Murphy loves Katie... mmmmmm Katie

Katie was crying... Murphy was worried and wanted to check on her.
And came closer and closer
And gave her a big kiss. Babies are tasty! (he was trying to make her happy.... instead, he just made her smell like dog.)

To Ligonier to retrieve the animals

Murph and Tiki spent Thanksgiving at my parents-- and on the trip to retrieve them, we got to visit with my brother and his fiancee-- I only got one picture, but here it is!

Ok.. and a few gratuitous shots of the dog being well... the dog. He is utterly convinced that it is his duty to carry around HUGE branches... and then try and bring them in the house. Silly pup.

He is completely confused as to why he can't get inside, but nothing will convince him to just put DOWN the stick.

Presentation of Log the Third!

Murphy's favorite Christmas tradition took place this weekend with the "presentation of the log". For the past 3 years, the 6ish inches of trunk we trim off the bottom of the Christmas tree in order to fit it in the house has gone to the dog, and he couldn't be happier. He carries his LOG around all year slowly chewing all the bark off. And new LOG is the best because it has lots of bark and is all sticky and sappy and delicious. So, on Saturday, Craig and I got our tree (Craig said the really fat one I wanted was just toooooo big) and presented the Murph with his new toy. I think this goes in the same category of kids liking the boxes things come in almost as much as the toy-- because he goes NUTS for this thing. So here it is, the presentation of Log the Third!






mmmmmmm.....pine sap and bark (see, one VERY happy dog)

"What rolls down stairs alone or in pairs, rolls over your neighbors dog, its great for a snack, it fits on your back, its log log LOG. Its log, log, its big, its heavy, its wood. Its log, log, better than bad its good!"

Halloween and Trick or Treat

We had a boatload of little monsters come by for Trick or Treat-- which for some demented reason, our county did a WEEK before Halloween--- but anyway--- we were MOBBED with kids-- went through over 300 pieces of candy at 1 to a kid! People come to our street from neighboring counties to get more candy (lots of participating houses, all close together)

Plus Craig did this outstanding pumpkin of a Murphy head.

Kim, Ange, and Matt came over to help dole out candy and we snacked the evening away and giggled at cute costumes.

Alex came over and helped hand out candy til it was dark enough for him to trick or treat and then he took Craig and Kim trick or treating. He was pretty funny all covered in black on the porch-- the cauldron of candy at his feet--- he would sit very still for the little ones, but older kids... he'd scare the crap out of them. MANY were surprised that it was a real person in there when he tapped their candy grubbing hands with that sword.

The cutest kid of the night was 2-3ish... he was dressed as a lion-- he crawled on all 4 up the stairs to the porch and roared. He earned extra candy. Later in the evening, his Mom came by and asked if Craig was a Mad Scientist (he was) because her son had asked-- turned out he was a pediatric cancer patient and wondered if the folks who mix up his chemo are funny looking like Craig!! So, I said an extra prayer for that kiddo and was amazed that he could be so sick and still be a "normal" kid.

On a lighter note--- Murphy and Tiki took part in Halloween this year--- Tiki somewhat unwillingly, but she is a cat, so what can you expect!?

Murph's ready for his letter from Hogwarts! (and flying lessons)Tiki, well.... she thinks she's supposed to be making up the potions, not be an ingredient! But meanwhile she will exercise her mind control skills on you--- so watch out!

Murphy's Home!!!

Murphy's finally home. My in-laws had kidnapped him for a MONTH-- and, well. it was well past time for him to come home. So yay! My puppy's back.... and shedding all over my house, sleeping on the bed, and chasing his toys down the stairs, just like he's supposed to.

Unfortunately, his precipitous return home was caused by his attempt to eat my MIL's teeny dog like creature. It seems to have most likely been a problem of two intact male dogs in a house with one female dog--- and not enough discipline--- and well, the Murphinator is about 6-7 times the weight of Charlie-- so it wasn't a fair battle-- but we're still very confident that Murph isn't going to go cujo in the night and try and eat us or anything. He's just too submissive to humans to really be a worry.

But my pup is home, and he's happy to be home, and we're happy to have him home!!!!!!

(and Charlie is home with the ILs from the vet and seems to be on the mend too)

A few quick notes

1) We're heading to my parents out in the boonies of western PA for the weekend. Murphy will be run ragged up and down the hill and generally be as happy as a dog can be-- plus he'll get spoiled rotten by my grammam and her never ending peanut-butter bone supply-- he likes visits to my parents. We are taking the weener along--which should be interesting. Tiki is staying here with Kim to check on her... she will also be spoiled rotten.

2) The new car is still behaving wonderfully-- and we are heading out there to show it off!

