Today was beautiful so we took Riesling out to lunch with us on the patio at the Flying Saucer in Raleigh. It was the first time we’ve tried taking her to a restaurant and it went remarkably well. Thankfully the waitress has a schnoodle so she understands barky little dogs… and Riesling calmed down after a little bit.

BTW, their beer list is really nice, and we had a tasty lunch.

Picked up some new garden additions @ the farmer’s market

Two years ago this week, we moved into our very first home. At last we had a yard, a garage, and could play music as loud as we wanted. We also got three wallpapered bathooms (no more!), old kitchen appliances, and a strangely wired circuit box. Fortunately, the good greatly outweighs the bad.

Let’s see… I’ve redone all three bathrooms, the laundry room, and both bedrooms. Eric and I repainted the office and living room, powerwashed (and stained) the deck, and built the first of two raised beds in our backyard (second raised bed coming soon!) We’ve also replaced both the fridge and the stove.

Wow, I’m exhausted just reading that list!

Eric got a new (huge!) cherry wood desk for the office, I hung curtains and a new light fixture in the spare bedroom, and we put up a new ceiling fan in the living room on Sunday… so we’ll get photos of those additions up soon.

It’s been almost a year since we updated our waterfall pages, so it was time to get back outdoors. We had fantastic (if not a little warm for hiking) weather this past weekend, so off to the western Carolina mountains we went. We hit a waterfall in a small park just north of Valdese first, then headed south to South Mountains State Park. This was Riesling’s first outdoor adventure and she took to the rocks and uneven terrain like a natural.

The first set of waterfalls in the park were fairly easy to get to, although we had to carry pup up some of the steeper sets of stairs. Eric managed to drop (and recover) the tripod and scratch himself up pretty badly, however, in the process of photographing these waterfalls.

Riesling (and Leandra) went on a 1 mile run to start the day, so when you also add a 2.5 hour car ride and 6 miles of mountain hiking you get 1 exhausted pup.

This is the first time she’s ever laid down in the backseat during the daytime hours.

E: That’s the woman with the two crazy dogs.
L: Well, at least she allows us to poop in her yard.
E: Hun, I think that only applies to Riesling.

On our last day in London we were given a bottle of Ivan the Terrible, a Russian vodka that is not yet available in the US. Well, we wish it was—it is an incredibly smooth vodka, smoother than Grey Goose, our house favorite. One other review I found seemed to agree.

Leandra isn’t normally a vodka fan but she definitely liked this one, and I’ve definitely been spoiled. We’re trying to make this bottle last as long as we can.

Thanks for getting us a bottle Jules!

While waiting for the bus this morning the following made me smile:

Last night Leandra and I went to Restaurant Starlu, one of our favorite restaurants, for dessert. Wines from the front of their wine menu are 50% off on Mondays, and we find that very hard to resist. So we ordered a St. Rita riesling to go along with Leandra’s mango buckle and my signature chocolate plate (dessert menu). To be honest, I really had my eye on the triple chocolate pecan-caramel tart, but they were out. Foo. But they made up for it by substituting extra chocolate cheesecake bars for the chocolate-orange truffles. I know, I’m weird, but I just don’t like chocolate and orange together. Regardless, the chocolate plate was outstanding (as usual), especially the subtle hazelnut flavor in the gianduja mousse meringue. Leandra’s mango buckle was also good, and her plate curiously clean when she was finished. As usual, we had a great time.

Note: Starlu change their menus frequently, so the above may not be there next week. But something else equally tasty probably will be…

We are planning a few week-long trips for this spring/summer, so we took Riesling in for an “interview” at Camp Bow Wow this morning. This place provides doggy day care and overnight boarding with an emphasis on playtime and social interaction between dogs with human supervision.

She passed the initial interview (even sat and shook for the woman who checked her in!) and is now hanging out with a bunch of other dogs for the morning to complete her evaluation.

Well, supposedly.

You see, they have webcams set up around various points of the facility so we can spy on see what pup is up to. In this case, sitting on her butt by herself. :) I’ll retrieve her after lunch and get the full report.

Update: I picked her up just after one o’clock and she was panting and tired (and delighted to see me). This was the scene about 2 minutes after we walked in the house.

She passed the evaluation and even received a little certificate… so our tired little camper is approved for daytime and overnight stays.

My sister turns 28 years old today and because I can, here’s a photo of her from 15 years ago at her 8th grade graduation…

Happy Birthday little sis! :)