Diamonds Really Are A Girl's Best Friend!

We were very lucky to have beautiful weather most of the day Memorial Day- there were 2 very bad storms- one that came and went very quickly, and one later in the evening by the time we were in the house for the night. I spent the morning in the kitchen cooking enough food for an army- even though an army wasn't coming and a majority of the afternoon cleaning and doing laundry! (I just love having a "day off".)

Unfortunately for me, we can't do any entertaining until our 3rd and final bathroom/sauna room remodel is complete (which should be some time in the early fall... If I'm lucky! Hopefully, this is just a sarcastic comment- but we were told 2weeks ago that this project would be done by the end of the week, and since that comment was made, the only thing that's been accomplished is a door has been hung and a vanity installed! I really wish that I could work for an hour or two a day and call it quits- I don't even do that on my day off!)

Lucy was right by my side, keeping me company and just waiting for something to drop as I made my Mom's famous Picnic Baked Beans, my very favorite broccoli salad (Lucy doesn't like broccoli, but she does like cheddar cheese, bacon and pecans), deviled eggs (Nope, Lucy- you can't have a deviled egg- your Mom and Dad are both allergic to eggs), and the ever so wonderful (except on the waist) Strawberry Pretzel Dessert.

Of course, no amount of planning on my part and no lists could erase my luck of not having just one thing that I need to finish something off. Monday it was Cool Whip. At this point, there's not even the most basic of staples in our home (because I got tired of not having time to cook and throwing can after can, box after box of expired food in the trash), and there definitely wasn't Cool Whip. So, I headed off to Paul's Market for Cool Whip and whatever else looked good while I was there. I picked up some hot sausage stuffed peppers for Rob and some smoked beef bones for the puppies.

I couldn't wait to get home and give Lucy her bone! She's never had one of those before and I knew the smoky smell would have her drooling. I bought 3 bones, figuring that Ceasar would chew 2 to Lucy's one. (Incidentally, at some point during the evening- he stole Lucy's bone off her and proceeded to devour it in addition to the 2 I had given him.) Lucy carried that bone all over the yard and the house for the next 4 hours. When she wasn't chewing on it, she hid it several places in the house, and the yard- she must have known that Ceasar would try to take it off of her!

Rob called around 3:00 and said he was on his way home and starving! I lit the grill and searched the kitchen for something to cook the peppers in. (Note to self: peppers disintegrate when placed over open flame- do not attempt to cook them this way!). I've been boycotting aluminum foil for the past 2 months- it's ridiculously expensive for a pathetic amount of it- and it just makes me mad, so there is none of that in the house. I figured that a casserole that was oven-friendly would also be grill friendly and plopped the little peppers in the dish and set it on top of the grill with the grill on low.

The rain did nothing for the weather except make it exceptionally muggy- I didn't have to look in a mirror to know that my hair was growing 80's large- by the minute! Lucy and I were in the kitchen getting something to drink and enjoying the cool AC when I heard a huge crash. Startled, I walked out to the deck to see huge flames engulfing the deck and the grease trays from the grill in the midst of the flames. Of course, little Lucy wanted to see what all the excitement was about- I'm not sure what was more appealing to the boxer- the grease or the flames, but I promptly put her little wiggle butt right back in the house and wrestled with the hose to put out the fire.

The fire was out, and the messed cleaned up by the time Rob arrived home. The only casualty in the whole mess was my casserole dish. I don't know what caused it, but the whole thing was split in 4 large pieces. The peppers were fine! This was definitely not the 1st time that I have exhibited poor judgement in choosing a baking dish- and probably won't be the last! (At least the fire department didn't have to be called and no one was injured in the making of those peppers!)

After dinner we made Pina Coladas and Strawberry Daiquiris (Still celebrating Toast to Your Dog Day a day later...) and jumped in the hot tub. It wasn't long before the little boxer decided that she too wanted to play in the hot tub, and in she came! She sat on the highest ledge of the tub for a while, and then doggy paddled between Rob and I. She had both of her paws on my shoulders and was nibbling on my ears when I felt my earring slip out of my ear. I was wearing my almost new diamond, pave hoops.

I grabbed a hold of Lucy and pulled her away from my ear, sticking my hands in her mouth to retrieve the earring. But, I was too late. There was no earring in her mouth. Hoping to get lucky, we plopped Lucy on the step and turned off the jets. We searched for about 5 minutes, but there was no earring in the hot tub.

For the next 18 hours, Lucy and I took a lot of walks. And the main topic of conversation seemed to be "Poop, Lucy! Please poop!". Tuesday morning, I put her on her leash and walked the yard with her- something I don't usually do. No luck! Then finally, on Tuesday afternoon, we were taking yet another walk- same topic of conversation- when Lucy decided to humor me! I won't go into the details- but I've got my earring back! My little pup is fine- thank goodness! I am hoping that no one was watching the whole incident- they probably would have thought I had gone crazy because I got very, very excited when I found the deposit that Lucy had made. And I'm actually wearing those earrings today, but only after tons of cleaning and hours of soaking in disinfectant.

It would seem that my little boxer, is an accomplished jewel thief...

I was so pleased that she had given me my earring back, that when she found a very large, very sappy pine cone on our walk, I didn't take it away from her. Now my little pup is covered in sap, smelling very much like pine... and did I mention, extremely sticky!

Tonight is our second night of Puppy Kindergarten! (I'm actually supposed to take the dog with me tonight!) I'm really looking forward to it, and wondering what we're going to learn. It will be interesting to see how Lucy reacts to training with all of the other dogs around. All of her training so far has involved only her and her human. And on occasions when there were distractions around (ie: other humans or dogs) we did not have great successes!.

Lucy has finally gotten the hang of removing the balls from the cube! She will pull one ball out, play with it for a little while, then go to work on another ball. I guess there is hope for the interactive toys after all! Now if only I could get her to remove the eggs from the platypus...

It's been a little cooler the last couple of days by the time that we leave work, and I don't want Lucy to be too used to being in the car with the windows up and no noises. So, I've been turning on the AC to chill the car, and then rolling all the windows down, and Lucy loves it!! She sits with her paw on the edge of the window and lets the wind flop her ears around... she actually smiles! I love watching it!