen tomatoes they'd need, so they were giving folks carrots instead (in addition to the bag of carrots that already came with the delivery).  So we found ourselves with one meeellion carrots on our hands.  I had just made carrot-ginger soup, so I wanted something different - something on the order of baked goods (which is all I seem to want nowadays).  I decided to do both muffins and bread.  I know, I know, that's a lot of baked goods, but the bread is supposed to freeze well (the muffins, not so much - the recipe says they "keep beautifully" for a whopping 2 days.  That is hardly "keeping" at all, if you ask me.). 

As for recipes, I pretty much followed this one from Food & Wine to a t, except that, lacking cardamom, I threw in pinches of ginger, cloves, and allspice.  Oh, I also used 1/2 and 1/2 regular and whole wheat flour.  It turned out pretty well - it'll be better, I'm sure, toasted with a pat of butter.  Muffin recipe after the jump.

Attack of the conehead!

The evil conehead plots its next attack.

Last week Nina hurt her foot and won one of the big prizes in the Cute or Sad lottery: an Elizabethan collar.   (She's fine now and the cone's off, don't worry!)  The first day or so she was busy getting herself stuck in doorways and not quite rounding corners, but then she got smart and realized she could use the cone as a bulldozer and a battering ram...but more importantly, as a prop in the "cutest beggar in the world" act...

What to do with a sleeping doggy

Why, take pictures, of course!

Sorry about the gratuitous butthole view in this one.  Wink!

Indoguration

In honor of our new president, I present:

Yes, YOU can at Obamicon.me!

This little doggy: a Nina poem

This little doggy went walking

This little doggy stayed home

This little doggy had num-nums

This little doggy had none

And this little doggy POOPED ON THE HALLWAY FLOOR!  Bad doggy! Any more poop nuggets and you'll end up like this!

Beauty/Beast

I recently got a new camera and have been shamelessly exploiting T. and Nina while trying out the different settings and functions.  Nina generally doesn't like getting her picture taken if there is any sort of flash or blinking lights involved, and even if there are no lights or flash, she'll see the camera and turn her head away.  Which is why it was a score to get this shot of her:

And which is also why I sometimes get shots of her looking like a drunk hobo:

Charming.

Wing nut

Wing nut (n.): a nut having two flat, widely projecting pieces such that it can be readily tightened with the thumb and forefinger.

See also:

Holiday Getaway

Last weekend, to celebrate the 4th of July and T's birthday, we took a trip en famille to the Sweetwater Farm Bed & Breakfast in Glen Mills, PA.  We love it there because it's semi-rural (the farm has 2 horses, a pony, 5 sheep, 2 goats, and 2 house dogs), the breakfasts are yummy, and it's dog-friendly.  There's also not too much to do in the area, so you can justify lying about at the pool and going on hikes and just generally not doing very much.  Oh, you can also take Glamour Shots of your dog:

I've rather perfected the Wistful Doggie Look, no?

They better give me lots of bacon for this.

You can also force encourage your dog to socialize with the farm animals:

This is just embarrassing.

One of the house dogs there, Brogan, is super cute and friendly.  When we were there two years ago, he came to pick Nina up every morning around 7:00 -- he'd sit outside our door, which was glass, and whimper quietly, and Nina would whimper back.  We'd let her out and they'd romp around, barking at the goats and just generally being dogs.  Our door this time was wood, so there was no pick-up service, but they still hung out, although it was kind of hard to get a shot of them together.

She did decide to lick his head:

And then we went for a walk.