3) Monday will be a great day cause the weener is GOING HOME!! Jane and Roy are back from Ireland this weekend and will be retreiving her on Monday... YAY!!! That's good for the weener to be back on her normal life and good for me cause there will be no more poo piles or dog fights during the night while I try and sleep.

4) Fourth of July means a day off work! And we have free hersheypark tickets that expire on the 4th--- so we may take an extra day off to do that next week too... should make for a very quick work week.

5) The new microscope is super-duper, and I can work it better than my boss, and he was THRILLED with the results I took yesterday and showed him this morning... so making me look good at work is always a nice bonus-- I think he's convinced to start writing this paper so I can get it out!!!!! (and FINALLY have a first author paper)

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My new car! Isn't she pretty.

All in all, a great day yesterday!! We got the Blazer traded in... and miraculously-- it started, and the AC worked and the 4-wheel drive worked when the appraiser was trying it out... and well, I guess the time we spent washing and waxing it on Sunday paid off-- cause they traded it for more than I was hoping for!!!! Yay!

So now the subaru is my car, and it runs nicely and the AC works, and it has a CD player and doesn't seem to drink near as much gas as the Blazer--- so I am overall pretty excited.

Plus it fit my basic car shopping requirements-- It doesn't guzzle gas, has modern safety equipment (eg- air bags and ABS) it would hold a 100lb golden retreiver (Murphy) and will hold a car seat. And as a bonus is has All Wheel drive-- so I am very happy with what I got-- oh and it only cost one arm and part of a leg-- so that was a nice bonus!!!!

Super great day yesterday-- topped off with yummy grilled hot dogs on the spiffy grill-- and even with the good hot dog buns for toasting-- the new england style ones. They toast so much better than the plain ones. YAY!

The dog days of summer

A very happy, very wet, very tired Murphy!

After snoozing the morning away on Saturday and a quick lunch at Moe's with Kim. Craig and I headed over to Shelley and Erin's with the Murphinator and some movies. We hung out in the pool for the afternoon to beat the heat (did I mention I kinda hate summer)-- and then grilled up some hot dogs and kielbasa and watched some movies. (Pursuit of Happyness-- very good, I enjoyed-- wholeheartedly recommend and Open Season-- kinda blah... except for the last 25 minutes where the animals attack-- brassiere clad deer antlers being used to slingshot toasting forks with flaming marshmallows-- maybe a kids movie? not a great plot-- some funny moments)

Murph LOVED swimming, and though we left behind enough fur in the pool to build at least 3 more dogs-- he had a great time swimming with their lab Nick. We had to eventually lift the murph out of the pool and make him rest-- he would have swum himself into exhaustion. He was a very very very happy dog.

In an added bonus... adding some Murphy kibble to the weeners diet seems to have helped! no messes on friday night, saturday at all, or sunday!!! woohoo. (she was eating out of his bowl anyways.. so we just went with it)

This week so far.

Monday brought a picnic at Shelley and Erin's-- yay! I made pierogie bake *yum*-- not fancy, but so tasty-- with a stick of butter how could it not be! We had lots of grilled food, got to swim (that was a great treat on a hot day) and I played croquet. Over all a very nice day.

Tuesday was back to work-- then Roy brought up the poo machine winnie and returned murph to us. The cat is terrified and has spent the last 2 days hiding in a cardboard box in a room closed off with a baby gate-- poor thing. shes's miserable. Winnie has poo'd in the house 2x so far and peed all over a rug--- luckily, she was confined outside of bedrooms and the large oriental rugs, so it was only on a throw rug and could be washed-- still--- she is not on my good list right now. She better straighten up and behave-- and quickly. She's getting walked as much as we can with work schedules--- she's going to have to adapt and quick-- or I will be a very very very unhappy girl.

Wednesday brought my summer internship kid to the lab. His name is Will. He just finished his sophomore year at Temple and will be working with me this summer (til early August) so we'll see how that all goes. Then it was wings night-- this week I tried wings from scratch-- some deep fried then coated with a franks hot sauce/butter/steak sauce blend and some baked in a honey-soy-citrus glaze I made up-- both turned out pretty well I must say! We played Wii! I may be addicted-- its a video game that doesn't make you play like a video game-- if the character on the screen sword fights, you move the controller like a sword-- tennis, like a tennis racket, hula hoop... well.. you put it on your hips and hula away. it is very very very amusing-- and thankfully, much simpler than the traditional style games-- very little time to learn--and great to play in a group! All in all a fun evening.

Today-- well, the report on today will have to wait til its over... but so far so good.

