New Tire With Jake

Lately I've been having a hard time with one of my tires staying inflated. So today, I had enough and bought a new tire.......I don't mind buying a new tire, it's the waiting around for hours on end in the tire shop waiting room that drives me nuts. Today wasn't too bad, I think I waited a little over an hour. I realize I should of done this repair at the beginning of the month to avoid all those "end of the month" people who want to get their inspection sticker. Let's take you thru the pictures :)

This tire has been testing my patience!

Come on Jake.......let's get a new tire!

We wait......

Hum-dum-hum.....waiting....

We been doing some more waiting..... (but we did get a chance to walk around outside)

Will this ever end.....

So, that was my day today. Tonight I didn't do much. I ran down to play Monday night poker which I like (it's free) and now we are just watching Monday night football on TV. Hope you had a more exciting and less expensive day than I did LOL! Have a good nite.

Another Uneventful Week

Well, everything here has been quiet this week......well, quiet except for Jake's little bell. We've been working to try to have him hit the little bell when he wants a snack......he's a smart cookie so I have to watch him like a hawk because I'll put the treat under the bell but he will try to distract me on something else and then he will run over and claw at the bell overturning the bell to get the treat so he doesn't have to ring the bell (hello run on sentence.....I'm not fixing it, you are on your own lol!). So anyways, I'm trying to stop him from overturning the bell and to just tap the top of it for the "bing" noise to get the treat. He's almost got it, but not yet. I see sometimes when he gets frustrated he will do another trick, like roll over, to get the treat........like I said, we still need some work on the bell......but, that's okay, I have all this time off just for him :) My sentence structure is awful tonight, but I'm moving on, you can figure out what I'm saying I'm sure. :)

I haven't really spent any money this week or done anything exciting. I know I've got to get back on the fitness wagon again and start going back to the gym. I like going there and I have some unplayed podcasts on my Blackberry I want to listen to......oh, and don't forget my Dr. Oz on TV that I like to watch while getting some miles behind me on the treadmill.......so I will go to the gym tomorrow morning (well, morning for me is like 9:30 and Dr. Oz starts at 10am), so everything works out perfectly.

Okay, confession time.......I've been lazy about my blog updates because......because.....well, because......of Poker......I said it, Poker! I know, I know, but the (free) poker site I'm playing on is very addicting and social, and some of you know how I am when it comes to being social. I'm no good at poker and I have alot to learn and I'll never become a millionaire off poker, but that's why my blog updates have been so sporadic. What I have to do is get out of the house more with Jake and the camera......so tomorrow I'll take my camera and go snap some shots at something....not sure what yet, but I'm sure Jake can help me.

So unfortunately, I don't have much of an update, but I'm still here. Have a good night, I'll be back! :) And if you are keeping track, this is my 86th blog posting.....

Walking and Bell

Well, there is not a whole lot going on over here.....but there are a few things that I've done this week. The walking group I belong to had their banquet on Tuesday which was worth going to. I mean, a whole restaurant room of senior citizens and lottery scratch tickets was entertaining to watch.......boy, they make scratching those tickets an art form by itself and a sport. We had lunch and they pulled some raffles.....right up my alley :) I got my little certificate saying that I walked 39.5 miles this fall.....not too bad and I'm glad someone kept track of it cause I sure didn't. :) The walking group will pick up again in early April and I'm looking forward to it.....

Then this week I decided to teach Jake to ring a bell for his treats. I thought it would be good to get that dog thinking again....LOL! I mean, he gets everything for free, he might as well work for something. So, anyways, it's just a regular typical desk/counter bell and (this was a learning lesson for both of us here) I was trying to think of how to "condition" him to ring the bell for a treat. So at first he didn't associate the treat and the bell at all. He would just skip the bell and paw at my hand for the treat. So I thought and thought (this wasn't suppose to be a brain exercise for me.....ugh!) And then I figured out that if I put the treat under the bell, he would paw at the bell and when the bell "binged" I would lift the bell and he would get the treat........okay, maybe I serious need a job at this rate LOL!! Wayyyy too much time on my hands and I'm just going to end up annoying the whole household with this bell thing. Moving on.....

What else, what else.....tomorrow we are going shopping because my parents want to buy a security camera for this property (three floor apartment building) because someone passing thru our driveway set off the vehicle alarm on the Dodge Ram over the weekend. So now, my parents want to monitor outside activity and these security camera are pretty sophisticated these days......I mean, you can monitor all cameras right from a computer website and if there is any movement activity it will alert you in an email......pretty much all automated.....so, we will go check those out and see what we find.....(yes, I'm very well aware that I will now get two million spam comments on "video surveillance cameras" LOL!)

