Marrobones

A couple months ago we were in Costco when we saw a large box of Marrobones. Now, if you're unfamiliar, we refer to them as doggie crack. (It's a technical term, Gimli's dog trainer uses it!). It's a piece of bone marrow covered in a thin cookie shell. In short, it makes our dogs do whatever you want them to do.

Give me MarroBones

With Gimli close at hand, I opened the box and no sooner had the smell of the deliciousness hit the air, his head was nosying into the box.

I took the bag into the kitchen to refill the cookie jar, both corgis anxiously following, hoping I'd drop one, or two, or maybe the whole bag!

It has our name on it, give us some!!!

With us, MarroBones are not a daily treat, and most times they share the cookie. But, when they have to go to their crates for an extended period of time, they get one. When we have to cut a mat from behind Gimli's ear and he stays perfectly still, he gets one. It's to reinforce that action and tell them that what they just did was totally awesome!

Note: this is not a sponsored post. My dogs really adore these treats and we've been buying them, with our own money, ever since we brought Gimli home, some 6 years ago.

Short runs with short legs

Since we returned from the RunDisney event in January, I've done very little running. I've exercised a little on the stationary bike and on the TreadClimber, but nothing like when we were training for January. To that end, I've been itching for Spring to arrive so I could get out onto the roads.

Today, I took the corgis running. Not too far and not both at the same time, but it was just up the street and back, then down a hill and back. In total, about 1 kilometer.

Our house sits on one end of the street, so I took Merida with me and we ran from our house all the way to the end of the block. The run back up the street was easy enough. We turned around and came back, after she stopped to sniff and do her stuff. Running back was ok, until she got distracted and I had to stop suddenly.

I dropped her off and took Gimli with me next down the hill, which was another block. He got into it, I think he forgot that he's allowed to run sometimes on our walks. He ran with me all the way down the hill and probably would have run all the way up, except I stopped halfway. My lack of running since January caught up with me.

It wasn't my best, but it did feel good to get out and run, if even for a little bit.

I have self assigned a RunKeeper 5k training plan that is supposed to start on Sunday. Hopefully, there's no snow and I can get out and start the plan. I've told myself that I want to be able to run a 5k this year and this is the start.

Wordless Wednesday - Lean on me

National Puppy Day

Today is National Puppy Day, so without further ado, here are my two puppies.

Gimli in his first ever snow. He's not impressed.

Merida making the tongue face, where she's about to pounce on something and shake it about. She still makes this face.

Flat Corgi Friday - Da Plane

On the flight down to Orlando, we were treated to the Boeing 777 aircraft. Now, when I say treated, I mean our original plan was canceled and the 777 was brought out for us to use. If you've never flown on this size airplane before, it's huge. We were in row 40 and once we boarded, it seemed like we kept walking and walking and walking.

As we were disembarking, we got the chance to wait in the first class section where the corgis had a chance to sit in luxury, if only for a few minutes.

Spring is around the corner

You know Spring is on its way when:

1. Your dogs go outside and come back looking like this. (It's been worse, but this is the only pictures I had.) The dogs have been in the tub three times this week.

2. Your yard starts to look and sound like a swamp.

3. The neighborhood slowly starts to come alive.

4. Random gloves/mittens/hats appear in muddy snowbanks as the snow melts.

5. You realize the neighborhood rabbits have been eating your shrubs and leaving behind surprises.

Wordless Wednesday - Peek-a-boo

Irish cupcakes

The other day a recipe for "Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes" graced my Facebook feed. I showed it to Mike and he decided he wanted to have it for his birthday celebration. I thought this was odd as he's not a fan of chocolate, but I guess all those years of being around chocolate on account of my influence is starting to rub off.

This past Saturday, I gathered the ingredients and got down to work. Here is the finished product, complete with shamrock cupcake cups, since it's close to St. Patrick's Day.

Surprisingly, the Guinness in the cake wasn't overpowering. The Baileys frosting was nice as well, not too sweet. However, the ganache left much to be desired. It solidified in the center of the cakes and became a chocolate blob. I suppose I thought it would be more like whipped cream and airy and less like a thick ganache. Next time, I'll omit it entirely or use chocolate whipped cream.

