Sunday Funday

Nothing beats waking up to a snuggly Springer Spaniel.  ESPECIALLY when you can stay in bed to snuggle.  :o)

Today I was sketchy, twisty, spicy, and wandering.

We had a great day.  :o)

Here's the wandering part of our day:

I just have to share with you what was the most handy thing I thought of today.  Using Rudder's leash as a holster of sorts for the chuck-it.  I hate carrying that thing around, so it was nice to have it by my side so I could use my hands to do other things like pick up slobbery sticks to throw and carry my coffee mug.  :o)  Oh, and until it's ball time (because Rudder is OBSESSED with tennis balls) I keep the ball in my hood.

There was some stick chewing.

A raven that tried to poop on us.

Lots of ball throwing.

Near catching...

 

Let's try this whole catching the ball thing again, shall we?

 

 

No day is complete with out burying the ball in the snow.

 

Some heart scattering...

More digging...

And headed home due to some major ice balls in Rudder's paws.  Poor little bugger... I really need to fix his booties...

Then a sleepy little Springer.  :o)

More on the sketchy, twisty, & spicy later in the week. :oD

A Dog of Many Hairstyles

Woohoo!  Okay, I am sporadic at best, but here goes my third (?) 23Paws post!  I really love the idea, but I am oh so unorganized when it comes to getting this done on/by/around the 23rd!

So, giving Rudder a haircut is probably the FIRST thing I'll do come Spring...  He is such a fuzzy beast with the weirdest patches of super fluffy blonde hair.  but there is some of his hair that I will never cut...

Fozzie Bear'esque

Ever since I picked up this little ball of spazzy'ness, he has had a crazy scientist 'do on top of his head.  It 100% fits his personality.

Wind-blown

It is also SUPER fun to style!

Horns

So, enjoy the many styles of Rudder! ;o)

The comb-over

 The quasi-mohawk/Einstein

The "Reginald Von Wigglebottom" of the Edwardian (?) era.

Unicorn braid

The snow-laden forward wave (ya know circa 1999)

Dreds

"Frosted" tips

Oh, and there are more.  So many more... :op 

A New Crafting Hobby... Craft Brews!

Over the past few months, Kevin and I have been brewing beer.  I do believe we started in October, and have now made 3 different batches of beerliciousness!  [Okay, maybe only two are beerlicious...  I wasn't a big fan of brew #1]

Like many blog posts I've intended on writing and sharing... this is a wee bit belated.  :o)  I had this awesome idea that I was going to do a "one year anniversary" now and then house post this summer.  Problem is, when the house was "picture perfect" (which was maybe once) it was dark.  Oh, and like a couple weeks ago.  Oh well!  Maybe after two years of buying the house.  :oD

Oh yeah, beer.

Kevin and I are calling our beer and brewing "operation" (ha!) the Muddy Rudder Homebrew.  Ya know, named for our favorite little buddy and his propensity to attract mud from the far corners of the earth (seriously, its like his superpower).

So, here's a little bit about the home brewing thus far:

Our first beer was a simple brown ale that came in a can.  Like the kind that's hard to mess up.  Well... we did!  Ha!  No, no issues with contamination or anything...  more of a too much bottling sugar (in my opinion) and not enough aeration at the beginning of the fermentation.  It's drinkable, and to be honest some bottles taste alright, but not at all bottles.  Oh, and some bottles, they are bubbly messes when you open them.   So this first beer, which I've dubbed "Beginner's Brown" came in at a whopping 2% alcohol.  Oh yeah.  We're just above a near beer. :op  It does make for some excellent beer bread though!

Second beer was a Christmas Ale.  Again, we went with a simple can extract kit.  Seeing as our first batch wasn't a smashing success, we didn't want to get too big for our britches by doing a more legit recipe.  Christmas ale came in around 5-6%.  We remembered to aerate the snot out of the beer with this nifty thing you put on the drill.  Bet Kevin didn't think he'd be using his birthday present to make beer! ;o)  We ended up having a few people over to share the beer, and have been giving it away to friends and family as a Christmas card of sorts.  Since this beer was made during Rudder's "bed rest" with his sprained paw, we named it Broken Wheel Ale, after his gimpy paw.

