Dog Historic Markers, etc.

Joe: Things are hunky dory. Recent outings included a lovely, special dinner at Sparrow Meat Market and Produce (dreamy tiramisu) and another lovely, special dinner at Paesano’s (terrific chestnut puree soup). The Bolognese at Haute Joe’s was a one of several “delicio s” meals this week.

Dog Historic Markers: Dave Barry coined this term in his 1993 article “The Hidden Life of Dogs” http://www.funnytimes.com/samplepages/dogs.pdf The concept, described here, has a lot of resonance for us doggie owners. “... the house contains the most wondrous thing in the world: the kitchen counter. One time a piece of turkey fell off of it. The dogs still regularly visit the spot where it landed, in case it shows up again. There's an invisible Dog Historic Marker there.” Of course it’s invisible, Dave! We’re talking Smell-O-Vision here. Some local favorite Dog Historic Markers include the racoon house at the Summers-Knoll School dumpster and the woodchuck haven recently turned into a facilities building site at County Farm Park. Watch out County Parks and Recreation folks, you may need to “think like a chuck”, as our Antietam ranger friend told us, to prevent wily woodchucks from undermining your foundation. A less frequently visited marker is the Magical Bone Bush in front of a local church. Sniff, sniff, sniff the ground, raise your head and sniff, snatch that slice of cow femur hanging in the bush, trot, trot, trot home proudly. Crunch!

Art News: Parmigianino’s enigmatic Antea in a one painting exhibit at the Frick, “a beauty and a mystery”: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/arts/design/22fric.html?ref=design Some of you may recall from Art History 102 that Parmiginanino is not a famous cheesehead, but rather the painter of the weird Mannerist “Madonna of the Long Neck” http://www.artchive.com/artchive/p/parmigianino/long_neck.jpg. I like Antea better.

Dog Days, etc.

Joe: See Joe’s 20080214 “Health Topics” entry on http://woodcharles.blogspot.com/ “Things are returning to an even keel...” Full steam ahead!

Dog Days: It was a big week for dogs. The mighty Uno took Best in Show at Westminster, the first beagle ever. Arooooooooooooooo! http://www.westminsterkennelclub.org/2008/results/bis/

Naughty Dog Cafe had their Lucky Puppy Bake Sale this weekend with 100% of the proceeds going to the Huron Valley Humane Society. Coney Dog was a lucky puppy who got one of everything. http://www.naughtydogcafe.com/everything-about-naughty-.html

Valentine’s Day is Coney Dog Day. I brought her home on Feb. 14 seven years ago. Joe made a nice dinner of steak and potatoes. Coney had a bone for dessert while Joe and I ate chocolate covered strawberries and drank champagne. I wore the champleve Beagle pin Joe gave me for Valentine’s Day in honor of Uno’s victory (I already have a German Shepherd pin).

La!: NPR aired a story about “a classical treasure trove at YouTube”:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18881714

It includes a famous, favorite duet from Bizet's opera The Pearl Fishers featuring tenor Jussi Bjorling and baritone Robert Merrill. I like the Toscanini video, too. Pavarotti looks bemused during his bizarre “duet” with James Brown.

Iditarod Dog, etc.

Joe: We’re still moving in the right direction! Meals prepared by Chef Joe this week included pork roast, crown roast of lamb with perfect fried potatoes, and (oh my gosh!) homemade pasta with homemade duck sausage in a mushroom cream sauce! We also had a very nice meal at Logan. Tote dat roast! Lift dat fork!

Art History Corner: I love “30,000 Years of Art” by the Editors of Phaidon, the same people who gave us E.H. Gomrich’s “The Story of Art”, first published in 1950. I haven’t found a review by someone with bona fide art histerical credentials yet, but this review by Morgan Meis touches on the “more art, less talk” issue I’ve been on about for years (Don’t strike me down with a thunderbolt, Ilene!):

http://arthistorynewsletter.com/blog/?p=650

This “artist and writer” says, “I imagine a group of art historians sitting around a table with a sixth or seventh bottle of wine giggling to each other like schoolgirls. ‘Take that, art theorists! We give you a book with all art and no theory. We give you a book that says nothing and simply is what it is. We give you description and description alone. Its subject matter? The entirety of the history of art. Take that!’” Hah! I don’t think you know many art historians, Morgan, my friend. They’re all theorists, much more interested in words, their words, than art. I imagine a group of art historians sitting around the table with their sixth of seventh pot of tea, saying, “Grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. They’re cuttin’ us out of the loop! Art history has been such a lucrative career ... until now!”

