Hot Dog

Dear Hot Dog,

Why you gotta be so good? And yet still be so bad?

In this case, I wish that ignorance could shield me from the ere of a big, plump, greasy hot dog, smothered in ketchup and nestled snugly in some sort of bleached, white-bread bun.

Once, every decade or so, I get a larger-than-me, out-of-control craving for a hot dog. When i was pregnant with Lila I spent my sixth month eating only hot dogs. I could easily eat five of them (Sam's Club size... NOT Oscar Meyer) in one sitting. I gained 12 pounds that month and walked away from my ob/gyn with an earful about nitrates. As it turns out, I might have just as well spent my sixth month of pregnancy with a heroine syringe in my arm while doing keg stands.

So, I quit hot dogs.

But in recent days something has come over me. I feel a need growing inside of me. On Saturday morning I bought the hot dogs. And tonight I made my family a baked lemon chicken with potatoes and steamed broccoli.

But I ate hot dogs.

And I loved every bite.

I hate myself for it. But I just can't help it.

Pet Boarding

So, today we were having a follow-up extermination some work done on our house and we needed to board our pets. I decided to let Sidney be a shop dog and took her to work with me for the day. She enjoyed six hours of treating everyone who walked through BGES's doors like an intruder who she dared to protect me from. It was actually quite sweet. By the end of the day she had chilled out a little bit. All in all, I know that it was less stressful than going to the vet and I suspect that she even had a good time and liked some of the attention.

The cats got to go to the vet. As many of you may already know, we have Pandora who is older than old. She was born in 1994! And.... SHE'S NEVER BEEN SICK IN HER LIFE. It's likely that Pandora will live forever. She's basically a long haired lump. She has one particular chair in our house that she loves to sit on (don't ever sit there. even if it's empty. If you sit there you will definitely have a pandora fur butt and I will not feel sorry for you because you've been warned.) But don't worry. It won't be empty unless we're all in bed. When we are in bed Pandora will come up to sleep near my head. Outside of moving those two times each day... she must eat and use her litter box... but that's about it.

Then there's Sherbert. He hates people. He was a stray kitten and we rescued him. I am 100% sure that he considers us the enemy, would kill us if he could and believes that we are holding him captive in our home. For a long time we considered giving him away or to a shelter (he attacks). But after awhile he became a little, orange, hostile family member and can't help but love him. I set up quarters in our house where he can be alone. I put a bed and cat cube up on top of our hutch and he spends most of his time there.

When we leave the cats at the vet for boarding, they always take a picture.

Here is Pandoras:

Here is Sherbert:

I was not exaggerating.

Organic/ Wheat-Free/ Peanut Butter Dog Treats

Sidney is a finicky eater when it comes to dog food, so I know these must be good. She's had three of them and still wants more! They were so easy to make that I had to share the recipe! Just mix all of the ingredients, knead the dough and then break it into small balls of dough. roll them out and cut with a cookie cutter. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

As a note, the dough was too crumbly to roll into one big sheet. It would have been very cracked. But the small balls worked well... so no complaints here!

2 cups of rice flour

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup milk

If you're interested in making your own pup treats, I suggest checking out this website. It looked like there was a lot of good information there. I especially like the thought of freezing low sodium chicken broth in cubes and bringing them outside on a hot summer day!

Little Bear Will Make A Sailer of You...

Father Bear (while working on a crossword): I need a word that rhymes with itchy, Little Bear. Can you think of a word that rhymes with itchy?

Lila: (nonchalantly) BITCHY...

Little Bear: Itchy?

Lila: BITCHY.

Me: Lila, what did you say?

Lila: BITCHY!

Me: Uhhhhhhh... you know that's a cuss word, right?

Lila: (appearing to be annoyed says sharply): Yes. I know.

Me: Okay, well, please don't say that in school.

So, there are some cuss words that we say and some that we don't. We don't use the word "bitch" in our house. It seems like Lila actually thought that it was likely that Little Bear suggest that his father write the word "bitch" on his crossword puzzle. And this didn't seem to phase her or seem unusual to her at all.

This conversation was too surreal for 7AM

Your Daily Lila (In Spanish)

My bilingual performer.

Lila Singing (In SPANISH)

Lila loves Spanish.

We were in bed tonight and I managed to record her singing one of her school songs.

What's Keeping Me Busy

Moso Bags.

Moso bags are occupying my every-other thought these days. Awhile back I suspected that Bunny may have some mold in her room and I freaked out. She kept waking up with a stuffy nose and sore throat. We sell these little air purifying bags at work called Moso Bags. They're bags that are filled with bamboo charcoal that absorbs environmental pollutants and odors. They're one of our big sellers. People kept coming in for them and then coming back to buy them for their sisters and mothers and college kids and classroom and office and so-on. They're only $9.99 so I picked one up for Bunny's room. Within a day of putting it out I noticed a huge difference in the air quality in her bedroom. It just felt lighter and cleaner and easier to breathe. Needless to say, we're satisfied. Even when I hosted V's baby shower, I was sure to include a Moso bag in her gift basket so that baby J would have one for his nursery.

Well, the word is out.

There's a living natural magazine that wrote an article about Moso and listed us as the place to get them. We're just this itsy bitsy little store and we're getting major orders for Moso bags. I'm the shipping person, so I worked to fill as many as I could yesterday and am going in early today to try to get more out... and then looking forward to another shipment arriving (which we should deplete almost immediately. )

Anyway, if you're a stock buying person... buy stock in Moso Bags. And if you are an allergy sufferer... pick up a moso bag.

Bunny Goes Gaga

Lila Is Angry At Imaginary People (In SPANISH)!

1.) Don't mind how messy my house is.

2.) Try to ignore Sidney, who is persistently trying to convince me to put my candid camera down to toss her ball.

3.) I am not sure how much of this is actually Spanish and how much of this is Splila-ish.