Five Senses Friday is a nice way to reflect upon the previous week. Want more? Pay Abby Try Again a visit.
Tasting: A tart whiskey sour
Seeing: A sleeping bulldog puppy
Hearing: A sleeping bulldog puppy, snoring
Smelling: Every flower I come across
Feeling: My fingers tingle in anticipation of tomorrow's ukulele class
Happy Fourth of July, albeit a little late. The picture above is not necessarily patriotic, although it is of a Ford. We just can't walk past the car without Roland begging to get in. That puppy loves the car! I broke out the kiddie pool over the hot, hot weekend. Rollie just loves to be outside, and I was worried he'd overheat in the 100 degree weather, so we filled the pool with water to help keep him cool (along with making sure he came inside regularly). He had a great time playing in the water, and got a major case of the zoomies and sprinted around and around the pool too.
Here's a little video of the playtime too.
He was super interested in Chris' beer.
So he got to lick the (empty) bottle. Then he got tired.
And kinda grumpy looking.
Oh hai!
So Ayla and I played her favorite patio game, bobbing for the ball in the big blue bucket.
Love my silly girl.
And its just not a holiday without silly dog get-ups...
We decided to try our hand with a rose bush this year, and picked up a Mr Lincoln rose at our local hardware/garden store a while back. Its supposed to be hardy and very fragrant, and that's no lie!
We've had one rosebud bloom, and just within the past few days the other bud on the plant bloomed too. These flowers are huge!
Can you imagine that in a bouquet? Its also very, very fragrant, which is wonderful when I'm sitting on the patio. I think I've even smelled it wafting in the window to my living room.
I wonder if we'll get any more blooms this year. In any case, I'm very happy with good old Abe.
I asked Chris what he wanted for dinner tonight, and he said something along the lines of my Mushroom Chicken Bake dish. I'm plum out of milk or cream though, so I made something up with what I had available: cream cheese. This sauce is simple, and incredibly rich and delicious. I served it with veggie chik'n fillets, but it would probably be great with salmon too.
Cook the sausage patties in a pan with some butter or oil per the directions on the box. Remove from pan and dice. Return the sausage mince to the pan and add the wine and cream cheese. Cook over medium heat until the cheese is melted and everything is hot. Add the sage and garlic powder or other seasonings to taste, stir, and serve. Easy peasy!
Roland assisted in washing the car today. Well, he actually ran around finding fun and interesting things to put in his mouth, and climb over curbs (its bigger on the other side) while we cleaned the car.
We wanted to clean the car because we had places to go!
Socialization is one of the most important things you can do for your puppy. Introducing him to all sorts of people, animals, places, and experiences helps him develop into a confident adult dog. We've been socializing Roland with our neighbors, and today we took him up to our friends' house to meet them, their dog Leela, ride in a different car, and go to a new place.
Leela did great with Roland, and he's very dog-oriented so it was lots of fun for him to meet another dog. And we had some group photos taken!
After about an hour of visiting we headed home. And since it was a beautiful day we put the top down on the Toyota.
Once home, Roland played with his new toy for a while, a cute frog that was a gift from our friends. Thanks!
But after a busy morning and then visiting, he was bushed. He's spent most of the rest of the day doing this.
This was our first on-leash walk. He's fairly timid, and I know puppies go through fear stages, but its something that I didn't expect and I want to address right away. He loves walking with Ayla, bouncing along behind her. Who would have thought that she would be a good role model for something?
He fought the leash for a short time, but he's quickly won over with cookies. And one of Roland's favorite things is getting his teeth brushed. Go figure!
Here's Roland trying to get Ayla to play with him, though when she starts bouncing around he gets scared and runs to one of us for safety. That doesn't stop him though, he goes right back to barking and pouncing at her again.
And this segues into iPhone stuff. For my birthday last April I upgraded from an iPhone 3G to the iPhone 4, and I absolutely love it! The camera is great (all of these pictures and videos were shot with the iPhone), its fast and responsive, the screen is beautiful, and I just find use for it everyday whether for productivity or entertainment reasons. I almost always stream podcasts from my iPhone over the Bluetooth radio in my car on my commute to and from work (Stuff You Should Know, Stuff You Missed in History Class, Stuff Mom Never Told You, Stuff to Blow Your Mind; This American Life; The Moth; The Nerdist; Joy the Baker).
Yesterday morning I got in my car, started it up, and was fidgeting with various things before moving, when I heard barking. And I thought, that's Roland's barking! What is going on? I looked at my phone, thinking it had somehow dialed home, then remembered I don't have a home phone. I knew he was not with me, I had just put him in his crate for the morning. I sat for a few seconds bewildered. Then I realized that my car had accessed the above video file via Bluetooth and was streaming the audio over my speakers. Technology strikes again, making me hear voices!
Back to the iPhone, I've been using a lot of fun photography apps (or is it aps?), and I wanted to share a few and what I've done with them. Instagram is a huge hit with the iPhone crowd, and while I have used it I prefer qbro. qbro has many more choices for picture effects that I've had a great time using:
I've also been very happy with FX Photo Studio, with lots of options to improve and play around with your photos:
Ayla with a KFC-chapeau
View from work, tilt-shifted
I also love Cartoonatic and Film Director for a fun take on video. This one is shot and edited with Film Director:
He loves playing with baby carrots, tossing them around and chewing on them, which is great to keep him busy while I'm cooking dinner. In fact, open the fridge and he'll run over to try to pull the bag of baby carrots off the bottom shelf. Silly pup!
Enough randomness for now. Maybe I'll talk about food again soon.
