I was thinking the other day about all the stuff that Henny has learned in the last year, especially the stuff that I haven't actively taught her (like 'sit' and 'down'). When I got her she was pretty much a blank slate that was mostly potty trained, so it's quite remarkable to me how much she's picked up. I'm not sure you could possibly care about this, but here's a list of words/phrases that Henny knows:

Sit
Down
C'mere (unreliable in a command sense, but she knows what it means)
Pick you up (she stops moving and crouches to be picked up)
Let's go to bed / time for bed (she goes into the bedroom and into her dog tent)
Go potty. (If she's goofing around outside, I tell her this, and she remembers why she's out there.)

Do you want to go outside? / Let's go outside.
Do you want to come up here? (If she wants to get on a bed/sofa she can't jump on, I ask her this and she does her 'pick you up' crouch if she does, in fact, want to come up.)
Do you want to go home? (Yes, always.)
Do you want dog dinner/breakfast? (YES, ALWAYS.)
Do you want pets? (I also hold out my hand when I say this, and she comes over.)
Do you want this? (I can say this from across the house, and she'll come running. Usually if I have an empty bowl for her to clean.)

Dog food / Cat Food / Food
Bone / Chew-chew / Treat
Big Dog House / Sasha and Minnie (She gets excited when I tell her that's where we're going.)
Birdy (as in, when I call for Birdy, Henny gets jealous and run over instead)
Hey! (She knows whatever she's doing is naughty, and she usually stops.)

And I know there's more I can't think of (and more that she'll pick up in the future without my realizing it!). Not to mention non-verbal stuff, which, like most animals, she's a master at picking up on. What's that saying about old dogs?

Three things that Henny has done/learned in the past couple of days:

-- She figured out what 'Do you want to come up here?' means when I'm sitting (working) on the guest bed. She can't get up on her own, but now when she comes in the room and I ask this, she assumes the 'pick you up' position and doesn't run into the living room when I try to actually pick her up.

-- She made a noise (a tiny whine) when she wanted to go outside and I didn't notice. Most days, she just sticks to the schedule, but sometimes she stands by the back door when she needs to randomly go out. Unfortunately, even if I'm somewhere that I SHOULD be able to see this, sometimes I can't (like if the basement door is wide open, blocking the view, or if I'm absorbed in a really important YouTube video, say). This has resulted in her peeing on the floor more than once (which, strangely, isn't something I get annoyed about, maybe because I realize it's not her fault / a habit). This evening, the basement door was indeed in the way, but she actually made a noise to alert me to the situation. Communication!

-- She made up a game while we were outside. After we'd come back from a walk, she was doing some victory laps around the yard, being goofy, and she wound up in one of her favorite corners. I started to go up the steps by the back door, and she came tearing towards me, and then I stopped and walked down a step, and she went tearing back to the corner of the yard. We repeated this about a dozen times, because it made me laugh. I'm sure any snooping neighbors thought I was insane.

(The photo above is her sleeping in one of her many not-lying-down positions. She had to stay alert in case I was offering pets, but she was so tired.)

Here's Henny in her Halloween costume. I had a few ideas, but I wound up going with the easiest option. (For the record, my two favorite other ideas were 'A Bigger Dog' or a grey cat, so she'd fit in with Beany and Birdy.) To make the bat costume, I just sewed up a shirt using the same pattern I always use, and then I made the wings with heavy-gauge beading wire (and fabric, obviously). I often talk about Henny having bat ears, so now she has the wings to match.

Henny was very 'whatever' about wearing the costume (this was the extent for her interest -- just a couple sniffs and then nothing), because she's a good dog. But my mom urged me over the internet to put the costume on Beany and take photos. So I did.

Who wore it better? I say Henny, but Beany's photo has more 'favorites' on flickr. Henny got a ton of compliments on facebook, though. (I didn't post Beany's photo, 'cause people I went to school with don't have to know I put my CATS in costumes. Sheesh!) Beany was 'slightly' more away of the wings on her back -- this was not the extent of her interest -- there was full-on wrestling with kicking and gnawing. (Not, I should add, in a distressed way; I might not respect their dignity, but I'm not mean to the pets.) I briefly put the costume on Birdy, and she didn't seem to feel very fancy, either. Pshaw.

Yesterday was Henny's one-year anniversary of coming to live with me. She had been rescued from a puppy mill over Labor Day weekend 2010, after three years of life as a breeder. I have no idea what her life was like during that time -- was she kept in a small kennel? Did she ever have a chance to run around? Had anybody ever petted her with kindness? All I know is that when I went to pick up a dog to foster, I was given a chihuahua that was utterly terrified of everything. She sat in the corner of her pen and stared at the wall, and she never once stopped trembling.

I had told the woman running the rescue organization that I had no preferences as to what kind of dog I fostered, and Henny (then known as Henrietta) was in need of a foster home. She looked so pathetic that I was eager to bring her home, thinking that I could give her the right combination of quietness and attention.

I'm sure I've written it here before, because I've said it an awful lot, but I really wondered if euthanasia might be the kindest solution during those first few weeks (not that it was up to me, and not that I would have really done it if it were). Henny didn't know how to be a dog. She had no understanding of toys, didn't want to chew on bones, couldn't walk on a leash. She seemed to always be scared and would sometimes fall asleep while sitting, because she didn't feel safe enough to lie down. Remember that for all the happy puppies at pet shops, there are dogs like this behind the scenes.

I posted a lot of cute photos and videos on flickr, but I always felt sort of bad about showing only good glimpses into Henny's life. Even though she knew who I was, I could never just reach over and pet her; she would run away. But I was as patient as she was nervous (and I'm still being patient, believe me).

I've already written about the change I saw in Henny towards the end of last year. It was like something finally clicked in her head, and she started trusting me more. I still couldn't walk right over to her and give her a pat, but the way she looked at me changed. There was another big shift over the summer and even in the past several weeks. If I sit on the floor, she comes over for pets, and if I stop, she gets closer and closer, trying to get me to pet her again.

She's always been a funny dog when she lets down her guard, and that happens more regularly these days. Chasing the cats, rough-housing with stuffed animals (she finally figured out what toys are!) -- life is good for Henny now, and she knows it.

I feel like she's made such great progress because I've always tried to stay in her comfort zone. The usual training advice doesn't really work for a dog like Henny, whose only real concern is feeling safe. She knows what 'pick you up' means, but I still have to wait for her to find a spot (in the room or yard, etc) where she feels safe being picked up. I don't mind that, really; if I did, we wouldn't be a good match. And, sheesh, the months it took to teach her to sit on command. She's a pro now, though!

My friend Julie has more than once said something along the lines of, 'You must love her more and more every time you look at her.' And it's true! Never did I think I would adore such a silly little dog -- and one that was/is so messed up, at that. She's my tiny piggy pickle dog. I wish I could erase the first three years of Henny's life from her memory, but instead I'll just work on making the great years outnumber those bad ones. One down.

To see my flickr set of Henny photos and videos, go here.

I took Henny to William O'Brien State Park today, and it was a veritable autumn wonderland. Compared to the other parks on the St. Croix River that I've visited (Banning and Interstate in particular), the landscape wasn't quite as stunning, but the fall colors really made up for it. I've hiked in the spring and summer (and winter, practically, since there was still snow on the trails this past April), but this was the first time I've gone to a state park in the fall. If I'd've still had my camping gear in the trunk, I would have impulsively stayed overnight. Lovely.

I wanted to take Henny hiking all summer long, but I never did, so that's what got me excited for today's mini-adventure. She seemed to really enjoy sniffing everything, especially the dead snake she then peed on. (I was more excited by the several live garter snakes I spotted.) The trail wasn't at all technical, so that made it easy for her -- we did a little over three miles. There were a few steps by the lake and river shores, and she impressed me with what she could tackle on her own. There was one section I was sure I'd have to carry her back up, but I decided to see if she'd try it herself, and I was surprised by one particularly tall leap that she managed without too much trouble. She's been playing me for a sucker, saying she needs a step to get on the sofa.

