Cool as a cucumber

Summers in Wyoming are pretty amazing.  It can be hot, sure, but there's no humidity.


After growing up in the Midwest, living for a time on the East Coast, and being reminded of how sticky-miserable a humid summer can be while at family reunions in Illinois, I decided without a bit of hesitation that I will never, ever again live in a region with humidity.  


In humid climates an air conditioner is an absolute must.  I can not imagine Washington, D.C., in August with no A/C - and I have a pretty vivid imagination!  But in Wyoming, air conditioners strike me as silly and wasteful.

I also hate being in a bottled up house.  I love the windows open, breeze blowing in, and fresh air circulating through the house.

Recently, we were at dinner at our friends Jeff and Linda's and they very graciously offered us an old window air conditioning unit stored in their garage.  I politely declined, telling them of my preferences for fresh air blowing through our home and we eventually changed the subject.

This week, 90+ temps and no wind - NO WIND! Unheard of in Wyoming! - has made our old 1920 home HOT.  Rigby and Lulu just lie around, trying to find relief on our tiled entryway floor in front of a fan.  Todd and I can't bear to even accidentally touch legs on the couch watching t.v. at night.  The ceiling fans are pushing around hot air.  There isn't a breeze to be had.

I told Todd he should ask Jeff if they still have that window unit.  I knew I was going to eat crow because of it.  I didn't care...at least too much.

I figured it could help us through this week, which is forecast to be much of the same dry, hot, still weather.  Also, there is a life development coming our way that I haven't talked about yet on here (I will, it's just not time yet) and I wanted to experiment with making the house more comfortable.

Jeff dropped the A/C off last night and Todd got it up and running immediately.

It's not a total miracle worker, but it's made a difference.  It's really meant to only help cool one room, but we hoped with the openness of the living room into the dining we might feel a little more far reaching effect.  Combined with the fans it's not too bad.  And as much as I dislike having the windows shut it does keep the heat from pouring in.

And I console myself for breaking down by the thought that it's only temporary.  We'll only be switching it on when needed and not relying on it all the time.

Besides, there are only a few weeks each year in Wyoming when an A/C is desirable.  So, if we're looking at even one month of air conditioning out of 12 I think we're doing pretty good.

I love this photo

Todd and I were watching t.v. on the couch one night and Lulu, who just has to know what's going on outside, ran to the window to see why the neighbor dog was barking.

We had already shut the door for the night, otherwise she would have tore outside to be on neighborhood watch.  

She looked SO DARN CUTE sitting there like that.  I had Todd snap a picture with his phone. 

The thing you can't see very well is her one ear flipped back in just the way that makes me want to pin it there with a barrette.  Trademark Lulu.

P.S. The painting of a black lab on the chair is of Rigby, painted by Todd's Aunt Barbara.  

Recipe mania

I have this issue, see...

I love recipes.  I'm kind of addicted to them.  

I already have an impressive assortment of cookbooks and recipe binders, but for some reason I can't bear the thought of cancelling my Cooking Light subscription.  I am a little disenchanted with the Rachael Ray mag, but until my last renewal runs out I will diligently flip through each issue and pull out new recipes.  I pin a new recipe on Pinterest almost every day it seems.  

I don't like missing new recipes and ideas!  There are so many interesting concoctions out there!  But I've got to stop, or at least slow down.  

I've acquired a few bigger kitchen accessories lately like a blender, food processor and ice cream maker and I have no place to put them...except on the shelf where my recipe books have been stashed.  

I pulled them all down this evening to a) clean that shelf and b) put the appliances up there.  This is what our kitchen counter now looks like.  Overwhelming, huh?

These are my two recipe binders that are literally busting at the seams. Mind the stack of recipes on top waiting to be put in their appropriate sleeves...

I have a handful of these homemade cookbooks like Coy and Angela's wedding favor; and a very nice subscription to Cook's magazine that was an engagement gift from a girlfriend...

I'm thinking this Best of Cooking Light book will have to go.  After all, I've had a subscription to the magazine version for years and some of the recipes are already clipped and in the recipe binders!  I haven't gone through the top book, a Farm Journal's Country Cookbook, very thoroughly, but I don't want to get rid of something so cool and old...

I'm also thinking this one to do with tofu is going to go.  I love tofu, but let's be real.  Our deep freeze in full of antelope, elk and the like.  There aren't many tofu dishes going on our table...

More of the homemade cookbooks...

And more...

Seriously...

Oh man...

The new home for the appliances.  Now where will all those books go...?

Continuing problem

We have a problem:

Lulu, who has turned into a very good dog that is actually lovie and usually well behaved, can NOT be broken of a very bad action...attacking Rigby when we get ready to leave the house.

Like most dogs, they get excited to "go."  They're hyped up at the door and can't wait to go with us somewhere.  Once we open the door, however, Lulu's excitement turns ugly and she starts lunging at Rigby, biting his ears, pulling him down the front stairs by his collar, jumping all over him, barking, growling, chasing him down and making it, basically, look like we're running Michael Vick dog fights in our front yard. 

We yell.  We chase her down.  We push her to the ground and growl back at her to show our dog-like dominance.  We've spanked her.  We take her by the collar and lead her to the car so she's not free to make her way there herself.  We've used the shock collar, something we rarely pull out, but have resorted to because none of the other actions are working.  The shock collar wakes her up and gets her out of the attack trance she seems to go in to. 

Once she's in the car **SNAP** she's out of attack mode and perfectly respectable again. 

WHAT is the deal?? 

On Sunday, her attacking got bloody.  I had taken the dogs to the lake to swim and go for a walk.  On our way back to the car she for some reason got into attack mode.  Once we've left the house it never happens again on the trip, but this time she turned on the antics.

I heard Rigby yip, was able to break it up and everyone trotted to the car.  After I put them in I patted Rigby's head and noticed my hand had some blood on it.

Great.  Where is it coming from? 

After inspecting them both I found a gash on the tip of Rigby's ear - from Lulu's teeth - that was bleeding pretty good.  I wiped it down with a towl and thought it was drying up so we got on the road.

When we got home and I went to let them out of the car, I noticed blood whipped down the side of the car where he had been hanging his head.  It was dripped on the seatbelt, and sprayed on the back of the front passenger head rest.  It looked like I had committed a crime. 

AND when he got inside it of course dripped on our dining room rug and the floors.  I grabbed the closest thing - a box of Band-Aids from under the sink - and sealed his ear up then tackled cleaning the car and floors. 

And the problem with Lulu still goes on.  She's toned it down some since Sunday, but still WON'T leave him alone out the door. 

Thoughts on how to break this anyone?

(Don't mind the painter's tape on the floor.  We still have to paint the dining room baseboards.)

Birthday

On April 17, I turned the big 3-5. 

It was a nice, but pretty uneventful day.  I worked in the morning and that afternoon helped Todd a little with the bathroom renovation.  We also ran a lot of errands.  So far, not very exciting sounding, huh? 

That night, though, we went to the best sushi/Asian place in town with our friends Jeff and Linda and had a great time!  I looooove sushi and curry and lettuce wraps, all of which were on the table.

For my free birthday dessert they brought out fried ice cream.  Not exactly my dessert of choice, but of course I had a bite!

Here's to an eventful year of life!