Patience

Let me tell you something about this little girl...

Not only is she cute, oh god help me is she cute, she's also incredibly patient.  Her patience positively astounds me.  Quite frankly, I don't quite know how she pulls it off.

She never tries to run me over to get out the door of the house, like SOME dogs I know.  She waits patiently for food, for toys, or for treats.  Sometimes she wants something so bad I can actually see her inner struggle - but she waits it out with not much more than an 'alien cry' and a full body wag.  (you can't truly understand the full effect of the alien cry unless you know my little girl well, but it's quite endearing, if you ask me) 

There's another kind of patience Miss Lilly has.  Patience that I imagine she shares only with saints.  Patience that sometimes makes me love her so much it hurts.

You see, we all live with this guy.

He's sweet enough, but let's face it - he can be a serious pain in the ass.  When he likes you, he REALLY likes you, and he wants to make sure you know it.  He's not shy about expressing his love to any and every random passer-by, even if it means climbing on their head and chewing on their hair.  He's quite the feline creature.

Unfortunately for Lilly, he really loves her a lot.  This could partly be a result of Bailey making a clear statement to him on more than one occasion that his love is NOT welcomed by dogs in this house of the German Shepherd persuasion.

We all need a warm cuddly friend some nights, and Lilly is his.  Poor, sweet, patient Lilly.   

This is what I regularly see when I head to bed...

You see, Leo doesn't really believe in sleeping NEXT to Lilly - he finds it far more enjoyable to sleep ON her.  He will climb on and over her at will, poking, prodding, and licking as he goes.  If his annoyance gets to be too much for her, she quietly gets up and moves to a different spot on the bed.  Sadly, this creature cannot be so easily deterred.

I admire her patience, but often I think she's getting an unfair shake of the stick.  Her sweetness is being taken advantage of.  And we just can't have my best good girl being taken advantage of.  Sometimes the irritating creature must be removed from the bed.  Sometimes he must be contained under the blankets behind my knees.  Fortunately, this often pacifies him so Little Miss can get her beauty rest.

Frankly, I just don't know how he doesn't drive her to the brink of insanity.

Then again, during the day, she finds great joy in pinning him to the ground and chewing on his head for entertainment.  Perhaps it's a fair trade-off after all.

Love ya like a little Leo,

Lioness

Bay Beach

Contrary to popular belief, I like kids.
Well, some kids.
Some kids I really like a lot.
Some kids I really miss.

When I was dating Tracy, his friend had two little kids.  I really miss those kids.
They were little demon children when they were with their parents, but when it was just us it was a totally different story.  I may have been the only person who gave them the attention they craved... and the only person to ever read to them.  I hope I'm not the only person who ever brought them to Bay Beach and the Wildlife sanctuary.
I can't even imagine how big they must be now.

I like to borrow kids.  They're so much more fun that way.  Its easy for me to come up with really fun things to do with kids because I don't have to feed, clothe, and entertain them every day of their lives.

Remember a while back when I lied and promised I was going to tell you about things I did this summer.  I got around to telling you some of the things I did, but I left one out.  Perhaps it was a conscious omission, perhaps not.  I haven't decided yet.

Anyway, Deanne and I took CJ and Zachery to Bay Beach on a beautiful summer Friday afternoon.  We took tons of pictures and tried to make a video of them.  I'm not very good at making videos and the program on my computer seems to be defective - it locks up a lot.  It pretty much failed miserably.  I haven't had time to fix it.

This is a clip I managed to get loaded, if you wish to watch it.

Here are some pictures:

We had to convince CJ he wouldn't get in trouble for having his hat on sideways to take this one.

CJ was facinated with the wheels.

That's right... they picked the pink bug all on their own.

What ever would their fathers say?

Waiting in line is hard.

Cute, cute, cute!

We saved the Ferris Wheel for last.

CJ was a fan.

*sigh*

That last one might be part of the reason I didn't post this last month.

I really miss some kids.

-Lioness

Git in the HOLE!

I HATE it when people yell that!  Really hate it.

You can hear it all the time on TV during tournaments.  Tiger Woods tees up, hits a nice drive, and invariably some idiot will yell it:  "Git in the HOLE!"  Never mind the fact that the hole is a par 6 - that idiot clearly thinks he can somehow will the ball to find its way to the little cup cut out of the green hundreds of yards away.

"Are you too good for your home?"    Name that movie!!

My shots don't usually "Git in the hole."  In fact, I'm pretty good at getting them lots of places far, far away from the hole.  Ok, maybe I'm not that bad all the time... but sometimes I definitely am.

Today, my brother and I went golfing at Shorewood.

Shorewood is no par 3 course, but most of the holes are managable for me, and it's a pretty walk.

I didn't lose any balls in these particular woods today.  And that, my friends, is an accomplishment.

 OOH!  Ducks!  Preeeettttyyy!

Apparently, the ducks have seen me drive.  The ducks are concerned.

Here, this guy will show us how it's done...

Or not.

GIT IN THE HOLE!

Sorry, couldn't help it.

"Damn it, Billy!  How am I supposed to hit a double birdy with the shower iron?
You're embarrassing me in front of my friends!"

-Name THAT movie!

There are some important decisions that must be made when golfing...

BALL in focus...

OR

FLAG in focus...

I'm just not sure.  What do you think?

Or perhaps the traditional horizontal format speaks to you...

Hmmm... looks like SOMEBODY forgot to rake the sand trap after they walked through it...