Henny surprises me all the time, though. Before I got her, I always thought of little dogs as being pretty vacuous; I certainly didn't imagine them doing 'dog' things. And for a long time, it seemed like Henny was so damaged that she didn't have any playfulness in her personality. I think this little video proves that wrong, though. Just like a 'real' dog, she eventually extracted the squeaker from the toy, but I wedged it back in there, because her reaction to the accidental squeak (in the video) makes me laugh every time.

I'm at the cabin for a few days, and there's a ton of vegetables to eat in the garden. I picked a medium-large zucchini last night and sliced it really thinly, seasoned the slices, and baked them into chips (265F for about an hour total, but you have to start taking out the thinner slices earlier than that). I used a seasoned salt mix, and as long as you don't burn the chips, they go from bland zucchini to amazing amazingness.

Henny loves it up here. The last time we came to the cabin (was it all the way back in April?), she was still fairly nervous about going into the woods, but that's changed now. She gets braver all the time, but it seems to me like she's had a real boost in confidence over the past couple of weeks. We've been going out for a short walk in the woods every few hours, and she always seems really happy as she trots around. The first time we went out yesterday, when she got to the open, mowed part of the property, she ran around further and faster than she's ever run before. Goofy dog. It's my job to watch the sky for hawks, though, because I'm sure she'd be a tasty treat for them.

I've also been teaching her to lie down on command, and she seems to be figuring it out. You can't physically make Henny do anything, or she panics, and the ways I've taught dogs to lie down in the past don't work with her, as she just scoots away. So, just as with teaching her to sit, I repeat the command until she does whatever it is on her own, at which point I give her a treat. It worked for sitting, and she seems to have already got the hang of lying down, although it's not perfect yet. I hadn't bothered teaching it before, because she rarely lies down when she's paying attention to me at home, but there's a nice rug at the cabin, so she hunkers down on that every chance she gets. What a silly dog.

I finally finished all the cooking! Yesterday was enchiladas and lasagna. I had a couple of the enchiladas yesterday, just to make sure they passed muster, and I thought they were pretty good. I had four more servings (that is, eight enchiladas) that I froze, and I got the lasagna sliced up (along with the mac 'n' 'cheese', which I think looks hilarious in block form). Into the freezer.

So what did I have for dinner tonight, after all that industrious cooking and freezing? A frozen meal... from the store. I'm actually dog-sitting at my parents' tonight, so I had an Amy's Kitchen meal -- veggie loaf with mashed potato and vegetables. Despite looking like an archetypal TV dinner, it was very good. I cooked it in the oven, because I have standards.

The dogs are doing well. Henny loves the 'Big Dogs' about as much as she dislikes all others (a lot). I actually took all three of them for a short walk after dinner, which went better than I expected. Henny weighs about 7.5 pounds and it doesn't even matter, because she's the best walker you'll ever meet. Super polite. My parents' dogs... well, they have other positive qualities, but leash manners aren't included. I'd forgotten what it's like to have a sixty-pound dog on the end of a leash (much less two of them). But they seemed to get the picture and behaved, more or less. (To be fair to Sasha and Minnie, they spend much more time at the dog park or running around the cabin land than on a leash.)

Speaking of the dogs, they all seem to be very quiet right now. And nowhere in sight. Hmm...

-- One of the first times I ever ate at a restaurant with Rob, it was an Italian place, and I remember him saying that one should never order spaghetti on a first date. No matter how hard you try to eat it gracefully, you're bound to end up looking foolish at some point. Other foods to avoid the first time you meet a possible romantic interest: sushi, tacos, sloppy joes. You get the picture.

-- The Great River Ragnar Relay is this Friday and Saturday! I am thrilled and preemptively exhausted. I took a nap this afternoon because I was feeling a little tired and figured I should bank sleep hours while I can. In case you don't know/remember, the GR Ragnar is a 192-mile relay race from Winona, MN to Minneapolis. There are twelve people on a team, and each team member runs three legs. We start Friday morning and finish Saturday afternoon, no stopping. I did it last year, and for some reason I decided to sign up again. So if you don't hear from me for a few days, it's just because I'm running in some little town in Wisconsin at 3:00am.

-- I took Henny P for a walk this evening, and we actually got in the car and drove two miles away to do so. Between running in the mornings and walking Henny, I get SO bored of the routes starting from my house. It's not quite as bad with running, because I can do a longer route and get away, but Henny can't do more than two or three miles, especially if it's warm out. So even though it almost seems to defeat the purpose, I drove two miles along one of my usual running routes, and we started from there and did a two-mile out-and-back. She seemed excited about the new smells, and I didn't go crazy, so I think it was worth it.

-- Some evenings, I realize that I don't have to run in the morning and can thus take a hearty dose of Benedryl and sleep really well that night. And that realization is quite a thrill. Simples pleasures, people.

-- My friend Chris has a bit of free time before he leaves for adventures (culminating in another adventure: teaching in China), so we went to Interstate State Park, aka the most awkwardly-named state park ever. It's about an hour away from Minneapolis, on the St. Croix River (there's a Wisconsin state park on the other side of the river, hence the name). It's gorgeous and geologically interesting (sandstone bluffs AND basalt potholes!), but it's unfortunately situated with a highway running through the middle of it. If they could just reroute that little annoyance, it would be a perfect park.

-- The pothole area of the park (and, to be clear, Minnesota is known for its annually-occurring road potholes, but these are geological ones, created by the gigantic river that used to flow through the valley) was really like a massive playground, providing you're okay with your kids climbing over igneous rocks. They've carved a lot of steps into the stone -- there are a LOT of steps in this park, when you include the trails through the bluffs. I keep thinking there's something wrong with me, because my legs are sore, but then I realize that I ran six miles this morning and followed it up with almost four miles of stairs (okay, it wasn't all stairs). So a little aching is probably normal.

-- You know how I love everything Minnesota-shaped? Well, guess how much I like gigantic Minnesota-shaped things!

-- On the way to the park, Chris spotted a sign for 'Scandinavian Donuts', so we stopped there on the way back, after our hike (so many stairs!). It was the Lindstrom Bakery (I took a photo of the sign, for reference), and the Scandinavian Donuts in question were a lot like what other bakeries call Old Fashioneds -- a fried cake donut with a crisp crust and soft interior. Okay, so VooDoo in Portland makes the best raised (yeast) donut I've ever tried, but Lindstrom Bakery -- hands down -- has the best cake donut ever. I got a glazed one and had it with the perfect cup of coffee (super hot and not too strong). It's forty-five minutes away, but I can't rule out making a trip there just to get another donut, some day. The town (Lindstrom) is Very Scandinavian, and every shop has a sign describing its wares in both English and Swedish. For cute.

-- Annnnd... just to round out this post with some Henny news: When we got back to my house, I heard some scrabbling, so I went into the living room to investigate. Henny had trapped herself under a low shelf, one which has a stack of magazines and a box of yarn under it in order to keep her out. Who knows how she wiggled under/back there or how long she had been trapped. She seemed awfully excited to see me (and/or be freed), though. I let all the pets out into the backyard after dinner, which has become the routine. The cats try to ingest as much grass as possible as quickly as possible, and what's funny is that Henny sat around with them, nibbling at grass, too. Not really eating it, but making an effort, since it seems to be what the cool kids like. Then she gleefully (so gleefully) chased Birdy around the yard, since the outdoors doesn't have any sofas for a cat to jump up on.

-- I got the BBQ out for the first time (this summer) yesterday, and I made some tofu and vegetables. I was silently laughing at myself as I made the marinade for the tofu. I mixed together soy sauce and white wine vinegar, and then I opened the door to the spice cupboard and just started adding things. It was exceptionally good tofu, in the end, but this is why I rarely post recipes. Experience (and it doesn't take a TON of experience -- you just have to mess around a lot) has given me a feel for how much of any particular spice to use, so I never think to measure anything. The vegetables were steamed in some tin foil on the grill; it wasn't the most amazing way to prepare them, but it was nice to not do any cooking inside.

