Like a Highlights Magazine, but not

Ok I understand that I'm not the best housekeeper, but see if you can find the item that definitely does not belong in this picture.

Need a hint?
See below:What is it with this dog's scissor obsession???

Fish breath

Yesterday, after work, Sheila and I met at the Alum Creek Dam for some exercise and therapy. Walking and talking with her is one of the highlights of my day and is an excellent way to catch up on the latest and greatest events happening in our lives. Yesterday started out with me meeting Nick to pick up Chino, and then Chino and I walking down to meet Sheila and Max. We walked and talked, stopping a bit for people to ask what kind of dogs we have (really, who cares?? Are you going to run out and get one if I told you that he was a limited edition Chowbrador that is only produced once every 10 years? Probably not.) and to pick up a couple of piles of loveliness that Chino and Max produced along the trail.

We walked over to the "beach" next to the lake, and since we had the place to ourselves, we let the dogs off of their leashes to run. Chino had found an abandoned tennis ball and Max was thrilled to pieces over it. They played in the sand and chased each other around, enjoying the evening. Of course, Chino decides to go wading into the water, up to his ankles, but that's to be expected. At least he chose not to dive in all the way (which would not have shocked me either).

As we walked, it was time to get the dogs back on their leashes and head back to the populated part of the trail. After ignoring my yells for him, Chino came bounding up to me, chewing on something. I told him to drop it, and he did. What I saw next wasn't what I was expecting. Was it a leaf? No. A dirt clump? No. A piece of grass? No. It was a piece of a very dead fish. Max was very interested in Chino's breath after this little snack. After Chino spit out the nasty fish, I imagine that their doggie dialog went something like this:

Max: Duuuuuuude...that was so awesome...lemme smell your breath.

Chino (panting): She didn't even realize how much I ate before I came back.

Max: Duuuuude...that was so awesome. You smell FANTASTIC.

Chino: Dude, get your snout out of my mouth and stop licking my drool.

Max: But it was so awesome...what you just did...with the fish...

Chino: Rookie. You'll figure it out sometime. This dead fish is small potatoes. What you need to do is wait until you find yourself a yummy pile of goose poop or a dead bird. When the lady lets you off the leash, drop and roll man, drop and roll.

Practically Impractical...

Responsibly irresponsible. Words that describe our new (to us) VW convertible. Glorious is the word I'd use to describe the day that we had on Sunday.

Nick and I loaded Chino and his girlfriend into the back of the car and headed off for a L O N G walk at the Alum Creek Dam. Chino was harnessed in with his new seat belt. Nala's harness was securely attached to the rear seat belt.

We made sure that Chino had enough slack to truly enjoy himself for the ride to and from the dam. Enjoy himself, he did. Smells galore, shooting into his nostrils from all angles, sunshine warming his fur and the breeze keeping him cool. I'd say that he approves wholeheartedly of the convertible. Then again, as an impracticality himself, he would.

Sunshine on our faces (and snouts), hair (and fur) blowing in the breeze...what more could you want?

Wasted

Chino kicked his weekend off a little early last night with a Busy Bone Ultimate Chew. The thing is the grand pooba of chewies (15oz) and it promises a one hour chew time. After Chino polished it off, he passed out to dream sweet dreams of meaty goodness, with Busy Bone crusties stuck to his paws, face and chest.

Buzzzzz

Yay for another BzzCampaign!!!! This time, my campaign is for The Fragrance Collection by Glade (Click here for a free coupon!). The collection is pretty impressive. Glade has really broken out of the traditional air freshener mold and into something that is affordable, attractive AND conveniently available at the local grocery store. Think DOUBLE COUPONS and gas savings.

As someone who favors candles, this is the perfect collection for me. Traditional air fresheners don't work very well in our house for a number of reasons. Potpourii is out of the question because Chino would dive right in, thinking it was the best salad bar that he'd ever seen. We stay away from those plug-in type of fragrances because of one too many emails about the house burning down and that pesky little device being the culprit. Aerosol cans of freshener seem to make EVERYONE sneeze and ineveitably, Nick farts and I spray his butt - sort of nipping the problem in the bud, per say. The thought process is not only odor elimination, but also odor prevention. So that leaves us with candles as our primary means of odor elimination and freshening.

My BzzKit included a multi-wick soy based candle in Currants & Açai PLUS some coupons for me and my friends. The facts from BzzAgent (about the candle that I received) are:

• Stronger fragrance and increased ambiance
• Boutique-style glass jar
• Soy-blend wax formula
• Up to 35 hour burn time
• Suggested retail price: $8.99
  

Fragrance Profile (according to BzzAgent): The tartness of red currants combined with the tanginess of the Açai berry.

Fragrance Profile (according to Chino): Non-edible.

Fun Fact: The Açai berry is native to South America, and can be found mainly in the Amazon region of Brazil.

Morning Convo.

On the mornings that I don't go to the gym, which has been more often than not, Nick comes up to wake me up and say goodbye before he leaves. Its a comforting routine. He turns the light on, the radio and then comes over to make sure that I'm somewhat coherent. This morning's convo, however was blog worthy...so here it goes.

Nick: Good morning! Chino's been fed, let out and is downstairs. I slept well, did you?

Me: {{Incoherent gobbily goop}}, so-so.

Nick: How come?

Me: You were snoring, but were on your side already so I had to find an alternate means of stopping it (Linda does snoring demo).

Nick: Hahaha. How?

Me: I tried poking, yelling and slapping. That didn't work. So I flicked the band of your boxers and underwear. That worked.

Nick: You gave me a wedgie?

