skinned knee

puppy took a tumble last week playing with finn at work. he got his first skinned knee. :( don't worry though, he's still running around and being a puppy all the same!

TGIF!

updates: foster is now lifting his leg to pee about 50% of the time! more often each day! he's becoming a grown up puppy. :((
the cap for dave's truck is in and will be installed tomorrow. so puppy will be back to his usual routine of going to work again with daddy but now he'll be sitting in the less destructible bed of the truck. need to get him another, less luxurious, doggie bed for that space this weekend.
in other news......summer race season is upon us! i ran the jp morgan corporate challenge in the lovely back bay of boston last night with about 25 of my co-workers. the race was WAY too crowded (read:12,000 people on comm ave) but we had a good time anyways. it was a 3.5 mile loop from the commons down to kenmore square and back on comm ave.
next month the weston 5 miler and in august the 7 mile falmouth road race! hopefully the weather stays nice so i can keep training!
have a good weekend everyone!!

bad dog

with less than 1 week to go before the cap for dave's truck comes in and foster moves to the very spacious bed of the tacoma, this happened on tuesday....not sure why foster is being so destructive lately. dave played fetch with him yesterday morning & took him for a walk at lunch with his doggie work friends. he has chew toys in the truck with him.
could it be b/c he's not fixed yet? are dogs that aren't neutered more destructive?
or is it just that he's an adolescent dog and these things happen?
what do you think fellow dog owners? please weigh-in in the comments section for me!
hopefully dave can forgive this puppy sometime soon....

strawberry peanut butter bars

i bought some fresh native massachusetts strawberries on my way home yesterday and decided to try making a dessert with them. i recently got some good recipes from a few of my mags so i tried one out last night.

courtesy of better homes & gardens (laugh it up, i don't care! i like my suburban homemaker mag):

fresh strawberry bars (i renamed it strawberry pb bars)

Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup strawberry jam
4 cups small whole strawberries, halved or quartered

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 13x9x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending foil beyond the edges. Set aside.
2. In large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter on medium to high for 30 seconds. Beat in sugars, baking powder, and salt until combined. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with mixer. Stir in remaining flour.
3. Spread dough in prepared pan. Bake 25 minutes or until top is lightly browned and toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.
4. Cool completely on rack. Remove from pan by lifting foil. Spread jam and top with berries. Cut into bars. Serve at once or refrigerate up to 6 hours. Makes 24 bars
Make Ahead: Wrap the peanut butter base in foil; store at room temperature up to 24 hours. Before serving, top with jam and berries. Or freeze the peanut butter base in a freezer container up to 3 months.

i ate one bar last night to be sure it was edible (verdict: yummy!!) before bringing the rest in to work today. i sent an email out and put it out by my desk. 15 minutes later the whole thing was gone! i didn't even get another bite! apparently it was good! the AZ guinea pigs give it rave reviews! i'll be putting this one in my repertoire for summer bbqs!
enjoy!!

rainy friday

puppy & i are headed up to maine today to visit with family! daddy will be following tonight. i'm sure we'll have lots of adventures with my sis and nephews to share next week!
here's a few random pics from the last few weeks.....have a great weekend everybody!

garden update

various people have asked me about my garden lately so i thought i would post an update. besides the cuke dying a few weeks back my garden has been making great progress! i planted a bunch of bean seeds where the cuke was and lo and behold they started popping up the other day! bottom right corner below. if all these plants survive we are going to have beans out the wazoo people! hope you all like bean salad! you can see the peppers and herbs are doing pretty good too. still debating if i should get another cuke plant and squeeze it in there somewhere. my tomatoes and tomatillo are growing up big and strong too! in particular the hazel mae heirloom tomato i got is huge! (front and center below) the tomatillo seems to be getting wider but not much taller. but everyone has blossoms! little steps, little steps.

visiting another bear cub

i went down to CT last sunday to visit my good friend marisa and her baby girl norah! (or norah bear as many like to call her) norah's about 8 months old now and is such a sweet baby (and soooo cute!). seriously, this girl did not whine, cry or fuss a single second while i was there. maybe it's because i'm such a calming presence. :)
anyhoo we had a lovely time catching up and hanging out with the bear and the girl (murphy the beagle). here's a few pics from the visit! thanks for a fun day ladies!!