-- Yesterday morning, I biked to my nearest Whole Foods, which is nine miles away. The amazing thing about that trip is that I can do the entire thing on bike paths. Not bike lanes on the road, but separate, dedicated paths. I can get on the path at the end of my block, and I get off when I'm right behind Whole Foods. I got lunch and ate by Lake Calhoun.

-- Today is Henny's 4th birthday! I didn't realize what the date was until dinnertime today, so there were no wild celebrations, but I did take her on a good walk this afternoon, so maybe that counts. This is her first birthday that wasn't spent in doggie prison (the puppy mill in Oklahoma), so I'd say her life is on an upwards trajectory. Although it would be nice if the neighbors who are setting off fireworks would give it a break tonight. On account of her special day.

-- I've always been a morning runner, but the thought of rolling out of bed and into my running shoes has been really unappealing lately. (I blame it on the Benedryl I take before bed, in order to keep my allergies under control while I sleep.) I've also been dealing with aches and pains and the fact that I took most of June off from running, so my endurance has taken a hit. But I bargained with myself this morning that if I didn't go out right then, I'd fit in a run sometime after dinner. And for once, I actually kept that promise! It was a nice run, too -- I did five miles after some clouds had rolled in, and there was a good breeze going. And the endorphins sure are sweet (especially after you get addicted to them).

I had such a nice 4th of July weekend at my aunt and uncle's cabin, and this is the only photo I have to show for it (taken last night, back in the cities), because I dropped my point-and-shoot in the lake an hour after I got up north. Big fail. But I basically had the most idyllic Minnesota-summer weekend, otherwise, so it's all okay.

I took Henny up with me to the cabin, which is about as far away as my folks' cabin, but in a different direction. And on a lake. Several other aunts/uncles/cousins were there, too, and the weather was perfect all weekend long. We went for rides on the boat (with Henny in her ridiculous doggie life jacket), sat around on the dock, grilled food, and slept in tents. There would have been room for me in the cabin on the second night, but Minnesota's state parks are closed right now (thanks, government shut-down), so I've got to take camping where I can get it.

Henny was a trooper, but she most definitely doesn't care for fireworks. She doesn't whine or bark (thank goodness), but she silently trembles and looks for places to hide, which is extra sad and pathetic. I'm pretty sure she would have crawled inside my chest if she could have, but she had to settle for burrowing under my arm. I didn't even realize why she suddenly started acting odd on Sunday night until I took her outside and could hear fireworks waaaaay off in the distance, on the other side of the lake.

In other Henny news, it turns out she can swim, but she's not very good at it (she needs more ballast). She wasn't really digging the lake, but I walked her out about six feet from shore a couple times (and had my camera destroyed in karmic payback) to watch her swim back. Despite her feelings towards the water and loud noises, she seemed perfectly happy on the boat rides. Snug in her life jacket and settled on my lap, she quickly fell asleep both times.

I drove back to the cities on Monday, and I celebrated the 4th with Rob (who is house-sitting for my folks at the moment). We had veggie burgers (homemade with chickpeas!) and chips for dinner, which I forced Rob to eat outside. And when it started to get dark out, I built a fire in my parents' chimnea -- it was the first time I'd ever been responsible for making a fire, and now I get why people are always so goofily proud of themselves for it. Something very primally satisfying about that.

Oh, and I also have been picking a ton of ripe raspberries since I got back. Summer win!

-- Over the past few days, I read through all the posts on this comic-blog, Saucesome. If you eat food and/or have ever thought about trying to be kinder to your body/self, it's a good read. Taco salads make a lot of appearances, and I'm very easily influenced when it comes to what I think I'm 'craving'. So I made a taco salad for dinner last night, and it was awesome. I used Morningstar crumbles to make the taco 'meat', and it also had sauteed onion+pepper+zucchini, raw corn tossed with cilantro and salt, tomato, green onion, avocado, carrot, and baby lettuces. I put some salsa on it, too, and it was a flavor party. Missing the awesome fried-tortilla-as-bowl, but still plenty good.

-- There's a heat advisory for the Twin Cities, which started yesterday (Monday) and extends to tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. Henny is all, 'FINALLY! It's nice outside.' We went for a walk this morning, before it got TOO warm, but Henny still decided she'd had enough about a quarter mile from home. I picked her up (perk of having a miniature joke dog), and she seemed quite happy to be carried the rest of the way. She was very uncomfortable about being held when I first got her, and I don't blame her -- it's weird for a full-grown animal to be carried around by another one! But she's used to it now. I say 'pick you up' before I do so, and she assumes the position (which includes hunkering down and leaning over... sometimes so much that she topples on her side). It's got to the point where if we're somewhere she doesn't want to be (like when she wants to leave the dog park), she goes into 'pick you up' mode to send me the message.

-- Nature's Path blueberry NotPopTart = good; kale chips = good; fresh watermelon = good. Therefore, lunch = triple good. I have no idea what the rule of thumb is for picking out a good watermelon, but I always look for one that's dark green and has the smallest possible yellow 'belly'. In my mind, that means the melon got superior sun exposure and developed more sugars compared to its pale siblings, but I should stress that that's entirely based on the science that lives in my brain and perhaps not real-world science. But I'm pretty good at picking perfect watermelons, all the same.

-- Two words I often say in my head but respect myself too much to ever utter aloud: supadupe(s) and ri-dinky-donkulous [var: ri-dinky-donkey-ulous]. I'm sure there are others.

-- Henny is a happy dog when she's outside. I often refer to her as Henny P. (I'm not sure if the 'P.' is short for 'Penny' or 'Pigglesworth', which is the first half of her double-barreled last name (Pigglesworth-Torborg, obviously)). I sometimes think of her as HP, but I can't use that in conversation, because those letters have been co-opted by Hewlett Packard and that boy wizard. Anyway, Henny has started filling her pup tent with Important Things (she's always brought her finds to her dog pillow, which is now in the tent). I'm kind of curious to see if she'll keep putting things in there until she no longer has room for herself.

-- After shot! As a reminder, this is what that wall looked like post-scraping, pre-painting. This project is going to take forever if I wind up doing it all myself, and I realized today that there's not much I'll be able to reach on the house without a ladder. It's exhausting to think about. I just need to take a nap.

-- CAKE! I made the bad decision (delicious, but bad) to get my mom the Junior's Cheesecake recipe book/magazine last year, so now we must live with the consequences. Such as cheesecake between two layers of (gluten free!) carrot cake. Okay, so it's a pretty tolerable consequence.

-- The Henny that I know and the Henny that goes out into the world are very different dogs. One of the biggest joys over the months of patience has been watching her learn how to be happy and silly, but she's still so nervous around other people that I'm the only person who knows about it. She sleeps in her 'little house' every night, and she'll voluntarily go in at bedtime, but she's so excited to get out in the morning. Here's a video of our morning routine. It's a nice way to start each day.

-- I've been more diligent lately about setting the custom white balance before I shoot. Mainly because I realized that the paper towel roll is a convenient white sample (you take a photo of a blank, white something to tell the camera what 'white' is in a given lighting condition). It makes a big difference for photos like this one of the pineapple. The evening light comes across as really red with a generic WB setting. I still wind up tweaking the balance in Photoshop, but I'm starting from a much nicer place.

-- The past two days have been really lovely, weather-wise. I ran in my Vibrams both days, and I got out this afternoon to lay down some plastic sheeting in the garden. Two years ago, I put down landscape fabric and mulch by my vegetable beds (see here), and the grass worked its way through pretty quickly. It was annoying, since I mulched the area in the first place because the lawn was so patchy there. It's what I would consider a 'permanent' bit of landscaping (in that I don't want to plant anything in the mulched space), so I pulled up the old fabric and put down plastic instead. And since it's supposed to rain tomorrow (bah!), I ran out in the evening and got new wood chip to finish it off. As much as I don't like the idea of covering up earth with plastic, I'll be so happy not to have grass and weeds popping up all over the place.