Our most recent beer, and my personal favorite thus far, is the Maple Wheat.  First recipe followed beer that was a wee bit more complicated.  Holy cannoli the smell of hops in your kitchen is AMAZING!  I think that was my favorite part of the whole brewing process (favorite part was definitely not clean up post bottling...).  We used Vermont maple syrup that Kevin's dad brought up.  This one was a good compromise for us because I love all things maple, and Kevin loves all beers that are wheat.  :o)  Haven't named this one yet... Any suggestions?  The color of the beer is the same as Rudder's "highlights" in his hair [disclaimer: I do NOT dye my dog's hair, he just gets a bit blonde in the sun.  :o) ]

Right now we're on a home brewing break - we aren't the world's fastest beer drinkers. :o)  We're planning on making a St. Patty's day beer for Rudder's birthday (which is on St. Patrick's Day).  Not sure what kind yet...  I'm still crossing my fingers for a honey cream ale... but who knows what beer recipe will make Rudder us drool.  :o)

[update: I want to try a Mexican chocolate oatmeal stout!  I think it perfectly describes the little dude: chocolate and oatmeal colored, with a little kick!  Oh, and he's a bit stout in the waistline at the moment... ha!  To be discussed with co-brewer Kevin...]

If I Were To Get This All Done...

...Then I must have magically ended up with a 32 hour day in which I required no sleep!

Yay! No sleep!  I'm so excited!

Oh wait... I forgot.  I like sleep!

 

So, I know that this list is a bit over zealous.  I know that a lot of these projects will cost more than I expect.  I know some (or many) will carry into 2014.  I know that I will probably change my mind about some of these [hair-brained] ideas...

But here they are!  Break out the Carhartts!

In 2013, I'd like to do/work on the following house projects:

Living Room:

• Wall art - my walls are tired of being naked!
• Bookshelves - need somewhere to keep my growing pile of books and various assundries
• Curtains - I've hated the cheapy ones that came with the house since day 1.  They need to go.
• 1/2 wall into the kitchen - I'm dreaming big! :o)
• Shoe rack - this is Kevin's request, as he hates tripping over my boots when he's over.

Kitchen:

• Finish cabinets - Paint underneath (one year later...) and put up the rest of the hardware
• Counter tops - bigger project, but if it happened... I'd be such a happy camper!  Not sure what I want to do with them though...
• Floor - mine is uuuuuuugly! ["but she sure can cook!" - name that song!].  Again, bamboo?  Cork?  Engineered hardwood?

Downstairs Bathroom:

• New vanity - the one I have is falling apart (oh, and has graffiti left from previous tenants)
• Frame out the mirror
• Change the light - I have the fixture, just haven't gotten to it.
• Hooks - no towel bars in there, bought some neato toledo artisan hooks, just need to nail those bad boys in.

Office/Gear Room:

• Paint the gear shelves - but what color????  ahhhh!
• Make/buy bins for said gear on the shelf
• Light - change it out, maybe, still undecided
• Curtains - DONE!  (I had to put one thing on the checklist I could immediately check off.  That's how I roll.)

Guest Room:

• Window - make it purdy
• Quilts - break out the sewing machine and get to stitching!
• Art - finish the half done art hanging on the walls. :op

Upstairs Bathroom:

• Vanity - need a new one.  Stat.
• Floor - need a new one.  Stat. (seriously, its grungy AND a small lotion bottle created a huge spider like crack in the tile.  Reeee dic u lous!)
• Figure out how to make the long awkward shelves into a usable "linen closet"
• Re-tile the tub - Or else it's going to look more and more like caulk city in there.  Oh, and I HATE the dusty pink tile and the ones with the flowers...
• Hang up towel hooks.  I hate the brassy bar that's dangling from the wall.
• Paint.  Make it.... blue! (or some variation of, I have a lot of blue paint)

Upstairs Room:

• Paint. 
• Awkward sink - Mission: make less awkward (yes, I have a pedestal sink chilling in my bedroom)
• Art.  Again, another naked room.

