Jack & Jill Put Up A Blog

Above is Spot in heaven…the park with his yellow ball.

So, last night we are sitting around watching Bill Clinton give his speech at the Democratic Convention. Spot has found a new friend and that would be Bill. During Clinton’s speech, he says “…Knock it out of the park!” Well, Spot was laying on the floor bored and appeared to be sleeping, but then he heard his favorite word “Park” come from Bill. Spot perked up and stared at the TV with his eyes round with excitement, “I don’t care who this guy is, what affiliation cause I like where he is going with this.”

It’s amazing. All day long the dogs lay around sleeping, but they have their listening ears on just in case they hear a word that they know and love. Not every word Spot knows brings on this excitement.

Any time we give Spot a pill or have to clip his nails, anything with a fuss, we lay down a towel and say “medicine.” This way he knows when he is going to be bugged versus be pet. We had a big problem with this because Spot has a memory like an elephant, he remembers for days if you have clipped, poked or brushed him, he will not forgive you. Therefore, he would get very upset if you came near him. So, we decided to give it a word (medicine) and a visual (towel) to let him know. Whenever you do anything serious with Spot, he looks the other way like – “This isn’t really happening if I don’t look at it. Nope, you are not clipping my nails right now. Doot, da, doo…FYI, you are going to pay for this.”

Remember how it was growing up with dogs? Man, times have changed because this is not what I remember. The big dogs were not allowed inside. Going on a trip in the 1960’s & 1970’s? -Throw some newspaper on the floor, open a window, a heaping bowl of food, a large bowl of water and the dogs are just fine. Could you imagine doing that now? Or maybe this was a Minnesota thing and I sound crazy right now. I wouldn’t be surprised. Crazy Minnesotans and their hot dishes.

Anyway, Spot asked me to send a shout out to Bill Clinton to let him know he will be right here waiting to go at any time to that park…oh, and make sure to bring the ‘Chuck It,’ I tend to slobber.

Who’s dog sits this way? Mine. That’s who’s. What is his inner monologue here? I think he’s saying “What’s up? I am just chillin’…ummmmmm when is someone going to give me a treat?”

He sits like this all of the time. In my motherly pessimism I think “Great! He has hip problems. Spot has hip problems! Isn’t that fantastic!” But the Vet assures me he doesn’t.

I thought I would leave the cat’s eyes like that because if you stare deeply into her eyes you see the true meaning behind the cat’s existence -’To kill the dog and these people who don’t let her sleep on their bed.’  She always seems to get herself in pictures. We took pictures of our house to sell it. Later when we were looking on the MLS listing, we notice this little gray kitty in the pictures. Hiding behind corners or under chairs.

There is Jack in his pj’s playing ‘Guitar Hero.’ We love ‘Guitar Hero’ so we had to get a PS2…just for ‘Guitar Hero’ mind you. No other games. No other purpose. Later our DVD player broke, so now the PS2 is serving as our DVD player, which is cool because we never play Guitar Hero anymore.

Anyway, I am looking at this picture of Jack, Spot and the Cat and think – “Wow, this…this is my family…”

Well, we love it. Every morning during the week we have steel cut oatmeal. You might think to yourself ‘gross!’ But you have to doctor it up with yummy healthy things like fruit, nuts, yogurt. In this picture, we have strawberries, walnuts and old school peanut butter (not Jiff – the stuff without all the sugar).

Steel cut oats are different from rolled oats, so make sure to look. Steel cut oats are much better for you and a great carb because they are less processed than other oats. We have all heard the health benefits. But for me if it isn’t yummy – it’s a no go. If anyone out there is thinking they are going to go pick up ‘oatmeal with brown sugar’ packets, think again. That is not healthy. Those little packets are pure sugar. You might as well eat a Snickers for breakfast.

I love organic food, but I don’t like Whole Foods for most things. I think they have capitalized on being ‘organic’ and anyone who shops there will pay a price. Higher than necessary. On the show “Top Chef,” Whole Foods is where they shop and they always have a low budget for their challenges to buy food and we are sitting going “Good luck with that $20 that has to feed 40 people! You’ll come out of there with a head of lettuce and a pinch of salt.” Jack and I have decided that “Top Chef” worked out a discount deal with Whole Foods and that is how they pull it off. Yes, this is the kind of stuff we discuss and think about. BUT, steel cut oats out of the bins there is very very cheap. Also, a bag of almonds is reasonable too.

A pleasant surprise. Not the two bottles, that’s easy. Two bottles of wine, four people – now who is not impressed? But it is a Monday night and they announced they are engaged. 2nd Marriage, lots of dish. Congrats! It is about time.