Me: Nope. Just flicked the bands. I had to do it a couple of times. I figured this out after hitting you in the head with your pillow did nothing.

Love

This is more than just a buffalo chicken pizza. This is one of those little things that they say keeps marriages healthy and happy and I'm going to say that I have to agree.

Safety Schmafety

I've been knocked off of my safety soapbox by a 70lb mutt.  After my post about doggie seat-belts and doing the best for him and better be safe than sorry, not to mention a startling statistic, what does he do yesterday!?  He chews on a pair of scissors.   My fault for leaving them out, but seriously - who eats scissors!? He was probably holding the blades between his front paws as he gnawed on the handles.  That's right.  Holding he scissors, by the blades, chewing on the handles.  Sometimes I worry for my future children.

Safety First

Since we bought the convertible, our second thought related to how we'd keep Chino contained in the vehicle when the top was down. This wouldn't be a concern, but Chino's one and only "top down" experience was in the back of Nick's truck. Instead of sitting back there and enjoying the ride, he jumped out, WHILE THE TRUCK WAS MOVING. Of course, Nick had tried this out while I wasn't home, after I asked him not to, but couldn't resist trying it anyway. Of course, I find out about this much later, only in a passing conversation.

So, to make sure that Chino doesn't escape during summer outings in the convertible, I bought a doggy harness, to keep him where he belongs. After reading some of the reviews on PetSmart's website, this one seemed to have the highest marks when it came to restraining larger dogs and came in a size XL to fit his monster chest.
At first glance, it looks like a bit of a contraption, but, true to its name, the Easy Rider fit and adjusted with ease. Amazingly enough, Chino didn't seem to mind it and sat calmly while we adjusted the straps and clipped him in, even posing for pictures.

At first, the idea of a seatbelt for Chino made us laugh. We were picturing the seat belt as a way to keep him contained, rather than restrained. However, after doing some reading I realized that keeping him restrained would also keep us safe as well. This little tidbit of information was what sold us on keeping him secure, no matter which vehicle he's in; in a 30 mph crash, the force from an unharnessed 60-pound dog (Chino weighs about 70lbs) can create an impact of 2,700 pounds (click here for full article). Considering the amount of time that we spend in the car with him and that the average speed often far exceeds 30 mph, it made me stop to think of why we hadn't decided to implement this safety measure before.

CHECK!

Nick and I took the plunge. We bought ourselves a new (ok pre-loved) convertible!!!! This was something that was jockeying for the #1 position on the Cradle List for quite some time and something that was even more fun to check off the list. We both decided that it was a now or MUCH LATER purchase, so we went for it. Our limited price range provided limited options which was very frustrating. We got off track a bit at the beginning, but finally bought our VW Cabrio last Thursday in Cincinnati. As its been with most of our major purchases, it was somewhat of an accident because it was not one of the cars that we had originally set out to see that afternoon.

Buying the car put us in a bit of a quandary. We are typically the king and queen of doing the responsible thing and talking things to death, weighing the pro's and con's. Knowing that buying a car, just for funzies was definitely not the responsible thing made it a hot topic for debate. However, seeing as we've primarily been doing the right thing for quite some time now - ok minus the indiscretion in 2006 that we named Chino - we figured that we earned this one.

Nick has since determined that we are now VW people and has been having himself a good old time browsing the VW accessory sites and planning some enhancements to the car. I've vetoed the VW valve stem covers, but I'm not sure how much longer I can hold him off. He also couldn't resist snapping a picture of me in a 2009 Routan. As far as it becoming our next vehicle, I think not. Not even if Brook Sheilds says so.

Lists

Last night, Nick and I watched The Bucket List, which is a movie about living before you die, living life to the fullest and how death can truly put life into perspective. It made me think about all of the lists that we sometimes live by. We have lists of things to do, lists of things to buy, lists of foods to eat/not eat, lists of activities to plan, lists of people to call and lists of lists!!!!

Rather than make a list of things we want to do/see/accomplish before we die, our lists have been more in life stages. The list that we're working on now is The Cradle List. Its what we'd like to do before we transition from doggie mom and dad to the real deal. To us, this is important because we want to make sure that we enjoy and appreciate the time that we have as just "Nick and Linda" before we become "so and so's parents". Its our time to spend frivolously, eat out, take naps and go on vacation. Its the time for happy hours, late nights with friends and a little selfishness.

I thought that The Cradle List was supposed to be more about DOING, but lately I've been thinking and its more about BEING. Being what we want, when we want and how we want. I know that we've been "Nick and Linda" for quite some time now, but we want to make sure that we're ready for that next step, when it happens. Taking our time now, will make us better parents to whoever it is that comes along and also allow us to transition back to just "us" after the kiddos have grown up.

My own parents subscribed to this philosophy - enjoying their youth and each other for about 7 years before yours truly graced them with her presence. To see them, you'd hardly believe that they've been together for longer than they've haven't. I know (partly because they told me so) that its because they took this time to be a couple and to enjoy each other before and during parenthood. Now, they've picked up right where they left off, except with a little more money and a ton more vacation time.

PJ

Let me introduce you to PJ, the only surviving toy from Chino's "childhood". I have no explanation for PJ's longevity. He has defied the odds and survived for almost three years in our house. When Chino just needs to bite something (other than our ankles), PJ is his go-to. He likes to walk around the house and squeak it into the back of our knees. When we turn around and try to grab it, he takes off running, because the chase is part of the game. Nick took this picture with his Blackberry yesterday when he got home from work. This is the face of, "I've been sleeping since 7am, I'm ready to party, but, are you ready for me?"