Could she be any cuter? Her legs look extra short and tiny in this photo, but I guess that's how little they really are. I had my first porch-sitting morning of the year today, so Henny was properly introduced to the porch, and she likes it.

The weather has been really nice lately -- almost 60F today -- and Henny loves sitting out in the yard to soak up the sun. I thought it might be fun for her to visit the local dog park, so that's what we did this afternoon. She's never been off leash outside, except in the backyard -- mainly because I wasn't sure she would let me get her when it was time to go. I was also worried about her playing with bigger (unknown) dogs, but most of the ones at the park today were pretty gentle. As it turned out, Henny followed me around like we were out for a walk; keeping track of her was no problem.

Having a dog like Henny is a boost to the ego, because she's so strongly bonded to me that she acts as though I'm the best thing ever. She'd wander off every now and then when I stopped to chat with people, but it didn't take long before she would remember herself and start to look around for me. She'd go through a 'you're not my momma' process as she tried to identify everybody she saw, until she'd spot me and come trotting over. Over all, I'm not sure she 'got' the purpose of the dog park. She wasn't bothered by all the dogs and their people, but she's not a dog's dog, and it seemed to me that she would much rather have been on a proper walk.

Most of the big dogs were very gentle with Henny, including a huuuuge malamute that was definitely bigger than I am. But a woman came in with three pit bulls, and they weren't aggressive, per se, but they were totally obnoxious. One of them (an intact male) was way too persistent with Henny, to the point where I was getting worried and Henny actually curled her lip. I picked her up a couple of times and then had to knee the dog away when it tried to jump on us.

I know that people look for different things in their pets, but I still find it hard to understand why people put up with rude dogs. Maybe I'm just spoiled by how well-mannered Henny is. She's far from a perfect dog, psyche-wise, but you kind of forget about that when you look at the tiny legs.

-- My parents tapped some maple trees up at their cabin, and my mom boiled down the sap to my syrup. It's got a very mild flavor, almost like honey. Even though sugar is readily (too readily) available these days, it still seems special, in the sense that it's hard to create your own supply of sweet stuff. So I really like the idea of home-produced 'sugar', especially since somebody else did all the work. Word on the street is that my parents have collected 3+ gallons from their (huge) maple at home, so it'll be interesting to see how city syrup compares to country syrup. (FYI, the sap-to-syrup ratio is about 40 to 1, so 3 gallons of sap would be a little over a cup of syrup.)

-- I can't stop sewing for Henny. Now that I've got a good pattern and have used it a few times, it's so quick to whip up a shirt, and it's really cheap, too. This one, which she wore on our walk today, took me fifteen minutes to sew and about a dollar in materials. I figure I've got to revel in the cuteness of dressed-Henny while I can, because it'll warm up soon enough.

-- Do you remember when I said I had had the same lunch and dinner both days this weekend? Well, I extended that to having had the same lunch four days in a row and the same dinner three days in a row. That was partly due to wanting to eat baby carrots the entire time, but also because I ran out of green veg a few days ago. Part of my brain figures that if there's no broccoli, there's just no point in even making an effort. I finally made it to the grocery store, though, so I'm good to go now.

-- The new water heater was installed today. Do you know how many times you'll try to turn on a tap when the water supply to the house is cut off? A billion times. Henny was on alert during the entire installation (lots of noises from the basement); the only time she barks is when somebody is in the house. I was working on my laptop, sitting on the couch, and at one point I told her to c'mere and patted the sofa cushion. To my surprise, she actually did come over and jumped up to sit next to me. She knows what 'come here' means, but she doesn't usually join me on the sofa unless it's her idea. She needed some reassuring that everything was okay.

-- My least favorite part of making clothes is pinning and cutting the pattern pieces. Yawn. It took me well over two hours tonight to get everything cut out for the blazer/coat I'm going to make. This was a pattern that I bought last week to set aside for 'later', but then I found the perfect fabric for really cheap... and I'm interested to see how it all goes together. Watching the pieces join up to become something is pretty cool, but the cutting! And tissue paper just gets the cats all in a frenzy, which doesn't lend itself to orderliness.

-- Still working on the drawings. I've slowed down a little bit, because my head has been filled with sewing lately. My mom and I went to the fabric warehouse this morning, and I grabbed some new knits for both Henny and me, along with a couple patterns from Jo-Ann Fabrics. I'd like to find a good pattern for a fleece zip-up, so if you know of one, do tell. Also, trousers/jeans without a really high waist or old-fashioned fit.

-- I went over to my friend Julie's this afternoon, and Henny (dressed in a new-new shirt that I haven't photographed yet, and which turns her into a certified cutesplosion) came along. I don't think it took her even five minutes to get comfortable (with the help of a dental bone), and she was charming and amusing thereafter. Who wants a visit from the miniature dog next? (I'll have to tag along.)

-- Little Beany-Weenie. She's the cuddliest. Henny requires attention (being let outside, etc); Birdy is noisy when she wants something; Beany just stands by quietly. But she's also probably the most affectionate, so she was happy to find me watching M*A*S*H without a dog on the sofa or a laptop on my lap. I have to remember how cute she is here for the next time she darts outside when she's not supposed to.

-- When I went to United Noodle yesterday, I mostly went there just to buy another log of veggie ham, because there's a huge Asian supermarket nearer to me, but they don't sell it. Well, United Noodle didn't have it yesterday, either, so I wasn't able to have green eggs and ham today. I made the green eggs by putting the raw egg in the blender with a huge handful of spinach. Then I just scrambled as usual. The taste and texture was slightly different, but not too much. They're so GREEN!

-- When I got the first disc of M*A*S*H from Netflix, having never really watched it before, I wasn't sure that I'd actually like it. I can't quite account for why I do like it, but I really, really do. It should fall into the category of pop culture which I call (and I'll admit that there could be a more succinct name for this) 'Stuff That People Find Hilarious Because They Were First Exposed to It When They Were Fourteen and Had a Zany Sense of Humor, and Now They Can't See It for What It Is Because They're Blinded by Nostalgia'. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy falls into this category, for example (I read it in my 20s and failed to see the charm). But even though Hawkeye and Trapper's clowning around is silly at times, I'm still utterly hooked. I want to bring a gin still and make martinis the next time I stay in a tent.

-- Little piggly-wiggly dog. On the topic of things I unexpectedly like: chihuahuas. Before Henny, I never voluntarily thought about them, and when the thought was forced upon me, I felt that chihuahuas were homely (in the US sense), useless little things. But now when I see one, I want to clap my hands together and say, 'Yayeeeee!' I search out photos of other chihuahuas on flickr and feel a kinship with other chi owners (the sane ones, that is). Henny has had such a leap in her comfort level and desire for affection over the past few weeks; as I type, she's lying alongside me, with her head on my leg.

-- The recent heat wave (40s and 50s!) is melting the snow very nicely, but I still couldn't believe it when I saw these bulbs poking through the dirt already. The ground is frozen! Okay, I guess things were starting to grow mid-March last year, but it still takes me by surprise. These particular bulbs were from a 'Spring Garden' planter last year; I put them in the ground after they'd bloomed and died back. I think there are hyacinths, tulips... daffodils, maybe. It'll be exciting to find out.

-- I drew this last night, after dinner. I have a notepad and my pens on the table, so I usually doodle a bit when I've finished eating. After I made it, I wondered if a goat has ever actually eaten a tin can (well, tried), or if that's just something that happens in cartoons. I imagined making an entire zine titled 'Things I Know About Animals I Don't Really Know Much About'. I drew six or seven more pages today, so I think I'll make it for real. I'm trying to decide if I'd rather have it printed through Lulu (instead of making them at home); it's more expensive, but the quality would be far superior. I like the idea of doing a presale and then ordering that many to be delivered to my house (which saves on the per-unit cost), and then I'd send them on to their final destinations with a custom doodle. Perhaps?

