Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, all!  Aren't these little owl cupcakes cute? 

Have a safe evening out there!

Who says Easter Eggs are just for kids?

So, who says Easter Eggs are just for kids?  Here I am, walking proof that there is plenty of fun to be had for a twenty-something adult with colored eggs.  Oh yeah.  This being my first time ever dying easter eggs, I went with a pretty range of cool greens and blues.  I think my favorite is the robin's egg blue....it reminds me of a special little box from Tiffany's (hint to the husband :)

Happy Easter everyone!

Brief Goodbye...and Black Bean Tacos

Remember when I mentioned that we are moving again? Yep! We are moving into our new house later this week, and seriously looking forward to experiencing all the joys (and horrors) of home ownership once more. And, I'm excited about a more spacious kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed this apartment and it's closet-sized but nicely-outfitted tidy kitchen. However, I will NOT miss the over-sensitive smoke alarm that has caused our blood pressure to rise on many occasions. Still, this has been a terrific adventure so far, and we are so excited to move into our new home.

With the upcoming move, we have been making an effort to empty out the fridge and pantry of half-finished jars and bags of this and that. One very fruitful result of the purge was these wonderful Black Bean and Fish Tacos that we enjoyed for dinner last night. And they were so yummy! And so simple, you don't even need a recipe....as you can see for yourself :)

Black Bean and Fish Tacos

When you see me next I will be in my new kitchen. So, a brief goodbye, until next time!

Fun Thanksgiving Treats

I have some time on my hands this Thanksgiving with it being just the two of us. So, I thought I'd make a few treats to share with coworkers, neighbors and such folks. I mean, why wait until Christmas, right? :) I saw a photo for these pretty edible acorns online a little while ago and thought they were too cute to pass up! And the pilgrim hats, well, what can I say. We just so happened to have the ingredients on hand.

Both of these ended up being so easy and fun to make. Perfect for sharing, and almost too cute to eat. I do hope you enjoy these quick treats:

Edible Acorns

You will need:

Donut holes
Toffee bits
Bits of Pretzels
Some kind of "edible glue" (peanut butter, nutella, or frosting :)

Spread some of the "edible glue" on the top one-third of each doughnut hole. (By the way, is it "doughnut" or "donut"? I can never tell.) Then dip the gluey top in toffee bits. Lastly add a bit of pretzel for the stem. Store in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

You will need:

Nilla wafers
Mini Reese's peanut butter cups
White decorator gel
Yellow decorator gel

Unwrap the mini peanut butter cups and place bottom up on each nilla wafer. (Use some of the decorator gel as glue.) Then, with white decorator gel, pipe a band around the base of each mini peanut butter cup and then make the hat buckles with yellow decorator gel. Enjoy!

Lemon Curd Tartlets

I am only slightly ashamed to say that a television show was the inspiration behind my making this dessert. Actually, one episode of a TV show. We are huge fans of the 90s sitcom "Friends". We have watched every episode multiple times, and the show never ceases to keep us laughing for hours on end. And, of course, this is completely useless information for normal people, but we would probably beat a lot of you at any sort of "Friends" trivia game (anyone challenge? :)  Anyway!  In a particularly classic episode guest starring Jon Lovitz, his character (sky high at the time, mind you) hears the word "tartlets", and repeats it a few times, in wonder, then says "...word has lost all meaning." Of course, this sends us into a tizzy of laughter every single time we watch that episode (or sometimes even by just remembering it). In honor of that episode, I am actually doing something I'm not particularly fond of so don't do that often - baking - "tartlets".

All anecdotes aside, these are pretty darn good. Very easy to make these using a mini muffin pan. My tartlet pastry is a bit sweet, but not too sweet. And the lemon curd has just got that perfectly lovely lemony taste. I only make this about once a year because I really cannot resist eating them all. You should try it too :)

Lemon Curd Tartlets

You will need:

For the tart shells-
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

For lemon curd-
3 large lemons, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
4 eggs, room temperature
pinch of salt

Tart shells:
Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter and sugar together until just combined. Add vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add to the butter-sugar mixture. Mix until the dough starts to come together. Remove to a floured surface and shape into a ball. Then break off marble-sized pieces of dough, roll between palms, flatten into discs and press each into the cups of a mini muffin pan, just until they come up the sides a bit. You should have enough dough to make about 32-36 tartlets. Press a fork into the base of each tartlet one or two times so steam can escape and they don't puff up. Bake the tartlets in a preheated 350 F oven for 15 minutes. If the edges start to brown too quickly cover the mini muffin pan with a sheet of aluminum foil in the last 2-3 minutes of baking. Cool the pan completely before removing tartlets. Use a finger to push them out, they should come out very easily.