The Weekend

We were out in Jersey for the weekend at Craig's parents-- I went shopping, wandered Wegmans (I love that place) and baked a cake. Craig dug out old fence posts and replaced them in concrete, rewired a lamp post, and replaced a toilet-- so guess who had a more relaxing weekend?! (Ok, so I did help with the toilet)
Wegman's is sooooo cool, I wish there were one closer. We keep hearing promises, but they never materialize. They have EVERYTHING. I got the yummy aged primadonna cheese we got hooked on while dating and taking trips to the reading terminal market (another wonderful place for food), the cotija cheese I need to make Craig the chilaquiles he got addicted to for breakfast in Puerto Vallarta, green Thai curry paste, lemongrass, mirin, rose and orange blossom waters, and these super tiny red skin and white potatoes-- they are going to be yummy. Oh! And the very best thing--- Digestive cookies! I love those things, my madre in Spain had them out almost every morning at breakfast-- sooooo good. And I can never find them anywhere-- and they had them, both the plain ones and the chocolate covered ones. YAY!!!!

On Sunday evening we grilled dinner in... I took care of the baked potatoes (somehow everyone thinks mine are really good-- I don't do anything much special to them-- I just put some olive oil, salt and pepper on the outside-- though this time I used "Crazy Jane's Mixed up Salt" and then bake them for a while)-- made some bacon for them, sauteed up some mushrooms and then made a little foil packet of smushed garlic and olive oil and threw that on the grill while Roy cooked the steaks-- the garlic turned out very yummy that way. I also made that coconut cake that I make all too often now and filled it with some whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Yum... a good dinner-- but it made for us getting a late start to get home.

We left Murph there to get him a vet visit and groomed (he was starting to stink!) and Jane and Roy will bring him back next Monday or Tuesday. Tiki really misses her buddy... she just wanders looking for him. Oh well, is she in for a shock when he gets back-- winnie's coming with him to stay for a month--- poor kitten won't know what hit her!

That's it for the weekend. Not too big. Yesterday was Bachelor Season Finale-- I had correctly predicted the winner-- so that was super exciting and we had a nice girl's night watching the finale.
Today its back to work-- gotta get some data--- want to graduate before I am 50.

Bring on the Thin Mints! But not for Tiki and Murphy

No trans-fats in thin mints anymore!
Gobble down those Girl Scout cookies.... they no longer contain any trans-fats. Plus they are delicious! (mmm... thin mints-- I keep them in the freezer all the time-- yum)
You can read a little more here.

But-- keep them to yourself, your cat won't appreciate them anyway.

It turns out cats are not able to taste sweets.
"Whether as a result of this dietary choice or the cause of it, all cats—lions, tigers and British longhairs, oh my—lack 247 base pairs of the amino acids that make up the DNA of the Tas1r2 gene. As a result, it does not code for the proper protein, it does not merit the name gene (only pseudogene), and it does not permit cats to taste sweets. "They don't taste sweet the way we do," says Joe Brand, biochemist and associate director at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. "They're lucky. Cats really have bad teeth as it is.""


And no thin mints for the Murph-inator either... Even though he would love them-- this article gives me a good excuse not to share!

" Dogs and humans have similar tastes. Like us, they seek out sweets and have no problem indulging. But unlike humans, our canine companions experience dangerous effects from eating chocolate—it can poison them and in some cases is lethal. The hazard, however, is probably overblown, says Tim Hackett, a veterinarian at Colorado State University. Chocolate's danger to dogs depends on its quantity and quality. Large dogs can usually handle a small amount of chocolate whereas the same helping could cause problems for ... his pint-size kin. "



And based on this morning, house flies must not be sweet-- tiki spent the night chasing a big fly around the house "hunting". She finally had it this morning as a light snack-- it was pretty darn funny watching her--- one of these days I need to video her on the hunt!

Weekend Updates

Yes, I was bad. I didn't post for a whole weekend, and then I took last night off as well... so here it is, a quick rundown of the weekend!


Craig and I drove out to my parent's house in Ligonier on Friday night-- after a quick stop at Walmart to buy a fishing license from Derek-- the semi-breasted, nail painted, ear pierced, beared sporting goods clerk-- odd. Still not sure if Derek was a he or a she or somewhere in between. Best not to wonder I think. So then we are off to western PA with the dog and the cat. The cat does not like her carrier. AT ALL. She cries pitifully the whole time she is in there and claws desperately to get out. So after a little while I felt awful and we rolled the windows up and let her out of the carrier... turns out she is also terrified of the car trips. I should have guessed based on her reaction to the outdoors here, but the car was a lot for her. So she sat in my lap for 3 hours til we got there. She rolled her self over on her back stretched out her legs (one of them ending up jammed under my chin) and pretty much was content as could be--- as long as I didn't dare move or talk too loudly... ah... good thing she's a cute kitten and we already love her... she's a little pain the butt sometimes! Murphy was his normal needy self... he thinks he should get to ride in the front with us... so he spends the time drooling heavily on my shoulder and inching himself into the front seat (like we won't notice 100 lbs of dog suddenly on my lap!)