-- It's been odd hearing people grumble about daylight savings time, because if you're me, it's just the best. I've been going to bed at the same time (but it feels like an hour early) and waking up an hour later (but it feels like my usual rising time). An extra hour of sleep! But that's just because I'm incapable of sleeping in (so I need a time change to trick my body) and I don't have to get up with an alarm. Even bigger bonus: it's light in the evening now. I don't see how anybody can dislike that. It makes taking pictures of my dinner (above) easier, even when dinner looks more like breakfast.

-- I took Henny in to get her nails trimmed today. She gets really nervous about it, which makes me nervous, so I don't want to do it myself. The woman was able to take quite a bit off her back nails, but the quick is overgrown in the front ones, so it was a smaller trim for those. It was enough that Henny no longer tap dances everywhere she goes, and it's almost kind of spooky having a nearly-silent dog wandering around the house. Like a ghost. Or a ninja. Or a spider-shark.

-- And still on the topic of Henny, I've been trying to teach her how to sit on command. I can't even explain what a slippery task this is. Everything I've read on the topic of training nervous dogs seems to assume that they're normal dogs, just a bit timid. If I tell Henny to sit, she starts to fret, because she doesn't know what she's supposed to do. If I try to make her sit (the old 'push down the dog's bottom into a seated position), she panics and freezes up. What I've resorted to is sitting on the floor with her (with the cats locked in the basement), and I tell her to sit over and over again until she just happens to sit. Then I slide her a treat. Repeat. I hope we'll have a Helen Keller moment, where she'll suddenly link her behavior with the command and the reward. Making progress with Henny is a continual exercise in patience, but she's worth it.

I realized yesterday that I've never explained how I came to the decision that I was going to adopt Henny. It wasn't something that I took lightly, not after things with Minnie didn't work out (although she now happily lives with my parents and their other dog, Sasha, so all's well that ends well, I guess). In fact, the reason I wanted to foster in the first place is that I thought it would be fun to have a dog around, but I absolutely did not want to make a commitment to owning one. I didn't go into fostering with any desire to adopt.

For the first week or so that I had Henny, I was really uncertain about her. She was so traumatized and shut off from the world that it seemed like living had no upside for her; I honestly wondered if a dog in her state wouldn't be better off being euthanized. And even though the cats didn't seem overly bothered by Henny's presence, I felt really guilty about disrupting our quiet little routine.

Luckily, Henny started to relax a little, especially once we started going for walks. She learned how to play and showed interest in toys for the first time. After a while, I started to think about keeping her, but not for the exact right reasons. She was cute, polite, and quiet. She was a good walker. And, most of all, I was extremely defensive where she was concerned; I didn't like the thought of her going off to somebody else's home, living with people who wouldn't understand how to treat her. They don't sound like bad reasons, but they also weren't good enough.

In early December, I watched the Nova program 'Dogs Decoded', and I was reminded what dogs are 'supposed' to be like. After that, a switch was flipped in me, and I knew that Henny and I weren't meant to be together. Maybe, I thought, I'd get a dog someday, but it wasn't going to be Henny. She was too messed up from her past, and I didn't think she'd ever be able to connect with me the way a dog should. I cared a lot about her, but she couldn't return that feeling. Decision made.

But then... Christmastime rolled around. I took her to my parents on Christmas Eve, where we were around a lot of extended family, and then we spent the night there. I had tried to get Henny out to socialize here and there, but she'd never had anything as intense as a day with a house full of people. Surprisingly, she seemed to react well to the energy; she was cautious but interested, not closed off and staring at a wall, as she had been when I first met her. And more importantly, it was like something clicked in her brain. In this sea of people she didn't recognize, she knew me. After Christmas, she started to trust me a lot more, and people began to comment on the way she looked at me with devotion.

Then I went to LA for two weeks, and I found myself constantly wishing Henny were around. Public spaces and shops, etc, are much more dog-friendly there, and I kept thinking about how much fun it would be if I had Henny with me. That was when I knew I wanted to adopt her -- for real. It didn't matter that she wasn't a 'normal' dog, because she made my days happier just being who she was. And in the weeks since her adoption, she's continued to open up and trust me more, something that I think will continue.

I have a couple of friends who occasionally talk about adopting a dog, and this is my biggest piece of advice: find a rescue operation that will let you foster first. It's kind of insane to think that you can spend ten minutes with a dog and then sign a piece of paper that bonds you together for the rest of the dog's life -- I learned that the hard way, with Minnie. It would be like getting married after the first date. Especially if you've never had a dog before, it's hard to understand that they vary in personality -- and (this is so important) the dog you see on adoption day will almost certainly not be the dog you wind up with in a week or two. Quiet, shy dogs can become destructive terrors once they get comfortable in your home. Not always, but sometimes.

When I adopted Minnie, I was sure that I wanted a dog, and she seemed sweet and gentle. She is sweet, but she's actually rather neurotic, in a way that I can't deal with. My parents love her, but she stressed me out. Every dog isn't a good match for every person. I knew fairly quickly after I adopted her that it wasn't right, but what was done was done. I'm really happy -- and Minnie is very lucky -- that my parents chose to adopt her from me.

When I started fostering Henny, I was sure that I did not want a dog, and she seemed like a total mess. She's still messed up, but the things about her that probably wouldn't work for somebody else are what make her the perfect dog for me. There's just no way I could have known that if I'd been choosing a dog to permanently adopt instead of temporarily foster.

And that's how we wound up together.

-- Bread, bread, bread. Bread. That raisin bread recipe only uses half of the tangzhong that you prepare (in hindsight, it would be simple to just make half as much), so I used the rest to make whole wheat dinner rolls. Well, part whole wheat. I followed the same recipe but used 1 cup whole wheat bread flour and 1.5 cups white. And made twelve smaller rolls instead of six. And no raisins, obviously. They came out just as perfectly, and now I have So Much Bread.

-- My friend Julie came over this evening (and I forgot to have her take some of these rolls, arg!), and Henny did well. She barks and growls when strangers come in the house, but she stopped after a few minutes and then was happy to sit on the sofa with us. After a while, I put some kibble in her tree trunk, and she was relaxed enough to do her usual thing with it. All in all, pretty good! I want to be able to take Henny lots of places once it's warm outside, so I'm always looking for opportunities to socialize her right now.

-- I continue to love my toaster oven, but I don't think I ever mentioned which one I wound up buying. I got the Black & Decker CTO6335S. I went to Target with the intention of buying a model that was about $20 cheaper, but when I saw it in person, it just seemed really flimsy. Good for a college apartment, maybe, but not as a real appliance that would get a lot of use. The one I wound up with feels very sturdy and well put together, and it's nice that it has a digital display instead of dials. It heats up so fast that I can easily cook a (small) sweet potato in half an hour. Less than that, probably, but I like it when the potato has been practically cooked to death.

-- I have achieved a fauxhawk, so I can coast through the rest of my life, knowing that I've at least met that goal. I'm still loving the cut, by the way. After my run yesterday, I showered and put gel in my hair and then dried it halfway (ie, for about 45 seconds), just so it was going in the correct direction. I didn't wash my hair today; before Julie came over, I put some wax in to give it a little more style, and that was that. It's usually a little funny when I wake up in the morning, but wetting down the offending area fixes the problem. I was a chump for having longer hair all those years.

-- Two nights ago, I had a dream that I was eating a really good fake turkey sandwich. That's the only part I remember; even when I'm asleep, I'm most interested in what there is to eat. I made a point to get fake turkey yesterday, since I'm all for following one's dreams. It was pretty good, but the 'original' sandwich was on softer bread (this was Ezekiel, which is great, but not really soft) and had a slice of white cheese, which was really tasty. Like a less-processed American cheese, maybe (my real sandwich had to settle for a piece of wrapper cheese).

-- I got my hair cut. Big time. Here's a before and after. I was so sick of straightening it every time I washed it, and I'd started thinking about getting it all chopped off when I was in LA. I hadn't had short-short hair since I was about eight, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It's going to take a little while for me to get used to seeing myself in the mirror, but I really like it. And, most importantly, I can create a fauxhawk with enough product. That's all I've ever really wanted. (That and the perfect fake turkey sandwich.)