For the lemon curd:
Remove the lemon zest with a vegetable peeler or micro plane grater, remember to avoid the white pith (will give a bitter taste). Then, juice the lemons so you get enough to make 1/2 cup of juice and set this  aside. In a food processor, mix the lemon zest and sugar until combined. The zest should be finely minced. Then, in a bowl, cream together the butter with the sugar-lemon zest mixture. Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by reserved the lemon juice and salt. Mix for a minute or two, until well combined.
Then pour this into a saucepan and cook over a very low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. This may take about 12-15 minutes depending on the heat. Lemon curd normally thickens at a temperature just below a simmer. Remove from heat.

Fill the tartlet shells with the warm lemon curd and leave it alone (if you can resist the urge to try one) until it sets at room temperature. Will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for several days. This freezes pretty well too, so it's a good make ahead dessert. Enjoy!

Note: you can alternatively make the tart shell using a regular tart pan with a false bottom. It will take a bit less time, but then you'd have to cut the whole tart into wedges to make servings and that's just so boring, no?  :)

getting upset over little things

It has been a day filled with upsets. Tiny things causing serious damage to my mood and general productivity for the day. There has been something irritating happening pretty steadily, just about every hour. The most upsetting of all was that one of my favorite bracelets broke. It's a cheapie but holds fond memories for me since my mom bought it for me at one of those kitschy $1 shops on a fun-filled day trip to Wisconsin Dells last year. Actually, they are three separate bracelets that I strung together and today all of a sudden it came apart…just like you see in those movies where the string breaks and all the beads fall on the floor…

Why is it that the littlest things make me the most upset and end up getting so much of my attention? Actually, it makes sense when I think about it, since it's the little things that sometimes need the most patience. And those who know me well know that I completely lack patience. Lord, give me patience to finish this week!

Curried Crab and memories...

We went out on a date yesterday, to a Malay restaurant, and I ordered Curried Crab. Not only was it a fun date with my husband (they usually are!), but the crab was totally delicious too, in all of its 2lb glory. It brought back so many memories from my childhood of my mom's crab curries. I remember waking up early in the morning and going to the fish market with her, picking out the liveliest, crawliest, and freshest crabs! Caught that morning, and still wet from the sea. Best of all was the smell of mom's crab curry filling up the entire house. Such a treat!

This crab was impressively larger than its counterparts from my childhood....and it tasted pretty good, but I think I really prefer the memories.

I'm back! And here's a "Welcome to Washington" recipe, too: Seared Sea Scallops with Satsuma Salsa

I am so happy to report that we are settling into life in Washington, and having a whole lot of fun exploring all that the area has to offer. Our new apartment is tiny, and we are very cozy in it with our two pups, but, the positive thing is that the location is terrific and the kitchen is fully equipped with a dishwasher. Yes, a DISHWASHER!!!! I didn't have one in the beautiful gourmet kitchen that I left behind so I will fully relish not having to wash and dry dishes by hand for at least the next ten months.

Now that my kitchen goods are about seventy-five percent unpacked, I decided that I would cook a nice meal for us to enjoy Friday night. It's been several weeks since I've really "cooked" anything and I just haven't felt like myself. So, the dish to inaugurate several things - our move to the Northwest, my new job, our new cozy little abode, new opportunities, and new adventures - Seared Sea Scallops with Satsuma Salsa. (Try saying that five times really fast.) But, really, I couldn't think of anything better to represent our (meaning my) excitement at the thought of having much better access to fresh seafood than we did in our little corner of Wisconsin - since we don't go fishing. And, who wouldn't like the idea of savoring short-lived spring goodies such as the Satsuma variety of mandarin orange? My husband picked me up a few - available aplenty in grocery stores here this week - since I had a bad cold and needed that C. Anyway, we thought it was really delicious. This is a really simple recipe for seared scallops and I urge you to give it a try.

