Speaking Of Donuts.....

Image from Google Images

Speaking of donuts, which I was in my last post, reminded me of when I was the owner, with a partner, of a donut shop and cafe. It was a long time ago and I was working full time as a paralegal.  The attorney I worked for thought it would be a great idea for his wife, Sue, and I to buy this little shop.

Before you could say "huh" we were the proud owners of  a donut and sandwich shop. She worked in the shop full time and I worked one or two days on the weekends. At least that was the schedule when our baker showed up at 2 a.m. every morning to make the donuts. The times when the baker called in sick or went on vacation were a whole different story. With no baker, it was up to Sue and I to go in at 2 a.m. and attempt to make donuts. Even though the baker (who we later found out was a convicted felon) had "trained" us both in the art of donut making, our middle of the night donut making escapades were pretty much a comedy of errors. With a lot of laughter and sometimes a few tears, we always got the dozens and dozens of donuts made and frosted and on trays in the display cabinet for a 6 a.m. opening.

All these years later, it is not the working every weekend, or the not quite getting our little business to yield a profit, or even the pain of getting up to go in at 2 a.m. to make donuts, that I remember the most about this venture. What I remember the most is how a broken donut, fresh out of the fryer, iced with a little bit of chocolate frosting, tasted so good at 4 o'clock in the morning.

Doc, Dodger, Donuts and My Diet

Every Saturday morning Doc and Dodger get in Doc's truck and go out and about. I don't always know where they are going but one stop I always know they will make is at the donut shop. Before they leave Doc always asks me if I want a donut. Most often I use my best judgement and say no thank you.

It seems that my no thank you is not what Doc wanted to hear. Lately he has quit asking and just started bringing me a donut. Not just a donut, but my favorite donut, maple cake.  Saying no thank you  to a donut that is still sitting on the shelf in the donut shop is one thing. Saying no thank you to a donut being handed to me on a napkin is something else entirely......it is, in fact, pretty much impossible for me. I'll just say that self-discipline and will power in the face of temptation are not my strong suits.

Shortly after we got Dodger his vet and I got Doc to agree that donut holes are not a very good addtion to Dodger's diet. I'm afraid Doc may have had his fingers crossed when he made that agreement. When Doc came in with Dodger to bring me my donut a few minutes ago, I noticed Dodger licking off something around his mouth that looked a lot like sugar sprinkles.

Now I guess I have to figure out how to get Dodger down to the basement with me to do a little extra time on the treadmill.......right after I eat this donut.

First Dance Class

My 3 year old granddaughter, E.J., went to her first dance class this week.

Photos from Making Memories Of Us

It was a little scary at first

 

All that toe pointing can be rough on a girl

Yes, I think I can do this

I Think My Computer Is Haunted

Image from Bing Images

I'm not usually prone to fanciful thinking, so please don't think I've gone crazy. I think my computer is haunted. Really!

Lately, when I have had the sound turned up on my computer, from time to time a very evil sounding laugh comes out of the speaker. There is no pattern to when it happens, it just happens, sometimes several times in a row, and then not again for a long time. I know I am not the most computer savvy person around, but having some evil computer ghost laughing at me is really starting to make me feel crazy a wee bit uneasy.

I am sure there is some logical, non-spooky explanation about the ghost in my computer. If any of you computer gurus know what it is, please let me know.

Do You Remember Who Was Your First Follower?

Image from Google Images

I started blogging as a way to help me pay more attention to my own life and to help me better remember family events and activities. I was pretty clueless about blogging. I certainly didn't expect it would ever be read by anyone but me and maybe a few family and friends. I had read a few blogs written by people I knew but I didn't really know a follower from a Frisbee in the beginning.

Over time I started reading some of the blogs that people I knew followed and started leaving a comment here and there. Then one day I had a follower! It was ChrisH at Diet Coke Rocks.

Chris

Chris, from New Zealand,  is a beautiful, "tell it like it is" blogger, and she has plenty to tell. She is the mother of six and the grandmother of seven. She and her husband, Stew, are raising two of their grandchildren. She is a very talented and creative seamstress. Her unique way of expressing what is going on in her life and what is on her mind always makes it fun to visit  Diet Coke Rocks .

I still write my blog for the reasons I started it. I'm not exactly overrun with followers and I appreciate each and every one of the followers I have and friends I have made. Every time I get a new follower I remember the excitement I felt that day Chris became my first follower. Thanks, Chris.

Do you remember who was your first follower?

Dodger Is In The Doghouse

A couple of days ago when Doc picked Dodger up at Doggy Daycare the lady told Doc that Dodger had gotten a little too aggressive with another dog and it would probably be best if he didn't come back for a couple of days. For any of you that know Doc and Dodger you know how hard that hit Doc. It was like his child had been expelled from school for fighting. Doc has spent a lot of time and money to train Dodger out of the "street behavior" he had when he came to us as a stray from the shelter. Doc has done a very good job with the training and Dodger is almost always a gentleman at the dog park or any place else he and Doc go.