-- While I was taking the photo of the cats, I noticed that Henny was peeking at me from behind my laptop. She seems happier more often, lately. Maybe it's because she finally knows how to get on the sofa, or maybe my energy with her is different, now that she's officially here to stay. She's gotten markedly better at coming over to me and then staying put, to let me give her a pat (instead of shying away when I reach out).

-- When I applied for Henny's license, her breed was listed as 'Chihuahua, Short Coat (Toy)'. I take offense at that -- Henny is not a toy! She's a real dog with a real job: to sit around and look adorable for my amusement. Sheesh.

-- I made some of that Ronzoni Garden Delight pasta for dinner. It has a great texture -- not mushy, like plain white pasta, but not mealy like whole wheat stuff, either. It tastes slightly different, I suppose, but I couldn't tell after it was covered with 'Eazy Breezy Cheezy Sauce' (recipe in Appetite for Reduction). The sauce is basically a quicker version of the vegan 'cheese' sauce that's used in the Veganomicon's Mac Daddy recipe, which I like way more than real mac 'n' cheese.

-- Henny's vet records came in the mail today (sent by the rescue organization). Included was her pedigree, so now I know that she was born on July 13th, 2007. She has an official name, but it's just the last name of the guy she was sold to (presumably the person who ran the puppy mill) plus her color (chocolate). That's almost as depressing as knowing she was number 115 before she was rescued from doggie prison. Oh well. I applied for her license on-line this evening, and she will henceforth be known as Henny!

-- I added two new items to my Etsy shop, including this horse, who's thinking about sunnier days. Have you taken a look at my shop yet? Have I pestered about it enough? I have quite a few ideas for items I want to add, but I'm hesitant to spend too much time making things if there's no interest. Prod, prod.

-- After I shoveled about eight inches of snow yesterday morning, another few fell over the course of the day. It was super sparkly snow, though, and it really looked like glitter after it had fallen. I was woken up at 3:40am on Monday, because my neighbor was shoveling his deck/path. I don't know him or his wife quite well enough to ask why they shovel so early in the morning (usually it's more like 5:00am, so this was early, even for them!). I can't really complain, though, because he always clears away my front steps for me. It's most perplexing. (Or it's just something boring, like he works the night shift.)

I can't stop looking at this photo, even though the dog herself is just across the room. That is all.

-- Hooray, I found the Carr's crackers I was looking for! These really should be called biscuits, though, due to their similarity to digestive biscuits. Slightly less sweet, but the texture is about right. I found them at my regular supermarket, which has a much more technical cracker organizational system than I ever knew about. When I couldn't find any Carr's products in the main cookie/crackers aisle, I nearly gave up, but they wound up being by the rice cakes + snack toast. In the cereal aisle. Should have thought to look there first, obviously.

-- Most of today was really grey and dreary outside. Mild, but foggy and gross. I wanted to take Henny for a walk, but it seemed too depressing -- until about 3:00pm, when the sun suddenly came out. So we went on our walk, and Henny was very happy about it. After we got back, I was sitting on the sofa with my laptop, and Henny jumped up (using her step) and came over to me to be petted. It was the first time she'd ever done that. If you have a pet who was never abused, try not to take that sort of thing for granted. The way our animals trust (or learn to trust) us is amazing.

-- Well, it's official! Henny is now Henrietta 'Henny Penny' Pigglesworth Torborg. Well, except for all that name stuff; that's in no way official. But I signed the adoption form today, and she's mine for keeps, now. It will come as a surprise to absolutely nobody, I'm guessing, but it did surprise me when I realized I didn't want to give her up. When I decided to foster, I wasn't sure that I would ever want to have a dog of my own again; I was a confirmed cat person. And having grown up with a 110lb dog, I would have never ever imagined myself with a chihuahua. Never. It still seems ridiculous to me. But Henny makes my days happier and sillier, and I can't wait for it to warm up outside so we can have adventures together.

-- I made pizza tonight on a frozen crust that was leftover from when Rob was here. When I was a kid, there were a few years when the only way I would eat pizza was if I first squished out all the tomato sauce; I wasn't a fan. These days, that's my favorite part. I'm very apathetic about cheese in most situations, and I rarely put it on homemade pizza, but don't mess around with the sauce. Pizza bianca? NOT PIZZA.

-- I've had a bag of roasted peanuts sitting in my cupboard since December, because the nutrolls that I wanted to make were such a disaster halfway through that I didn't finish them. I don't usually eat peanut butter (I just prefer the taste of sunflower or almond butter most of the time), but I wanted to make peanut butter cookies, so I threw the peanuts into my food processor and let it to its thing for five minutes. It couldn't have been simpler, and the resulting peanut butter is so smooth and runny and perfect. It's even easy to spread straight from the fridge! (And the cookies got my grandma's seal of approval.)

-- Last weekend, I cleaned out the utility tub in the laundry area of my basement and did a small amount of cleaning. And today, I went back down there with a vacuum and rubber gloves and a hammer for smashing spiders pulling out nails. I took down some hanging shelves from the ceiling (the original owners used heavy-gauge wire and boards to hang shelves everywhere) and disgusting old curtains from the two little windows in that area. I got rid of a LOT of cobwebs and dirt and grit, and it's hardly terrifying down there at all now. In that one spot. Like, 16" x 8" out of roughly 1000 square feet of basement. And I only saw one (small) spider the entire time.

I 'injured' myself on Saturday, so I'm taking the week off from running. I put that in quotes because I'm 99% sure it's just an overly-tight IT band (the stretchy bit that runs from your hip to your knee, on the outside of the thigh), so a little rest and a lot of stretching should have me good as new. But since I'm not running, anyway, I figured I might as well use the opportunity to come up to the cabin (where running on the ice-covered dirt roads would be treacherous).

Henny came with me, but I left the cats at home, thinking that would lighten the load a bit. I don't understand it, but coming up to the cabin for any length of time means having to haul half my house with me -- and this trip was no different. I'm working on some crafty projects, so that was an extra box, and I usually bring most of my own food with me, since it seems silly to buy duplicates while stuff goes bad in the fridge at home.

The cabin has two big sliding glass doors, so you can achieve a nice, roasty greenhouse environment when it's sunny out, which it definitely is right now. This is doubly exciting for a little Mexican dog like Henny, because A) the sliding doors go all the way to the floor (obviously), meaning she can look out them and B) there is so much sun for her to boil her brains in. I was reading for work in the early afternoon, and Henny flopped about on the rug. She would doze for ten minutes and then lift her head up, decide the spot three inches away was probably even warmer, and reposition herself. My house is pretty bright, but it can't compare to the crazy sunshine that's available up here.

-- Whoa, it was light enough to take a picture of my dinner last night! That's crazy. (I eat dinner fairly early, but still.) I roasted a sweet potato and cauliflower in the toaster oven for dinner, and they were both out-of-control good. And then I cooked up some vegetarian 'chicken' gravy (from a packet) and put it on top. Awesome. Sunday will mark two full weeks sans microwave, and I have no intention of going back. My life has been way more delicious since I stopped using it. (I actually unplugged it and took it off the counter after a day, so I don't really think about it anymore.)

-- Rob left a comment on the accent vlog, saying I should guess how he would say the words. So I did. I can hear the spots where I falter pretty clearly, but I was lazy and only did one take (from my sofa yesterday evening). It's funny, because it hardly sounds to me like I'm doing an accent, but then I rewatched my original vlog, and it sounds very flat. Consider yourself privileged, because I never do accents in public -- or private. I don't think Rob's even ever heard me do an accent.

-- Poor Henny. She's never had a problem with any of the sweaters I put her in (not that there are many; she's a rugged chihuahua), but she isn't happy about this chunky pink one I knitted Wednesday night. I don't know what makes it so uncomfortable, but she rubs up against things to try to get it off. It's a shame, because she looks nice, and the sweater's got a cable running down the back and everything.