Seared Sea Scallops with Satsuma Salsa

Serves 2

1 small shallot, minced

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

1 teaspoon satsuma orange (or tangerine) zest

1 tablespoon fresh satsuma orange (or tangerine) juice

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper, divided

1 satsuma orange (or tangerines) peeled and sectioned

8 fresh sea scallops, patted thoroughly dry.

Whisk together shallots, parsley, orange zest, juice, oil, vinegar, and half the salt and pepper in a small bowl. Add sectioned oranges, and set aside.

Heat a medium sized skillet over medium-heat, and add just enough oil to coat the bottom. Add scallops to skillet and cook until it gets that nice golden brown sear, about 2 minutes on each side, sprinkling with remaining salt and pepper when turning over. Do not overcook - or they will be rubbery and awful! Serve immediately, topped with the satsuma salsa. We ate this as an entree served over watercress and hot cooked jasmine rice, but it would make a terrific appetizer on its own too. Enjoy!

Hiatus

I know many of you are wondering why I haven't posted anything lately. There's a very good reason why...

Ramble On and its owners are moving! We are in the process of selling our house, packing up our belongings, and relocating to Washington state for new jobs and new adventures. I will get back to blogging regularly once we have settled in to our next abode. I have packed away most of my kitchen stuff already, but will try to squeeze out one more post before I move, within the next couple of days. I will miss the beautiful kitchen that has been my "foodie home" for the past four years, but look forward to discovering and settling into a new home and kitchen and a continued culinary journey. Thank you for reading! Until later.

Oranges, picked fresh off a tree...and Girl Scout Cookies

Two really random things happened today. They may have been random, but they sure made me smile.

First, a guy came in to my work place today to pick up something - this was in the middle of a particularly busy morning. While I rushed about trying to get his stuff ready, he patiently waited off to the side and then asked me "do you like grapefruits or oranges?" I was a bit flustered, and yet a bit curious to see where this would go, so I answered "oranges". He then asked, "what kind?" I answered "those little Florida tangerines." He said "I'll just go see if I have any of those." He immediately ran out to his car, and disappeared under the front seat. He came back in three minutes later with these two gorgeous oranges.

He proudly announced as he handed them to me "I just picked them this morning!" Leaves and stems still on and everything. What a sweet gesture.

The second event happened this evening when we were on our way to the hospital to visit Ryan's mom in recovery from a minor surgery. We stopped to get flowers, and right outside the flower shop - sheer feet inside the doors keeping out -6 F temperature - a brave little Girl Scout troop had set up a booth and was selling cookies.

Oh my. Girl Scout Cookies. Probably the most dangerous of all impulse buys. 

We came away with three boxes. Enough said.

Oatmeal...My Journey From "Eww" To "Yum!"

When I was a little girl, I remember oatmeal ("oats", or "porridge", as it was commonly referred to in India) being the most unpleasant food that one could conceive of eating - to be quite frank - an utterly disgusting breakfast that only old people ate. I turned my nose up at it. The odd thing is, I'm quite sure that as a child I only tasted it once....and I don't even have much memory of that experience, it had to be before I was six or seven years old.

The first time I ate oatmeal as an adult was three years ago, almost exactly to this day. My husband and I were getting ready for our first trip to India as a married couple, and I picked up a whole lot of Quaker instant oatmeal to take to my grandfather, who loves this stuff. While we shopped for it, my husband asked me why we never had oatmeal at home. So I gave him that "are you nuts?" look (wives, you know what I mean), and he immediately tells me that this oatmeal is actually really good, and probably nothing like the oatmeal I remembered from my childhood, and therefore had to at least try it. I'll try ANYTHING, at least once (as an adult, anyway), so I did. And, boy, was I mistaken as a kid. This was amazing! The instant stuff, apples and cinnamon or something like that. But still, delicious!

Oatmeal has become this special thing, a food that may be common to some but will always make me think of that stubborn little kid I used to be, my grandfather, and my husband...and how all these characters and memories have woven this beautiful collective experience for me. Of course, now my taste in oatmeal is entirely more "mature" and I'm proud to say that I have since developed a passable comfort-level in cooking the old fashioned, stove top variety (from scratch, mind you!) and look forward to a hearty bowl of oatmeal for breakfast fairly often. The recipe that follows is one of my most cherished ways to eat it. I would love to hear about your favorite ways to prepare and eat oatmeal!

Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal

with cinnamon and brown sugar

You will need:

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats

2 1/4 cups milk

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon dried cranberries

1 tablespoon chopped walnuts

Serves 2.

Warm the milk in a saucepan on medium heat until bubbles form around the edges. Add the oats and salt, and let cook on medium-low heat for seven to eight minutes, stirring constantly. Around the two minutes remaining mark, stir in cinnamon and brown sugar, and mix well to combine. Add cranberries and walnuts, remove from heat, and let sit covered for 1 minute. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Three Alarm Clocks

Not long ago, a friend of mine blogged about how many phone numbers was too many. It inspired me to think about why we have three alarm clocks in the bedroom to wake us up every morning. Correction: why we NEED three alarm clocks to wake us up every morning. And, they are all set to go off within three minutes of each other, thereby minimizing the length of snooze-time. Here are the three:

1. A clock radio (the classic)
2. My cell phone (battery back-up, in case the electricity goes out...duh!) and
3. Ryan's cell phone (second battery back-up).

Let me confess that in this next paragraph I risk losing respect in the eyes of several of my country-music-loving friends. But I'll chance it.

The clock radio
The clock radio is my nine-year old one, and it's pretty basic. It is set to wake us up to a country music station. Those who know me well will understand why. For those who do not, let me elaborate...
I simply don't like it. I'm sure country music has many fine qualities (although, at this moment not one comes to mind). Songs written solely about the undesirable intricacies of family relationships, or the disappointment of unrequited love are neither motivating NOR energizing at any other time of day than 4:50 in the morning. Thanks but no thanks. BUT - at 4:50 in the morning - it meets the objective of getting me out of bed just so I can turn it off and not have to listen to it anymore.

My cell phone
Your pretty basic but annoyingly loud alarm jingle that not only gives me the strength to rise out of the warmth of my bed, but also makes me want to pick up that jingling cell phone and hurl it through the window, hoping it will land somewhere in the two feet of snow in the front yard and hope that it stays there forever.
 
Ryan's cell phone
When Ryan's cell phone goes off it's great. I get to kick him in the shin because the jingle that he sets it to induces just that kind of behavior in a person. And it is twice as loud as mine.
 
And there you have it, folks. The story of our three alarm clocks, for your amusement.

My First Grey Hair

Picture this. I wake up last Saturday to a beautiful sunrise outside the bedroom window, Ryan is next to me, the dogs are whining to be let outside, everything is normal. I wash my face wash in cold water, brush my teeth, and race off to the gym. I take my jacket off, and adjust my headband in the locker room. And there she was...

In the dull, unflattering, fluorescent light, perched atop my head, sticking out from under my headband, and staring back at me in the mirror. My first grey hair. Twice as thick as the rest of my hair, and twice as straight as the rest of my hair. I knew it would happen someday. But, at the tender age of twenty-six???

I had two choices. Fight or flight. Panic was slowly starting to set in. But after my workout (great timing to relieve some stress), and a mild meltdown at home in front of Ryan, I decided to embrace it. Grey hair. Big deal. I knew a girl in school who had at least ten or fifteen grey hairs and she was only sixteen years old. I could be facing much worse things, I suppose. And, plenty of people have reminded me that it has nothing to do with age.

So, here's Marie.

Yes, I named it. It is part of the embracing strategy. And anyone who has ever watched Everybody Loves Raymond will  know why I picked that name. Well, Marie and I are off to begin our day now.

Not Sleeping

I have learned over the years that when it is 2 am and you can't sleep, it can quickly go one of two ways:
a) you can toss and turn in bed and complain for the next several hours thinking about all the sleep you are losing, or
b) you can immerse yourself in a flurry of productivity - of course, as quietly as you can while the rest of the household still sleeps - and zip through some of those things on the to-do list.

