Separation Anxiety, Morning Glory, and brownies make life so much better.

Well, it appears that our dog suffers from separation anxiety.  According to the vet, dogs have no sense of time lapsed and when we leave, Arnie can't understand that we won't be gone forever, ultimately, that we will always come back.  Apparently, we have to wean him in into associating us leaving with something positive.  So now the plan is to pretend like we' re leaving: prepare with a coat (on a wintery day like today), keys, shoes etc. and then take it all off and stay for a while.  In steps, Arnie will begin to understand that leaving isn't always a bad thing, and that we will come back.  Geez, it's like having a kid.  We have to trick him into letting us leave, and then reward him for not chewing up our shoes.

Yes, all of the separation anxiety diagnosis comes from 2 days of casualties in our household.  The first being Nick's "Pauls Big Game Room" hat.  Some of you may fondly remember it by the picture of me at a Reds game in Cincinnati.  Arnies blanket was the second to go to shreds, and last night he chewed up Nick's jump drive, one of my pens, and he tore up paper in the garbage.  Then today, the kicker.  We were gone for about 30 minutes; Nick drove me to school because it was raining, and this year, I am a wimp, and I don't ride in the rain.   He came home to my sneakers missing a heel.

I never wanted that heel anyway. 

No really, it's a fashion statement. 

Needless to say, post vet, Nick decided to go all out on chew toys, a new, real, dog bed, and duck jerky chewies.   We still love him, but are utterly surprised by this recent turn of events.  He gets over 4 walks a day for goodness sakes!  Not sure how to exercise him more, so it must be separation anxiety.  We are hoping it's rapidly treatable because we have some trips to take coming up and cannot have our dog eating my families shoes!


In other news, we have MORNING GLORY!

Nick fashioned this amazing situation by pouring plaster into a milk jug, and then sticking a sturdy, non buggy filled branch.  The glories started to quickly wind their way up to the top and suddenly, we have morning glories!  I know how short their season is, enjoy them while you can! 

 And to finish off the week, brownies have been on my mind for a while now, and it came to be necessary that I bake some.  These turned out amazingly.  Chewy, moist, creamy frosting.  SO delicious. This was the recipe I used,  Best Brownies .  Of course, we didn't have any Vanilla extract, so I used some of the pear/ mango syrup I created with my pear tart (a while ago) to add flavor if needed. They were amazing.

I can't keep my eyes open, bed is calling me.

Love, Carleen

Grutz says, "Kate Smith is much, much faster than you." or "Saints are better than Gamblers." or "Sports, sports, sports, sports."

You're a Champion, Kate!

Kate celebrating with her Wahlert teammates at the Iowa Class 3A Championship.

Hot damn!  Little cousin Kate is a State Champ!  I couldn't believe my eyes reading the Telegraph Herald.  Dubuque Wahlert Girls won it's first team title, on the back of their sprint medley win on Saturday.  Kate ran the third leg and the team finished 1:49.13, just beating out Mt. Vernon/Lisbon by 0.73 seconds!  All the hard work and dedication payed off for Kate and the rest of the Wahlert team.  Give Kate a shout out.  We're so proud of you, Kate!

Dubuque tops Green Bay, 6-1 to with the Clark Cup.

.....and we'll keep on fighting to the end.  'Cos we are the Champions, we are the Champions!

And continuing with the sports theme... The Dubuque Fighting Saints won the USHL Clark Cup last night in Dubuque, over Green Bay, to win the best of 5 series, 3-1.  This is the first title for the Saints in 26 years (mind you, the Saints left Dbq for about 9 or 10 years).  It's been an amazing first season back in Dubuque at their new rink.  Of course, I don't want to take credit for anything, buuuuuuuuut......

A Fighting Saints promo back in August.  Who's giving the lucky, Clark Cup Champion high-five?  Nick is, that's who.

Well, I'm bushed.  That's my Dubuque sports fix for the week.  Have a beautiful Sunday, and once again, WAY TO GO KATE!!!!

Grutz says, "MAN! WHY DID I PAY OFF MY STUDENT LOANS?!?"

"It's the end of the world as we know it."

(Knock, knock.  Nick opens door.)
"Yes, may I hel...oh, it's you guys."  (Over his shoulder) "Honey?  Did you invite the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for dinner?"