Because of Doc being a little limited in his activity following a minor surgery Dodger had been at daycare for 5 out of the previous 7 days. The lady explained to Doc that it is common for a dog to get a little aggressive when they come for several days in a row.....they sort of start thinking that they are the "boss".  She even said that she could not bring one of her own dogs very often for that reason.

I don't know how much of that explanation Doc actually heard. He just heard that his boy had gotten in trouble and he was crestfallen. All they had ever told him before was what a good boy Dodger had been and how much they like him.

That was at the end of last week and they called from Doggy Daycare today and said they were sure it would be fine for Dodger to come back any time. I don't know when Doc plans to take him back, but when he does I'm afraid Doc might be that strange guy hanging around outside the building peeking in the windows....just to make sure his boy is behaving.

Six Word Saturday

Japan is in our thoughts today

To participate in 6WS visit Cate here

Eek!

We have a mouse in our garage. He is a pretty cute little guy and if we thought he was an orphan we would probably just let him stay for a while. Doc, who I have named head mouse rustler around here, doesn't have the heart to do anything like try to catch him in a trap.

The problem is that it is likely that he has a family somewhere close and if we let this little guy stay and play they will all probably want to move in and we will just have one big mouse party in our garage.

Another problem is that our dog, Dodger, goes outside through a dog door from the utility room to the garage and another dog door from the garage to outside. That means anything we put in the garage to catch or kill  the mouse might also have a chance of catching our nosy dog.

I'm sure Doc will be shopping tomorrow for whatever kind of humane, dog safe, mouse rustling equipment he can find. In the meantime, I just hope that I don't get up in the morning  to find a big 'ol mouse party going on in my garage.

Images from Google Images

To All The Dogs I've Loved Before

No matter how little money and how few possessions

you own, having a dog makes you rich."

Louis Sabin

                                                                                              

I have been lucky to have had lots of dogs in my life. They were almost all pretty good dogs and most of them were mutts.

 

My first dog, Happy, lived the good life that dogs lived in the old days. She was never fenced and wandered freely in the neighborhood, visiting and being welcomed into neighbor's homes at will. My parents got her as a puppy six months before I was born and she lived to be 14.

Trina was my first "child". We got her as a tiny puppy, a furry ball of white, right after I got married. When she was about 10 she went a little crazy. She started being so afraid of storms that she would hurt herself trying to get out of where she was and then trying to get right back in. A man that came to fix the carpet and woodwork she had destroyed during a storm offered to take her to live with him in the country. It was heartbreaking, but we let her go. My kids never did believe the story about Trina going to live on the "farm" but it was true.

There were a couple of dogs, Andy and Toby, after Trina. Andy was a stray, a spaniel mix, who came and stayed for a while and then just disappeared. We searched and searched but never found him. Toby was part poodle and part something else. The something else was part devil and we didn't have him very long.

Sasha, a Chow, was the sweetest, most loving roll-with-flow dog ever. (Well, there was the time she killed our friends rabbit when they were keeping her, but they said that it was a really mean rabbit.)  She could shed her fur better than any dog I have ever known. She was always in the middle of everything the family did. She lived for 14 years and I will always miss her.

Dodger is the current dog love of my life. He is a scruffy, energetic boy who has us very well trained. Doc, who wasn't sure he wanted a dog, is now an expert on dog parks and doggy day care. The Doc and Dodger mutual admiration society entertains me every day.

Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really.

      Agnes Sligh Turnbull

Freewheeling Friday

Today's Freewheeling Friday is mostly pictures. Doc had surgery on Thursday to remove a dangerous lesion on his cheek and he is not supposed to lift, bend, squat or do much of anything for a few days. That leaves me to do the best I can to take care of him and to do all the household chores that he usually does. (I can't remember the last time I unloaded the diswasher or brought in the trash cans).

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A couple of bumper stickers I saw this week that made me chuckle.

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My 8 year old granddaughter, Hope, will be done with her run in Annie after a couple of more shows. She has had a great time and done a great job.

I think she will be glad to be done with the wig and I think her mom will be glad for her to be done singing her songs from the show around the house all the time.

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These are growing in our garden right outside my office window. It won't be long until they are covered with snow.

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Doc's surgery went fine. He has stitches from under his eye down to his mouth and across his cheek. They say the scar will fade away in a couple of months. In the meantime we are hoping that it just makes him look rugged in a "yeah, but you should see the other guy" sort of way.

No More Charlie Sheen

It seems like the media has traded in their obsession with Lindsey Lohan for a new obsession with Charlie Sheen, only this time it's an obsession on steroids. I admit that I'm a bit of a news junkie, but I have changed channels many times lately to avoid hearing any more about Charlie-boy.

Enough already! When a national newscast leads with this kind of story, even my news-junkiness takes a nose dive. Aren't there more important things to report, like maybe what is going on in Libya or what our own lawmakers are going to do to us next? I'd even rather hear more about the price of gas than hear another one of Charlies's rants.

Oops, I guess I just did a little ranting myself.....sorry, but thanks for letting me get it off my chest.

Do you agree that this Charlie obsession in the media is a little (or a lot) over the top?