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?"