the hose

foster loves the hose! on hot summer days (who am i kidding it's def not summertime here yet) we usually give him a good spray. he frequently tries to drink the water as it's being sprayed on him. it's pretty funny actually! last saturday the sun finally came out of hiding and foster got a good washing along with daddy's truck! i'm getting this dog a kiddie pool before this summer is over. just gotta trick dave into letting me borrow his truck for a trip to walmart.

the view from where i sit

summertime rocks! happy friday everyone!!

berries and baron!

yesterday after work we ran over to the lovely shelburne farm in stow, ma to pick some strawberries! we went there last year during the fall to pick apples when foster was a wee pup and it was lots of fun. we met my good pal mali and her golden baron there. unfortunately doggies aren't allowed in the strawberry patches (for many good reasons!) so foster and baron hung out in the car while mali and i grabbed some berries. thankfully they didn't tear my backseat apart. however there is an extraordinary amount of fur back there now! after picking we stopped over mali's house for some puppy playtime. these guys haven't seen eachother in a few months and they needed to catch up! slobbering, jumping an biting ensued. mom i simply must have one these! foster was snoozing away after a fun visit!

who knew shoes were so tasty?!

well he's finally gone and done it. as of yesterday morning foster is a BAD DOG!!!
first a little background. our usual morning routine goes something like this.......
6-6:15am-meg gets up, lets puppy out, feeds him, then goes back upstairs to get ready for work. puppy usually follows to say good morning to daddy then mills around up or downstairs.
7am-meg leaves to go to work, dave still sleeping, foster left to his own devices in the house.
7:30am-alarm goes off, dave hits snooze
7:40am-dave hits snooze
7:50am-dave hits....well you get the idea. i think he's up by 8am but who knows. then he gets ready and takes the pup with him to work.
well tuesday morning when the alarm went off and DH hit snooze he heard something coming from downstairs.......munch, munch, munch. uh-0h he thought, this can't be good.
dave went downstairs and discovered this....foster has officially destroyed my first pair of footwear! (not to mention a perfectly good roll of tape!) to his credit, he couldn't have picked a better pair. although i wear my teva flips almost everyday, they're only $20, easily replaceable and like 2-3 yrs old so it was time for a new pair anyways. still....what did they every do to you foster?!?!
unfortunately this is not the first pair of footwear he has toyed with in our house. over the winter he ate the leather laces off of dave's wicked good slippers. still perfectly wearable so no harm done there. but about a week or two ago he got into one of hubbys pairs of keen sandals. this time going for the laces again. apparently he has a thing for laces. or had a thing for them. then he encountered my flips and......no laces!! what's a puppy to do?? well you know the outcome-completely destroyed flips! his skills seem to be escalating....he thirst for shoes grows......he's like a wild animal......this is the face of a serial killer of shoes......he's absolutely adorable....and i'm totally gonna stay mad at him for another five minutes, i swear. god help me if he gets into my wicked good slippers tho.

phenway!

last sunday marked the triumphant return of a phish summer tour. and we kicked it off in style by hitting up the opening show at where else? fenway park!
thanks to our good friend dave, who seems to be 'the chosen one' as far as getting lottery tix goes, 5 of us all went to the show together. and what a show it was! the band sounded amazing! and for me in particular, it was really cool to see fenway in a different light. no one was seated in the bleachers, the monster seats or on the infield, otherwise the place was packed! i finally got to see ted's red chair in the bleachers! all the big overhead lights were off.....it was really weird. but definitely a good time.
favorite pics for the night:
dave-free or destiny unbound
meg-character zero
here's a few pics courtesy of my friend dave and hubby's cell.
pregame at an tua nua (one of my old fav haunts as an early 20-something) the crew the view from dave's seat the view from ours the band started off the show by signing the national anthem from the infield grass! rainbowfenway in the dark can't wait to see the band again this weekend at great woods!!

a visit from finn!

i went out for some margaritas after work last friday with a couple of my girlfriends from AZ. when i got home there was a surprise waiting for me.....finn was over for a visit! finn is one of foster's work buddies who he hasn't seen much of the last 2 months. now that foster's mange is just about all cleared up finn and his owner john, dave's co-worker, came by after they all had some happy hour of their own! finn is an adorable german shorthaired pointer who is about 7 months old.
he and foster had quite alot of fun running around the house stealing raw hide bones from eachother. finn made quick work of the 3-4 pieces of raw hide that were laying about the house! foster didn't seem too fazed.here's a few more pics of the fun... getting some loves from uncle dave before saying goodnight. thanks for a fun visit guys!