Lisa's Lounge

While glancing through the coupons in today's paper, I found this very important information -

Chocolate Tasting Tips

1. Taste chocolate at room temperature.
2. Use water or plain crackers to cleanse the palate between tastes.
3. Compare and contrast other tasters' impressions.
4. Take notes or create a chocolate tasting journal.
5. Explore the differences in flavors and regions.

for legalness purposes, this is from the Hershey Company

Elway's doing great! He's just staying stable as ever. Which of course, I am VERY happy about. His last visit was good - bad cells down, good cells way up... but they had to do some different tests for a different chemo, and found that his kidneys aren't too happy. (Nothing major yet, just the hint of some elevated enzyme levels that shouldn't be) So, Dr. Brown decided he needed a new low phosphate diet. Now, mind you, we cook better for this cute little doggie than we do for ourselves. His diet has consisted of ground turkey, potatoes, chicken broth, rice, etc., and he eats twice a day. Well, her new diet suggestion was rice or baby rice cereal, HAMBURGER, and boiled eggs with beef broth instead of chicken broth. She faxed over a list of foods and the portions. So I called them - had a few questions. About the portions. Had they met Elway, The Beagle? I just felt like they should know him pretty well by now. The portions were maybe as much as we have been feeding him in ONE sitting - and it was supposed to be for the whole day. He currently weighs 27 lbs, which is right where he needs to be. When we first took him in last July, he was down to 21 lbs. At his fattest he was 33. Anyway, Deanna at the Vet's office assured me that it would be plenty and YES it was for the whole day. I was a little concerned about doing rice again, since he always pushed it out of his bowl before. And he's really been digging the taters.

Okay - here's the new meal:



He ate every drop. However, that was this morning. Now, if you have a Beagle, or probably other dogs too, if they are hungry and as spoiled as he is, they don't just leave you alone if you decide they've had enough food. He scoots his bowl all over our tile floor "clang! clang!" and then looks at you. So tonight I gave him a smaller portion than this morning of the new diet. He wolfed it down and I heard "clang! clang!" again. Being goofy as I am, I tried to reason with him that that was all he was getting. I totally blamed it on Dr. Brown and Deanna - to let him know that's who he should be mad at. He just smiled his cute little smile, wagging his tail and looking at me with those big brown eyes. As if he was saying "Yeah, whatever. If I look cute enough I know you'll give in". Which I did.

After that, I saw him running around a bit crazed, and knew he must have a treat of some sort that he was trying to bury. Sure enough, he had pulled the rawhide bag down off of the dog food bin and helped himself to two of them.

You don't know how excited that makes me feel! It's like he's not sick at all, being his normal food crazy self.

"You can say any fool thing to a dog, and the dog will give you this look that says, 'My God, you're RIGHT! I NEVER would've thought of that!" - Dave Barry

Two birthday girls, one photo! Lizzie is dancing while a ghostly Christine is singing... Happy Birthday to CHRISTINE January 4 and to LIZARD BROWN today!
photo compliments of Nicole

Went to Las Vegas last Saturday. Was scheduled to come home on Tuesday. While I had a great time, I was very ready by Tuesday morning to come on home. Only I couldn't! An ice storm hit Austin (well, it hit a huge section of the country, including Austin) on Monday. No way it was thawing out enough Tuesday for airplanes to land. Even if I had landed, Ben would not have been able to come get me. So, I spent one more night. Turned out fine - the room was free and Southwest changed the flight at no charge, plus I walked for about 6 hours all over the strip and had a great time taking photos! It was just as cold in Vegas, but thankfully it was dry. I was missing my Ben and my Beagle bad! And the "big kids" of course. Ben called me on Tuesday to tell me about the Beag - he had made it out on the frozen grass to go potty in the back yard. There was a dog house pad out there, so he was standing on it, near the back fence, and barking at Ben to come get him! He did not like walking on the frozen grass one bit! After trying to coax him back to the porch with promises of treats, Ben finally had to go out and carry him in. My friend Amy described it best - she said it was like walking on frozen green beans.

Mike, Otis and I had great time visiting and gambling. We went to see the show Mamma Mia which is a musical based on Abba songs. Mike and I enjoyed it, Otis hated it. He is very active, and I think his A.D.D. took over about 20 minutes into the show.

By looking at my photos, my favorite hotel in Vegas is obvious. Maybe someday Ben and I can go stay there! The whole Las Vegas set is here, and the ice storm set is there. Here's a couple of my faves, plus some of the ice storm that kept me there an extra day!

Labels: ice storm, Las Vegas, vacation

:-) I just love him! He and Tim came up with this great idea to treat Lizzie and I to a night on the town and a stay at a very nice hotel in downtown Austin. They are about to be very involved with "the bands" coming up, and Lizzie & I will be out of town for a few days this week - she's in New York City, I'll be in Vegas - so the timing was just right. We started at a sports bar watching the Chiefs game (sorry Lizzie), then went to the hotel for a cocktail - then off to dinner at one of my fav-o-right places, Moonshine! Jef, Kristin, Christine, and Nicole joined us all for dinner. It was awesome! I don't think I ever even paid attention to the Hilton downtown. What a cool place! Ben had to be sneaky, pack my bag, make arrangements for the Beagle... so I did not have my camera. But I have a cell phone! Here's a couple shots...
THANK YOU HONEY!

We had a nice li’l gathering at JnK’s house December 30th – just to get together with our core group for the holidays. Of course, there were a few missing, but it was okay, we had fun all the same. Kind of a warm, fuzzy feeling being around friends that you are 100% comfy with.
We played with Jef & Kristin’s Christmas present, the Wii. Omigawd. I think we have to have one.

see also

Early on, us womens were hanging out in the kitchen around the food, of course, and K mentioned how she just ‘lerves’ her new stemless wine glasses. I chimed in and said “Oh, mine are all stemless now too!” To which Special K replied… “On purpose?”
Y-e-e-e-e-s-s-s-s - On Purpose. Compliments of Baby Cuzzin.

Labels: friends, holidays

And a new one's just begun....


HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!