Today was the first nice day in two weeks, and so we celebrated by taking Dwight to the dog park...well we take him all the time, but usually it's so he will stop torturing us with his hyperness, and so we stand there mournfully in the cold with our hoods cinched way tight...whereas this time it was for us. It cheered me up quite a bit! (I have been down bc of tests, and school, and the same old stuff.)

Recently, we have been making a lot of poor (or lazy) -person shephard's pie. I've always loved the idea of meat pies, it seems so simple, so nutritious--just cut yourself a triangle of pie, and you have your meal... And just recently I learned that shephard's pie 1) does not involve pie crust but rather mashed potatoes baked on top of a savory stew (yum!) and 2) involves lamb meat.
So really, we have been making poor (or lazy) -person cottage pie, which is beef instead of lamb.
Basically, this is Dinty Moore stew with mashed potatoes made from a powder and mild scooped on top, no baking involved. It's really very good.

Also, I have been getting my daily dose of antioxidants, because I've been brewing iced tea. I don't know why anyone owns a tea kettle, I just use the outside pot of my pasta cooker, boil some water, open 16 tea bags and tie them on a string...sort of like making rock candy. okay, that sounds really ghetto...so that's why someone would own a tea kettle! But it's actually really convenient since I make 4 liters of it at a time to fill up some old plastic soda bottles we had.

I now notice that I write a lot about dogs and food, my two favorite things in the world!

Let's see, on our way to the dog park today, we found a ceramic knight leaned against a tree on the street, so we stopped and picked it up and now it's guarding our porch. He only has a small crack on his shield. We are thinking about leaving the extra laser pointer we have near where we found the knight as a trade. I think some little kid over in the projects would love to find our laser pointer, as it even has exchangeable heads on it so you can project a skull, smiley face and a ton of other random images with the pointer.

Ok, and on a final random note, if I got another dog, a fluffy terrier lap dog, I would name it Baruch, which sounds like what a dog would be named in a Jane Austen novel... "Why I do say, Baruch, what shenanigans have you got yourself into this morn?"

When I told Aaron, "Let's look up some porno on your computer," he typed in the word "porno" on google. Not "hot chicks" or "boobies." And then he clicked on news results and found this:

Today after school, Aaron and I took Dwight on a walk into the ghetto. Basically, the neighborhood becomes the ghetto if we come out of the gate and walk straight, or turn right. If we turn left, it's still possible to get to the ghetto if we turn right again within a block.
Anyways, so we walked him into the ghetto. We try to do this once in a while so he can remember his roots. And they love him there. Just in this one walk, one guy who hangs out at this crack park down the street offered to sell us a puppy ("'Ey! You want another pit? Little girl! You want another pit? They six weeks old.") and another guy sitting at a corner in a wheelchair asking for coins bent down and petted Dwight as he walked by, saying very affectionately "Big puppy!"

Anyways, we stopped to talk to the first guy, mostly because he started following us down the street, and his story about the puppies was, "I'm selling them cheap. The mama, I let her run around wild, and so she dug a hole in this field, and had her babies, and now I can't get her to come home!"
So, we waited until it got dark, and then drove over to the park to see if we could see the puppies (I've dragged Aaron into the dark underworld of puppeh/kitteh pedophiles). We didn't find them, and then we drove past the guy again, who was apparently still on his corner. I got really paranoid that he would recognize us. So I don't think I will be doing that again.

In other news, my sister has been blogging consistently at her new blog, and it makes my day to find a new post so often!

I think it is time for a "things I have been embarassed about in my life" post.

When I was a kid, I was embarassed about how hairy I was. Now, thinking back on it, it couldn't be that obvious, but I always felt very sasquatch-ish because the backs of my hands and fingers had hair on them. The hair has either lessened now, or I just don't pay as much attention anymore, because that embarassment has waned.
But one thing I will never get over being embarassed about was that time I farted in front of a boy while we were alone in a practice room in high school. And that time in 3rd grade when the same thing happened while I was playing chess with a guy. I remember we were sitting on the typical public school classroom tile floor, and it made quite a loud sounding board. I mean, we were still at an age where the boy probably farted in front of his parents all the time and laughed about it, but I was totally embarassed. And he didn't laugh. He ignored it. In fact, both times, it was ignored by the other party, which actually made it worse. I really feel like because my family just laughs at that kind of stuff, I have much less control over certain muscles than another person who would have to hold it in even at home might. A friend once told me that she went to the bathroom whenever she had to let one out at home. I was awed, and a little disbelieving. But now, I think it might have been best if my family had been the same.

Another embarassing moment was in college, when a prof invited our 12 person class over to her (beautiful) house to hang out and watch the BBC version of Tom Jones. I got there 15 minutes early because it was easier to find than expected, and had to drive around the neighborhood for a while to finally knock on her door on time. I was still the first to arrive by around 30 minutes. She offered me tea, and so I had a cup, even though I don't usually have stuff like that. And then she passed me the sugar bowl (who in reality has sugar in a separate porcelein bowl?! apparently, artsy college professors with perfectly decorated artsy houses...and my grandmother. Well, not _my_ grandmother, but probably yours.) And I proceeded to accidentally drip tea into her sugar. Which, while I don't know much about these things, I assume ruined all the sugar in her little porcelein bowl. I still cringe when I think about it.

