Monday, August 29, 2011

Walk down memory lane

Wine, cheese, and stories of dad...what a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Thank you Uncle Denny and Aunt Mary for hosting a very enjoyable “walk down memory lane”.


Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Friday, August 12, 2011

Happy 1st Birthday Jude!

Today is a very special day. It's the one year anniversary of the day my wonderful sweet grandson Jude was born. It's hard to believe it's already been a year since the day he brightened our lives. Happy 1st Birthday Jude bug! We LOVE you so much!!!

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow

Monday, August 8, 2011

The way that he sings

Once in a great while Mark and I will go to a show on a "school" night and last Tuesday night that's exactly what we did. Heading to the Loop to see Jim James and his band, My Morning Jacket, play to a sold out show at the Pageant was a real middle of the week treat. This was my first time seeing MMJ in concert and not exactly the way I expected it to be. It was more of a good old fashioned rock show than I had been to in a long time. It felt like 1970-something. Mark and I were easily the oldest ones in the crowd, probably by 20 years or so, but that was okay. I think my "hipster" boyfriend kind of likes it that way and besides, young, old, or middle age, good music is still good music.



Opening up for MMJ was a young group of guys called Delta Spirit. Their first song was my personal favorite “Bushwick Blues”. Another song I wanted very much to hear them play was A.A. Bondy’s wonderful love song “Lover’s Waltz”. Ahh, the lyrics “Your shipwreck eyes, they sing to me as we ride a killer whale across a diamond sea”, I love that. No such luck hearing this song Tuesday night but maybe next time because I sure hope to see this band again.

Delta Spirit opener Bushwick Blues

Delta Spirit – Lover’s Waltz (maybe next time)

Delta Spirit (click to enlarge)
Delta Spirit

***
and now, My Morning Jacket









This video begins with My Morning Jacket taking the stage in the dark.
It ends (when the lights turn purple) with Jim James singing
The Way that He Sings" (and no does quite like him)

Lyrics:
Why's it so strange when they say that the world's movin upwards?
Why's it surreal when my hands feel they cant roll the dice?
Why's it so great just to wake every day, alive and by your side.
It's a mystery I guess, there's lots of things I cant find.
Its not the way that you look, but your move that catches my eye.
Why's it so soft when the cannons unload on the others?
Why're we so loud when we say it wont happen to us?
Why does my mind blow to bits every time they play that song?
It's just the way that he sings,
Not the words that he says, or the band.
I'm in love with this soul, it's a meaning that I understand.

MMJ performing (perfectly) the same song on Letterman

For beautiful pics of Tuesday night's show I wish I could call my own:

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Go Ampersand!

A band called Hope & Therapy and a band called Names & Titles (aka Eric) kicked off their week-long tour at the Muddy Water in Alton Sunday night. Yesterday the two bands (along with super agent Emily) hit the road for Kansas City, Tulsa, Dallas, Austin, Shreveport, Little Rock, and Memphis. Hey Emily, don't forget my souvenir!

http://www.myspace.com/hopeandtherapy
http://www.myspace.com/namesandtitles/music (check this dude out)

Eric really wants that Ampersand
***

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Red Velvet Cake (or Cupcakes)

I love red velvet cake but I do not love dry red velvet cake. A recipe for a tasty and moist RVC is not easy to find but I think I found it. I’ve used this recipe twice so far. The first time I made cupcakes, approximately 30 to 36 small ones. They were delish! Only next time, I’ll make 'em jumbo size because the small ones were just not big enough. The second time I used this recipe I made a cake. Also yummy! This cake was very red, very good, and very very VERY moist! Just the way I like it. After receiving lots of compliments on both my cupcakes and cake I've decided this recipe is definitely a keeper. Try it!

Cake:
2 1/2 c. cake flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 TBSP cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 c. buttermilk
2 TBSP (1 oz.) red food coloring
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. white distilled vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa, and salt into a medium bowl. Key word: sift.

3. Beat eggs, oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until well combined. Add dry ingredients and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.

4. Divide batter evenly between 3 greased and floured 8" round cake pans (if making a two layer cake, there will be extra batter). I used a long rectangular pan for a thicker single layer cake and it worked fine.

5. Bake cakes, rotating halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, 25–30 minutes, or a bit longer for a thicker cake. Key sentence: Do not over bake (a sure way to make a moist cake dry). Let cakes cool 5 minutes, then invert each onto a plate, then invert again onto a cooling rack.

Frosting (also scrumptious by the way):
3/4 cups butter, softened
6 oz cream cheese, softened
1/8 cup light brown sugar, packed
½ tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2 or 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (or more to taste)
1 to 2 tbsp milk (depending on desired consistency)

Be sure the cream cheese and butter are at room temperature. Cream the cream cheese with an electric mixer for 1 minute. Scrape down the bowl and add the butter, beating for 1-2 minutes.

Add the brown sugar, pinch of salt and vanilla extract, and beat until incorporated.

Next, gradually add your powdered sugar and mix on low speed so the sugar doesn’t fly out of the bowl. Add the sugar alternately with the milk until reaching your desired consistency.

Key sentence: Chill for two hours to set frosting. Bring to room temperature before using (after it softens, beat with mixer until smooth). Frosted cake should be stored in a cool area, or refrigerated.