As unhappy as I was about the fact that I was awake at 2 am, I am happy to say that I adopted the latter choice. I started by sending off a few emails. Of course, when I went back and read some of those emails later I realized that sending emails past midnight is inherently not a good idea - for me anyway. Does anyone else lose the ability to type and put words together past a certain hour? Another unfortunate thing that happened to my language skills: you lose all ability to stop spell-check from automatically correcting things like "the fact that" to "taffeta" and "consider" to "xomside" (what the heck does that mean anyway??)

So, confronted with evidence like that, I can't help but consider the unthinkable...is caffeine past a certain hour just not a good idea anymore? Yikes.

Kitten in the back yard

I woke up this morning to our two dogs whining, barking, and going absolutely nuts! Very out of character for them. In the background I could hear doors opening and closing, and Ryan walking around downstairs at a fairly quick pace. I knew something was up. I was just thinking about getting out of bed when I saw Ryan come up the stairs...and I had started to say "What's all the commotion?" when I saw the tiniest kitten I have ever seen cradled in his arms. I was only about ten seconds away from saying "Can we keep it?", but even I know the dangers of a kitten that little being in a house this small, with two dogs already occupying it. And we didn't even know if it belonged to anyone in the neighborhood. Ryan had just found it sitting next to the maple tree in our backyard this morning. So, we talked to some of our neighbors and it doesn't belong to anyone around here. One woman thought it looked too small even to be weaned yet. I wonder where the rest of its litter and mother are! Oh well.  So, the kitten is currently at the Vet's, they are holding it until this afternoon, and then I will go collect it and make a sad little trip to the humane society. I did get a few pictures to preserve the memories since, unfortunately, we can't hold onto this little one.

P.S.: For those of you who have never experienced waking up to the sight of a tiny little kitten, it is really something special!

The brave little gerbera daisy

I got a potted plant this week. So, yes, I am experimenting with yet another house plant. This is a sad paradox, since I am still blocking out memories of the house plant disaster of 2006. (I had purchased an orchid plant at an auction in my workplace, and it did not bloom like the guy swore it would. In fact, it died a quick and quite an unnatural death. Despite my efforts to revive it, even with sound advice from horticultural experts on the internet, I succumbed to the idea that I should probably never have a house plant, ever again.)

But here’s the thing. This new plant is a gorgeous gerbera daisy – that my husband brought to me at work, for no occasion whatsoever, but to simply make me feel appreciated and loved, so HA! – and it came with detailed instructions on how to care for it. And, it has survived three whole days! I even watered it twice. It has two flowers, one already in bloom. The other one was just a bud a couple of days ago and looks like it is slowly blooming. Time will tell.

It has been an unrelenting couple of weeks, which caused a bit of stress. Most of it was due to work (promotion) or self-inflicted (getting a second dog). So, yes, we did get a second dog.
Johnny B. Goode is a 15-lb runt of a dog, we adopted him on the 4th of July from a nice family who was moving and couldn’t take him. He’s a rat terrier-beagle mix, and has the sweetest personality I have ever seen in a dog. In other words, he’s a spoilt baby and loves to cuddle. He spent the first week with us doing everything he could to hide from Lola who, by comparison, is a monster with abundant energy and a huge tongue that always seems to want to lick him. The two are getting along fine now.
On the other side of the stress-causing issues, I’m excited about the changes at work and stepping up the corporate ladder. But, if the past week or so is any indication of the times to come, I am not looking forward to always being exhausted by the end of each day. But enough of that.
The weekend was fun! Saturday was mellow. Ryan and I vegged all morning as it was pouring rain outside. It cleared up by noon though, and very quickly became a beautiful sunny day! Funny weather. So, we went on a bike ride and our buddy Ben came with us. It was a fun, easy ride, to the bench and back. Then Ben and Amanda and the girls went to dinner with us at Café Four, which was very nice.
Yesterday I had media duty at church, and afterwards Ryan very kindly offered to come and help me clean my desk at work so I would be ready for the move to my new area. It took us two hours, and now my personal belongings are all in boxes, and my desk smells Lemony-fresh.
We met the nicest girl at church yesterday! Stephanie is interning in the area this summer and was looking for things to do and see. She mentioned having a bike, so we invited her to come with us on our bike ride. So after the desk cleaning, we changed, got our bikes and met the girl, and set off on the bike trail. We rode to Ridgeway and back, an almost no-incline 20.3 miles. It was beautiful weather, and the views were spectacular! We discovered that the wild raspberry bushes were starting to ripen, we picked a few and ate them. They were good! Next time we are definitely going with an extra water-bottle to fill it up with raspberries.
In Ben’s ongoing pursuit to “culture me” with the “classic” 80s movies that I missed out on growing up, he and Amanda invited us over last night to a grill-out dinner, and to watch Short Circuit. We invited Stephanie to go with us. We took a bottle of Sauvignon-Blanc that we had chilling in the fridge, and it went perfectly with all the good food – turkey burgers Ben and Amanda made, the fresh romaine lettuce and strawberries and stuff from Amanda’s garden, the new red potatoes I bought at the Dodgeville farmer’s market yesterday, and the veggie kababs Stephanie brought. We watched Hannah play in her plastic fort, it was hilarious. And then we watched the movie. Or at least, we started to, but half of us were falling asleep by 9 p.m. So we decided to finish it another day and call it a night. I was asleep as soon as I got home and my head hit the pillow.