Okay, I'm outta here. Behave yourself and I'll be back! :) Nite Nite....

Faneuil Hall is the place to be today!!

Let's see if i can keep up with the names......I'm not that good at names, but I will give it a try....there was 9 of us today. So there was moi representing @onewhitedog, and we had Bonnie there representing her kitty cat @LilyLuWhoT, and then there is @CountryClare7's Mom was there today, then there was Judy and her partner June who arrived representing their pet @iamDaisyDoo, then there was Monique and Brian that came in honor of their @Ri_Guy, and then, and then we had @gromekcat Mom and Dad was there (having hard time remembering their names, but very nice people. I hope I didn't forget to mention anyone.

We missed @grrlysquirrel75, I don't know if it was just bad timing or she was having a hard time with the transportation section of it, but unfortunately, I guess, will all the ever she put in to getting her, she was shy and embarrassed about holding everyone up and left. We never even saw what she looked like or explored her personality or said Hi! So I'm hope from the bottom of my heart we get a little to do this tweet up again and this time we will exchange phone numbers to easily get ahold of people in need of reconfirmation on times, directions, and where we are all going to meet. Like more of a solid plan than "I showed up, but didn't know what anyone looked like and went home again" I NEVER want to hear that ever. Well, when we go out together next time, we are to exchange every one's phone numbers to each other of who is gong to be there. No more unease looks and confusion. If anyone wants to do this again (and yes, in my eyes, it was a huge success.) This is what I had been looking forward to for the past three weeks - I mean, Nov 12th was burned in my head to meet the people on the other side of the Twitterverse!!! Okay I got there with plenty of time to spare.....I mean I got there in plenty of time, but not enough time to go wandering too far away and get lost.......NOPE, this chick wasn't getting lost down here! :) Wanna see what I saw??? Me too!! :) Oh, and everyone got a kick (and, at first, didn't believe me at all) that my license plates says basically 'Wait For Me'. They said "Nooooo, way!" I said "It's a miracle I'm ready to go anywhere on time, and get their on time should be a different story (or license plate) all together. Some people have a good sense of time, others, like me, just can't manage to stay ahead of that clock. Heehee!! Okay, I'll shut up now and show you what I sawwwwwww :) :) :)

This is the first sight I saw when I hopped into Faneuil Hall....Wow, let's explore! :)

Looking at this picture is the front door to Durgin Park. I was heard that this restaurant started by two people. One person's last name was Durgin and the other last name was Park! Neat huh!

I'm just taking some pictures around where I'm standing outside.....it's nice outside, I only had a sweatshirt on.....let's take a walk around for alittle bit.....

Is that what I think it is?? Let's get closer.......

Ohhhhhh, it is Dick's Last Resort!!!!! I've been to one of these in Texas somewhere.

Got to sneak some pictures in of Quincy Market!!!!!

Nice upper view of Quicy Market!! Lots of food inside here.

Ohhhhh, what is the comossion gonig on over there to the left side of the building.....quick! Let's go see!!!

See!!! There's something gonig on over there and I'm too curious to leave it alone.... :)

Oh, it's a performer struggling to get his body inside the frame of a tennis rack...hmmmmm, yeah, you heard me the first time...... :)

Yep, he does it. I don't really see any tip jar around him, but I'm sure he'll pull them out when the act is done. I'm outta here!

Let's go into the Market place to shop around.....

They have these vendor wagons all over the place wanting to send you home with a "Boston" souvenir! :)

Wanna see the menu???

Let's see here........I'mmmmmm thinking I'll gooooooo, hmmmm, with the Chicken Pot Pie!!! :)

Check that Chicken Pot Pie out with iced tea.....I was in heaven....it was so delicious! :)

I came home to this.........

So, other than that! Pretty quiet night....gonna Publish this.....and relax....Hope you have a good night too :)

Stripers Grille Restaurant

Today we went to Salisbury, Massachusetts for lunch at Stripers Grille Restaurant (this link should open in a new window for ya). Today is my uncle's birthday and he picked the restaurant. I love trying new restaurants. It is in a great location and very easy to get to off Route 1. According to the GPS, it is 46 miles from our home. In my opinion, Stripers is reasonably priced, but very noisy. It is very hard to have a conversation inside the restaurant due to neighboring tables seated very close to each other and the small room where the restaurant is held in. I'm glad I went here, but boy, I can't imagine this place in the summer, gotta be mega hopping busy. We got there a tad early and I got some pictures around the outside of the restaurant. Behind the restaurant is a smaller tiny restaurant, marina, and dock. You'll love the pictures......Oh, for lunch I had the 4 piece chicken with the salad bar......it was pretty darn good food...... :)

Here's the sign!

