Today, because of another hindering snowfall, we were forced to ride the trainers. While Ben and I were rolling along but going nowhere, Haka and Kohi were rough housing they like they normally do - chewing on each other’s legs, wrestling each other to the ground, gnawing on each other’s collars. However, tempers seemed to escalate more than usual as we started hearing aggressive growling and barking. When I looked back I noticed that Kohi was hanging on to Haka’s collar and wasn’t letting go. I quickly jumped off the bike and ran over to take a look and that’s when I realized that Kohi wasn’t letting go not because she was being that aggressive but because she was stuck. Her lower jaw was hooked under Haka’s collar pulling it very tight around Haka’s neck. This threw me into quite a tizzy because just this past Friday a friend had told me about a dog that had literally strangled its brother to death when its jaw had gotten stuck in the collar and the owners were not around to untangle the dogs. Ultimately, the owners came home to one dead dog and the assailant still stuck in the collar. So, when I realized that this was essentially the same thing happening to my dogs, I became very frantic as I unhooked Haka’s collar among the frenzied growls before anything terrible happened to her. It all happened very quickly but it was definitely enough to scare me. Just thinking about how the situation could have turned out had we not been there to unhook Haka’s collar brought tears to my eyes. From now on, unless the dogs are on their leashes, their collars will be off. Lesson learned…the hard way.

Last night Ben had his students over for a Mexican dinner at our house. Wanting to make a traditional Mexican dessert to go with Ben’s enchiladas and beans and rice, I did a search on Google and found the following recipe for Pastel Tres Leches or 3 Milk Cake. Making this cake couldn’t be more simple but there is nothing simple about the number of calories - it is jam packed with lots of fat because of the 3 milks - evaporated, condensed and heavy whip cream. But let me tell you, every bite is worth the indulgence and the guilt! Go ahead, give it a go. I promise you’ll love it!!

Click any of the text to see the recipe full size.

Sheesh, we go from wearing shorts and flip flops one day to lots of wet snow the next. Not that much of the snow is actually sticking to the ground, but it’s enough to make it a very wet day. How does that happen? Was it just the calm before the storm? A little teaser to make us think we could finally put our winter gear away? Yesterday just made me feel so fresh and free - bare skin soaking up all the glorious sun (with sunscreen of course) - and today, well, it’s depressing to even look out the windows much less want to venture outside for even a few minutes. And of course Haka and Kohi will suffer inside too because the thought of having to clean off their muddy little paws each time they come in ruffles my feathers. To top it off, our neighborhood streets aren’t the cleanest they have ever been with all the construction going on, and the wet snow aggravatingly turns the packs of dirt into mounds of mud - not good for bikes either.

So, yes, I am complaining but only because yesterday was seriously a gorgeous day, taunting us to pull out our summer duds from the depths of the closets and then laughing as we pull on the winter coats again today. Really though, the weather IS on the up and up and we do have it much better than many other places…like northern IL and WI where they still have a bountiful amount of snow on the ground and probably will until late April!

Hopefully the dirt roads for the infamous Koppenburg climb will ok for the race this Sunday!

My new favorite, except the Encore Edition, which is black raspberry ice cream swirled with sweet cream ice cream and fudgy brownies. It was all I could do last night after eating homemade calzones to not eat the entire pint!

Today it’s snow. Not one single leaf is fluttering. Instead of wind, we get snow. Wonderful.