... The kids were gone - our daughter back to do good things in New Jersey and our son off to adventures in Oklahoma City. We sent them off knowing that they were well fed, then promptly got back to the DVR load of shows requiring our immediate attention. If that sounds a little too easy, I should just let you know that we have settled into this empty-nesting business by now.
And, technically, they aren't all gone. My daughter left the little dog, Panda, with us and her and the big dog, Gracie are getting along famously.
Need proof? I don't know if it was a result of the moon out the other night, but I think our two doggies have synced up in their personalities.
I understand from smarter people than me, that dogs will often roll around in dead things in order to acquire the scent and blend in. So the other night, Panda and Gracie played under the moonlight, rolling in something, I still don't know what. There was no visible poop on the ground and I could not locate any bones or body parts.
But for some reason, they both needed to be in that single spot in the grass, soaking it all up.
So in the end, we were happy for the kids visit and surely look forward to the next, but I think we'll be entertained until then.
There is no doubt in my mind that this coming Thanksgiving week will produce increased girth on my waist. If I could only limit stuffing myself with turkey and potatoes and, well, stuffing, perhaps it wouldn't be an issue. I'm one of those who doesn't really pig out plate after plate on Thanksgiving. The problem is, all the ancillary eating we'll be doing now through next weekend.
It started Saturday when we had to run multiple errands in Alamo Ranch. I needed some items from Penny's (love those $10 off coupons they send) and then we had to run into Best Buy (am I the only person who purchases a new printer based strictly on the type of ink cartridges I have at home?) and we also had to run into Home Depot to grab something. By the time all that was over, my wife and I both realized that we had not even had breakfast, and it was already opening time at Logan's Roadhouse.
My wife had some sort of appetizer combo with cheese sticks, chicken tenders and potato skins. I think most of it is sitting in a Styrofoam container in our refrigerator as I type this, but she liked the parts she ate.
I had the catfish, onion petals and a skewer of veggies. That veggie skewer really does taste as though they cooked it on a grill as opposed to popping it in the microwave. My preference though would be to have it cooked for like another ten minutes. I know, not as healthy that way, but I like it. You can read more about Logan's Roadhouse here.
We went to HEB and saw a dog in the back of a pick-up truck that looked a lot like Gracie, just bigger and less like la chupacabras.
Later in the afternoon, we went to the airport to pick up our daughter and her little dogie, Panda. Okay, "little" might be an understatement. The dog is a porker at 20 pounds. If you don't remember Panda, read about her here.
By the way, while we were waiting at the airport, I had to hit the men's room. San Antonio is quickly modernizing things. In fact, check out the new space-age urinal they have. You are completely dry before you ever zip up your pants, though the floor seemed to be wet..
Anyway, I have always wondered if dogs have really long memories, you know, like an elephant or something. I don't know if it had anything to do with memory or not, but Panda seemed to know us right away. And my daughter also knew us! It has been two years since Panda moved to New Jersey and I was really worried about how Gracie might react to seeing her.
When we first walked in the door, Panda seemed happy to see Gracie - either that or she just likes to sniff dogs butts a lot. Gracie on the other hand, was very timid. If we could understand her language, I'm sure she was saying, "Who is this portly little dog who keeps sniffing my butt?"
After a little while, we let them hang out together and we took my daughter to get her fix. How many of you leave San Antonio for a while and come back knowing that the crap people try to pass off as authentic Mexican or worse, Tex-Mex, can only be corrected by going to your favorite San Antonio establishment. My daughter tells me that she went to a place in New Jersey that was supposed to be good and apparently, they felt good was worth $67.00 for two people. The equivalent quantity of tacos, rice and beans and a few lemonades would cost you $12-$15 at any place like Tink-a-Tako or such. And of course, it would taste much better.
We went to ChaCho's over on Bandera and got a half-order of fajita nachos. There is just something about that gooey, gov'ment cheese, melted all over the crispy chips and the chopped up beef fajita meat that says, Welcome Home.
And when we had all stuffed ourselves, there was only one hunk of nacho and one hunk of avocado left - and of course we let Roxanne have the honors.
Our son will arrive this afternoon, and for the first time in a while, we'll have both kids, both dogs and all of us eager to hit some of the regular dining locales. Well, the dogs might be eager, but they won't be coming with. Regardless, if you happen to be out and about this week, you just may see us; we'll be the family with our eatin' pants on.
It has been an especially ruff week for our big dog, Gracie, now that the little dog has gone to live in New Jersey. Right off the bat, doesn't that sound like a big lie? I mean, if your parents told you that your dog went to go live in the country, wouldn't you think there was some violence involved? Well, in this case, Panda did go to New Jersey and we have been dealing with an extra needy Gracie this week.To be honest, I think it has less to do with missing the little dog and a lot more of, wondering if we are going to let her come back.
