My heart is in pieces..

To err is human

So I think I got a little ahead of myself.  Somehow I managed to skip Cali's THREE month ampu-versary and sail on to 4.  it came to me as a "Aha" moment at 4AM..those are always the worst.  So a few posts ago, I said she was 4 months post amp when she was actually 3..I just think I was dealing with too many 4s...4th month of the year, 4th chemo..why not make it 4th anniversary!  Sigh....BUT..she will officially be 4 months post amputation on 5/7 which isn't far away. 
Cali doesn't seem too torn up over my mistake.

 

Math was never my strong suit (and i prove that math and science do NOT have to go together).

Off to Greyhounds in Gettysburg!

This little piggie

So we are watching a little piggie this week...Ok, not really.  But she definitely acts and sounds like one.  We've all seen Petey on the blog before..very cute chihuahua mix that loves to eat shoes.  His family recently adopted a 3 year old Boston Terrier and they named her Stella.  I want to say she is cute...but I CAN say she has an AWESOME personality and is super sweet. 

yeah...the eyes are the difficult part.  But rest assured she is healthy and those eyes are working and stable enough.  She can catch you off guard if you are busy and glance at the couch to see this...

I love that Petey is photobombing in the back with his tongue sticking out. But she really is very sweet and loving.  And the best part is that she and Petey get along great and are constantly playing.  It always starts with the standoff..

 And then the attack begins..

 it can look viscous but no one has gotten hurt or ever yelps..

 Stella likes to box.

 Back fire!

What were the greyhounds doing during all this play?  Sleeping or chewing silently on a bully stick.  No one could be bothered with such child play

 Cali had her 4th chemo last week. We have two more to go.  She is doing super!

 Stella has one super cute pose...so I'd be mean if i didn't show her good side.  I guess when you have no nose, this is comfortable. 

So why do we call her a piggie?  Well...besides the obvious

 She constantly snorts and snuffles.  That nose just isn't long enough so there is constant noise.  Especially when she is sniffing something..sounds just like a pig.  And she snores.....loudly and constantly.  not that little greyhounds snore that is cute and 'awwww'' inspiring.  No..this is just a taste.  This is her 'normal' napping snore..the nighttime snores are ground shaking and louder than most humans (and sadly...Jason can snore with hte best of them and even he is amazed!). 




She sleeps in her own room at night, quite happily.  I think she knows she is too loud.

Kristen and I will be at Greyhounds in Gettysburg again this year (dog-less) so let us know if you will be there! We'd love to meet some blogger friends!

The Sun has come out

 The sun has finally come out, the flowers are blooming and I can't breath..this can only mean one thing: Spring has arrived!!!
So allergies be damned...we are spending some quality time soaking up some Vitamin D.
Cali is doing so well.  We are four months post amputation and her lungs are CLEAR!  She is having her 4th chemo hopefully this week and we are going to do two more chemos since she is tolerating it so well.  We really couldn't be more pleased.

 She is happy, playful, spirited and pain free. 
we watching Stella for a few days.  She reminded us of the Park's Stella.  Made us miss the old girl even more.

 Now warmer weather does NOT give you free license to pick up nasty toys that have wintered in the mud and bring them inside.  No matter how cute you are...(this particular toy had a family of earthworms living in it.  gross)

And my contribution to Black and White Sunday.  Dana had a dental last week and did great.  She is 13 so I know it wasn't the ideal time, but it was desperately needed. And she is doing so well, we didn't want her teeth to be her downfall. 

Now..we try to pack in as much fun as possible before it gets to be molten lava hot outside.  :-)

Volt

We don't always do dog stuff..occasionally we run off to a cool restaurant just for fun.  A few weekends ago, Kristen, Gyeong, Jason and I packed up the car, had a trusted friend come stay with the large pack and headed to Frederick, MD to visit Volt.  We watch Top Chef and Bryan Voltagio has been on that show numerous times.
We also have wanted to go to some wineries in Northern Virginia for quite some time.  We always hit the wineries associated with Grapehounds, but the ones that don't allow dogs or that are farther from leesburg get missed.  So we knocked a few off of our 'must hit' list on this trip.  I've also moved away from 'loving' most of the central virginia wines and am really  hoping Northern Virginia saves the local wines for me.
We stopped at Molon Lave first which was quite good.

I wish they were closer. They had fantastic grounds and a huge winery..perfect for some dog events. 
Then we made it to Frederick, MD and headed to Volt.  We had booked the small Table 21 which is right by the kitchen and serves TWENTY ONE courses!  Don't worry..i won't show photos of them all.  He also does molecular gastronomy which combines science and food..two of my favorite things (if only we could have had our greyhounds, I'd have been in heaven!)
It was neat watching the chefs do their thing. Bryan wasn't there, but his sous chef who is always on the show with him was. 

One of the small bites. There were roughly 10 'bite size' courses like this.  This was a parmesean baked potato..doesn't look like it, does it? But it sure did taste like it!!!

Busy bees

Then we had 11 or so 'entree' courses which were small plates.  They were all lovely too! This was Lobster with pumpkin kimchee with pomegranite and taragon.

 THis is my favorite 'chef' photo.  It was really neat being in all the action. We also did a wine pairing with it and had our own server who was very friendly and helpful

 After a few courses of desserts, they presented us with a box of handmade truffles and our 'diploma' which had all the courses we'd eaten and all the wines we had sampled. 

 The next morning we slowly zig zagged our way down and hit a few more wineries. One that had been on our list for a long time was Linden Winery.  We did their 'special' cellar tasting of older wines in their cellar. That was good.

 They had a wonderful deck with a great view. The weather was awesome.

And then we did lunch...the best way we know how. 

 After a few hours there, we moved down the road to Narmada winery which is owned by an Indian family. They have great wines and serve Indian food at the winery.  We had the lady do a group shot..it isnt' a great shot b/c i forgot to change my camera but oh well..you get the idea.

Then we have second lunch at Narmada with red wine and various Indian delicacies.  I guess I forgot to photograph that meal..it was quite tasty. 

 So it was a fun 24 hours of eating, drinking and enjoying life.