March 25

http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/18409140?rvp=1

Humane Society

So I did my first volunteer day at the Memphis Humane Society as a dog walker.  You are probably like me in that you think that I put the dogs on a leash and walk them around.  Not quite -- you do put the dogs on a leash but that is to get them from their kennel to a large, fenced-in outdoor area.  This is much better as they get to run and roam around at the level they want.  So each dog gets about 20 minutes outside.  Not alot when you think about the other 23 hours, 40 minutes they stay confined in a dog kennel.  I cannot say this enough - if you are interested in a dog, please go to a shelter, don't buy one from a breeder.  I know, you probably saw this cute poodle that you have to have -- well, chances are you can find a similar dog that is homeless.  

This is a picture of Cooper - he has 3 legs and but an absolute sweetheart.  He would do best being an only dog.  He was so cute - he tries to play up the card of "missing a leg" but just collapsing when he wants you to pick him up.  He can run around the enclosure but when it comes time to go in, dead weight. 

February 9

Snow!!

So we got what I believe will be our final snow of the year.  We have probably gotten 3 real snows (real for Memphis) and they have been wonderful!  I have said before and will say it again...I love the snow.  My husband, does not as he always has to work in it and unfortunately had to leave at like 5:45am to make it to work.  So I do feel bad for those folks who do not have the option to work from home.  I am very, very lucky that I do.  The snow makes everything so quiet and pretty and is a good excuse just to stop and look.  

February 8

Stuffing

So just when you think your dogs have graduated from the destroy-stuff phase; you come home and find that they have chewed through the blanket you put over the couch to hide the original hole where they chewed through previously.  

February 6

Evil

This is Bela...pure, 100% evil.  Not even her fluffy exterior can hide a core of liquid, gooey evil.  She use to be my cat -- I adopted her from the animal shelter probably around 2000 or 2001 and she was a cute kitten.  But something flipped and she just became so mean and irritable that no one liked her.  Luckily, my parents took her in while I was living in Memphis but she did almost put my mom's eye out when she attacked her while she was sleeping. 

February 5

Cake

So my dad's 60th birthday was on 02/05 and such a big birthday warranted a flight to East TN to celebrate.  However, in a very unlike-Romilly fashion, I thought I'd just wing this trip -- no meticulous calculations on flights & connections, no developing back-up plans if said-connections were missed.  I just picked a flight for Friday night and picked a flight back for Sunday.  This is where I went wrong -- in trying to save precious vacation days, I decided to fly out after work on Friday.  This breaks a cardinal rule of mine - do not flight late in the day, especially if you have connections.  Flights later in the day are always behind and they limit your options to make up a missed connection later.  This bit me on the ass in that my flight out of Memphis ended up being delayed a little over an hour - which would almost guarantee a missed flight out of Atlanta.  So I contacted Delta and was re-booked for the 6am flight the next day.  Well, 4am rolled around and I'm thinking "what am I doing?".  I ended up arriving in East TN at 11am and had to fly out the next morning at 10am -- not even a full 24 hours!  I pushed full-steam ahead.  


Way back when, my grandmother use to make my dad and my aunt a German chocolate cake on their birthdays.  She ceased this several years ago and my mom continued the tradition for a few years before my dad's health put a permanent end to it.  Since it was the big 6-0, I thought one more cake would never hurt anyone so I set about making it...from scratch.  The end result was not too bad -- one of the layers did sort of fall apart coming out of the pan (hence the difficulty in making out the cakeness of the picture above) but the cake tasted good.  The coconut / pecan icing was another story...it turned out more like peanut butter brittle than icing. 

January 23

Flowers

So I was invited to a friend's 40th birthday party over the weekend.  It was really lovely - it was at a restaurant that was super fancy.  Super fancy meaning that I feel like I should be healthy and order the fish because you know the fish won't taste like fish.  But super fancy usually means, for me, that I get the richest, most fattening selection and end up too full for words.  That is what happened at this event.  I really wanted to take a photo of the steak stuffed with friend oysters but again, how am I going to make myself sick if I do not wolf it down at an unsafe pace?  Unsafe pace might actually be a good adjective for the evening.  As a result, all that was left was the centerpiece - it was pretty enough to warrant a photo. 

January 12

Steak

So earlier this week, I was at the store and picked up 2 average-looking pieces of steak.  I guess I did not know (or maybe did not care) how cold it was suppose to get when thinking of grilling steaks.  I really do not pay attention to these things since Brian is responsible for outdoor food preparation.  Regardless, it was 20 degrees last night and therefore way too cold for him to use the grill.  Remembering that I registered for and received a cast iron skillet for such an occasion, we decided to break it out.  Overall, it turned out ok for our first attempt -- the flavor was great but the texture left something to be desired.  The end suggestion was to select a thicker cut of meat for the next time and use more butter (I mean, when does the recommendation of "use more butter" not solve problems?).  Oh, and we broke the fan in the kitchen above the stove...that was awesome.  The dogs, however, took a far different take as the extra smoke led the big dog to believe we were burning down the house and he should run as far away as possible.  The little dog, it turns out, would run head first into a burning building if given the opportunity as he saw the cloud of smoke as something of interest.