Anyway, we took Gracie for a much needed walk just a minute or two from our house at Cathedral Rock Nature Park. In case you haven't been, this is where the city took a huge unused space that is up against a dry creek bed that floods quite often, and turned it into a wonderful series of natural walking trails. 
I am especially pleased that they made most of this place wheelchair accessible. No, I'm not a wheelchair user, but I figure if you can make your way through this place on one of those electric powered devices, I ought to be able to waddle my fat ass up and down the trails.
Just a skateboarder minute away is Oscar Perez Memorial Park and sadly, some of the same disrespectful graffiti that plagues that well intended space has made its way to CRNP. Too bad. Regardless, it isn't a bad place for a walk or to take your dog for a little outing.
If you are reading this from outside of San Antonio, don't worry, this dead, dry look in the trees is normal. Today was such an incredibly beautiful day with the weather a perfect mid 60's or so. The wind was so slight that when we heard some dry leaves on the trees rattle, my wife started searching for a snake or a gopher or anything that might attack, but it was nothing more than leaves easily blowing from time to time. 
If we were to be attacked, there would be plenty of clean-up ready for us.
After a nice walk along one of the easier trails (you could really spend an hour or two here if you wanted), we brought Gracie back and gave her a quick drink of water.
Then, we violated all rules of common courtesy and decency and allowed her to take a few trips down the slide. Hey, there were no other kids using it.
As we wind up Christmas and head full steam into the New Year I thought it might be nice to tie up a few loose ends from stories I have posted here recently.
First, you have to know about the wings!
You may recall a reader named Lea sent me her recipe for some sticky brown sugar and soy sauce based wings. I wrote about my effort to make them, per her directions, but I must confess that I strayed just a bit from what she e-mailed me.
Of course, they were good, but not nearly as good as they could have been. On top of that, I made a mess in the oven.
You will be happy to know that for Christmas, my good neighbors Gus and Ruby gave me a little oven guard kinda thing that you actually place on the bottom of the oven. Then, if you have an offensive mistake like I made, you can pull this cover out, wipe it off and the mess is gone.
Lea was kind enough to e-mail me with where I went wrong on her recipe. It turns out, I was supposed to marinate the wings in the glass pan and cook them in the same glass pan without emptying out the marinade. I tried this and two wonderful things happened. First, no spills in the oven.
More importantly, the wings came out awesome, and I am quite certain that the Cowboys actually won their game as a result of my wings being so incredible. I'm sorry, Lea's wings!
A few days ago, I reported about our little dog, Panda, going to live in New Jersey with my daughter and her husband. Good news: The dog made it to New Jersey without incident and she loves the snow. Better news: My daughter is very happy to have her little dogie and it made for a Merry Christmas. Best news: Panda no longer wakes me up at 4am to play.
And finally, this past week this blog went over 10,000 hits. I know for many of the blogs I read, this is chump change. They get 10,000 hits in a day or a week or at least a month. But for a guy just telling goofy stories about places my wife and I go to eat or posting pictures of goofy things I see in my town, it is a true sign that either you people like what you see and read, or you are simply bored silly. Either way, I appreciate it and hope you will continue to stop by.
Like some sort of covert operation underway, I sent my daughter a text message moments earlier; "The package has been shipped" and with less than a year in the military under her belt, she responded with a quick text, "Roger That".
And so I returned to the house empty handed and the big dog, Gracie looked at me with puzzled eyes. I had only left a short while before with the little dog, Panda, and now I was home, and now it was Gracie laying in the coveted dog bed beneath the desk in my office that the two dogs would often compete for.
When my daughter and her husband moved to New Jersey, she had made it pretty clear that she wanted Panda, her little dog, to go live with her in the snow. And that is fine, but I guess I didn't expect it to really happen. So when she called me Thursday and said she was ready, I was a bit surprised. I immediately started in with all the required details and forms and logistics and such, only a little hoping to convince her to forget the idea. But she was pretty confident in wanting Panda and willing to pay.
So, Friday, Panda and I made a little trip to the vet to make sure she was up to date on shots and such and to get the certificate of health to fly. Then, my wife and I went to PetSmart to get a bigger dog carrier because the one we had seemed awfully small for a trip between San Antonio and Philadelphia.
And it is cold in New Jersey, so Panda had to have a new jacket to fly in.
Last night I gave her a nice bath just to make sure she would smell fresh for her big day of air travel - though if she pees or poops in the cage, that freshly bathed smell won't last long.
