The Dackel Princess

Thursday Thirteen #43

Yes folks, I’m back. After taking a few weeks off I am back to making some new Thursday Thirteen lists. Here we go. The first one back is:

The Boston Edition

1– I went to Boston yesterday.
2-Thankfully Hubby drove me. The traffic was heavy.
3– We finally found a parking spot on the second to the last level of the parking garage.
4– We went to a great Indian Restaurant called Tantric for lunch.
5– The food was fabulous!!!
6– My eyes were examined and they made a topographical map of their surface.
7– My left eye, which was operated on in August ’06 is doing great. My right eye showed a few problems.
8– Dr. W. wants me to return to my Retinal Surgeon, Dr. C. for further treatment.
9– I feel pretty nervous and scared.
10-The trip out of the city was equally as hectic.
11-We stopped to grocery shop and pick up the makings for fondue.
12-Came home, walked the dogs, Hubby mowed the lawn (It looks great!) and I put dinner together.
13-Then some mindless TV before bed.

Lunch Anyone?

Tuesday Hubby and I hosted a luncheon with friends we have had since we brought our first dachshund home 11 years ago. You see when I brought dearest Shubi home from Bavaria 11 years ago, I knew nothing about the care of dachshunds. So I went online and found a dachshund group and learned as much as I could. In the meantime, the men and women on the group became close and when the owner of the list insisted we only speak of physical ailments of our dogs, we all were thrown off her list and we started our own. We decided to call it “The Circle of Friends”.

We have been through births, deaths, marriages and all the other events in life. I’ve been lucky to meet many of the people who compile this group. Most of us have dachshunds still, but some of the group had dachshunds and lost them, and have not replaced them.

Anyway, I made French Onion Soup

a lettuce wedge salad and a pound cake for dessert.

The Lettuce Wedge Salad.

Our friend, Alice and Hubby.

After lunch we went outside for the Orchard Tour!

Of course the puppies provided a lot of comic relief.

Anneliese kissing her buddy Fritz.

Tomorrow I go for my 1 month check up for my eye. Wish me luck as I have had sort of a weird thing going on. I won’t elaborate, only to say that I am hopeful all will be well.

Lettuce Wedge Salad

1/4 head of iceberg lettuce cut into a wedge
1/3 cup diced fresh tomatoes
fresh apple smoked bacon bits
1 tbs scallions sliced thin
Blue cheese broken into small pieces
Blue cheese salad dressing drizzled over the entire salad

Place lettuce on serving plate and add all ingredients in order.
Enjoy!

A Family Tree

I was sitting in my chair today when I glanced over and saw this.

Ah yes, a boy and his mother.

It’s sort of funny. Arnie is up to 16 pounds while his little sister, Anneliese remains at 13. I think he will be a big boy like his grandmother Erika.

Erika.

While Anneliese will be smaller liker her Mom and Grandfather, Meyer.

Greta above and Meyer below.

We were lucky to be able to visit the Vom Geestmoor Kennels in Rehden, Germany. We spent an afternoon with Herr Hollmann and his wife and their two daughters. I was able to see his Kennel set up, discuss with them their breeding program, and celebrate Hubby’s birthday and also Frau Hollmann’s.

The moment Greta was placed in my arms.

Meeting Greta.

It’s so amazing when these little creatures come into our lives. They bring with them their own personalities and likes and dislikes. A lick from them can change a bad day into good, and a sleeping puppy in your lap can cure the worst problem.

Yes, our animals make our lives complete in so many ways.

“I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive” ~Gilda Radner~

Off They Go…

We knew it had to happen. One moment the puppies were with us and the next they were off on a grand adventure. Since their earliest days outside, the puppies have stayed close to home. I did not teach them how to go down stairs, only to come up so that perhaps I could delay their excursion into the great unknown a little longer. Today they ventured off. Here is their story.

Picture courtesy of my cousin, Janet

Arnie and Annieliese sat in their crate in the early morning hours. Anneliese snuggled closely to her brother and whispered, “Hey Arnie, today when we go outside with Daddy, let’s see if we can slip off and go exploring.”

“Do you think that’s okay? I mean, we don’t know if there are any scary dogs or people out there.”

“Sure, it’ll be fine” whispered Anneliese, “We’ll have a little walk by ourselves and have some fun.”

“I don’t know sis, but if you go, I’ll follow.”

And he did. About 2:30 while I sat in my chair cruising around the Internet, Hubby came rushing in. “The puppies are gone!!”

Where did they go? Across the driveway. After all the question can be asked “Why did the dachshund cross the road? In this case it was to see what was on the other side!

When Hubby sounded the alarm, I jumped to my feet and raced to the door and we both headed in different directions. I was yelling their names, with promises of treats should they come back to us. We didn’t have to yell too long before the little devils showed up. Anneliese and Arnie both are very fond of food.

Once they were back in the house I gave them each a cookie and scolded them that they are not to wander off like that again.

