Last night, we had hand-made hungarian wurst (sausage) that Todd and his dad, Frank cranked out yesterday. The flavor was great and the freshness of same day wurst was a joy. In addition, we made potatoes au gratin and served our only harvest of brussels sprouts from this year's garden. I learned from the 2009 Farmer's Almanac that as the sprouts grow on the stalk to strip the leaves under the sprouts to force them to grow bigger. We'll have to try that next year.
OMG - Raine, our resident baker, made a Devil's Food Layer Cake with Peppermint frosting for a family gathering this weekend. It was the absolute best chocolate cake I have ever had. Similar to a flourless cake but with lots of white and dark chocolate layers. The recipe is from the December issue of Bon Appetit - Here's the link, if you'd like to try it!
We've accepted our next mission of German Shepherd Dog fostering. I present our new rescue dog, Paris.
Yay! Fritz left this morning for his forever home. His new family came to get him this morning. Fritz was his excited self and put on quite a show trying to impress them all.We'll take a little break, as I'm sure Teiko could use it, but there are already other dogs needing a safe home. Our next foster may be young white german shepherd from Milwaukee. Snow as he is so aptly called needs a quieter place than the shelter to really come out of his shell and become adoptable.
Yay! The first snow fall of the season. The trees were absolutely beautiful this morning coated in snow. I'm sure it will be melted by the time I get home, but what a winter wonderland today. The pups had a good romp in the backyard, racing, skidding and rolling in the snow.
The arrival home did not go as planned with the meeting of my dogs. Teiko immediately got his hackles up and was pretty pissed that I'd bring another male into his house. There was lots of growling, body bumping and "Hear me roar" statements by Teiko. Fritz looked a little overwhelmed and was totally submissive. Cita was uber friendly and sided with the pup immediately. 
As the evening wore on, Teiko seemed to settle in with the new dog and all three of them fell asleep at my feet. Fritz is really a sweet dog and we worked on the "sit" all day and he is getting it very well. I had a pocket full of tasty treats and he knows already, when I call him (he get a treat) and then when he sits he gets another one. He will make a great companion - he's dog and human friendly. Right now, all three dogs follow me where ever I go And all get treats when we "practice the sit" (because my dogs don't get treats everytime they sit....) so it is kind of funny that they will all sit together and my GSD will tolerate the young Fritz when there is food.
This morning at 5:30 am, Fritz woke us all up to go outside. Imagine my surprise when Teiko started playing with Fritz. It was totally different this morning. Here are a couple of shots of the pups playing at my feet. Trust me, this is totally supervised play, but both dogs are now finding some common ground and are becoming much more social with one another (this is mostly Teiko, Fritz will be anyone's friend....) 
The "fierce" photo above was from one of the pup's play sessions this morning. They were have a great time with one another aside from the one-inch fangs of Teiko.........
This is Fritz, formally known as Sir Wags Alot who I wrote about before. Fritz is currently in Illinois but will be making the trip to Madison on Sunday where he will live with us until a "forever" home is found for this sweet guy. Here's his bio on the rescue site of which we have just started volunteering as foster parents - http://www.gsraw.com/Dogs/Fritz/Fritz%20bio.htm.
When I left for Mexico 11 days ago, the temperatures were near 70 degrees. The rose bushes were in their final burst of flowers. I didn't want to cut them back because they were so beautiful.
We spent the beginning of our trip in Mexico City for the first three days. This was during the Day of the Dead celebrations (La Dia del Muerto). Above is the mosaic-tiled building at the University where our friend Lenny is working. One night the students put on a huge celebration with floats, displays and music.
Then it was off to the silver city of Taxco for a relaxing three day stay which included some silver purchases as you can imagine.
We then headed south to Acapulco which was way too hot and humid for me. It was 90 degrees with about 100% humidity - Yech. The ocean was beautiful. (The picture above is the sunset in Acapulco on Thursday) However, I found the city of Acapulco very disorganized, gritty and not very driver friendly. We actually stayed about 10 km northwest in a village called Pie de la Cuesta. Very quaint, but not fully recovered from the 1997 hurricane that destroyed many of the hotels and other businesses.
Finally, we landed back in Mexico City on Sunday for a relaxing evening before the flight back home on Monday. |
| Mexico |
It's been an action-packed few days here in Mexico City. From the displays at the University for the Dia del Muertos (day of the dead) to sight seeing at the Zocolo (historic city center) where the cathedral and congress buildings are to the Museum of National Anthopology (pictured is the Aztec Goddess, Coatlicue as seen at the museum) We have seen so much.
What we know about this beautiful dog, is that he's about 9 months old, friendly and is a shelter favorite. Unfortunately, his time was up at the shelter and no one claimed him or adopted him. So he was scheduled to be euthanized at an Illinois Shelter this Saturday. Though the hard work of volunteers at GSRAWs - Sir Wags will be transported to a temporary foster home in Racine until we can take him on November 12.
I've been voting in presidential elections since 1984, when as an 18-year college student, I was inspired by the historic nomination of Geraldine Ferraro as the Democratice Vice President nominee. (Mondale was all right...) I saw the dawning of an energized and enlightened country, I saw hope for the young and idealistic - like all those 60s people I had learned about in school.
When we started the build out of the Sauna Haus in August, we really didn't know how it would end. Would we get it closed in before winter? Would we have enough time?
Well, as you can see from the above photos, we started with the foundation posts and beams in the end or August and have a closed in building at the end of October! This was all completed during eight weekends with lots of great help from our friends. Yay!!!
And this weekend was no different. On Saturday, with the help of Bonnie, Ryann, Raine, Matt and Taylor, Todd, Eric and I were able to completely close up the building, insulated the timbers, dig the water drain and get the boats out of the lake.
Click on the album below to see all the great work that was completed this weekend! (plus some cute photos of the pups....)
 |
| Beatons - October 17 2008 - Last Push |
Well it sure doesn't look like this anymore up north. This photo was taken three weeks ago and already the color is down and the leaves have fallen. I just love the reflection of the leaves in the lake. 
Progressive (and smart) radio personalility Ed Schultz and his Where America Comes to Talk radio show will be in town tonight to record a townhall meeting after the final debate between Obama and that old guy.Todd, Deb and I have tickets and will be leaving shortly to get a good seat for the debate and radio show. Listen to Ed's show and maybe you'll hear us dissecting the latest debate on national radio!!!!
Okay, not the often part.