-- Henny is house-trained, but she's had a couple of accidents this week, because she'll refuse to go outside, so I get tricked into thinking she doesn't have to, and then she pees under the kitchen table. I don't want her to fall back into the habit of being carried to the door, so I had been making her walk on the leash, until I realized that she'll follow obediently if I'm just carrying the leash (ie, it's not attached to her). I find that I'm much more patient with her about these things than I would have expected, but that's probably just because she's so ridiculously cute most of the time.

-- Today is Birdy's first birthday! I got her in March last year, but this is the day she was born. For a while (around 8/9 months), I thought she was going to be a big cat, but she's probably more or less done growing now, and she's only a tiny bit bigger than Beany. I weighed all the pets the other day, and both Birdy and Henny are just under 8.5 pounds, and Beany is 7.5 (perfection concentrated in a small package). I was watching 'old' videos of Henny last night, and she's a little chunkier than she was back then (she's gained almost a pound, which is quite a lot when you're that small), but I figure it's winter weight. She needs it to keep warm, and once we're able to walk and explore the whole time, she'll trim right back up.

-- Did I mentioned I registered for the Fargo Marathon at the end of May? I can't remember. But I did, and I've started using the FIRST program to train for it. I learned my lesson about overtraining last year, so I like that this schedule is based on three quality runs a week instead of four or more. It's easy enough to add an extra run if I'm feeling particularly good and full of beans, but I don't want a program that's going to be too hard on my body. Since it's been cold out, I've been running in the afternoon instead of the morning (need to wait for the temperature to rise, whereas I try to beat the heat in the summer). I used to worry about psyching myself out of a run if I didn't head out first thing in the morning, but the thing about not overtraining is that you are always ready to get moving when it's time.

-- I've been going over to my folks' to use their treadmill since I got back from SoCal. It's been stupidly cold here, and even when it's not, the paths aren't in good enough shape for speedwork. I bring Henny with me when I go over, and she just loves playing with the 'big dogs' (they have two 50-60lb lab mixes). I really wish I had had my camera today, because Henny was full of it, trying to get Sasha to chase her around and then running through the house. She stayed there when I was in LA, and I don't know if she behaved like that while I was gone, but she sure has fun visiting the dogs, now.

-- I'm not done talking about pets yet. I took this last night; the animal interaction around here makes me laugh. Beany loves everybody, including Henny, and she'll gently groom her, given the chance. Henny, on the other hand, is strangely wary of Beany, but she really wants Birdy to play with her. And Birdy only has eyes for Beany -- and me, if I'm busy with something and don't really have a free arm to hold her. She's still the baby, after all.

-- Cookies! I have nothing to say about cookies, other than that I've been eating many more of them than usual. I also like how it looks like David Bowie is reclining in giant cookies. That's... not glittery, but still pretty glam, I reckon.

-- I've been hit with some pretty hardcore wanderlust. I didn't travel much in 2010, with the exception of Las Vegas, which was really just a long weekend in a bizarro world (and one nice day at Lake Mead). For the most part, I'm okay with that, because I like being at home and in the Twin Cities. But my new tent has got me wanting to explore! Hiking and camping and seeing trees + mountains and sitting around a fire. It's rather inconvenient, what with it being the middle (...or the beginning) of winter. Bah.

-- Henny has this thing where she'll come back inside on her own, but I have to stand to the side of the door, or she won't come through. Because of all those time I slammed the door in her face as a funny joke (not true, obviously). It's better than the first few weeks I had her, which involved long games of slow chasing in the back yard. She's pretty reliable now, but she's been having problems the past two days. It's always hard to know what's going on in that tiny head of hers, but I think it might have something to do with the milder temperatures (above freezing!); she just doesn't want to come in. Luckily, she's coupled this regression with a new desire to cuddle, so I forgive her.

-- The cats: My dad got them a laser pointer contraption that has a little motor to move on its own (except it won't move 75% of the time, which renders it... a regular laser pointer). Both of the cats like it, but Birdy is determined to get that red dot. I'm fairly certain she's thinking about it when it's not around. It beats putting toys in the water dish, at least. In other cat news, if you throw snow on an escapee cat, she'll quickly decide it's better to be back inside.

-- Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow. It had started snowing last night, and it didn't let up until... well, I think maybe 5:00pm this evening, but it was dark, so really I just stopped checking. Estimates of snowfall for Minneapolis are around 17 inches. Luckily, I shoveled off the back steps a few times throughout the day (so Henny could go out), because I otherwise would be literally snowed it -- I definitely can't budge the front screen door open. I don't suppose I'll be going anywhere for a while, which is fine with me, although I'm out of almond milk. Thank god there's still a couple days' worth of ice cream in the freezer!

-- I made this banner for Alex's birthday, which was yesterday. You can't tell, but the cardstock is pearlescent, and the fasteners I used have little 'jewels' on the ends. I originally saw the 'Keep Calm and Party On' banner at Urban Outfitters, but I figured I could easily make my own. (And it seems about time that a crafter stole an idea from them instead of the other way around.) I was still in a banner-making mood this morning, so I made this one for myself.

-- The past couple of times I've made scrambled eggs, I've mixed in cottage cheese instead of milk, and it's pretty great. I usually mix a whole egg with two egg whites when scrambling, which is what I did today, but they're much more orange/yellow-y than usual. I suspect it's from the coloring on the seasoned curly fries I had to use when I realized I didn't have any 'real' potatoes in the house. ...yum?

-- Henny was extra charming today. I spent almost two hours (!) wrapping gifts, and she had to check out everything I brought into the living room. She had several cuddles with me throughout the day (like, actually sleeping on my stomach while I lay on the sofa to watch Netflix), and once was curled up right next to Beany, who reached over to give Henny a few licks on her ear (awww). Right now, the cats have ganged up on Henny to keep her out of her 'little house' (crate). Beany is inside, and Birdy's on top. I'm going to remind them of this the next time I try to take them somewhere in a crate and they complain.

-- Pumpkin pie! That's neither pumpkin nor, technically, a pie! I roasted two of my butternut squashes to make soup a week or so ago, which used two kilos and resulted in some leftover squash that I put in the fridge. We didn't have pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving (but we did have zuccotto!), so I decided that's what I wanted to make on Friday. Lo and behold, I had exactly the right amount of leftover squash (420g) to make the Libby's recipe. I used 1/2 cup sugar instead of 3/4 (can't tell) and pureed the cooked squash with some of the evaporated milk to get it super smooth. I baked it as recommended in the recipe... just without a pie shell. Yum.

-- I took Henny to an adoption event on Saturday (despite the fact that I really don't want anybody to adopt her), and she totally impressed me. The last time I went to one, when I brought her home to foster, she spent the entire two hours trembling at the back of her pen. She couldn't bear to look at anybody; she was completely closed off. This time, she walked up to sniff people's hands (!) and wagged her tail (!) and was generally adorable. There wasn't any interest in her, though (she was in a pen with a pug that people thought was sooo cute -- I do not get the attraction to pugs!). I guess nobody wants a dark-colored little pig dog. All the more for me to cuddle with.

-- I leave for Vegas early Friday morning! I've managed to not injure myself thus far, so there's less than a week left now. I'm just going to remain completely motionless. We had our send-off dinner tonight, and I got my Team Challenge singlet for the race, which has me all excited. As I was telling some of the other members, I have no real attraction to Las Vegas; I'm just excited about the race -- and the race expo, beforehand. I love me some running swag. I do like going on trips, though, so that's fun. I like packing a bag. And snacks. Love travel snacks.

Henny is a great walker, which is funny, since she's only been at it for about a week. It's one of her favorite things, though. If I had to rank what Henny likes most in life, it would go something like 1. Food; 2. Going for walks; 3. Getting out of her crate in the morning; 4. Feeling silly and chasing Birdy around; 5. Lying on the sofa in the evening.