I little while later I thought I heard Anneliese talking to Arnie.

“Hey Arnie, I’ve just figured out how to get more cookies every day!”

Spring!!!

Once a year spring happens. In my little part of the world this means lilacs, snowball bushes, tulips, forsythia and best of all the blossoms on the fruit trees. If we’re lucky, this will be spread out over several weeks, but due to a rather wacky weather pattern this spring, we have had a two-three week period of blossoms. I actually missed the peach trees blossoming because this happened while I was recovering from my eye surgery.

In the last few days several of my favorites have finally come into their glory and I went out and snapped a few pictures.

Snowball Bush

Lilacs

Rhododendron

I also enjoy the way the grass somehow goes from dead looking brown straw to rich emerald green carpeting!

Being able to sit on the front steps of my house and enjoy these beautiful coral colored sunsets simply takes my breath away.

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Arnie and Anneliese.

For the Vertically Challened…

Ever thought of what you would do it you had three inch legs? My three dachshunds will tell you that there are times that life can be quite a challenge. For instance, getting into a people sized bed, or perhaps a higher chair, can seem almost impossible to the “little ones”. It’s why I have now become a full convert to “doggie steps”.

These wonderful little things are the new addition to our home. We had one set when Greta was expecting the puppies (those of you who were around will recall that she did not want to use them!) but it wasn’t until we allowed Arnie and Anneliese to be free in the house that we realized that we needed a couple more sets. They love them and they use them!

I saw an ad for 2 sets, for the price of 1 set. I excitedly ordered them thinking they would arrive in a few weeks. Six weeks later they arrived.

Hubby spent a few minutes putting them together and then we set them in the family room and the bedroom, and showed the pups their new stairway heaven! (Or to human contact!) It’s amazing how something so little can mean so much to the vertically challenged!!!

Good Knees, Well Almost!

It was another lovely day here in New Hampshire. Usually I’m busy and not able to go for a relaxing car ride through the countryside, but today I had an appointment with my Orthopedist, and his office is about 50 miles away. The roads are all back country roads, and at this time of year they were quite lovely.

I left the house after lunch and drove our car. I love my car. It is a Cadillac Deville and runs beautifully. It also drives fast, steers likes a dream and is comfortable to ride in. Best of all it takes regular gas and gets good mileage.

I’d brought several CD’s with me and while I drove across the state I sang with James Taylor, Sting, and Five For Fighting (in addition to others) at the top of my lungs! I don’t subject anyone to these rare outbursts of my “American Idol Want-to-be” moments. But today the planets were aligned and it just felt right.

The good news is, I do not need surgery on my knee! Yay for me! The bad news is, the doctor looked at me and told me that I must lose 25 pounds (he actually was being kind) and exercise to strengthen the knee. Because of some damage to that knee I will need to be careful when I ski again using a knee brace, but for now I should be fine.

I returned to my car feeling happy and ready for ski season to begin. (Not really, but it sounds good! Ha!) I called Hubby and relayed the good news and headed back east. There was a bit more traffic on my return drive, but not even that could dampen my happiness at having had this wonderful drive.

Letting Go…

Several things kept my mind busy today. This is good. My grandmother used to say “Maribeth, as long as you keep your mind busy, it won’t stop working”. Well Gram needn’t have worried. If anything, my brain tends to function overtime!

I woke with the concern that the pedigrees from Germany won’t arrive before the Zuchtschau next fall. A Zuchtschau is a German dog show. I brought Greta last year for her rating. You can read about it here and here.

Greta received the highest rating of excellent, and I was so proud. Now I will bring her babies and see how they do before the German judge. I am hoping that they will do as well as Greta. Oh, I am nervous already!

Anyway back to their German pedigrees. The dogs have already gotten their AKC pedigrees and registration numbers and now I await their German, (DTK) pedigrees. So I called our German breed warden and asked her what would happen if they did not arrive? She said not to worry she would email Germany and ask specifically to have them taken care of.

End of concern #1.

Then I was worried because as I was putting laundry away I turned to go out of the room and tripped over Arnie. I caught him with my sneaker and he squealed and made me feel terrible. I picked him up quickly and held him tight until he had forgotten his ills. However, the guilt was terrible for me!

Arnie.

Pretty much the end of concern #2, although I still feel bad.

Anneliese.

It was a great day weather wise, so we had the puppies out a lot. They played in the back yard and had such fun, that was until they ran around the side of the house and I had to chase after them! I managed to chase them back and all was well.

End of problem #3.

The day seemed to pick up then. I made nice salads with barbecued chicken on top for lunch, drove out to get the mail and pick up some repaired feet for the snow blower for Hubby, and came home and played with the puppies again.

The day is ending, the sun setting and I’m hoping I won’t be so worried when I wake up tomorrow. I know in the long run of life, everything takes care of itself. It’s just that I often have difficulty of letting go…..and letting God handle things.