Introducing Pearl

On March 3rd, we added a new member to our family.  Meet Pearl!

Pearl is approximately 9 years old, and was rescued from a high-kill shelter on the day she was due to be killed.  Sorry, but to me euthanasia is a thing done out of mercy, out of love.  She was due to be killed most likely because some asshole was using her to breed litters of puppies, and then when she became too old, she and two other 'old lady beagles' were abandoned in a vacant lot. 

I was told she has the classic demeanor of a dog who has spent her life in something along the lines of a rabbit hutch, churning out litter after litter of puppies.  She had been with her foster family through a local humane society for about a year now.  I had seen her picture over the past few weeks whenever I went looking on Petfinder.  I knew the next time I adopted a dog, I wanted it to be an older and/or special needs dog.  Older animals don't get a fair chance when it comes to being adopted.  Let's face it---puppies are adorable.  And if you take an older animal, you usually have to say goodbye sooner.  But I'm not concerned about any of that.  I just wanted to give an old dog a home.  A place to have no worries.  The chance to just be a dog, to lay in the sun, to snuggle up with her human when she needs some reassurance. 

Pearl is a sweetheart.  She is pretty much potty trained.  We have puppy pads down because her foster mom said sometimes she can't hold it all night.  She has used them twice--once during the night and once when it was pouring down rain. 

She is doing a great job of fitting in after just 1 1/2 weeks with us.  We have a set of dog steps that we bought for Max when he was hurting.  Neither Max nor Macy ever learned how to use them, but Pearl picked right up on it, and has been using them to sleep at the foot of the bed.  Her biggest issue right now is walking on a leash.  She refuses to do it.  So we are working on that slowly.  Today she started wearing the vest harness I picked up for her for a few hours.  Hopefully in a few days I can get her to take a few steps on the leash.  lol 

I took this video right after her bath, when she had been with us for 2 days.  Up until this time we hadn't heard that beautiful beagle bark of hers.  We've heard it a couple of times since then, as she's become more comfortable at her new home. 

I'm looking forward to several happy years with Miss Pearl as part of our family!!

Back to the land

I don't think I ever posted what we did with our Christmas tree this year.  In the past we have:

1.  Thrown it into our woods whole.  This would be OK if we had a large woody area but in reality we have a smaller piece of wooded land, and frankly I didn't enjoy seeing it every time I looked outside.

2.  Taken it to my mom's land and thrown it in her woods.  We have done this once before, but we almost always drive our Prius and not our truck the 40 or so miles over there, so not a lot of opportunity.

3.  Taken it to the dump.  We have also done this, although we hated it, and will only do it in the future if there is absolutely no choice.

4.  Taken it to my dad and gave it to him to burn in his shop stove.  (My mom doesn't use that now that my dad is gone.)

Other ideas for future years:  Advertise on Freecycle if anyone wants it for their pond (I believe it's used as a fish habitat), to burn in their stove/fireplace, or to chip up for another use.

This year we decided that Mr. GV would use his electric chainsaw and cut it into small pieces, thereby making it much easier to break down out in our bit of woods. 

(Please notice the bit of dog nose in the lower right hand corner.  Naturally she likes to watch what's going on!)

Bit of decluttering

My spare room has become a bit....junky lately.  It is the home for unwanted items until they are moved out of here.  Here you see a few things that are leaving soon:

-Penguin: I have no recollection of bringing this home in the first place.  All I can figure is perhaps I picked it up at a yard sale years ago?  I'm actually putting it in J's room in hopes that he will take it to my mom's house. 

-Gift bag plus 4 gift boxes.  I have enough of these that are used over and over each Christmas. 

-Sonic toy from J's Wacky Pack

-Travel mug

-2 phone chargers that work, we just changed phones.  Also some adapters for other countries for one of the phones

-Christmas lights, new in package

-Christmas stocking

-Dog toy, tennis ball-sized (too small for my dog's mouth without being a choking hazard) 

-Christmas Jingle Beanie, sleeve for a glass water bottle, 3 candle holders, metal bookmark

 -Few shirts, one purse, and a bag made out of burlap (I think) and the smell is not something I enjoy.

Outside

Thursday was a warm day, and since I knew some cold days were coming, I decided to sit outside in the sun and warmth.  In shorts.  In February! 

Macy brought a toy and came outside with me.

My accessories:  cell phone and current mystery novel.

 This is our sweet gum tree.  No leaves but some of the fruit is still hanging on.  It's not fruit in the "eating" sense, just the hard, prickly, interesting fruit of this species of tree.  My grandmother had one of these in her backyard and I remember how painful it was to walk over the sweet gum balls. 

 I watched the sun set.

 Noticed I need to refill the squirrel feeder with a new ear of dried corn.

 And the bird feeder needs a new supply as well.

 I spent some time just watching the clouds float on by.

 Until it was finally time to head inside, although I kept the door open with the screen across the doorway so I could listen to the frogs singing in the pond behind our home.

 Macy brought her toy back in.

 And eventually figured out there was a better way to hold it.

Sometimes you just need a simple, not-so-healthy meal

Mr. GV makes these sometimes for us--sourdough bread, pizza sauce, vegan pepperoni, and Daiya cheese.  Well, that's mine. 

