Something Fabby in the Mail!

Today right before we left to go to Tru Value Hardware, the mail carrier delivered this exciting envelope! Since we were on on way out when it arrived, I had to wait until we got home to open it. It had a stamp of the Queen & it said "Royal Mail" so I knew it was from Wiggle!

 Inside the envelope was this fabby calendar from Labrador Rescue South East & Central (www.loveyourlabrador.co.uk) with Wiggle's late brother, dear old Sir H, gracing the cover in all his muddy glory:

 For January 2012 there is this cute picture of my love, Wiggle, with his flappy ears in the wind & Sir H in the background:

 Close up of Sir H saying hello with Wiggle peeping over his shoulder:

I was so excited after seeing these pictures that I had to go into the back yard to work off some energy as my walk earlier didn't do the trick. Looking at mom through the back door, telling her I want her to come watch me play:

 My stupid, yellow rubber squealing monkey with the silly smirk was just the thing to whap around:

 Monkey is all a-blur with my whapping, BOL!

 Stupid monkey is face down, trying to hide from me, BOL BOL BOL. All in all, a good start to the day!

Birthdays, Baking & Other Things

It has been a while since my last post! First of all, on October 7th I turned 10 years old & it was a totally fab day! It started with me opening my parcel sent by my love, Wiggle the Dog, all the way from England:

 I got this official Squirrel Patrol tag from Wiggle, which I now proudly wear & has kept those pesky squirrels at bay.

 He also gave me this (as he described it) "roundish, fluffly thing" which turned out to be a silly smiling toy which I take great pleasure in whapping:

 Thank you, Wiggle! xx

 Then at lunchtime, mom put me in the car & drove me to the most fabulous place in the universe, Dick's Drive In on Holman Road! Mom stood in line to order while I waited impatiently in the car.

 I was so excited I was all a blur!

 Mom also took a little video of me being sung Happy Birthday to & eating my birthday fries, which Dick's Drive posted on their facebook page! Lots of people saw me enjoying my birthday treats.

Yesterday we celebrated Shadow & Slinky's 13th birthday. Since mom is not sure when their exact birthday is she just estimated, as they were 7 weeks old when they were adopted from the Seattle Animal Shelter in December, 1998. They got lots of these nommy little treats (that also freshen their breath, that sneaky mom, BOL!) and then they had a catnip bash which is mom dumping a bunch of catnip around & letting them roll around in it in a very silly manner. Shadow actually fell asleep on some catnip & was snoring loudly & happily. This is Shadow, who is very lazy, even for a cat:

 And this is his brother Slinky, who is still in remission from his cancer (yay!)

 Today is very warm, rainy & windy so mom decided it was a good day to make her favorite pizza, a pear, gorgonzola cheese, walnut & red onion one. Here it is!

Making pizza from scratch is very easy & takes about as long as it would if you ordered delivery! Most can be made in about 30 minutes or so & it's fun to do! A pizza stone is very helpful, but if you don't have one you can use a terra cotta planter base turned upside down, which is what mom does. Here is the recipe:

Pizza Dough

2/3 C warm water
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 package or 2 & 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
1 & 1/2 C. flour (mom uses half whole wheat & half white)
1/4 C cornmeal

Put stone in oven & preheat to 500F or 260C

Put sugar & yeast in the warm water & let sit for about 7 minutes, until you see the yeast foaming. In a bowl mix the flour, cornmeal, salt, & garlic powder. Add the yeast mixture & mix until it forms a ball. Put on a floured surface & knead for about 10 minutes, kneading in more flour if it seems too sticky, until it's smooth & elastic feeling.  Let rest for a few minutes, then roll out to a 12 to 14 inch circle.

Grease a cookie sheet with olive oil & dust heavily with cornmeal. Put dough circle on cookie sheet, place on stone & bake for five minutes, & then take out of oven. You are now ready to add toppings!

For the Toppings:
Brush pre-baked crust with olive oil, then sprinkle on sea salt.
Add grated mozzarella cheese (about 1 & 1/2 C)
Sprinkle with gorgonzola cheese or bleu cheese (if using gorgonzola, go light - a little goes a long way!)
Then add thinly sliced red onion (about 1/3 of an onion)
Add 1/2 to 3/4 of a very ripe, thinly sliced pear
Top with chopped walnuts, then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil & sprinkle a little more salt.