The recipe made 24 cupcakes, we were left with 2. And those final two were eaten on Sunday.

Sláinte!

Wordless Wednesday - Woof

Snow play

We've been above freezing for the past couple days and so the once powdery, fluffy snow is starting to melt and crystallize.

Here's a few pictures of the corgis playing in the last snowfall.

To get these pictures, I made a trench in the snow and "fell" in.

Read, read, read

Last year I set a goal to read 25 books. I read 16, the same amount that I read back in 2013. I'm a little disappointed in myself, I honestly thought I'd get to 25, or at least 20.

There was one good thing that came out of the goal, though. It forced me to go out and search for books. This isn't something I'm accustomed to doing, but it forced me to look at the "Recommended titles based on" and "Because you liked, try this" lists. It turned me over to a new series that I'm anxious to try out this year.

So far, I've read just one book this year, and we're into March. This isn't good, if I want to surpass 16 this year!

Today is World Book Day and there is nothing like becoming engrossed in a different world for hours on end. Keep reading, and if you've been away from reading, come back!

If you're so inclined, here's my reading list from last year:

• The Yard by Alex Grecian
• It by Stephen King
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
• Napalm and Silly Putty by George Carlin
• The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie
• The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie
• The Mist by Stephen King.
• Brotherhood of Fear: A Willi Kraus Novel by Paul Grossman
• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Graeme-Smith
• Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
• Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
• Hannibal by Thomas Harris
• The Black Country by Alex Grecian
• The Devil's Workshop by Alex Grecian
• World War Z by Max Brooks
• Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

Wordless Wednesday - He's had enough

Year of the Corgi - March

I love this picture of Ms. Merida.

Throwback Thursday - I hate grey

One of Gimli's eyebrow hairs, you know the long ones that stick up from the top of the eye, is grey. Completely grey, white even.

He's six and a half years old. Guys, he's not supposed to have grey hair yet, at least another 6 years before it's time for that...

Today's throwback was to when he was the perfect mixture of red, black, and white, with nary a grey hair around.

I don't know this grey of which you speak.

Wordless Wednesday - Nope, not worth it

Chomp chomp

Dogs like to chew, we all know this.

Gimli chewed while he was teething, but then tapered off. He doesn't chew soft toys anymore, except when he wants to kill the squeaker. He will squeak at a Wubba until it's dead. Once he forgets that it's dead, he tries to kill the squeaker again. Instead, he'll carry toys around, sleep with them, and cuddle with them.

Merida, on the other hand, is a little ball of destruction. She chewed, not only when she was teething, but she continues to chew today. And when I mean chew, I mean go at the toy with those strong back molars. She likes to chew off little bits of toys and eat them. Then, if the toy has eyes, she eats those. Finally, she makes a hole and gets at the stuffing. Most times, I destuff the toy and return it to her. From the hole in the toy, she then turns it inside out.

I may be small, but I have a big urge to chew!

We are at a loss of what to give her to play with that won't be destroyed in a few minutes. Dog toys aren't cheap and we've been burned in the past when we bought a 10 dollar toy, (or more!), that went into the bin 10 minutes after we gave it to her.

We cannot give her bones or antlers because of what happened to Gimli and his teeth. Rawhides seem to work for now, but only for a few minutes at a time and under close supervision.

*sigh* at least she's not eating the baseboards anymore.

Saturday Smiler - Snow girl

This is Merida after racing around the yard in the snow tracks, chasing/wrestling Gimli, and digging her head into the snow.

We are in her favorite season and if she didn't get snow stuck in her paws or worry about the deathly temperatures, she'd be outside all day.

Wordless Wednesday - Soaking up the sun

Fat Tuesday

Yum yum.

Lemon buttermilk pancakes, sunny side up eggs and bacon.

Even the corgis got some and wanted more.

A couple years ago, friends of mine gave me the MasterChef cookbook. I've been slowly working my way through it, but one of the recipes is Lemon Buttermilk pancakes. They are quite delicious and now it's my go to pancake or waffle recipe.

I think I need to go through more of that book!

Smooches Saturday - Valentine edition

These two are my Valentine's every day.