fun puppy pics

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dog food misconceptions

every day at work, i have to ask clients what they are feeding their dogs and tell them which brands we recommend and why. when i tell them, they usually argue with me, "but the first ingredient in that is corn, and [enter crap food brand here] boasts the first ingredient as meat."

ok, let me ask you a question:
are dogs
a. carnivores
b. omnivores
c. herbivores

the answer is b. omnivores. when looking at our food triangle, or whatever you want to call it, are we supposed to eat more meat than anything else? no, we are not. do we need several servings of grains and other, so called "fillers"? why, yes, yes we are! so does that mean that we should buy new foods and eat more meat than anything else?? no, that would be silly. therefore, choosing a dog food based on the first ingredient is a marketing ploy that other brands use to convince you that their food is better.

second argument: but that food has preservatives! OH NO! NOT PRESERVATIVES!! you mean, this food, which is stored without refrigeration, on a shelf, needs preservatives to be healthy for your dog to eat? crazy! yes, there are some people who want themselves and their dogs to eat preservative-free foods, but the vast majority of things we eat every day have some form of preservative or another. if you are going to feed your dog a food without preservatives, you need to MAKE SURE you feed it well before the expiration date, that you store it correctly, and that each day before you feed it that it hasn't gone bad. rancid food is MUCH more dangerous for your dear doggy's health than a preservative is.

third argument: i believe in the "raw food diet". ok people, this is just gross. why don't YOU eat raw chicken? because it can contain GROSS things! like, salmonella for one - have you ever had salmonella? i've heard it's rather unpleasant if you live through it. "but dogs in the wild eat raw food!" yes, and they die. when was the last time you saw a real, live, wild dog, over the age of 10? right, you don't, cause they died of strange diseases from eating raw, diseased food.

ok, off my soapbox. feel free to rant in your comment section about why i'm wrong, but keep in mind, i have many veterinarians on my side. and, my dog food costs me just as much as it costs you.

Another Great Dane

This past sunday we dog sat for a friend. Shadrack hung out with us for a few hours while his mom was moving into her new townhouse. I think he's about 160 lbs so he was definitely a bit bigger than our 3. Most of the time was spent watching the other dogs out the window or sitting on the chair with me.

hallelujah

this was a trying workweek to say the least, and i am SO glad that it's over. [ilovemyjob.ilovemyjob.ilovemyjob]

but the good news is that i have this weekend off! like back to normal, two days in a row, both of them with my husband off too!

and to that, i say, hallelujah!

wine-ing and dining

well, the beautiful weather has left us, but that isn't stopping andrew and me from living it up! last night, we rushed from work over to chapel hill because my cast and crew (or at least the select few of us who reunited via facebook and were in town) of my high school's production of once upon a mattress was going to see our old director, who works at echhs, put on another production of the same show. we ended up getting there in plenty of time, and even finagled some free tickets. the show was cute, but we deduced we had done a better job... this deduction was supported by a totally non-biased bystander, marc (i mean, he's married to our former stage manager, but he wasn't in our cast).

there were some technical issues that made it less enjoyable, like one of the female leads sounding like charlie brown's mother due to bad mic placement, and a very rude family sitting behind us, but it was great to go to the theater again, and even better to see old friends - some former students of mine, as well as friends from high school. after the play, we had a get-together at hope's house, where she played hostess with some snacks and wine. it was a total blast from the past to see all those people again, and it was like a mini-reunion from hs, but instead of it being only my graduation year, it was a conglomerate of people i did and didn't hang out with from theater. we were having such a good time laughing and telling stories that andrew and i didn't even notice the time flying by. by the time we checked the clock, it was like 1:30, and we didn't get home until after 2. this would be ok for many non-old-fogey twenty somethings, but i had to be at work at 7:30 this morning, and well, we might as well admit that we're an old married couple by this point, so getting out of bed was a real challenge!

i suffered through the half day of work and had just enough energy to pick up some mexican food on the way home. after eating, we tried to watch the [painful] carolina/florida state game, but i fell asleep on the couch and missed us getting our butts handed to us. oh sad lack of acc tournament title... maybe we're just saving up for the ncaa? we'll go with that.

i didn't wake up until about 6:30, so by the time we got up and going, we had a very late dinner at sushi blues, followed by our first visit my new favorite place, the european espresso & wine cafe. i am planning many more visits for a few reasons:
1. excellent ambiance
2. open late on weekend nights
3. friendly service
4. great menu! if you like indulgent food and wine, you should go!
5. really yummy coffee
6. we got a free taste of some delicious champagne just for waiting patiently for some cannolis.

so, i've decided that next month i want to go there for my birthday! we can enjoy some wine flights, a great selection of cheeses and antipasto, perhaps some foie gras, and definitely some dessert. oh, age 26, i guess there are some good things that come with your arrival.

[pics in this blog taken by my cool new phone!]

spring forward

today was the best day in a long time! the dreaded springing forward came, and we had to get up an hour earlier to make it to church for worship team practice, but it wasn't too bad, and we only had to go up from there. after church was the movie at the raleighwood - our present from dr. gordon for hitting our dental goal last month. we watched bedtime stories with adam sandler and got lots of junky food. it was much funnier than i anticipated, and all the employees/families of oberlin enjoyed it.

following the movie, andrew, kristin, hunter, and i went to the rose garden and hung out and did what girls do - drew fake tattoos on each other.


then we came back to the house and watched unc kick duke's butt, and we grilled out in the back yard, chatted, and sang along to the kickin' songs on the radio until after the moon came out. i loved the weather, the breeze, the company, everything. it was pretty much the best day ever.

wanna go ride bikes??

when i was in college, my roommate caroline told a funny (non pc) joke:

"a kid with add says, 'knock knock.'"

"who's there?"

"-wannagoridebikes?!"

i know, it's terrible, but really funny when told right.

so that's what andrew and i did today, we went for a bike ride. it was great, minus the parts where i thought i might die. we went to the shearon harris community park so that i could try some actual trails... we did the easy trail 3 times, and that was enough excitement for me. mostly, i wasn't in to the pine straw or roots... i was terrified of wiping out and kept picturing arun's girlfriend tara's disastrous endo in my mind. so we drove a few miles down the road to one of the entrances to the american tobacco trail after that and went a few very safe miles on that one before deciding it was time to seek sustenance.

we met my parents at the carolina brewery for beer and burgers. our waiter was terrible, but the food, weather, and company was wonderful! unfortunately, i didn't think to take a picture of that. we decided we needed our post-gigantic-meal siesta, so we took turns napping and watching movies at my parents' house. we watched the secret life of bees which had me crying throughout the whole movie. it was so good i'm going to read the book. it had been recommended to me several times before by different people, but i was teaching and never had the desire to add another book to my plate. now, i can't wait to catch up on my independent reading!

i guess that's about it - i'm still excited about this wonderful weather, but slightly bummed that it brings daylight savings time... "springing forward" just isn't appealing to someone who already drives to work in the dark every morning!