I'm a Busy Girl!

Riley Dog Update:

I took old Riley Dog to see Dr. Darch yesterday. Since he isn't a big fan of water, I thought the rain might rush him on into the building. All of a sudden, water isn't so bad! With a little coaxing (and only three good legs), he agreed to walk (be dragged in) under his own esteem. Dr. Darch told me I could pick my baby up the same day! Bonus! No overnights!

Will went with me to pick Riley Dog up yesterday afternoon. We could hear him barking from the parking lot. He must be feeling pretty good. I should have known better! He moved like a drunk dog and his eyes rolled around in his head. A technician put a towel under Riley's belly and carried his back end while his front end stumbled to the car.

At home, I could examine his leg a little better. I think I'll be getting Dr. Darch some new razors for Christmas. My baby's hair cut was a butcher job. However, the surgery looks pretty good. He has a little arthritis on his knee, it will be swollen for a while, no weight on that leg for a few weeks, and no chewing on the stitches. YUCK!

Rick hugs a groggy Riley.

You know I love this dog! I actually held him up while he peed for a very long time. Apparently, he hadn't been all day.



Today, he managed to walk on his own. He pampers his hurt leg but manages to hold himself up to take care of business. However, he peed up-hill and it ran down hill to his foot. I pretended like I didn't see that!

Poor Riley Dog

Letterboxing:

On Sunday, I met a blog friend for the first time. Emily's blog is Em and the Gang. She has chickens, too. I have been reading about her family's search for letterboxes throughout the area. It sounded like fun.

We met at Blue Jay Point and started our search. Emily had printed maps to several boxes. We couldn't find the first two, but managed to find the third. Her husband and children caught up with us later and we backtracked and found the first two we had missed. Altogether, we found four boxes.

This is the first letter box I ever found! (Actually, I followed Emily's lead!)

Emily's daughter is a girl after my heart! She collected rocks and carried them herself. And look at those cool glasses!

Once you find the box, you put their rubber stamp in your collection book. In return, you leave your own rubber stamp in their book inside the box. All we found had been handmade. I was quite impressed. Emily had made her own, too. I was rather slack! I had no rubber stamp, so I left my fingerprint with a promise to return once I make a stamp of my own.

Thanks for a fun morning!

The little guy is adorable! What a fun family!

How long til it's burnt?

All of my holiday magazines have been arriving. I wanted to try some of the cookie recipes from my Country Living. I gathered all of the supplies for Caramel Thumbprints. It just sounds good!

Once the last batch of cookies went into the oven, I started mixing the ingredients for the caramel. The instructions said, and I quote, "Bring to boil over high heat until the color turns a dark amber. This takes about 12 minutes."

I stirred constantly and watched as the liquid went from clear to tinted to yellow to amber. The timer for the cookies went off after 8 minutes. I opened the oven to take the cookies out with one hand while stirring the caramel with the other hand. In the 12 seconds this took, the color turned to dark amber then burnt! I watched as smoke immediately began pouring from the pot and the liquid turned an ugly black.

In a flash, the doors were open, the fans were going, and the pot was removed to the back yard where the black liquid was poured over the fence! The pot had to soak for a while and required quite a bit of elbow grease before it released the sticky burned-on mess!

On the second try, I ignored instructions and stirred until I thought the color looked right. It turned out great! Only, I wanted to eat all of the caramel myself instead of putting it on the cookies. BUT I DIDN'T!

Maybe I should take some of these cookies to the firemen who have looked after us all year long! Sorry, no photos!