This is a restaurant, marina, dock, and a hotel attached to it....

A little bit closer view of front of restaurant....

This is what you see when you walk in the front door and the restaurant is up the stairs....

When you get upstairs, they have a model display of the business.....take a good look at this picture....I'm about to show you everything in this picture outside....

Model display of front of restaurant and hotel.....

Okay, this is the little restaurant and water front area behind Stripers....

I like this picture....

You are looking at Newburyport, Massachusetts.....

Newburyport, Massachusetts

Another picture I like.....

Remember the model display.....this is directly behind Stripers

This is behind the small little restaurant behind Stripers

Boat are huge!!!!!

This is my favorite boat.....wanna see why.....I'll get a tad closer :)

Yeah, I love the name of this boat, that's why - LOL!

Well, that's what I did today. This evening I just took Jake out to get my mail and hopped over to McDonald's for their $1 iced tea. Now I'm home for the night. Have a good night, bug you tomorrow :)

Jake's project :)

Okay, once again I bought an 12 oz bag of Dog treats make from Science Diet by Hill's Pets. The canned food and dry food of this manufacturer is great for Jake. But his ZD same formula in the treats that he likes to have a treat at night wasn't working out. The treats are hard to break with his teeth, I can't even break then treats in half with my 37 year old strong hands. We are now down to using a nut cracker to break the dog treats up so Jake can chew on tiny chunks of them and sometime he would just swallow the little pieces that he doesn't want to make the effort of fighting to chew though stale cookie treats. SO, once again I hopped on the phone with the manufacturer of Hill's Science Diet and filed a complain that I felt didn't go any further than her computer screen who was taking my notes and information for the marketing department for feedback. Anyways, the lady on the phone gave me some ideas of how to create a cookie treat from his kibble dry food and his canned food......it caught my attention and I settled down and took notes on how to use the dry food and canned food that can be turned in snack treat food. She said to make one cup of dry food to a powdery mix and mix it with a 1/2 cup of water and mix it together. Got all that? I hope so. So, then we made cookie circle shapes on the pan and there was quite alot like 14 or 15 of them. Plenty for him to enjoy thru the week. So we put it in the over at 350 degrees and left them in there for 20 - 25 minutes. I have to say that Jake was guarding the stove to make sure they don't "disappear" :) Are you ready for some pictures?? I am! :)

This is some of his kibble we will be working with on this project...

Now we have to smash the kibble into a powdery substance

Coming along nicely.....we need 1 cup of this stuff....

We are building up a cup of powdery kibble....

We are moving our way to the top of the 1 cup size....

Here are the tools we will be working with to get the results of the dog cookie treat! :)

First we add 1/2 cup of water to 1 cup of kibble pebble.....I'm not a professional cook so you can play around with these two ingredients to get them to your cookie texture level! :)

Then while we are stirring, we are adding the rest of the water. Easy :)

Then the mixing starts.....just shuffle it around the bowl. Stir it around so it's all mixed tonight....if you think you might want to add more water, by all means, this is the time to do it! :)

There, as for us, we are all set to make the cookies (maybe next time we will add more water) but we are winging this as we have never done this before :)

Loading up the pan. On the left side are the cookies from the powder and water stuff, and on the right side I put in little ball sizes of his canned food to see how it would come out.

Jake wanted to supervisor so much. His little  nosey was working over time this afternoon! :)

Okay, they are ready to go in the oven to see what happens.

Well, we finished off making all the cookies, they don't look so hot.....but they will conform to cookies automatically hopefully somehow......

LOOK!! They are in the oven! Now, remember 350 degrees and after 20 minutes, keep an eye on them! :)

Kinda like what Jake is doing.....he was pacing the floor and was sniffing....

He was on guard in front of the stove....checking on them but wouldn't let anyone by them until they were done!

He watched this way, and that way.....nooooo one coming near my cookies!!!

Got to keep an eye out over here too.......some humans pass thru this way all the time....got to keep my eyes open!

Are they still in there......I'm just gonna strain my neck to peek....

Ohhhhh, poohh, these cookies are never gonna get done today *pout*

They are done, They are done!!!!! Wanna a bite?? The right side where the canned food was cooked didn't turn out too good so we thew those out.

Now Mommy got to break them up into cookie shapes......

Let me tell ya, it was worth it! So worth it. I probably would of added a tad more water for texture, but they were great.....cause Jake chomped down two of them and they were so soft and not crunchy at all.......and the bottom line is what Jake things and Jake says......"Jake Approved"! :)