The past couple of days I’ve given her my coffee mug after I finished it.  And as soon as he gets it, she’s grabbed it with both hands and held it up to her mouth just like she’s seen Mommy do.  It’s hilarious because it covers her entire face. (I totally need to get a photo of this.  I am a failure.)

She started reaching and growling for my coffee mug this morning, and it wasn’t even close to being empty.  So, I thought, I’ll just let her taste what’s in there and nip this little problem in the bud.

(Point of detail: I drink my coffee black.)

I held the mug to her face and she put her tiny hands on either side of it.  We tipped it toward her mouth and she took a little drink of straight up black coffee.

I expected her to grimace and cry.

Instead, she flapped, squealed, and lunged for the mug again.

Plan = Backfired.

There are several problems with getting an all-black dog that we had not considered prior to Angus’ selection.

• You can never be quite certain if he’s looking at you.  Or, really, if that’s even his head; especially if he’s laying down .
• When he’s outside, it’s impossible to tell if he’s going to the bathroom. His legs blend in with his fat belly, and he’s already so low to the ground…there’s really only one way to tell.  We call it the “wetness test”, and that’s probably more than any of you wanted to know.
• We have black rugs in the kitchen.  Angus + black rug = totally invisible.

Angus seems to be settling in pretty well, all things considered.  We’ve had one accident in the past two days (which I feel like is REMARKABLE!) and while Angus is a bit more yappy than Henry was (or at least the rosy version of him that I keep in my memory) I think we’ll be able to train it out of him.  He’s not too bad.

I’ve been trying to snap some photos of the guy but he moves too much.  And his face blends in with his fur (please see my first point above) which makes it very difficult to get a picture of his eyes.

But I used a flash.

We had to drive about an hour away to get to puppyland.  On the drive in I told Joey to steel himself against all the cute puppies, we were going to choose between two that were “on sale” due to being a little bit older than the other puppies.  Unfortunately, once we met the “on sale” puppies, we kinda realized why they were on sale.  And we got a different one.

An all-black buster whom we named Angus.  Yes, after MacGyver.  OH MY GOSH.

Analie loves him.  They are friends forever already, on the drive back he rode on her lap in the carseat for awhile and she gave him gentle pets and squeals and kisses.

This morning I gave him a bath because he smelled a little bit funny.  And he was out of focus.

He was all, I HATE THIS!

I REALLY HATE THIS!

He recovered once I gave him the hair dryer treatment,  and then he and Analie played in the doggy bed for awhile.

Then we started up again with the crying and crying and crying.

POOR SWEET THING!

So we got up and snuggled and watched 20 minutes of the Forsyte Saga on Netflix before I realized she was looking about as drowsy as I felt and put her back down.

This was about 5am.

Unfortunately, by this point, I was so keyed up listening for her to start crying again that I didn’t fall asleep for 30 minutes.  Then I woke up at 6 thinking that I had to go to the bathroom, but it was only a dream.  STUPIDEST DREAM EVER.

Then Joey’s alarm went off at 6:30.  I may or may not have kicked him (quite literally) out of bed.

I am bone tired.  I’ve drunk 6 cups of coffee so far today.  Bring it, caffeine jibblies.  BRING IT.

And guess whose naughty child refused her morning nap?  Oh, that would be MINE.  And it’s extremely inconvenient that she did that since we’re leaving at 12:00 to go see the puppies.

But whatves.  I’m sure she’ll rally when she sees the teeming mass of shih tzu puppies. Who WOULDN’T?!

OK, I have a gratuitous amount of capital letters in this post.  Perhaps it is because I am over-tired.

Hopefully I will have puppy pictures to post later!!!

(And then Joey comes home and there goes the tidiness.)

Tomorrow, we go to test drive some puppies.  There is a chance we’ll be bringing one of them home with us.  To which I say, HOLY COW!!!!!  So in addition to cleaning, I’ve been preparing doggy things: washing poor Henry’s doggy bed, cloth toys and leashes in vinegar, and running his food dishes and squeaky toys through the dishwasher.

It feels weird to see his bed and food dishes back where they used to be.  I keep thinking he’s around here somewhere. Earlier today I actually glanced out the sliding door to see if he was outside.

This new dog is NEVER going outside without a leash on unless we are right on his tail.

Helicopter parent much?

WHY YES I AM.

I’d post pictures of the two possible pups, but the way the lady set up her site it’s impossible to save the images.  So whatevs.  You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to see if we come back with one.

So will I.

In anticipation of what could potentially be insanity, I’ve got dinner all prepped and ready to throw in the crock pot first thing in the morning.  Everything’s done but chopping onions and pressing garlic, which is about as easy as it gets.

(I’m reading what I’m writing and if this isn’t THE MOST DROLL BLOG POST EVER!  I have totally lost my groove.  4,000 apologies.)

Totally unrelated: on Saturday I’m making Peppermint and White Chocolate Macaroons.  I’ll let you know how they go.  Except if that post turns out as boring as this one is, I will fire myself from blogging.

I’m going to quit while I’m behind.  BYE!

GROSS.

I whipped out my package of Boogie Wipes and wiped her tiny face down, much to her annoyance. We put her down for a nap at her normal time, but it only lasted an hour and she woke up feeling VERY sad. She’s cuddled up close with Daddy right now.

So I think we have our first cold and it’s not just teething.

But considering we went nearly 13 months before any kind of sickness, I think that’s a pretty good run!

Poor baby girl.

It’s been a little crazy at my house lately.  So I seem to have forgotten that, WHAT??  I HAVE A BLOG?!?

Analie seems to either have a bad batch of teething today, or she may have finally gotten her first sickness.  She feels a bit warm and has a runny nose so I guess we’ll have to wait and see if a new tooth shows up or if she’s just got a cold.

In other news, we are going go meet a couple of puppies on Friday afternoon.  (Poor Henry.  I just heard him roll over in his grave out there in the backyard when I typed the word “puppies”.  Don’t worry, we still love you, Buddy!)  Do you think we’ll come home with one?!

I guess we’ll have to wait and see…

But in the meantime, why don’t you just have a look at this picture.  I KNOW, IT HAS ALL OF US IN THE SAME PHOTO!

Mini Me and I are about to eat our lunch, and I can guarantee you there will be zero strawberries left on her plate after she’s finished.  She’s bonkers for them.

(Actually I made 24 of them.)

Because yesterday, I unexpectedly came into possession of a bunch of limes and some yogurt and I felt compulsed to bake something.  (Is compulsed a word?  IT IS NOW.)

So I made these muffins up.  And they’re surprisingly pretty good, considering they are an invention of my brain.  The only bummer is they kind of take forever because of all the juicing and the zesting, but if you are in the need of some cathartic baking, or you just happen to have a ton of limes laying around, these muffins could be for you.

Lime Muffins with Raw Lime Sugar (makes 12 well-rounded muffins)

2 cups flour

3/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup greek yogurt

2 large eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup fresh lime zest, divided

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

1/2 cup Sugar in the Raw

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.  In a medium bowl, whip the greek yogurt with a whisk to loosen it up a bit.  Then whisk in the eggs, vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons of lime zest and lime juice.

In a small bowl, rub the additional 2 tablespoons of lime zest and Sugar in the Raw together to form lime sugar.

Fill greased muffin tins halfway full, then sprinkle muffins with a generous pinch of the lime sugar.  (Use it all up!  Don’t be shy!)

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Kids.  Don’t try this at home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U552CwkvBO8&feature=youtube_gdata_player