a waste of 75 cents

I made the mistake of getting a coke today. Not even diet coke, but the real, sugary kind. I don’t even like coke. When I do drink it, it’s usually diet coke. Not because I like the taste of diet coke better, but simply because it’s marginally healthier than the sugary regular one.

I know exactly why I got the coke too. I was sitting in a meeting at work, and there was a guy right in front of me with a glass bottle coca-cola. The real thing, made with real cane sugar and not high-fructose corn syrup, the kind that was all the rage half a century ago. (Apparently, you can still get these glass bottle beauties at Sam’s Club now and they are made with real cane sugar, not high fructose corn syrup – yuck).



That glass bottle coke looked so good.



I continue to underestimate the power of advertising, and my own will-power. No doubt it was the combination of the those very things, and the stress of the afternoon meeting, that made me go straight to the awful vending machine and push the damn button to get a stupid coke in a can, only to be rewarded by the consequences of my rash behavior – a stomach ache, a caffeine headache, and the grim reality that I will never get my 75 cents back.



I make myself sick.

new life

It snowed yesterday. What an unexpected change from the balmy weather we had on Saturday. The good news is that the snow didn't accumulate much! The bad news is that we most likely will not have warm weather anytime within the next ten days. Ugh. The grass looks extraordinarily green underneath the dusting of snow. There is something so refreshingly positive in the smell of new spring grass, and the sounds of the birds chirping early in the morning, welcoming back the warm weather with the rest of us. Everything grows anew. A blessed turn of season. A fresh start.
Speaking of new life, but on a completely different note, everyone we know seems to be getting pregnant and having babies. In fact most people our age we know, or have come to know in the past two years of living here, have had children within the past year or have become pregnant within the past year. We are not ready for children but the feeling of being the odd ones out, the excluded childless couple, is unfortunately strong.
A beloved co-worker turned in her two week notice today. Here's to your new life, to you, Karen.

puppies

Yesterday, we walked the four blocks to Derik and Linda Cree's house to see eight two-day old border collie puppies that were born to their dog, Lily, a playmate of Lola's. We got to the house, released Lola into their backyard to play with Arlo, the other (male) dog of the household, and we went inside to see the pups. And there they were. Eight little black and white creatures, no bigger than hamsters, all whimpering, huddled into a corner of the wooden box that Derik built specifically for the birthing.
I gently picked one up, and found that he fit so comfortably in the palm of my hand. I held him for a few minutes, and then put him back down into the box, watching as he snaked his way to his mother, led by his nose...so far his best functioning sense. I had never seen puppies so young before. I had not expected them to be so small and fragile. Their eyes and ears had not yet opened. I had to wonder if they could hear their own whimpers and cries. All eight of them tumbled over each other to get to their mother, desperate for her attention, nourishment, and love. Lily still looked so tired from the ordeal of releasing eight of these tiny ones into the world. Every few minutes she would lift her head to lick her babies and snuggle them closer to her.
Of course, after sitting with the puppies for about an hour, I spent the next couple of hours trying to forget about them and the idea that we should bring one home in eight weeks. As adorable as they are, we should hold out. Our smaller, more appropriate, Netboot or Magellan will come along soon enough.