Dog Hair

A few days ago, a friend of mine (who recently adopted a beautiful lab!) wrote on fb:  "I am a believer!! We got our "furminator" in the mail today.....I spent 10 minutes of Brownie letting me brush her while she was trying to play. I got a plastic grocery bag almost full with her undercoat hair that was brushed out. She is so shiny now!"

I did some quick research online about this dog grooming tool (Furminator), and discovered that it gets rave reviews on amazon and many other sites.  I went to Target today though, and they didn't have one.  What they did have was a FurGOPet.

I bought one.  And I ADORE IT!  Not to mention, so do the dogs!  The idea is you gently brush your dog and it combs out all the hair that is already broken and loose and about to end up on your couch and all over everything you own.


Now those of you who have been to my house know that we have a dog hair problem.  Okay, honestly, it's really embarrassing (so thank you for not saying anything.) But really. It's EVERYWHERE. And I always vacuum before people come over. And it's still always everywhere.  


And there is just no way to describe the carnage of fur that was covering my yard today in big clumps - I couldn't fit it all into a picture! The best I could do was to explain that there were over 100 of these in my yard:

And the dogs seemed to love it!  They were nervous at first, but after a few brushes, they laid down and let me have at it! Tölpel even rolled over so I could make sure I didn't miss his belly.  This afternoon, both dogs have been incredibly happy - they seem so much more comfortable.


So, I guess I'm a believer too!

Official 5k time!

No official race photos from my 5k at the beginning of the month, but the official race times are in!

Time	0:36:20
Gun Time	0:36:20
Overall	288 (out of 440 total finishers)
Gender rank (F)	166 / 284
F25-29 rank	42 / 61
F20-29 rank	70 / 95

Jasmine's New Trick

This morning, while getting dressed, I was walking to my dresser and I saw Jazz had a little accident in my room.  Actually it was a big accident and it looked weird.  This was pre-contacts, so I bent down to examine it, and make sure she wasn't sick......... and it had an eyeball.  And legs.

"JACOB THERE'S A MOUSE THERE'S A DEAD MOUSE IN OUR ROOM JACOB THERE IS A DEAD MOUSE NEXT TO THE BED JAZZ KILLED A MOUSE JAKE JAKE JAKE!"

By this point, I realized I had jumped on the bed and was clinging to one of the posts like my life depended on it.  Jake calmly and rationally (and wonderfully) told me to get Jasmine away from her new toy and went to get something to clean it up with.  I reluctantly let go of the bed post and forced myself down onto the floor and picked up Jazz, trying not to think too hard and Jake took care of things.

As it turns out, this is something I should continue to expect..........
HELP!! Jack Russell - caught mouse (forum)
"Dogs of the terrier group have in common the proclivity to kill rodents and vermin" (Animal Planet)

If the Internet has taught me anything, its that I can do anything!

Perhaps I should be more specific.  It was pinterest that convinced me, and I'm pretty sure it's not just me.

Ladies of the world, what are we doing to ourselves?  At every party I've been to recently, at least one person brought a (ridiculously amazing) recipe they found on pinterest.  A friend once said that the biggest compliment she'd recieved was when someone walked in and said, "Your house looks like my pinterst boards!"

Don't misunderstand, I am not mocking. I was completely jealous when she told me that.  I too have shared my pinterest recipes and homemade laundry detergent tricks. What began as a craft box is now a room with piles of fabric and half started crafts.  And for some reason, I thought making a slipcover, as a beginner seamstress, without a pattern, would be easy.

I'm about 6 hours into this slipcover project, and the most important lesson I've learned is to stop and put it away when I start to get frustrated.  This, I'm sure, has saved me from throwing fabric and/or scissors out a window... If I can ever finish it, I'm going to feel like the Domestic Queen.  But for now, I'm going to carefully put this fabric away and back away from the sewing machine.

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos!

I haven't been very domestic lately, but I'm always a dramatic diva!