I had to be at the Air Cargo terminal by 6am this morning to drop Panda off. I never use an alarm clock since my natural body clock wakes me up around 5am every day. But just to be sure, I asked my wife to set her alarm for 5:05am. Sure enough, when her alarm went off at 5:05am, I was sound asleep. That's odd. I got up to brush my teeth and for some reason the clock in the bathroom said 4:06am. I looked at the clock on the wall and it also said 4:06. When I was done brushing my teeth, I went out to the bedroom and my wife's alarm clock said it was 5 but my digital clock said it was only 4. WTF? Oh well. So I've been up since 4:05 this morning.
The girls got up with me and I let them run outside into the chilly morning air and do their collective business and play around in the yard as I brewed a pot of coffee. I don't think there is anyway to tell two dogs to hug one another or say their goodbyes, so I just let them play. And then I grabbed Panda's travel cage, went out and heated up the van and set the Garmin for 10000 John Saunders Road. With that, I put Panda's little pink jacket on and we were off. Gracie went back to bed.
Here is a nice little piece of information for you if you ever have to go to 10000 John Saunders Rd, Suite 39 by the San Antonio Airport. You can't get to that building from John Saunders Rd. Yea, turns out that the building may technically located at that address, but it is fenced off by an Avis car rental place. You have to get to the Air Cargo place near the Airport Post Office over off of Jones-Maltsberger. But we found it, filled out the appropriate paper work, paid the man and chatted with a lady who was shipping a little Chihuahua some place. She is an old pro at shipping dogs and told me not to worry.
But as I left building to walk out to the van, I could hear a slight whimper. It could have been Panda or any of the other dogs (apparently, lots of dogs get shipped right before Christmas), but regardless, it gave me that little wince of sadness. Just a little.
And as soon as I got in the van and turned on the radio, the whimpering was gone and I thought happier thoughts of how excited my daughter will be this afternoon when she finally gets her dog and Panda gets to pee in the snow for the first time. I hope she takes pictures...
How to put this delicately?
My two dogs, Gracie (the big one) and Panda (the little one) have selected for themselves, an alternative lifestyle. I have no issue with this, after all, they've been fixed and I don't think we should be so judgmental as to what they do when they aren't serving our family as faithful companions.
But it is a little awkward. The fact is that if these two bitches (they are technically female dogs) who are lesbians could only dance, they'd be the Ellen DeGeneres version of an Animal Planet variety show.
Instead, they just seem to lick each other, and I mean, all the time. Sweet sainted mother of Ceasar Millan; these dogs take sniffing butts to a new level. Eeeewwwww!
But that isn't the problem.
The problem is that the little one has started licking and biting the base of her tail to the point that she has created a small bald spot. At first, I thought this might be her doggy attempt at some sort of Mohawk. She'd get one side bald and then start on the other side in a few days. The tail would represent the spiky area in the middle. But, it has been limited to one side.
The other dog, Gracie, was just recently attended to by the dog groomers, so she has no need for a new fashion statement. Yet, she too has been doing some out of the ordinary scratching.
Oh, and now, they are attempting to perform doggy first aid on one another by licking each other in the itchy areas. The areas near the butt.
So, my wife is pretty disgusted by the whole thing. But the good news is, we have family coming in from out of town this weekend. I suspect someone will pose the question, "What do ya'll do for fun in Texas?"
Cue the Gracie and Panda DeGeneres show...
But if you have an idea of what all this licking and such is about, e-mail me.
Every once in a while, Pet Parents do some really humiliating things to their poor pet children.
Writing that actually made me cringe.
We don't consider ourselves "Pet Parents" and I find it ridiculous that people pack up Scruffy and take him with them shopping at PetSmart. Please people; leave Scruffy at home so he can chew on your furniture and soil your carpets like normal animals do.
But even if we are just normal dog owners, we still tend to do goofy things that no dog should have to endure.
For instance, there was the time my wife bought a little doggy sweater from a garage sale and she forced Panda to wear it. Just look at the sheer embarrassment on her face. Thankfully, she doesn't attend school, or all the other dogs would have hounded her relentlessly. Hounded, I say.
So I was quietly sitting in my office catching up on a few blogs when suddenly, my wife was calling my daughter, 
long distance no less, so she could listen to the crunching sound that a little defenseless dog makes when you try to force her into being a vegan.
I must confess that celery does make a rather crunchy sound, especially when a little dog is going to town to consume any evidence that might take away from her credibility as a hunter of squirrels and cats.
*Attention PETA: No pets or parents were harmed in the making of this Blog entry.
Okay, work with me here.
We were driving home from a so-so visit to Applebee's (more in a second) and my wife noticed this cool looking scene along Grissom Road with the sun hiding behind some clouds.
Is it just me, or does it look like my big dog and little dog laying down in the back yard sunning themselves? I don't know. You hear about people who get visions of The Virgin in their toast or an appearance of Jesus in a a splotch of bird crap on their car windshield. I see dogs in the clouds.