Here’s an article on the NPR site with beautiful photographs (I LOVE the Lioness Demon):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17936982

Iditarod Dog: I kept checking wunderground.com weather to pick the best time to take Coney out for a quick walk so she could do her thing, biologically speaking. The weather kept getting worse! We finally left at 3PM when it was a sunny 3 degrees, with a wind chill of -20. We broke out all the gear, from double layer hat to Sorel boots rated to -25 degrees. Coney was sporting her fashionable Black Watch plaid trimmed Fido Fleece coat and royal blue Fido Fleece booties. I finally read the bootie documentation after having these babies fall off Coney’s feet numerous times (you wouldn’t think you’d need documentation for booties, would you). The secret appears to be in the first instruction, “Place toggles facing out from dog’s legs.” I was on Bootie Watch duty, and all four stayed on for our entire 15 minute jaunt. The documentation says that most dogs take about ½ hour to acclimate to the booties, but they neglect the most important instruction: give your dog at least one treat for each bootie you put on. We had played around with the booties the last time we had sub zero wind chills, so Coney was ready to go after our photo shoot at the starting line. She trotted along the road, seeming to appreciate the bootie benefits. At certain points on our route, it would’ve been nice to have doggie Stabil-Icers Lite, but Coney knows where her feet are, as they say, and she recovered quickly from the slips. What next? Stay tuned for the Skijoring Report! Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Groundhog Day, etc.

Joe’s Recovery: We’re still eating up a storm and it’s paying off! The doc said that Joe gained enough weight over the last two weeks that he can maintain at this point. Recent training meals included a wonderful braised rabbit a la Joe, lunch at the Northside Grill and dinner at the Earle Winebar.

Happy Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil predicted 6 more weeks of winter. However, Woody, our-closer-to-home rodent at the Howell Nature Center predicted an early spring, so I’m with her! Here she is. Isn’t she cute?

Overheard at the car dealership: From the driver who picked up my car: “So, your car’s a manual?” I didn’t say, “So, do you know how to drive one?” I did linger briefly until I saw him successfully drive out of the parking lot. From the service manager when I asked about the service alert related to the clutch. “It’s the bushing, um, the clutch arm, um, ... to be honest, those service alerts are about 18 pages long and I haven’t read it.” Then he said, “It’s our first one, no, I mean we’ve fixed clutches before, but this is the first one for this service alert.” I told them to take all the time they needed to read the documentation and complete the service. I love the Internet; I was able to find the service alert on edmunds.com and determine that the problem was actually the slave cylinder, which reminds me of the evil, cylindrical robot called The Master Cylinder in the Felix the Cat cartoon. Here he is. Isn’t he cute?

Dog Gear: “What’s it gonna take to get you into these Merrell Women’s Thermo 6 Waterproof dog walking shoes? They’ve got yer Thinsulate, yer Polertec, yer Vibram soles, yer product tags in five languages”. Won’t take much. I’ve test romped them a couple of times and they’re perfect. Here they are. Aren’t they cute?

The Case of the Missing Lemon Curd (Continued) and Other Musings

Joe’s recovery: We’re eating up a storm! Went to Lotus Thai on Friday night (sorry, Fluffy, we decided to go at the last minute). Joe made roast chicken last night. Mmmm. Check Joe’s 1/24 “Health Topic”s entry (see my “Welcome to DogMa Musings” on the right for address).

The Missing Lemon Curd: The Bakehouse sales and service rep basically said that “they meant to do that”, that the Lemon Clouds weren’t supposed to be filled with lemon curd like the web description said, that he was grateful I contacted him, that he had, in fact, heard this complaint before. He was very apologetic about the pain and suffering caused by the incident and offered me a selection of baked goods of my choice to help remove the sour taste in my mouth from unmet expectations. I selected 6 pastries, including another Lemon Cloud. I went to the Bakehouse on Saturday morning, said my name was Linda and I was here to pick up an assortment of pastries. The first woman looked bemused, but the eyes of the two women behind her got very large and one of them said she’d be right back with the pastries. Don’t know how they were referring to me (I imagined “that Lemon Cloud Witch” or something like that but, of course, I will never know). Joe and I did a pastry tasting and found, among other things, that the Lemon Cloud tasted lemony! Did they lace mine with a little more lemon curd? The day after I contacted the Bakehouse by email, they had changed the description of the pastry on their website from “filled with our own fresh lemon curd” to “with a thin layer of our own fresh lemon curd”. The description now says, “These babies have taken the world of breakfast pastries by storm! This airy butter pastry is kissed with a touch of our fresh lemon curd to create a danish that will lift you up in to the clouds.” There we have it. I’d actually buy them again. I’ve promised the rep a review of the pastries and I’m going to suggest that, for Mardi Gras, they FILL those Lemon Clouds with lemon curd, call ‘em Lemon paczki, issue a Surgeon General’s Warning about dying and going to heaven, and watch the customers swoon.