Note:
For cupcakes, the bake time is approximately 15 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean). Again, to keep the moistness, do not over bake.

example of a mean and dry RVC
love the red
oh yeah

Monday, August 1, 2011

Still Lola

When I think back on the night of Friday, July 22nd, the night Lola nearly lost her eye, I want to cringe.

I worry about the dogs in my life the way I worry about family. Maybe that’s crazy but to me they are family. That’s why when Jake went out of town recently I offered to keep his dog Jackson for a few days. I wanted Jackson to be well taken care of and who better to take care of him than his family?  Jackson is a sweet, overly rambunctious lab mix who loves being at my house and especially loves playing with Emily’s dog Lola. They've played many times before and to say I was shocked Friday night at what happened between them is an understatement. What triggered their fight I don’t know and ten days later I still can't believe it happened. Yet it did, right in front of my eyes, and no matter how loud I screamed or jumped up and down in panic I could not make them stop. The fight lasted probably less than a minute and felt like an eternity in slow motion. After it was over I rushed Jackson to the back yard and ran back inside to check on Lola. When I looked down at her face I could not believe what I saw. I saw her left eye outside of its socket. My initial reaction was no, no way; that is not what I see; that CAN NOT be what I see. And then in a flash came horror, sick to the pit of my stomach over the top horror.

I remember the day Emily and I brought 6-week-old Lola home. She was a dynamo, a funny fur ball with eyes. As a pup those eyes were a bit cockeyed but as she grew older they straightened themselves out. The way she looks out of her eyes has always amused me. They give away her every emotion. Sometimes I can tell by looking at her what she’s thinking or what she’s going to do before she does it. She can get nothing past me with those eyes.

Lola’s a Shih Tzu and what's referred to as a brachiocephalic dog. Other dogs like her include the Pug, Boston Terrier, Pekingese, Boxer, Bulldog, dogs with shortened noses (flat faces) and prominent eyes. Their short nose and shallow orbits cause their eyeballs to be in a more prominent position than other breeds.

What happened to Lola’s eye Friday night is called proptosis. It can happen during head trauma when the eyeball (the globe) moves forward out of the orbit causing the eyelids to clamp behind the eyeball itself. This in turn cuts the blood from the eye and causes a lack of oxygen to the retina. It can lead to blindness within minutes. After Lola's injury, Emily and I frantically rushed her to the 24-hour animal emergency center in Collinsville (thank God for centers such as this). After examination the veterinarian on call said she thought she could save the eye by placing it back into the socket and doing a procedure called a third eyelid flap. The third eyelid is the pinkish flap of tissue seen in the inner corner of the eye. This lid sweeps over the eye to clean away debris and protect it from injury. The flap procedure is used to protect the cornea as it heals. The animal is anesthetized and the third eyelid is drawn up over the eye and sutured to the upper lid. It then covers the entire eye allowing it to heal. After the cornea has healed the stitches are removed and the lid returns to its normal position. This is what we hoped for Lola.

But just three days later some of the stitches broke loose and scratched Lola's cornea. Her regular veterinarian, Dr. Fischer, of Bellemore Animal Care decided to remove the remaining stitches in hope they had been in long enough to keep the eye in its socket. Unfortunately this wasn't the case so another procedure called a Tarsorrhaphy was performed on her eye. With this procedure, her outside eyelids were sutured closed with two small stints on the outside of the lid to make the stitches tighter and less likely to pull loose. After a week they would be removed.

We didn't make it a week. In three days one of the stints pulled loose meaning yet another trip to the vet to have it removed. Lola was left with one remaining stint to keep her eye partially closed and in place.

The next day Dr. Fischer removed this final stint and as of now everything is as it should be. Everything except for one thing. From the beginning we were told Lola had a 50/50 chance of keeping her eye and that most likely she would not be able to see with it again. After examination Dr. Fischer sadly confirmed this. Lola is blind in her left eye. Our hope now is that she can at least keep it. She will have to continue wearing the Elizabethan collar she hates for at least two more weeks to protect the eye from further injury. By then, barring complications and a little luck, Lola should be out of the danger zone and we can remove the collar for good.

It was discovered early on that Lola is probably the worst dog patient on the planet. Giving her three medications and applying eye ointment every six hours has been an impossibly difficult feat and no fun at all!!! Emily and I have tried every trick in the book and rarely has the same trick worked twice. Finding various ways and combination of ways to smuggle medication into ice cream (store bought AND Weathervane), orange sherbet, yogurt, peanut butter, bananas, hot dogs (fat free and regular), chicken (cooked chicken breast for Pete’s sake), beef, turkey (from the deli!), all kinds of cheeses…sigh, every kind of food imaginable…it's all been a joke! Lola continues to outsmart us. If there’s a pill within a mile she knows it. And the eye ointment! OMG, forget about it. Difficult obstinate contrary clever Lola.

The past ten days have not been easy. Emily and I have at times been sad, mad, tearful, sleep deprived, and really really irritable. We’ve turned on each other and at times been at our wits end with trying to care for Lola. And then we think about poor Lola and what she herself has been through. That’s the worst. This little dog has experienced more pain than any animal should. She has suffered the most but still her sassy spunky spirited self shines through. She may be blind in one eye. She may ultimately lose that eye. But Lola is the same lovable brat she’s always been. God love her. She's still Lola and nothing changes that.

picture of an obstinate Lola