So, I thought I was going to get laid off this week... (I didn't, everything's fine.) In panic, I turned the AC off, turned every electrical device off, lit a candle, and looked for cheap recipes for dinner. Seriously. By candlelight.

This is the delicious recipe I made - and with ingredients I already had in the kitchen!

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

~2 lbs of chicken
1 pkg of fajita seasoning
~16 oz of salsa
~1/8 cup of lime juice (or 1 lime juiced)
black beans or kidney beans (to stretch the recipe - and I had both)
tortilla shells
taco cheese

Put the fajita seasoning in the lime juice and mix up. Put everything in crockpot. Add some water. Cook on low for 10 hours.

Shred chicken. Serve in shells with cheese. mmmmm.

Then turn the AC back on and take one day at a time.

Ask The Duck

Do you know why everyone loves the show House? Because he's a smart aleck? Because people love medical dramas? Because it's never cancer? Ok. Maybe all of these reasons. But do you know why I love House? Because it's about problem solving. And I LOVE problem solving.

I love that House thinks of answers while he's fulfilling his forced clinic duty. Or trying to date his boss. Or stealing candy from a baby. I love that I totally connect with him when this happens.

I read a story recently here that reminded me of this whole problem solving concept called Ask The Duck.

Bob pointed into a corner of the office. "Over there," he said, "is a duck. I want you to ask that duck your question."

I looked at the duck. It was, in fact, stuffed, and very dead. Even if it had not been dead, it probably would not have been a good source of design information. I looked at Bob. Bob was dead serious. He was also my superior, and I wanted to keep my job.

I awkwardly went to stand next to the duck and bent my head, as if in prayer, to commune with this duck. "What," Bob demanded, "are you doing?"

"I'm asking my question of the duck," I said.

One of Bob's superintendants was in his office. "Andy," he said, "I don't want you to pray to the duck. I want you to ask the duck your question."

I licked my lips. "Out loud?" I said.

"Out loud," Bob said firmly.

I cleared my throat. "Duck," I began.

"Its name is Bob Junior," Bob's superintendant supplied. I shot him a dirty look.

"Duck," I continued, "I want to know, when you use a clevis hanger, what keeps the sprinkler pipe from jumping out of the clevis when the head discharges, causing the pipe to..."

In the middle of asking the duck my question, the answer hit me. The clevis hanger is suspended from the structure above by a length of all-thread rod. If the pipe-fitter cuts the all-thread rod such that it butts up against the top of the pipe, it essentially will hold the pipe in the hanger and keep it from bucking.

I turned to look at Bob. Bob was nodding. "You know, don't you," he said.

"You run the all-thread rod to the top of the pipe," I said.

"That's right," said Bob. "Next time you have a question, I want you to come in here and ask the duck, not me. Ask it out loud. If you still don't know the answer, then you can ask me."

"Okay," I said, and got back to work.

My first 5k!!

"Good morning Mary Beth. The time is 5:45am. You have 2 unread email messages...." my alarm said to me this morning.

It was the big day.  I had dreamed of it all night, talked about it all week... and now it was time to get ready for my first 5k.

Let me start at the beginning. About... a month and a half ago, my friend Scott said we should think about this 5k. He was doing the half marathon and wouldn't it be awesome to run the 5k. So after only a month into the Couch to 5k, I ran my first 5k. And I actually ran most of it! So did 5 of my friends. There were 3 more of us planning to, but child care, sprained ankles, and sun poison got in the way... and one more friend signed up for a race that fits her schedule better in 2 weeks. Pretty impressive!

It will be a few days before the official times are posted but I couldn't have been more proud of myself. This is just the beginning.

Other lessons from today:
1. YOU can finish a 5k. We cheered the last 5 people to finish the race because you know what? They finished it.
2. If you are freezing before the race, this is a good sign that you're still gonna be really hot while running.
3. I am totally doing this again. It's almost 12 hours later and I'm still feeling high as a kite and immensely proud of myself.