DogMa Musings: This was such a hit with several of my friends, I thought I’d post it here. It’s a video of the ultimate snow dog, forwarded to me by friend, who says this guy puts her Norwegian Elkhounds to shame:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sUL0KCIc48&feature=related

And, watch this! From Joe’s boss who has a talented Corgi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYDLBgz3Lxw

The Case of the Missing Lemon Curd

Joe’s still “ahead of the curve” recovery-wise and, as an added bonus, he’s actually feeling better! We had take-out Thai food last night, went grocery shopping today despite the single digit temps, and now Chef is making dinner. Remarkable Medicine. Remarkable Care. Remarkable Endurance.

Let me tell you the story of The Missing Lemon Curd. I bought some pastries at the Bakehouse yesterday, including a Lemon Cloud. I brought it home and, with great anticipation, sliced it in half while J and C looked on. There was no lemon curd. The pastry was divine and there was a hint that it may have had a brief conversation with something lemony, but the pastry was empty. I called the Bakehouse and asked the apologetic woman to hold 2 Lemon Clouds for me for later pickup (I thought an extra one would be in order for pain and suffering, gas expenditure, and the disappointment of my brunch guests). I picked up my pastries in the afternoon and tore one open in the car before leaving. No lemon curd. I went back inside. I opened up the other one. No lemon curd. The two friendly women behind the counter said that the Lemon Cloud wasn’t completely “filled” with lemon curd. This was beginning to feel a little like the Cheese Sketch. “Do you, in fact, have Lemon Clouds with any lemon curd at all!?” They asked if I wanted something else and I selected a muffin, which I know has muffin inside. One of the women said they were going to bring this to the attention of the Bakers Investigative Unit (Scotland Bakehouse Yard). The description of the pastry is as follows: “These babies have taken the world of breakfast pastries by storm! They look like a paczki, but they taste like heaven. Fluffy rounds of buttery danish dough filled with our own fresh lemon curd.” A bit of hyperbole, perhaps? Rodomontade even? I’ll report on the results of the investigation of the The Missing Lemon Curd at a later date.

I understand why our friend Sarah (of “Sarah and the Elkhounds”) has a closet full of boots. You need ‘em to be a DogMa in S.E. Michigan. You need completely water-proof (as in rubber) boots for icy-water/mud conditions during the periodic winter thaws, boots rated to -25 degrees F. (the F is for Farenheit, although this weather might cause you to think of another F word. Perhaps I should say -25 degrees FF for friggin’ Farenheit), water-proof summer shoes, fair weather jogging shoes, and, probably, a few others for weather conditions I’ve forgotten about since last year (Tsunami shoes?). My Sorel waterproof, thinsulate-lined Timberwolf (or would that be Timberwoof?) boots are nearly perfect for the -17 degree wind chill we had today. They’re a little too tall, making it difficult to jog, so while I’m grateful to have them, I’m looking for a similar, but lower height boot. The search for the Holy Grail of boots continues.

View Haloo!

Unlike Joe, who was blogging before Al Gore invented the Internet, I am a new and infrequent contributor to blogs (last posting Aug. 19, 2007!), but here goes. Some news from Lake Melange de Berger.

Our St. Joe’s oncologist said Joe was “ahead of the curve” recovery-wise. That was good news, but cold comfort considering how dreadful Joe is feeling. They’ve got to figure out a better way to deal with those pesky cancer cells.

I actually got out the skillet and cooked something last night. Scrambled Eggs with Berkshire Ham Bits. Made a dinner theatre meal of this by adding Zingerman’s “Flat Bread” and a shot of orange juice while I watched the animated movie “Ratatouille” (charming). Not familiar with Zingerman’s “Flat Bread”? Here’s how you do it. Take a nice fresh loaf of Z’s Rustic Italian. Instead of eating it right away, decide to preserve it by vacuum sealing and freezing it. It flattens rather dramatically to its pre-levened state. None of those pesky air holes. Not a recommended technique unless you’re interested in a science experiment akin to those done with Peeps.

I had such a bad cold/sore throat last week that it seemed best to rest up. This was the first time since Coney Dog came to live with us seven years ago that I’d been unable to go on our walks twice a day. I was sad. Fortunately, we’d engaged Liz’s dog walking service in December to give Coney an additional walk each day. Liz stopped by morning and afternoon last week and she and Coney went on their tour of the neighborhood, a very good workout. I was happy to “get back in the saddle” this weekend with our daily walks. Feeling much better. Speaking of walks, time for another one. View Haloo! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4jM6OdbW9g&feature=related