 Mr. GV often addes pineapple.  This particular time we didn't have any, so he added mango. 

Valentine's Treat

*Pictures are from my cell phone, so not ideal, but still show the highlights from the weekend!

Mr. GV and I decided to take a weekend away from home.  Some years we exchange Valentine's gifts, and some years we don't.  This year I had said that I just wanted a weekend away from home that I didn't need to plan.  And so that is what I got!

The highlight of the weekend was the show that Mr. GV surprised me with:

Yes, we saw South Pacific!  It was very enjoyable.  I had no idea what the story was about (well I knew it took place in the South Pacific during WWII) so the theme of racism was a surprise to me.  My favorite song was "You Have To Be Taught" which essentially says you have to be taught to hate.  So true!!  

 It was freezing cold so we got there early to get valet parking.  That meant we had a long wait but we passed the time reading, talking to my mom on the phone, and snapping pictures of ourselves. 

That was the big event of the weekend, but we packed a lot more into our 3 days/2 nights!  Friday we arrived in time for lunch, so we headed to Woodland's, an Indian vegetarian restaurant in time for the buffet. Iddly, dosa, rice, potato bonda, plus a couple of main dishes, and of course delicious tamarind. 

After lunch we checked into our hotel, and then it was time to head to the movies to see Star Wars:  The Phantom Menace in 3-D.  This was my first time using Fandango, and I have to say I loved it.  If you have to travel to see movies or don't want to stand out in the cold while waiting for tickets, Fandango is the way to go.  The movie itself---well, it is Star Wars, so right there I knew I wanted to see it again.  But as Mr. GV and a coworker discussed, it is probably the worst of the 6.  My thought was Jar Jar Binks was just as annoying this time around.  lol 

Whole Foods was right down the street from the movie theater, so we popped in after and picked up a few things for dinner.  The rest of the evening was spent in our room, watching TV and just spending time together.

Saturday Mr. GV worked out, we went by the recycling facility with our glass/#3-7 plastics, and headed to The Wild Cow restaurant for lunch.  I don't have any pictures of lunch but I can tell you what we ate:  Mr. GV had the Philly, Mixed Vegetables with Peanut Sauce, and Garlicky Kale, and I had the Wild Reuben, Pesto Couscous, and Zucchini-Artichoke-Greens Soup.  (Both my sides were DElicious, by the way!)  Oops I do have one picture, of dessert naturally.  We shared a slice of TN Terrapin Cake (chocolate and vanilla cake, caramel, yum yum.) 

After lunch Mr. GV dropped me off at McKay Used Books to trade in some books for credit and look around for a bit, while he hung out at Starbucks.  I came home with 4 books---3 cozy mysteries and one non-fiction.  Then it was off to change and get ready for South Pacific.


Sunday we had lunch at The Wild Cow again.  I again went for the Reuben.  What can I say?  I love those things!  My side was chickpea salad.  Mr. GV had the French Quarter Dip, along with mashed sweet potatoes and the soup of the day, sweet-potato ginger.  For dessert we shared another piece of cake, a caramelized hazelnut cake with vegan Nutella frosting.  I enjoyed it, but Mr. GV really loved it.  We rarely have dessert at home, so when we are eating out and they have vegan dessert, I am not going to pass it up. 

 After lunch we took our first ever trip to REI.  Mr. GV found some biking/running clothes and I even came home with a slouch beanie that I love.

Last it was on to Whole Foods to stock up on things we can't get in our small town, organic kale being one of those things. 

We had a great weekend away from home, and it was nice to just focus on each other for a couple of days.  Even with no children at home, there are still responsibilities that keep us from always appreciating the time we have with each other! 

Cutting the cord

A little over a month ago, we finally cut the cord to cable TV land!

I wasn't sure how it would go.  I thought I'd be fine with it, but wondered if after having easy access to television for so many years, I'd miss it terribly.  But guess what?  I don't!

I don't want to give the impression we are completely "deprived" here at the GreenVeggie household.  Oh no.  We reactivated our Netflix subscription (streaming only for right now) and signed up for Hulu+.  And we bought a Roku box, which we use for Netflix/Hulu.  I am not one to sit around a small computer screen to watch a program, we don't own a game system, and we don't have internet-ready TV.  So a Roku or something similar was needed.

We could watch a lot of TV and movies with what's available to us, if we so desired.  But somehow getting rid of cable service and all those channels has taken most of our TV-watching need from us.  And no more flipping through the channels means no more being sucked into an assortment of mind-numbing shows. 

Mr. GV quit watching most of the series he enjoyed, and figures he will get them through Netflix when the season comes out---if he still wants to see them.  Seems TV shows just become habit sometimes. I find I am enjoying what I do watch a lot more, maybe because TV doesn't seem like an "obligation" to delete off our Tivo.

As a nice perk, we are saving some money too.  The cable bill has gone from $135 to $45 (still have internet), Tivo was cancelled ($5 or $6, can't remember exactly.)  We did add Hulu and reactivate Netflix, but the savings is still substantial.

Eventually we'd like to replace our dinosaur TV with a newer snazzy model, and the savings from cutting cable will allow us to pay for that in just a few months. 

Anybody else cutting the cord or thinking about it?