Saturday morning, Craig and my Dad leave at the crack of dawn to go fishing. Its trout season, and I want some trout! Here are a couple pictures of some soggy fisherman, and their haul! (Craig got only one -- but it was the biggest one!) And I got to bring them all home frozen to enjoy later!




The boys went fishing again on Sunday-- and it was a much nicer day out, here's a couple pictures of that. Craig didn't hook any trout on Sunday, but he did catch a whole bunch of bass-- you can see the one in the picture below. The guys did end up with 6 fish on Sunday though... and I helped out by gutting them. Did you know trout have teeth?!?! And they are kinda sharp little buggers too. Oh well.. in the name of the fish dinner than I will have now-- gutting them was the least I could do.


Trout "Recipe" (ok, so its not a recipe per say, but it is a tasty simple way to make trout)
One trout-- Split into "fillets"
Dredge the trout in seasoned flour (flour with a little salt and pepper)
In a pan over medium heat, melt a little butter (~2 T)
Saute trout in butter on one side and then the other until cooked through and lightly browned on both sides
Add capers (a good palmful, drained) and toss to coat with butter and heat through.
Remove from heat, squeeze in fresh lemon juice to taste.
Eat. (see... tough directions on this step)

And now a couple of gratuitous shots of the dog being, well... the dog. We stop every time on our way home at the little mom and pop drive in I worked in through college to get some ice cream. Murphy loves ice cream and so we get him a vanilla toddler cone. The tough part is convincing him to eat the ice cream FIRST and then the cone. He always wants to take two huge bites and be done, but that inevitably leads to a mess of ice cream getting dumped on the ground. This time didn't go too badly, and I managed to get him to eat about 2/3 of the ice cream before he bit the cone in half!

Murphy... silly boy.

Mmm. water tastes better with tennis ball!

We took him for a walk and he was thirsty (luckily, I'd made him haul around some water and a bowl for himself) and tired from playing fetch... so he just dropped his ball in the bowl and slurped away. Of course, then he promptly dropped that slimy ball on my lap, but that's what puppy's are for!

And in random news... I came home today to a wedding present, that was kind of fun! (unexpected but fun!)

Anyone want a dog? One naughty dog for sale!

Here he is. One very sugar high spoiled rotten pup.

He got into a 2 pound bag of powdered sugar while we were at work on Friday and dragged it around the house. ahh... sticky sugar floor, sticky sugar walls, and a sticky sugar dog. Such a lovely suprise when I needed the house clean for the bridal shower the next day.

He was soooo happy with himself though, hyper, but happy.

Notes on Wednesdays

Yesterday was a pretty average day... but Wednesday is Wing Night at Shakey's, There are a bunch of us (somewhere between 4 and 20 grad students and their associated significant others) that go every week at 8pm for 15cent wings (cajun honey barbecue being the best flavor) and to hang out, catch up, and relax. We've been doing this for over 2 years now-- and while the size of the group varies-- it is there every week-- we've even convinced the bouncer not to charge us cover and we have our own "assigned" tables up in the back-- we've outlasted most of the waitresses-- so we're breaking in a new one now... another couple weeks and she'll have everyone's orders memorized! I never thought I would be a "regular" at a local dive bar.. but it has happened, and we all enjoy it.

In other activities yesterday, we took the Murph for a nice hike again, only this time we made him carry his own toys and junk in his saddlebags... amazing how many looks we get for that one. I feel the dog should carry his own poo though, not me! So on one side, his tennis ball on a rope-- the other side grocery bags just in case. The only thing is you have to get the tennis ball in the bag without him seeing you put it in there or he just spends the whole walk trying to bend his head over in weird yoga positions to get the ball out of the bag on his back... amusing, but hard to keep him moving. We tried taking the cat along on a walk once by putting her in the saddlebag... needless to say, that was an utter disaster-- so I tried a leash on the cat.. she doesn't like that either, so no outdoors for the Tiki-- she is our indoor only kitten. She has become fascinated with the outdoors, but only with the protection of the window screen keeping her safe and sound on the windowsill-- better for her sanity-- and less escape worries for me!

Murphy, Our golden Retreiver

Murphy's collection of stuffed frogs. Craig went a little crazy with the skee-ball and won me all these stuffed frogs. No sooner did we walk in the house than the Murph claimed them as his and tried to fit all three in his mouth! I managed to catch this shot of him guarding them all before he ripped any legs off.