-- Alex and I had a magical day in magical White Bear Lake (okay, neither thing was actually magical, but they were nice). Our earlier apple-picking trip this fall was kind of a bust, and Pine Tree Orchard looked so charming when I ran a trail race there a couple weeks ago. The 'u-pick' is closed for the season, of course, but the store stays open all winter long, and we were impressed. I came away with apples, a cider donut for the morning, and gifts. Oh, apples.

-- Speaking of trail races, I bought one of my official photos from last week's race, and you can see it here. It's like I'm happy to be running, right? The trails are just so much fun! This afternoon, we stopped into Tri-Fitness in White Bear, where I had an interesting conversation with the owner until I realized Alex's head would explode if I didn't wrap it up soon. This is why it's so important to have running friends (which I do); runners love talking about running!

-- Answers to Henny-related questions from my last post: I got into fostering by contacting one of the local rescues (Underdog Rescue). I filled out the application on their site and was contacted after they reviewed it. I'm sure there are many rescue operations just like it all over the country/world, and most of them need reliable, safe homes for the time between a dog's rescue and its adoption. Also, Henny is around two or three years old. So it's remarkable how quickly she's made progress in certain areas. Learning to not run away from humans is going to take a bit longer, though!

-- Wallets! The one on the bottom (well, the top of the photo) is what I've been using. I made the Minneapolis iron-on transfer, and it has a sort of plastic-y finish that I would normally hate, but it made the fabric nice and durable. Then, a week or two ago, I experimented with some silkscreening, except when I say 'silkscreen', you should imagine old nylons stretched over an embroidery hoop and a piece of iron-on paper. It was a little messy, but I got a few decent prints on fabric. And you know how I love anything Minnesota-shaped. The zipper pull is from a KidRobot collection; I'm a sucker for those things.

-- Henny was very entertaining today. She kicked off the morning off with this, and around 2:30pm, she started it up again and carried on that way for about an hour. She was pawing under the hutch in the kitchen, so I looked and found a cat toy beneath it. I held it out for her, and she took it and ran into the living room. This was a dog who didn't seem to understand the concept of a 'toy' just a week ago. In that video link, she paws at her pillow, and this afternoon, she managed to get inside the case and went crazy. I thought she would freak herself out, but she loved it. We went for a walk to help her burn off some of that energy, and she did great. It's incredible what a little time can do for an animal.

-- The insurance man came by today, and it looks like I'll definitely get a new garage roof, and the odds are good that they'll replace the roof on the house, too. He has to see if there's a match for the house shingles (in which case they'd just replace the missing ones), but he said the chances of that happening are low. I'll still have to pay my deductible, of course, but it's worth it for new roofs! (Question: Why is it not 'rooves'? Oh, English!)

-- On the way back up the alley with Henny this afternoon, I saw that there was another butternut squash that I hadn't been able to see before the vine died (the leaves covered it). Obviously, it's no good now that it's sat through several frosts, but that still means that the vine produced seven full-sized (big!) squashes this year. Wow!

-- I was over at my folks' for the Vikings game yesterday (sigh), and we had Indian food from Dosa King for dinner. (Warning: Annoying music on their site. Side note: Why are restaurant websites twenty times more likely to have annoying music/sounds that any other kind of website?) It was good, and I was glad to have leftovers for lunch today. My new strategy for Indian restaurants is to skip the curry and rice. I really, really like sambar, a spicy soup (in the little green bowl), so sambar + appetizers is my current game plan. My leftovers today consisted of half a 'vegetable cutlet', half a veggie samosa, and a piece of masala dosa. (Various chutneys in front.) My favorite part of dinner, though, was the vada -- a savory donut made from lentil flour. It was crispy-crunchy on the outside and fluffy inside. A definite repeat.

-- Today was a big day for Henny. She started the morning in a good mood and actually played... I was going to say like a dog, but it's quite a lot like the cats play. She started showing interest in the cat toys yesterday, but this was the first time she really played for minutes on end. And then, this afternoon, she went for her first walk ever. We went about a mile and a half, and it took over an hour. But she actually did REALLY well! It took forever because A) she was interested in all the smells, and I wanted her to enjoy the experience and B) she would get scared and stop whenever somebody walked by. But for the most part, she trotted along very nicely; it was as though the doggiest part of her brain clicked into place, and she understood the purpose was to keep moving forward. Little dogs can't go very fast, though!

-- Today was the first day of NaNoWriMo! There's an almost-daily write-in scheduled at the coffee shop just a few blocks away, and I happened to be headed there today, anyway. So I met a couple of other NaNo-ers, although I had more important (= money-earning) stuff to work. A lot of the writing I've done over the past few years was lost when my laptop unexpectedly crashed (no, literally -- it fell on the ground and then started having problems) last summer, which is a huge bummer for me. But it feels good to be getting some new words down. I just need to patch up the plot now. The end bit. Where all the stuff happens.

A post about Henny, because when there's a new, tiny dog in the house, that's pretty much all that's going on. It would be hard to overstate how timid Henny is; a few friends immediately expressed the desire to meet her (and who wouldn't want to?), but she's just not up to it. She's come a long way in three days, though, and I have no reason to think she won't keep going down the path towards being socialized.

Puppy mill dogs are often kept in cages their entire lives, so they don't really know how to be dogs. I've been looking at Lisa's flickr set of Wilfredo, her adorable chihuahua, and it's hard to imagine Henny playing and goofing around the way he does. She doesn't understand about 'toys' -- nothing really holds any interest to her unless it smells like food.

But it's becoming clear what Henny's favorite parts of life are. She loves being outside! When she goes out there, she runs around, checking things out, with her tail held high. She's also a foodie, although I don't think she knows much about people food. She looks forward to her kibble in the morning and at dinnertime, and I bought some mini denta-bones, which she also loves. And because everybody in this household is required to be a fan of yogurt, she helped out by cleaning an empty yogurt cup.

When Henny's inside, her favorite place to be is on her cushion on the sofa. It's just an old bed pillow with a fleece case (different from the fleece blanket she's on in the photo), but as soon as I set her there, she lies down and relaxes. She does all of her grooming on the cushion, which is one of the only doggie behaviors I've seen from her.

The way she acts around me has been interesting, and it changes every day. Her main instinct is to be wary, and she cowers when I come up to her. (I make her wear a harness and leash when she's in the fenced backyard, because I'd wind up chasing her around, otherwise, which wouldn't be great.) At the same time, I can tell she wants affection from me, and there's a lot of approaching and then skittering away, approaching and then skittering away. When I'm moving around the house, she follows me everywhere, and if I sit at the kitchen table or am busy elsewhere, she whines until it's time to sit on the sofa (where I do most of my work, on my laptop). She likes being on her cushion, but it's no good if I'm not there, too. Once we're there together, I pet her, and instead of turning her head away (she won't look at things she's afraid of), she looks me right in the eye. I feel like that's where progress is made.

So that's where we're at right now. There are so many things I wish I could do with Henny, but it'll just take time.

-- Meet Henrietta. I've been calling her 'Henny'; the woman who rescued her was calling her 'Henri', but people immediately assumed she was a he when I used that name, so I've ditched the 'r'. I'm fostering her at the moment, and it's going to take a lot of time and patience to get her acting like a dog. She's two or three years old and spent her entire life in a puppy mill, and it shows. She doesn't play, and she freezes when you touch her. She does enjoy being petted, though, especially when she's curled up on the sofa. I've never seen the point of chihuahuas, but she's utterly adorable, and I realize now that little dogs are basically just like cats... except they're dogs.

-- Yesterday morning was the Run for the Apples race. It was five miles of hilly trails, and I loved it. I left the house just past 7:00am to get to the race, which wasn't in town, and as soon as I stepped out the door, I knew it was a good day to run. The weather couldn't have been more perfect (cloudy and cool), and I was happy to be feeling good. Considering the terrain, I kept a decent pace, and I felt very strong. I think maybe I've been a trail runner this whole time and just never knew it!