Outside:

• Patio like something or other in the back.
• Work on the drainage issue - although this may not be a problem with the lack of snow this year...
• Flowers & Garden - Plant some more flowers.  Grow some grub.  Add two more small raised beds to the side of the house.

I'd also like to:

• Go berry picking on the Denali Highway while everyone else is caribou hunting.
• Have a [at least moderately] successful garden.
• Be way more awesome at preserving things from said garden.
• Travel somewhere I haven't been (preferably outside of Alaska).
• Spend more time outdoors.  Hiking, biking, boating, camping, picnicking... Anything outside!
• Read more, Hulu less.
• Be a better bread baker and soup maker.
• Consider craft fairs for the Fall/Winter.
• Give Rudder a haircut (ok, I know this one is weird, but I cannot wait until it is warm enough to get rid of his well loved Fozzie bear look he's rocking...)
• Tune my piano and play it!
• Not kill all of my house plants.
• Finally organize all my paperwork...  
• Rediscover my sketchbook.
• Post things sooner (instead of waiting, oh 6+ months, then deciding its a bit late to talk about Easter in November...) 
• Make my house feel more like home (good post here on that)

Now, where did I leave that tape measure...

From Jackson to Rudder

It's been a while since I participated in 23 Paws...  I had REALLY good intentions of doing this monthly, but well, I didn't.  First time I participated, I introduced Rudder.

I'm going to today though, because I remembered.  :o)  [...and because I'm avoiding work]

So, here's a little story about how the Ruddster got his name.

It was a dark stormy night nice sunny day so we headed up towards Palmer to hang out at one of their many little lakes.  When I took Rudder home from the trailer park, his name was Jackson.  Jackson to me just isn't a dog name.  Last name of my family on my mom's side?  Yes.  Name of a cute little blonde haired farm boy?  Yes.  Name of a spazz'tastic Springer Spaniel?  No.   Or at least that was my opinion.  :o)   It just didn't fit his personality.

I had, in my wishing for a dog mindset the previous year, created a list of names I liked from dogs.  This ranged from Echo, to Gatsby, to Remmy, to Grover.  Oh and the list went on...  Not a single one of the names fit him though.  Not at all.  We tried a few on for size, ya know, one or two a day.  I wasn't loving any of the randomly assigned names though.

But back to the lake.

This dog was SCARED of the water when I first got him.  Would MAYBE put a paw in, but swim?  Heck no!  Then, this day at the lake, it was like he found his little fish fins and I haven't been able to keep him out of the water since.  He was a swimming fiend and happily hopped in the water and swam around after sticks and his blue bunny.  However, I must say he nearly made me dizzy watching him swim around in curly cues.  Apparently he hadn't learned the fine art of steering himself while swimming just yet.

Avoiding the water.

He took a leap!

So, I was in a canoe and kept cringing every time we went over a log.  I think its a learned response to my days as a coxswain for the crew team in high school.  You were supposed to steer around those suckers, not go over them!  Going over a log could mean that you just required the team to make a costly repair in fixing or replacing the.... rudder!  (See where this is going??)

After once again gasping when hitting a log and looking towards the underside of the canoe, I commented, "Man, I keep forgetting we don't have a rudder!"  Click.  Saying the word rudder + watching this brown and white ball of energy create a spirograph pattern in the water = the ah ha moment.

I shared the "I'm pretty sure I'm going to call him..." with my sister and parents.  They gave the, "Um, yes, well, that's um, different...  Did you say Rudder??" response.  Well, it's definitely different, but it fits him.  He needed a rudder when he swam, so I gave him one (at least in name).  :o)

I have to say, he has become a pretty awesome swimmer and swims in a straight line like nobody's business. :o)




And just for fun....