Good to go!

I just love Jessica Hagy’s Blog, Indexed; so when I found out she had published a postcard book, I ordered it off Amazon right away. Dave and I were paging through it one night after dinner and we found the one below – it fits our travel philosohpy to a "T"!

 

 

 I can’t wait to see Bucharest in a couple of weeks – a former co-worker of Dave’s is going to show us around, so we’ll get the real local experience!!!

My awesome dog trainer!

Thursday I grabbed the camera while Riki, my dog trainer, put Moshe and Indy through their paces. The training is ostensibly for Moshe; since he is apparently going grow up to be a miniature horse I want him to be as well behaved as his big sister. But Indy can’t not participate – she loves "working"!

 

 

Riki works for a company called ערן הסינג מדבר עמ כלבים, which translates to "Eran Hessing Speaks to Dogs" – I’ve been told there is no word for "whisper" in Hebrew. They use a combination of Cesar Millan-type techniques and conventional obedience training to train therapy dogs as well as household pets. Below Moshe, Riki’s Aussie Shepherd puppy, Zoya, and Indy are practicing their down-stay.

 

 

To burn off some steam, we let the two youngsters wrestle a bit – Moshe is clearly enjoying himself and Zoya look so proud to have pinned him!

 

 

Poozie is fascinated by the training sessions, but prefers to observe from on high. 

 

 

Every Day is Earth Day

Dave and I recently decided that a good family activity would be picking up trash at the beach. Friday afternoon we headed out, trashbags in hand and doggies in tow.

 

My pockets are full of dog leashes – I have not developed a beer belly!

We ended up with 3 bags this size completely full. Indy and Moshe were pooped from running around finding stuff for us. There’s still plenty of work to go – we’ll be back out there the next weekend Dave’s in town (too rare lately!) and hopefully other people will decide they like the idea too.

 

Yum!

My cherry tomatoes aren’t fully established yet, so they’re only producing two or three ripe ones per day. If I waited, I might be able to gather enough for a salad, but they’re so good right off the vine, still warm from the sun! The basil is growing nicely, though; so on my way home from the gym today I picked up some baby mozzarella and cherry tomotoes at the market. Here is the resulting salad:

 

The purple bits are the purple basil, and the little whole leaves are the greek basil – the slugs seem to like the regular basil best so I was only able to find one useable leaf from it. I don’t mind if it keeps them away from the fancy stuff! That is not chocolate syrup on the picture below  I found a balsamic vinegar reduction that I like to use on salads like this because it sticks to the wet ingredients better than standard oil and vinegar.

Can anyone tell me what the fruit below is? I was at an Independence Day BBQ last week and was offered one, but no one knew the name in English.

Here’s what it looked like after I bit into it. The two pits inside were like flattish smooth brown marbles (like the ones you use in vases to make flowers stand up straight). Please email me at cowprintrabbit@hotmail.com if this fruit looks familiar to you and you know it by a name other than שסק (shesek).