Album is linked on the left!
Spring can get messy. When we lived in Vermont, we didn’t call it spring, we called it the mud season. I remember being in my teens, and having it snow on my birthday in early May in Rochester. But somehow, around DC, spring moves fast and makes you notice that it’s here – with the rain storms, the quick blooming flowering trees, and different wildlife. Or maybe it’s just that this year, with the dog, we’re outside more to notice it. Brought the camera with us on our afternoon walk on Thursday of this week….thought I may be too late to catch mama goose with her eggs as some of the others had hatched, but nope, she defended that nest as much as she always has. All of the turtles (and yikes, the snake) make afternoons fun.
First Course – Baked Squash Gratin
Second Course – Hogs in Sleeping Bags
Dessert - (Eliminated by request of DH)
Beverage – Belgian beer from beer of the month club!
Flipping through channels yesterday afternoon, I noticed that Everyday Italian was cooking up some butternut squash in a really simple but yummy sounding way – and since I had everything I needed (or a variation thereof – I used Asiago instead of Parm) in the kitchen already, I went strait into the kitchen to make it for dinner. First time I’ve done that. Actually, we ended up having quite the food network inspired dinner last night, first with this recipe for the squash, and then from Paula Dean’s Hogs in Sleeping Bags. Double Yum!
If tonight was any indication, it’s going to be a fun season! 
Not to brag or anything, but Pinot was the best in her class – her entire final exam took 40 seconds, and 30 of those were in a stay. (Sit, Lay Down, Stay, Sit Pretty.) Aw, so proud!
Mmmm….nice weather calls for a lovely hike at Catoctin Mountain Park up north of Frederick. It turned out to be quite the off-roading (off-pathing?) experience, climbing up and down the rocks of the falls and around off the trails trying to get where we really wanted to go. Probably only was about 6 miles total, but it felt like much much more than that – we were all pretty glad to get home! (Qualms in the dry area about the stupid, stupid guy that we saw smoking….and all of the parents that thought ‘hey, that’s a great idea, lets climb to the top of the dangerous falls with our young toddlers, i’m in bad shape bu i can hold them’ – wondering if either of those had anything to do with the multitude of sirens and firetrucks we saw heading in on our way out of the park.)
And Cashew is glad to have us back. With that said, check out this video about engineers explaining cats.
Funny how the rescue organization didn’t seem to know much about Pinot’s past, but they did know her birthday down to the exact day. And what a great day it was – Friday, so I got out of work at noon, upper 70s/low 80 degrees and sunny – the perfect day to get outside!
I got of work at noon, as I just mentioned, and headed home for a walk and some prepping – I figured that I’d combine Pinot’s birthday with our fancy schmancy dinner this week (but you already knew that if you read the cooking blog!) When Nick got home around 5, the three of us set off to one of the lakes by our house with the cooler and grilling gear, and set up shop to make what turned out to be delicious toasted pecan burgers and potato salad. Pinot is loving her new and improved canned/dry food mixture, and since she was a good dog and ate all of her food, we had no qualms about letting her have some doggie birthday cake that I’d made for her later that night, after heading to the dog park and petsmart to pick out a birthday toy. (Of course, Cashew got something new too 
)
Noone was really loving the party hats (though they were pretty cute to try to put on, and Nick’s experience at target buying them was pretty funny), but that seemed to be forgotton once Pinot started munching on the doggie meatloaf cake with EZ Cheese frosting and milk bone crust. Haha.
LOVING the warmer weather this week! Thursday after work, spur of the moment, we packed up a small picnic and met Emily, Joe, and Connor at Wheation Regional Park! Connor the puppy is such a sweetheart – he and Pinot seemed to get along well – though their play appeared to Emily and I as a bit rough at times, they were both wagging their tales the entire time and Nick and Joe thought nothing of it.
I wish I had brought the camera to get some pictures, but since I forgot, I figured I could at least get a picture of Connor up!