Oh, before I left for work today, my wife had this idea of hitting Chilis for an early dinner this evening. On the way home, I called to tell her I was inbound and she said we ought to change up things a bit and go see Applebee's.
I don't have anything bad to say about Applebee's, although it does seem like they are revamping their "from the freezer to the microwave to your table" menu about every month or two. I tried the Bruschetta Burger. According to the menu, "This 100% Angus burger is juicy, robust—and like no other. It's crowned with a zesty pesto sauce and fresh bruschetta mix, and set on thick wedges of mozzarella. Served between grilled foccacia bread for a delicious crunch. Crispy garlic fries sprinkled with shaved Parmesan complete this classic."
The French fries seemed to be thrown in a small cup and mixed with shredded garlic bread. I suppose, but the appearance made me think that perhaps some earlier customer had left some fries and another customer had left some garlic bread and some crafty cook in the back mixed them together to make my dinner.
But, not bad at all. My hat is off to the creative genius who recycled that into a tasty treat.
I walked into the room to find my wife inspecting the fur of our big dog, Gracie, and my son taking a very serious look at the belly of our little dog, Panda. At first, this activity might have been confused as a little bit of family rough-housing or perhaps even a game of rub the doggy's tummy to see if their legs shake involuntarily.
No. Sadly, not.
I found both inspection officials to be perfectly straight faced and serious about their duties and both dogs seemed less than playful regarding the thorough going-over of their personal areas.
Before I could ask, my wife called out for me to help my son. Before I could ask what it was I was helping with, he motioned for me to look at Panda.
I should point out that in our family, most consider my son to be the smart one one of the bunch, at least when my daughter isn't around.
"Does this look like a big flea or just a tick?" he asked with great concern.
"Uh, nope." I said, "That there is a nipple."
"Hmmm" the smart one said. "No wonder she didn't want me to pick it."
Can somebody just shoot me now?
I already had to ban Oprah from the TV's in our house, now I'm thinking Animal Planet is going to have to be put off limits.
So I'm minding my own business and I hear a shrieking coming from the living room and it is my wife, Eva calling for me at full volume. Not because there is a special report of some national emergency, but because someone on Animal Planet has come up with a way to convince dogs that they don't need to drink directly from the kitchen sink.
More than a year ago, my wife thought it would be cute to teach our big dog, Gracie to drink from the little spray hose on the kitchen sink. Yes, what a wonderful sight to see. Ha ha.
Well, after we had our fun and I took a few pictures to show the family, we thought we were done with it. Gracie had a different idea. Call us bad Pet Parents, but a year later Gracie will give us a knowing nudge and then head for the kitchen where she will walk right by the regular water bowl and wait for some good clean fresh sink sprayer water.
So the big revelation from the Animal Planet was that they have this continuous flowing water fountain type dog bowl that is guaranteed to make dogs forget the kitchen sink.
Through no choice of my own, we had actually looked it up on the Internet, called the store, and driven to PetSmart in eleven minutes and forty-two seconds. Yes, my wife timed it. I'm happy to report that unlike many other shoppers, we left our precious pets at home.
So, $75.00 later, the little dog, Panda is happy to drink out of this new over sized water trough but Gracie was not immediately sold on the idea. She knew exactly what the new bowl was all about, including the continuous flow of water streaming into the bowl below. I bet she even knew that the water is delivered to the bowl only after processing through a filter system. But she wanted to give the sink one last shot for old sake.
Nope. Attempting to be firm, my wife and I stood by, arms folded and refused to accommodate Gracie and her kitchen sink addiction. Tens of minutes went by.
The little dog drank enough from the new bowl that she required a visit to the ladies.
Finally, Gracie gave in and took her first hesitant sips from this new water delivery system. This $75.00 water delivery system.
We have genuinely lost our minds. First, a dog sweater for Panda, and now this - a dog watering system. What have we become? What's next, will we call upon that little guy who comes to your house and shows you who the leader of the pack is?
If you have ever wondered why otherwise happy-go-lucky, family friendly dogs turn vicious and attack their owners, you need look no further than what my wife has forced upon our beloved little dog, Panda.
I'm sure Panda is eagerly awaiting the first signs of winter so she might make a fashion statement along the runways of Silver Creek.
A disinterested Gracie had no comment. *Attention PETA: No pets were harmed in the making of this Blog entry.
Need proof? I don't know if it was a result of the moon out the other night, but I think our two doggies have synced up in their personalities.
I understand from smarter people than me, that dogs will often roll around in dead things in order to acquire the scent and blend in. So the other night, Panda and Gracie played under the moonlight, rolling in something, I still don't know what. There was no visible poop on the ground and I could not locate any bones or body parts.
But for some reason, they both needed to be in that single spot in the grass, soaking it all up.