So tomorrow ushers in a new era, according to some, that begins 'the end of days.'  If this is true, and it's not, I would be very, very angry.  One, I have a lot of things on my plate right now.  Seriously, if the second coming of Christ makes me reschedule my next two months, heads will role (no pun intended).  Two, why have I paid off any of my debts?  Three, the Big 10 has divisions now, and the Hawkeyes have a pretty good schedule, I think they'll do well.  A bunch of angels and crap slicing and dicing the fans at Kinnick will not bode well for bowl season.

Ok, joking aside, let's pretend.  If we knew the end was tomorrow, what would you do on your last day?  Think about it.  This isn't like a magic make a wish.  I can't say I'd watch the sun setting in Hawaii.  I'm in Chicago, it would be almost impossible for me to fly there and a waste of time, too.  But take five minutes today, get out a piece of paper and think for a good five minutes and then write down what you would do on your final day.  Start at the beginning of the day.  Would you rise early to catch the sunrise?  Where would you watch it?  Would you sleep in with a loved one, and then share a devilishly good breakfast?  I think we would all be surprised.  Or maybe not.

But seriously, if a the zombies start coming on Saturday, I will be SO pissed off!

DAMN ZOMBIES!  I hate detours.

Grutz says, "Aw yeah! Guess who's back in the TH?"

When the Saints go marching in...

The Dubuque Fighting Saints are in the Championships versus Green Bay and the Telegraph Herald is all over it. And guess who's all over the Telegraph Herald?

Uh-huh, it's me, again. Thanks Jon for the heads up.

Belated highlights of weeks past: shotguns, joints, clouds and Arnie

It’s been a while, but I feel compelled to write.  

Heard on the street in Pilsen a few days ago:

One guy in a car said to another guy in a car.  “Hey, do you have your shotgun?”  “No, I left it at home.”  

And I just kept walking.  Arnie, my trusty evening walk companion was by my side and there were kids screaming and running around (as is common on warm evenings in Pilsen) so I wasn’t too worried.  It is, on the contrary, a little worrisome how nonchalantly I was able to let the thought of shotguns go in one ear and out the other.  I was reminded of the comment today, when again with Arnie, was sitting on our stoop (not the part covered in bird poo, but a little spot to the left that is clear) and a big jolly guy getting dropped off by a workers van waved a little bit to me, and I waved back in my attempt to be neighborly.  Clearly the return wave was his in, and he said

“Want to smoke a joint with me?” (Note: I have never seen this guy in my life).  I responded, “No, thanks.”  He said, “How about your dog?”  “Uh, no.” 

These are the characters that we live with.  They color our life in Pilsen, which may be coming to a close.  The plan right now is to move when our lease is up (end of July).  We’ve been craving a backyard or a porch or a deck, some/any kind of exposure to the outside, and it’s true, sometimes the “characters” in the ‘hood are a bit too unsavory, even for me.  There are some other reasons too, but we’ll get to that later. 

It's been a great few weeks with me, Nick and Arnie.  Nick's been doing a fabulous job with chronicling our life of late, but here are some of my highlights. 

We had an apocalyptical storm that served up beautiful clouds and wind. 

And, it was not without thunder and lightening late into the night.  I sat by the window on our spiral steps until the rain got too strong and started getting me wet.  The warm wind felt amazing and I swear I transported myself to my favorite beach in the world.  Meanwhile, Arnie made NOT A PEEP!!!

I've been imagining the feeling of the waves and the sun on my face at Sunset Beach, NC, and I am scheming together some way to make a vacation there this summer.  It's not really in the cards yet, but I don't think I can go without.  My family's been going there for years, and it is my beach home. 

Back to the pup: Arnie is a fun loving guy, who wouldn't want to be his friend?

"And I sit nicely too."

At school, we had a stellar career day.  Dr. Zid's (my chiropractor employer of 3 years), sent his  partner Dr. Bryan, who was awesome.  We have some future chiropractors in our midst! 

Nick mistakenly left his newly mended patch over patch pants out for me to photograph when I got home the other day.  No matter what I say, new pants are out of the question.  How many patches are on there?  How many times can you patch a patch? I love the thriftiness, the mending skills, and the intention.  I am however, very tired of looking at these jeans and I think the next time they are left out, might be their last.  Watch out Nick, if you're not careful, a victory walk to the garbage is in store.  

And here is the mender, dog trainer, tuna melt maker extraordinaire.  It looks like he's serenading me with his plucking skills.  But... 

Don't be fooled!  These tunes are for dogs ears only. 

With love, Carleen

Grutz says, "The Good, the Bad, and the Queen."

Yeah, I know it's the name of a band.  But the Queen declines a Guinness....and a picture is worth 1000 words.