The final embarassing moment that I can think of for now, is when I went over to Aaron's grandparents' house for dinner for the first time. They are definitely people that would and do have a porcelein sugar bowl. They served salad, with little cherry tomatoes. Being a total klutz, I tried spearing one of the little devils with my fork. It broke open _and_ slid off my plate, leaving a red splotch on the white tablecloth. When everyone saw that I left the second tomato alone, they laughed and said, "Not going to risk it?" They were really nice about it and didn't care, but I think about it on sleepless nights.

Last night for dinner, me and Aaron went to Cheddars and both ordered a Caesar salad and 3 of their delicious honey butter croissants. It was delicious, though a little embarassing to be ordering so strangely. Tonight we will be making enchiladas and spanish rice. I am currently waiting for Aaron to hurry up and print out the Blockbuster coupon so we can rent a movie.

I have been planning a post with pics of my christmas presents and how they are being used, but haven't got around to it. I got a pair of sleeppants that make me not want to leave the house, ever. So much so that Aaron has told me just to go out in them. So I helped rake the leaves today outside with them just rolled up to my knees...

This week, we have been taking Dwight to the dog park a lot. He actually gets along really well with other dogs, once we got over our fear that he would be a dog aggressive pit. He leaves dogs alone that tell him to go away, and says hello to other dogs by licking them in the mouth. Dog parks are sort of a crap shoot though, because it's awkward to navigate around the dog owners, who can be fairly anal about how their dogs play or their dogs getting dirty.
Yesterday a standard poodle named Izzy (there are a lot of purebreds in Dallas) was kicking Dwight's ass by biting him on the neck. Aaron and I don't mind this happening, because Dwight plays better with dogs that let him know who's boss. But the poodle's owner still yelled at the dog, saying, "I don't want him to play that way."
If I had a standard poodle, I would be happy it was showing some balls...

Today we met a Siberian Husky at the animal shelter. If you saw me walking one down the street, would you perhaps assume I was an eskimo? Because I think that would be really cool.

Does anyone else get sleepy when they have to go Christmas shopping? Something about watching random people buying copies of The Simpsons movie to put in their kids' stockings and yuppies at the Apple store buying 5 nanos at one time makes me want to go back to bed. So now I am blogging and drinking a McDonald's iced coffee to stay awake. After Aaron's biscuits finish baking, we will probably finish watching Tristram Shandy. Winter couch cuddling is great.

This past weekend we went to Austin and stayed with my sister, and then drove down to New Ulm where Elissa's mom's house is. It was a pretty awesome weekend. We took the backseat out of the Element for the first time, and were able to fit the futon mattress, and Dwight's crate, and all our bags for the weekend pretty easily. Seriously, it's the coolest car ever.
My sister's apt is cozy in a riff-raff, college way, which is one of the best cozies there are. I miss fitting all my stuff in a 15 x 15 space. It adds challenge and character to living.


Elissa's mom's house is in the middle of nowhere, with a bunch of land surrounding, and I felt like I was in a country music video. We got there around sunset, and went walking with Elissa, Aaron B., and of course Dwight, down the huge expanse of open space behind the house, complete with two rows of hay bales and a lone tree. Dwight got a kick out of running way far out and then jackrabitting back when we called him, I think. Once we got him home, he slept for basically two days straight, only stopping to eat and take walks. It was a preview of how he will be when he is an old man dog.



Totally off topic, but I'm watching John Mayer is on Austin City Limits right now, and his tryptich tattoo is showing a bit. It makes me want to get tattooed.

Dwight is sleeping upstairs with us tonight, we are bedding down on the extra futon mattress we kept for just such an occasion when we gave away our futon frame on Craigslist. It feels like a campout. (Typically Dwight sleeps in his crate downstairs, and wears one of my hoodies that I modified for him when winter came and it got freaking cold downstairs.)
It reminds me of last winter, when we had just gotten him...we were potty training him, and so would have to get him to go outside every two hours or so in 30 degree weather, and leave him until he went potty. He was also fairly sick for most of that time, so he would stand out there with his tail between his legs, hacking a lung out before he would go. It was very sad. Needless to say, he was potty trained in no time!

I got my rebate from cingular today, and am very excited contemplating what I shall spend some of it on, before I have to relinquish the rest to grocery money. It will probably end up being a book or something, but the funnest part is deciding.

Two more weeks of school, and then Austin, where I will get to see Elissa and Aaron B.! and stay at my sister's new apartment. Exciting. Very.

Anyways, I am wearing lightning bolt earrings that my sister very kindly gave me from her collection because I asked for them, and am about to go read a little before sleeping. Have a bueno night!