Spring has Sprung

Oberon was released on Monday.

It's Opening Day for baseball.

The sun is shining and the temps are above freezing.

Hello, Spring.

Brudders

We have about 2000 square feet in our home.

Plenty of room for 2 people and 2 dogs.

Yet, for some reason, the dogs enjoy sharing the same square foot of space.



Whether on the loveseat or the floor, it seems necessary for them to lay together.

During the winter, this posed a conundrum.

One excessively furry brudder liked to lay on the deck and eat his weight in snow.

Another less furry brudder enjoyed the warmth of indoors.

So then this would happen.



But now we seem to have perfect brudder weather. It's not too hot (read: over 50 degrees) so Toby still wants to lay outside and it's warm enough that Gordie can enjoy the outdoors too.



And all is right in their world again.

The Food of the Irish

Luck of the Irish?

Did you see the Vegas post? Obviously I don't know anything about "luck."

Food of the Irish?

Now that's something I can handle.

I volunteered to make Irish Soda Bread for my Mama's annual St. Patrick's Day lunch. I carefully followed the instructions so I didn't make an inedible brick and actually produced something people could eat.



My Mama also tends to decorate for every holiday. A lot. And St. Patrick's Day is no exception.





That only show 1/100th of the number of decorations scattered about the house. There was this other decoration that my bro and sister in law lent her for the day.



A little leprechaun named Jackson. I mean, check out the reddish tint in his hair and those rosy cheeks. He's totally expressing his Irish genes.

We consumed Reuben soup, the bread, deviled eggs (w/green filling) and 2 green desserts for the holiday. Then I came home to the slow cooker corned beef (made w/Guinness) that had been getting delicious all day long, whipped up some thousand island dressing and assembled Andy's favorite sandwich.



It looked like the dogs were jealous of all the delicious food we were having. And last year I learned that I they always feel better when I put a hat on them. So I found the "old man" hat that Andy purchased in Ireland and went to it.



"So, how about that corned beef?"



"Ugh, Mom, I'm not ready for my close-up!"



"Seriously, are we done here yet?"



"Does this hat make me look smarter?"



I guess I do have a little Irish luck that let me balance that hat on Toby's enormous skull.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!

The True Beauty of Snow

I know everyone else around here is all, "OhEmGee is Winter over yet??!! The cold is slowly murdering me."

And, to some extent, I felt the same.

I wanted it to be warm, sunny, flip-flop wearing weather.

And then some warm weather came and the snow started to melt.

And then I looked in the yard, admiring the lovely feel of the sunshine against my face and the warm ai . . . ZOHMYGOD THE DOG POOP.

Come back, snow, come back.