Sunshine

These are two of my favorite guys!


We took Trooper to Wayne Morris Ranch. This is when we were about to leave and Jim had to hose his muddy legs off.


Wow, we had sunshine all weekend and it looks like no rain next week either! On Saturday, I took Trooper and my Little Sister to the dog park. A crazy lady actually asked us to leave when Trooper barked at her dog. She said, "Aggressive dogs aren't allowed in here!" and wouldn't give it up, so we left. He wasn't growling or snarling and was just trying to play. We then just walked around the park to the other entrance. Eugene has an interesting dog park crowd. Then we walked around on the paths in the park for about two hours. It was okay, but I think the "unstructured" play time was a little boring for my Little Sister. Jim made us falafel for dinner and we had drinks with some friends. We actually went to a party on Friday night as well! This morning we woke up and took the dog for an outing. We stopped at Sweet Life Patisserie and each got a savory pastry breakfast and coffee. Then we went to a park with a huge dog run area. Trooper ran off leash and got so muddy. Then we walked him on the paths. He was able to get a lot of outside time two days in a row, which was great for everyone. We made it home for Jim to watch the Bears game (sorry Bears) and me to get some cooking and cleaning done and work out. On the menu tonight is a new Giada recipe: an eggplant timbale. I love, love, love eggplant in any shape or form. This is def something to make when you have time. It was a lot of multitasking. And I followed the directions but did not prep enough eggplant to cover the whole dish. Next time I would double the eggplant slices. It's baking now and smells lovely. I also made Ina's Macaroons. They require still egg whites, and you can't make those as easily on a rainy day, so today was perfect. This recipe is one of our faves. I also add a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips to this one. How can you go wrong with that :) ? I also intended to make a cream of mushroom soup for later in the week, but will just do that after work one night. Trooper and I had puppy classes tonight and he was so well behaved! Hardly any barking and he even got complimented by the teacher! We worked on "sit" (which he already kind of knows) and "leave it." He's had such a big weekend that he's just passed out right now. This week should be fairly quiet. I've started running with one of my girlfriends a few nights a week after work, so that's nice. I also have a Big Brothers Big Sisters appreciation cocktail hour after work on Thursday. Tomorrow night I plan to blog about some crafting/ sewing I've been doing!