Cute Puppy Interlude

The time has come for some cute puppy pics! I've gathered quite a memory card full and am going to dish up the most adorable ones I can find for your (and my) viewing pleasure.

BEHOLD: CUTE PUPPIES!

I have always gotten a kick out of seeing dogs sleep with their tongues sticking out for some reason. It's just too funny and cute. This was taken back on 2/6/10 and is the boy, Peace, at rest in his sister's crate. Don't forget you can click on the pictures for full size images.

This was taken 2/23/10 and is the girl, Harmony, sleeping "cheek to cheek" with Peace in her crate. The other night we heard this loud sucking sound and were looking around for it and I noticed she was fervently nursing/swallowing in her sleep. She is by far the better adjusted dog

in many ways.

She often looks at us as if to say, "Yes, I am that smart, so do as I say and all will be fine."

Taken 3/16/10

"Whazzat?" *sniiiiiff* This is one of the rare times I have been able to get him with his eyes open during a flash. I was actually trying to get a pic of him snuggled in his bed, but he was

too nosey. Taken 3/6/10

I could eat a pound of Pound Cake..

Well..... that's what my eyeballs told me when I pulled these GBD (golden brown and delicious) loaves from the oven tonight. It is the pound cake of my childhood and I am a little bias toward its flavor, but I think it is the best I've ever had. My favorite part is the top "crust" which kind of caramelizes as it cooks and is just sweet and slightly crunchy and alluring with a hint of almond aroma and flavor.

These particular loaves deviate from the recipe only in that I had no cake flour on hand and used All Purpose flour instead. While still worthy of devouring, I find that the AP flour is just a little too coarse for this cake. Otherwise, these are true pound cakes in the sense of the original terminology. I used a pound of eggs, butter, flour and sugar to create these pastry confections. Actually, more than a pound of sugar, but we likes 'em sweet!

We dished it up with some canned pears from September 2006 (yes, they're still good!) And it is delish. A little drizzle of pear syrup on the cake never hurt my feelings either. Here I show whipped cream, but only because the ice cream was eaten days ago. I'm beginning to think this snow storm stuff is going to be bad for our waistlines.

Haven't said too much about the puppies lately, I know. But I can only go on so long about how cute and adorable they still are. Harmony is recovering nicely from her surgery and I would consider Peace well past recovered by now. They are constantly "stealing" each other's toys and taunting each other with them. It's funny for a while, but once Peace gets all put out and possessive the fun stops there and more often than not they end up in a crate time out. I think they love the snow still but the newness has worn off because it's stayed around for about a week now. I must admit, it's kind of worn off on me too, but a new snow fall should cure that right away. :)

Snow puts me in a good mood!

And apparently it does the puppies too! This is their second snow, and quite a lot better than the first. We had a good time romping around with them, especially Peace. I had to carry Harmony in because we felt that her stitches were pulling too much from the hopping, considering the snow was up to her chest. Otherwise, I think they just love this time of year and could be happy forever in it, if only because there is almost no traffic and they get to be off leash for once outside the pen. I'm going to try to add some video from our romp with Peace, but not sure how to do it, so we'll see if it works. Meanwhile, enjoy pictures of me getting ambushed and nearly smothered by very excited bundles of wagging energy.

Herein lies LJW, nearly buried by puppy love/excitement, encapsulated in about 4 layers of clothing and a really big coat.

Peace apparently wanted to play "defend the fort" or something - and was winning! Just too bad I was the fort.

But can you blame him? I'm sure I was much warmer to sit on than all that snow. Incidentally it was quite a feat to get out of that situation.

A snowy tangle of puppy fury. They hardly knew what to do first, they've been cooped up so long after surgery. I think Peace is busy biting the scruff off of Harmony here and/or burying her in the snow.

They grow like Alice in Wonderland

Here you can get a clear view of the rocker(s) they used to fit under just a couple/three months ago. So hard to believe! I remember how they used to use the table as their own personal Kentucky Derby/jungle gym. It was a constant soundtrack of tiny paws galloping and then the occassional scratching scrambling of nails as they'd lose their grip of the carpet and go careening off onto the laminate. We had to put an end to that at around the 25lb mark. They tried it the other day because of being cooped up from rain and I think even they realized it wasn't working out anymore.

Incidentally, Peace is like a moth to flame with that fireplace when it's on. I swear he'd snuggle right up to it if we let him.

Sweet puppy love

I think I shall never see, a puppy as cute as she....except maybe he.

                                                                            A cute lil bro, lil sis moment, not sure who was born first. This is early on when they could still fit under the rocker together. One of the few times they weren't biting the scruff off each other.

This is just a couple days ago, just before their 6 month mark. Amazingly, they still love each other! They now weigh 37.9 (Harmony, girl with white paws) and 34 lbs (Peace, almost all black boy).