To Bake:
Gently slide off cookie sheet directly onto the pizza stone (since you've alreay pre-baked it a little this is easy to do) & cook for about 7 minutes or until the edges are browning. Slide the cookie sheet under the pizza to remove from the oven. Let cool for several minutes on the cookie sheet, then cut & enjoy!

My "Meeting"

Often when mom is at the office & I'm at home, nomming my kong, I sense that she is eating all sort of fabulous food leftover from "meetings." Yesterday was one of these days as her company had Safeway store managers in for some product demo. So, they had: bacon, sausages, eggs & pastries in the morning, chicken with carmelized onions, giant pretzels, fruit & cheese mid-morning, and then for lunch (yes, they had lunch after all that!) pulled-pork & beef BBQ with potato salad & cornbread. Anyway, there were lots of leftovers so mom & other employees were snacking on that all day. My boyfriend Wiggle The Dog suggested that I too should have a "meeting" & have snacks brought in. I decided today at noon would be my meeting, and my caterer, who looked a lot like mom, prepared this tasty tray:

 Calling my Meeting to order:

 Being served my catered snack tray:

 Attending to important business - meeting adjourned directly following the eating of snacks

 Last night on our walk, it was still so warm (84F degrees) we decided to walk down around the Magnolia Bluff, on Magnolia Boulevard, as the sunset was spectacular:

 The Olympic Mountain range west of Puget Sound

 Not much breeze, but lots of sailboats were out in the Sound

 As we walked southward on Magnolia Blvd we could see the rising moon:

 The moon through the Madrona trees growing on the bluff:

 Me on our walk last night:

Such a beautiful, warm night & a fab walk! We met lots of people and dogs out enjoying it just like us.

Labor Day

Today is Labor Day & it's another hot, humid, sunny day in Seattle. We walked over to Magnolia Park off of West Galer Street so I could run around & play some fetch. There's lots of shade there & lots of people were having picnics. I saw some nice dogs, too. Some guys were playing bocce but they laughed at me & told me the balls would be too heavy for me to play with. Below on the left are the booce players & on the right were people having picnics.

 Under the tree in the shade, sniffing my flingy ball

 Here I come!

 Doing some BIG running!

 Throw it some more!!!

 Mom tried to get a shot of the marina, but the blackberries were too high & blocked the view

 One last throw:

Afterwards we rested under a shady tree while I drank lots of water & cooled off before we started back home. Now I'm resting, waiting for dinner....

Things I Did This Week

Well, summer has finally come to Seattle so I have done some fun things this week. Monday after mom got home from work, her friend Carrie (Jack's mom) texted her & wanted to see if we could come with them to Seward Park on Lake Washington. So we hopped in Carrie's SUV & drove to the park on a pretty, warm evening. Here's me going after a ball & Jack looking around:

 The water was as warm as bath water because of the hot weather we've had so it was fun to swim in. Here's mom throwing me the ball:

 Here I come!

Today we went on a long walk over to the viewpoint at the top of the Magnolia Bridge, just off of West Galer Street. Here I am looking through the fence at the Holland America Cruise ships docked at the marina & downtown Seattle beyond:

 The cruise ships in Smith Cove with downtown in the background:

 Then we walked westward on Galer to this little park where mom let me off leash for a bit to run around & sniff & play:

 C'mon, let's play!

 Sniffing all the interesting smells

 Sitting for a picture but looking away from mom:

 Taking my last look at the park before mom puts my leash back on:

 Now I'm inside resting, waiting for my dinner (best time of the day!)

Fourth of July!

We celebrated the Fourth of July at home yesterday, as mom doesn't like to leave me home alone during the fireworks, so she turned down plans to spend it with some friends. The weather was beautiful, 78 degrees. I played in the backyard while mom sunbathed. Then she BBQ'd a huge steak for the both of us - she gave me half of it!!! I got a bit of potato salad she made, too. (if mom's vegan dad is reading this, she RARELY has red meat so don't worry!)

 Then after I had rested a bit (and she washed the car) I had more extended back yard play time to make up for a lack of a walk. Since fireworks had been going off all day around the neighborhood she didn't want to risk walking me & having me scared. I'm only scared of the really loud, booming ones. I told her I wanted to play fetch with this toy:

 Flying!

 Throw it again!

 Sniff break:

 Leaping!

 Hello!

 Back to more play:

Surprisingly, later on when the fireworks got really loud (we could even see some from our front window!) I wasn't very scared & even went to sleep on mom's bed as usual, so I was a very brave girl :)