What could I possibly say here?  You're all smart and witty.  Think of something yourselves.  Oh, Prince Philip, I wish you could let your hair down and have some fun! (thanks AP)

My last post included my very good friend, Ciaran.  For those that don't know, he's from Ireland and he's planning to head back shortly for a spell.  Sure, he's called Dubuque home for ages, but he's ready to get back to his roots.  So its amazing that the the Queen is visiting the Emerald Isle this week.  A British Monarch hasn't stepped on it's closest neighbor in about 100 years.  This is a big deal.  If you haven't seen yesterday's events you should visit the BBC.

And it's good, too.  Remember, think good.

Grutz says, "Keeping things in perspective. A good perspective." or "There's more to life than guitars and Australian Stumpy Tailed Cattle Dogs?"

Yes, there is more to life than this. And no, not just dog hair.

Ignorance is not bliss.

In my daily adventures, I often lament or comment on the goings-on in and around 1124 W. 19th Street. I go to great lengths writing about the dog, the apartment, the neighborhood, the Hawkeyes, Iowa, etc. Yes, all these things are important to me and Carleen, and we have decided to comment on our lives for a year in this blog (and yes, I know you all miss her and her posts get waaaaaaaay more hits, but she's working hard and is pretty tired, so you're stuck with me for now. Deal. With. It.). Sure, I try to be witty or coy, I try to entertain. But sometimes I'm reminded that there's more to witty, coy comments about the great Arnie or some furniture I've built.

At times I'll switch off NPR and avoid all that happening around the world and nation. I'm working on how events in the news impact me. I tire of getting upset at the hypocrisy of government or the devastating natural disasters striking on a weekly, if not daily, basis. For example, one may ask how a monopoly in the making (Comcast & NBC Universal) had been OK'd by the FCC? Only to be followed with: Wow, a chairwoman on the FCC regulating board who just OK'd said monopoly in now going to work for said monopoly? Here's an article from the Washington Post. I've, hell, we've all seen this before. I've been hiding from these things from behind the simple and wonderful little things in my life. Escapist? Yes, I acknowledge that. So I will try to avoid the negative crap floating around the airwaves and news sites and focus on the good. How's that sound?

Look for the positive, even in a truck load of negative.

Did you know there are men and women serving abroad, fighting in two wars? Yeah, I too, forget over time. It's like a reverse polaroid. An image of conflict slowly fading into nothing. I don't agree with any of it. Many Americans are opposed to the wars. These wars are wrong. But now it's like background noise, there, but easily ignored.

But the men and women serving are not. I forget about this. I don't see the results or effects of these wars. I don't live by a military base/hospital. I only know of a few over seas serving now. I don't see it in my daily life. But reading over the local Dubuque newpaper, the Telegraph-Herald, I was reminded that we are at war. Bad things happen. A Dubuque native and Marine, Christopher Billmyer, was injured in Afghanistan and has been in rehab for some time. He arrived home to Dubuque yesterday. Here's a video from the TH capturing the homecoming. Here's another and article that really sums up the positivity of this event, from KCRG.

Give, baby give!

Black Heart Gold Pants (BHGP) is an Iowa Hawkeye blog that I follow and mentioned in the past. It has informative pieces, such as player analysis and game results. It is also terribly funny (a recent post was written from the point of view of the strung-out Clemson Tiger mascot, really, it's funny). But BHGP is not just sports and high brow hilarity jokes, there's also a soft fuzzy side. This past football season the BHGP community raised over $20,000 for UI Children's Hospital. Yeah! So why am I writing about this? Among all the puns, put-downs, and stats, is a very good post about charity. I recommend you all check it out. At the very least you can get the context for the following line to make sense:

"Marc beat the hell out of zero. Marc won like crazy. Marc ran up the score on zero."

By the way, this isn't a link to donate to a specific cause, just a great reminder of how to think about charity and others thoughts on it. All of us are blessed and doing well, give what you can to those that need. It's good and it's good. End of story.

Lastly, In the grand scheme of things, there really are no ‘errors’.

A most wonderful friend in our lives, Ciaran, is grabbing life by the horns. He's thinking and doing the things he's needing to do on this crazy road we call life. The line above is from a post of his blog, entitled "Savouring the Journey" and what a journey it's been! I invite you all to check it out, here's his most recent post, it involves checkbooks, seriously. It will increase your positive quotient by like, a lot. And that, too, is good.

So everyone! Everyone! Do be good! Think good! See good! Doesn't it feel good?!?