a personal trick to summon super-power

Me & Mike in our Superhero states of being.



When I find myself in a situation where I need to really bring it and be intimidating (you know, like when I feel like I am being scoped out by some street urchins or banditos or something); I imagine that I am that guy above and Mike is that hyena! It totally works!! I just project as much as I can that Mike and I am them. This image serves us well. I think they are the perfect superhero duo flip side for Mike and me.



Mike & Me at any given 'regular' moment.



xela cemetary = xela dogpark (for us)

Having 2 dogs (Mike and Marcel) and living in a city with no yard puts us in dire need of a dog park. Well, it's probably no surprise that Xela doesn't have a 'dog park'. But, we're lucky that just a few blocks from our house is Xela's gigantic amazing cemetary which serves as a really great dog park for us!

All the boys get to run off their energy....it's a good thing!



Mike really gives Zach a run for his money or rather...honey.

Water faucets for doggie drinks....how perf!



At 1st this is the only way Mike would drink out of the faucet. He owns it now.



Marcel has loved hiding/playing in the tall grass since Day 1.



Yay! Grass & sunshine!!



Not only do we have expansive lawns for dog play;
look at gorgeous Volcan Santa Maria looming in the distance.



PS-These are all pictures from 1 year ago and Mr. Marcel is all grown up now. 

dogs on bikes

I love noticing patterns, trends and how certain things in life accumulate. Going through a folder of photos in my computer this morning, I found three pictures of dogs on bikes that make me smile.

 Love it!!! Little love looks like a Jack Russell Terrier and I'm not surprised! My jrt is a genius!

 Poodles are tricky characters. I bet this pal is ready to go without the training wheels!

Looks like another Terrier. What a doll baby! 

backgammon

Backgammon is a game I played as a kid and then didn't play for many many moons until this year. My mom gave me an adorable travel set earlier this year that she totally scored on at her local Flea Market, Howard's* for 2 bucks! I can't even begin to say how far that $2 has gone and is going. We play almost everyday and it's so much fun! We one day aspire to figure out and use the doubling cube. Haha!

This game lives on our kitchen table. We play almost everyday. It's so much fun because we are even-steven on skill level and that makes it all a matter of 'luck of the dice'!!

*Howard's Flea Market in Homosassa, Florida is where Mike is from. He was all by himself and that is one of the most precious days of my lives; finding that little guy. What a firey little blessing he is. Talk about a flea market find!

i love my jack russell. duh.

My little guy, Mike, is all dog-all day!! He's ready to go, you just say the word (and there are so so many in his vocabulary..it's kind of crazy). No matter what where or when he's balls to the wall!! I wouldn't trade him for anything in the whole wide world. He's my protector, best friend-buddy; my rock.

This is a random afternoon we were taking basket pictures for tipico and for the fun of it as we often do..we put Mike in a basket and there he is barking at some birds flying over! All dog, all day.

growing my own spices

There's nothing like have herbs and spices to cook with! And there's nothing like not having herbs and spices to cook with. While there are many wonderful ingredients to be found in the markets here in Xela....there are a few things that I have grown accustom to cooking with that are not to be found! My solution? Grow them! Mustard seeds are something I incorporated into my cooking while living in Portland, Oregon some years back. I was going to traditional Indian food-themed pot lucks. I discovered a couple of dishes that influenced my cooking still to this day and probably for my ever. One of the dishes I made that had a huge impact on me was Bombay Potatoes. You start the dish by frying a bunch of spices...YUM!

Harvesting mustard seeds is fun but, a wee bit tedious. Thank goodness I've found a huge bag of mustard seeds (the dark ones) in the market...at a pet food stall. They are fed to birds. Who knew? Not me!!! Out of all the plants we had room to grow we only got about 2 tablespoons of mustard. It was a fun project and I've never regretted growing anything!

Mike even loved the plants and helped out, of course he did, he's a very good boy!

jack russell terriers

The Jack Russell Terrier get their name from the Reverend John Russell who bred a particular strain of terriers for working fox in Devonshire, England in the mid to late 1880's. Reverend Russell (1795-1883) was a fox hunting enthusiast which led to his passion of the breeding of fox hunting dogs.

His first terrier, Trump, is known to be the foundation of the strain of working terriers John Russell bred.

Russell was strolling around the countryside one day when he was met by a Milkman with his terrier; such an animal as of yet he had only seen in his dreams. He bought the bitch on site!!

Russell's biographer E.W.L. Davies wrote of the meeting: "Before he had reached Marston, a milkman met him with a terrier - such as an animal Russell had yet only seen in his dreams; he halted as Actacon might have done when he caught sight of Diana disporting in her bath; but unlike that ill-fated hunter; he never budged from the spot till he had won the prize and secured it for his own."

John and I wanted a puppy soon after we started seeing each other. It was a new thing for me. I've always had cats but, boy ever did I want a puppy! John had wanted a Jack Russell since he was 12. We talked and talked about puppies for maybe 2 years and then one random day when we lived in Homosassa we were at Howard's Flea Market and we happened upon a little JRT in a crate all by himself in the corner. We thought he was just the cutest thing but, wanted to make sure we were making the right move and decided to walk around and think about it. We got about two rows over at the market and looked at each other and pretty much high tailed it back to that puppy! That puppy is Mike!!!! The total apple of my eye, love of my life, Mike. Who on the other hand is my little demon. My very own devil dog. I love my terrier!

This is baby Mike. I can't believe next month we've had him for 3 years!

Here we have 3 year old very happy pretty chill for a JRT, Mike!

(Look for a story about Mike's partner in crime, Parker, soon!!!!)

SOME FAMOUS JACK RUSSELL'S:

Charles and Pooh!

The above photo is from the 1938 film Bringing Up Baby with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. ....and George a wire haired Jack Russell.

George later became known as Asta. Shown here in a picture taken from the Thin Man series!

(Surprisingly enough, I'd never heard of this series until Sunday when Janet was telling me that she watches it and it's rad and the terrier in it is bar-none. Heh!)

Of course, there's Wishbone the PBS show...another show with a JRT that I haven't seen!!

Then we have Moose who played Eddie on Frasier (a show I still have never seen!). If you do some digging around you'll find that Moose was well loved but, was a nasty dog just like my little demon, Mike. [I use the term 'nasty dog' in a loving way, anyone that has a Jack knows what I mean but, it may sound weird if you don't know a JRT, they are just feisty little dogs!]

Jack Russell's are an amazing breed. I adore them and am always saying that I want a total of 5!! I know I am off my rocker and recently have made my husband promise that he won't let me get 5!! With the stipulation: unless we have a farm! These dogs are great, a great hand full!