Thanksgiving is Coming

For the first day in a few the sun is out, and it is a beautiful Fall day. So in anticipation of cooking next week for Thanksgiving, I am making a big ole batch of Snickerdoodle cookies. Been a while since I've made them, but my insulin resistance is in check and it just feels like a cookie day. :)

I made the orange cranberry sauce yesterday to give it several days to really cure up. A great recipe I've had for years (since Alaska), I figured it was better than the canned stuff this year. I will also be making my friend Denice's pumpkin cake. I do not like pumpkin generally, but this cake is the bomb. I still have to work up an appetiser, and my Thanksgiving cooking will be complete.

Hope this finds everyone happy and ready for the big feed. Remember to be thankful for the cook, as well as everything else in life. Happy Thanksgiving!

On little Dogs and Dreams

Growing up I was never much for pets. I was not the type of child who coveted stuffed animals or played with them past three years of age. I was far too interested in reading and my visual pursuits to bother with the entire animal kingdom. They were animals after all, and not very conversational. As I grew up I would look upon pet crazy neighbors and friends (with the rare exception of Judy's dog Max perhaps) and not know what to think of their devotion. I certainly did not share it. Then came Doodle.

When Doodle came home with me he was six weeks old and just weaned from his mother. I had seen him at every stage of development, and here he was, this tiny squirmy thing. Those first weeks were difficult, as he was plucked from his swarm of squirmy noisy brothers and sisters and plopped into my quiet life. The very first night he cried and cried. I did all I knew how to do to comfort this furry little thing. I cuddled him like a baby, sang little Doodle songs and rubbed his little head until he mercifully fell asleep. It wasn't long (three days actually...Ris won the bet) until I broke my first rule of dog ownership and allowed him to sleep at my feet on my bed. It seemed to calm him down, and before I would turn out the lights I would rub his head until he fell asleep. And so started the ritual. He has not gone without his head rub one day in this house. He immediately falls asleep every time, even if I just rub his head while he lays on my lap. For the longest time I thought I continued to do this to comfort him, but recently realized it actually comforts me as much or maybe even more. I now fall asleep rubbing Doodle's head, a little lesson in comfort and devotion I learned from my dog.

I have witnessed how his body relaxes. I know when I hit that sweet spot rubbing his belly or scratching his back because he flicks his tongue a certain way. I have also been witness to Doodle in a dream state. He twitches, his feet move, and his eyes move and flutter under his lids. He sometimes growls or makes noises, and sometimes even wags his tail. What can he be seeing and reacting to in his dream? I figure he dreams in images since he does not have words to describe visual sensation, but most of dreaming is images for me as a human too. One day while watching this is dawned on me that although he is classified as an animal, very little separates us really as spirits inhabiting form. He breathes, he eats, he dreams, etc. So now I at last understand why animals are important to humans. Not to be dominated or abused for what they lack, but to be companions in this world. To be respected for what unites us on a spiritual level. I get it.

So this is what I have learned from Doodle. It has forced me to start to reexamine my relationship with animals from an entirely different perspective. All of this started by a little squirmy thing that came into my house 17 months ago. I sure have been blessed and I am grateful for my little companion. "So handsome, so smart, such a good dog." :)

News From the Poker Table

I woke up today and decided I simply must do something I have never done, just to shake things up in life. I had read in the local paper about a "Turkey Shoot" at the local VFW Hall, but I have never attended one...so it won the day. I had no idea what to expect, but found playing poker for food an interesting thought. So armed with ten dollars I played five card poker hands for about an hour, and pictured are all my ill gotten gains. Three big farm raised chickens (fresh) and three fresh from the local processer pork sausage bundles. No turkey or ham, but still a chunk o' food for the freezer. Seems my luck dramatically changes when I am playing poker for food. Imagine that.