Aren't we talented?

So my brother-in-law got married this past Saturday. Good times were had by all. The wedding was lovely; there were some minor snafus, but at the end of the day, bride and groom were hitched, and everyone was smiling.

They met at a dance studio, so many of the guests were very good dancers. In fact, they were asked several times if they hired professional dancers for atmosphere. And the DJ even called the owner to come over to watch. We were just that cool. My mom got a couple videos, so here's a short clip of Tim and I dancing.

Jump, Duke, Jump!

More pics of the other high flying dogs here.

Sunblock is your friend

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for playing frisbee with your dog in the park. We had a great turnout, and the dogs had lots of fun. (Pictures forthcoming. I have the pictures that I took, but I'm waiting to see if people send pictures of Duke playing. I'm nowhere near talented enough to take pics while playing frisbee with Duke.)

I did get a bit too much sun yesterday though. It wasn't too sunny early in the morning, so I forgot to put on sunblock when I got there. A couple hours later, it was quite toasty and I finally put on some sunblock. I know I need to take better care of my skin, so I came home and started looking up sunblock, and found this little site. Did you know that if you're using sunblock over your entire body (like when you're swimming), you should be using 2 ounces at a time? Less than that, and you're not really getting the SPF protection on the bottle. So next time you go out, slather on the sunblock, otherwise it's not working as well as you think it is.

And to make this paws related, they also have sunblock for dogs, recommended for dogs with thin coats or thin skin. Dogs need sun protection too!

Come see Duke make a fool out of me!

The Houston Humane Society is having a K9 Fun Run and Walk this weekend.

Sunday, March 22, 2009
Sam Houston Park
1100 Bagby
Houston, TX 77002
Noon - 4:00 pm

1 Mile Run, 1 Mile Jog or 1 Mile Walk
For more information contact funrun@houstonhumane.org or call 713-433-6421 extension 307.

Duke and I will be there with the Frisbeedog Club. There are two demos, one from 10:00-10:45, and another from 12:15-12:45.

No pain, no gain?

Today was our monthly Houston Frisbeedog meeting, and we learned:

1. How to teach Duke to jump over my leg to catch a frisbee. Kneel down so I'm on my right foot and left knee. Another person was standing just in front of me touching my right knee to keep Duke from going around, and then used the frisbee to lure Duke to jump over my right leg. Duke already knows a command to jump over my leg, so it was just putting the frisbee and jumping over together. That didn't go so well at first. He'd jump over my leg, headbutting the frisbee. He didn't quite understand that he was supposed to take the frisbee out of my hand. After a few tries, I tossed the frisbee, and he jumped over and grabbed the frisbee like he was supposed to. Unfortunately, I got kicked or smacked around by his tail several times in the process.

2. Some crazy throw between the legs. I should have realized bad things were to come when the first step to doing this trick was to bend over. Bend over at the waist with bent knees, hands at 12 and 6 on the frisbee, and then swing arms through legs while spinning the disc. I swung with a little more enthusiasm than necessary, and my arm hit my inner leg with more than enough force to leave a bruise. Practice repeatedly until legs and arms are numb. Sigh sadly because the frisbee always landed 5 feet (or less) away.

3. Another crazy throw where you bounce the frisbee off the ground. Because the Jawz frisbee is so much heavier than the normal club frisbees, I needed to throw the frisbee HARD in order to get it to bounce. The most I got it to bounce was an inch. Darn my weenie chicken arms.

4. Throwing the frisbee between my legs. Right step, left step, then a right lunge while reaching my right hand behind my right knee and releasing the frisbee. As you can probably tell from my misadventures in throw #2, I am not very well coordinated. And very quickly had a sore wrist from wildly flinging my wrist into the back of my knee. While painful, this was actually pretty easy to catch onto.

5. An upsidedown throw. Start by holding the frisbee pretty much vertical (hand at 6 o'clock), and a quick wrist flick with a little angle, and my frisbee wobbled off upside down. This one was suprisingly hard on my weak little wrist, but that might also be because it had just taken a beating from the last throw.

Also worked on throwing the frisbee so that it arched right over Duke, to get him to do a little flippy thing. But I didn't include it on the list because it didn't cause bodily injury to me.

Chocolate Lava BROWNIES

What could be better than a warm, soft molten lava cake? A warm molten lava BROWNIE! I had a couple leftover truffle centers from the lava cake last month, and I needed to bake brownies for my brownie mosaic cheesecake tomorrow. The brownie recipe makes way more than necessary for the cheesecake, so I figured I'd use some of the batter and the truffle centers for a ridiculously rich and decadent dessert tonight. Mix up the batter, pour into the ramekins, pop in a truffle center, and pop in the oven. I ended up baking the ramekins about 40-45 minutes before inverting them on a plate and dusting with powdered sugar. I poured the remainder of the brownie batter into an 8 by 8 inch pan and baked as per the recipe below.

The verdict? Amazingly good, but I used 7 oz ramekins, and neither Tim or I could finish our brownie. And we both agreed that ice cream would go wonderfully with the brownie. One 7 oz ramekin + 1 scoop ice cream = more than enough for two people.

Brownies
Adapted by smitten kitchen

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
¾ cup butter
1 ¾ cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. salt
1 cup flour

Directions:
To make the brownies, preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9×13” baking pan with foil, leaving the ends of the foil overhanging the sides of the pan. Grease the foil and set aside.
Microwave chocolate and butter in a large microwave-safe bowl on high for 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until the butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add salt and flour; mix well. Spread into prepared pan.