Tsk!  Tsk!

Hopefully, there will be a couple nice days yet this month to get my last few rounds in.  But, here in Wisconsin, one never knows.

Love ya like a Hole-in-One,
Lioness

THE Pancake

This is a love story.  A love story about a pancake.  A pancake of eggy perfection.  A pancake that could stop your heart with one bite.  Literally.
The recipe for this pancake is in my cookbook/binder as "Best Pancakes EVER".  I found it years ago somewhere online.  I haven't got a clue where.  From what I understand, they're not all that uncommon.  I don't make them often - you will soon see why.  But, when I do, they never disappoint.  They are pure magic.

Last time I made them it was summer.  Strawberries and Blueberries were in abundant supply.  (Oh, what I wouldn't give to have strawberries and bluberries in abundant supply year-round.)  I decided to make a berry syrup to put on top of my pancakes this time.

 Toss the berries in pan and let them cook down.  A sprinkle of sugar might be a nice touch.

Then, a heavy oven safe dish (or even pan) with 1/3 stick butter needs to go in the oven to melt the butter.

Now, time to make the batter:

4 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup half and half

I officially do not recommend whole wheat flour.  I tried it this particular time.  Pretty much ruined the whole thing.  They did not live up to their full potential at all.  Let's be real - If you can't bring yourself to use the white ultra refined flour, you probably haven't gotten past the 1/3 stick of butter anyway, right?

The batter will make 2 - 3 pancakes, depending on how big you decide to make them.  1 pancakes is plenty for one serving.

Tilt the baking dish to butter all sides.  Pour 1/2 to 1/3 of batter into butter.  (You would need 2 dishes to make 2 at a time.)

Pop it into a 425 degree oven and watch the magic happen.

Oh me!

Oh my!

Oh baby!

When the pancake is golden brown on top, remove it from the oven.  Use whatever means necessary to remove it from the baking dish/pan.  The pancake will collapse and shrivel a bit, don't worry, all is well.

Now, you can just sprinkle your beautiful pancake with a little lemon juice and powdered sugar.

But, as you recall, I have some delicious berry syrup cooking.

Oh, see, now that's just perfection!

(Remember, this one was made with whole wheat flour - yours likely won't be this dark)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some pancakes to make.

Love ya like a delicious pancake,

Lioness

Just call her Orkin Dog

The rodent population in Green Bay is seriously lacking in the brain department. I don't know if it's that they're just so used to not having much stuff around that wants to kill them, or what - but they do some seriously foolish things.

A while back, the cats (who were only outside in their enclosure off the back of the house) nabbed a Chipmunk and dragged it into the house. *thanks guys*

Both the dogs and the cats regularly grab voles that are stupid enough to run right along the house in front of them.

Yesterday, Lilly was out on her tie-out surveying her domain when apparently, a vole was dumb enough to attempt running through the grass. I looked out the window to check on her and saw her pouncing toward a spot in the grass, then leaping backward like she'd been bit on the nose. I knew she had something, but it was small enough I couldn't see it in the grass. I turned and ran full speed to grab my video camera, tripping over Bailey (who had no idea what we were so excited about) the whole way.

At one point, before I got the video camera on, she flung the creature up in the air. I don't imagine it was for the purpose of me seeing what she had, but that's when I realized it was a vole. Those damn voles. Who do they think they are living under my house?

Anyway, I started recording just in case she did something funny - which is damn near inevitable with my mutts.
What she did, was be a little stinker! I'm sure she would have eaten it sooner or later, but I ended up taking it away just to avoid having to worry about worming her... and to avoid vole guts smeared on her face.

This video still makes me laugh...

Love ya like a fresh caught rodent,
Lioness

Bailey, you're such a dork!

That's what I said to him last night.

He doesn't really care.

I got a good laugh, though.



Bailey gets Joint Strong for his old man joints, especially his hips. Its a really great powdered supplement with glucosamine and chondroitin and other great vitamins and minerals for joint health. I had tried giving him other 'lesser' and cheaper supplements, but he's a very pick eater. He wants nothing to do with tablets of any kind. I think the Joint Strong is a really great product. I noticed a definite improvement when I started him on it, and I know others who also like it for their dogs. Ok, that's enough product endorsement for now.

Back to Bailey, the dork.


A couple days ago, Bailey's Joint Strong was empty. (and by empty, I mean it only had a few little crumbs left in it) I threw the lid in the garbage and the plastic container in the bag of recyclables by the back door and opened a new one. Then, I pretty much forgot about it.

Last night Bailey and Lilly got some bones from the grocery store. They don't get them a lot, and I know technically the hard weight-barring bones from cows are not all that good for them. But, they like them, and we don't really like following rules very much around here.

Bailey likes to take all his really good stuff into his kennel. He knows Lilly wouldn't dare try to steal anything of his out of there. Sometimes he gets so much stuff stockpiled that I have to clear out his kennel so he can lay down in it. Of course, Bailey took his bone to his kennel while Lilly chewed on hers in the living room.

When I headed to bed, Bailey was still in his kennel working on his bone. I saw something strange out of the corner of my eye. What the heck is that?

"Bailey, you're such a dork!"

Like I said, Bailey likes to hide all his good stuff in his kennel with him.

Perhaps that would be a good endorsement for Joint Strong.

"So good you're dog will swipe it from the recycle bin and hide it in his kennel to lick every last crumb out!"

Kids, I tell ya!

Love ya like an empty container of Joint Strong,
Lioness