Bed and Biscuit

Meet Cobe, our house guest.

Breed: Irish Setter

Age: 1.5 (give or take) years

Weight: 55 lbs.

Favorite pastime: tugging, fetching, drinking, running, walking, wrestling, tugging, playing, sometimes eating, chasing, pacing, barking... 

We're currently watching Cobe for Craig's parents, which means Casa Lindeman has become Camp Lindeman for the four-legged variety. Not only did Cobe come with his own crate and toys, but he brought a whole new energy to the house that I haven't seen since Zoe was very young (anyone with a lab knows what I'm talking about). 

Every single toy in the downstairs toy box has been brought upstairs. And the toy box upstairs is overturned about once an hour - just in case a plush toy with a really good squeaker got buried. And not only are all the soft toys and the nylabones getting put to good use, Luka is getting more exercise than he has in his 2 1/2 years.

I'm not sure what Craig did to get the still shot of Cobe above, but this is the typical scene in the house and the yard (sometimes Cobe is in the lead).  

As one who knows Zoe might suspect, the poor girl really isn't excited about the additional male in the house. It was bad enough when we brought Luka home from the Humane Society (which somehow gave her pancreatitis), but two boys seems to be two too many. She's been laying low and giving us the big brown sad eyes that we know means we're going to owe her a trip to the lake for a long swim when all this is over. 

We hope everyone else had a quiet and relaxing weekend.

Carrie

Fine dining Gainesville style

As a special treat for being so good on our road trip home from Houston after the 4th, we let Zoe enjoy breakfast in bed at the hotel in Gainesville. These photos were taken by my phone before we made our quick getaway.

The ins and outs of traveling with dogs

Anyone who has ever taken a long road trip with a dog (or heaven forbid, two dogs) knows that the fun really begins once a long day of driving is over—because unless you plan on staying with friends or family, you've got three options.

1) Pretend you're Jewel and sleep in your car behind a Denny's
2) Drive around whichever unknown town you happen to find yourself stranded in and look hopelessly for a place that welcomes your two-legged companion(s).
3) Stay wherever the hell you want, but do so as if you're a Navy SEAL.

We generally opt for #3. If you ever plan on doing the same, here are a couple of tips we've picked up during six years of practice.

The smaller the dog the better
Any breed that has the word "teacup" in its name is ideal. Just place said dog in an overnight bag or purse and cover with a Kleenex—you should be good to go. However, if you've got yourself a little yipper, a slathering of peanut butter may be in order. All in all, the size and flexibility of small dogs drastically increase your overall lodging options.

What to do if you have a large dog (or heaven forbid, two)
With large dogs your choices are pretty slim. Basically you need to look for a place that has outdoor entrances—i.e. your run-of-the-mill roadside motel. So, as you enter town, scan the horizon for a Super 8, Motel 6, Comfort Inn or an older La Quinta. Lower-level rooms on the back of the motel are generally the best, but you can pretty much sneak in and out no matter where you are, just avoid parking the car in front of the lobby when you check in.

When a motel is not an option
Carrie and I were faced with this situation on our way back from Houston a couple of weeks ago. It was 11 o'clock and we were in the hit-or-miss area between Dallas and Oklahoma City, our only real hope for a place to stay was in Gainesville Texas—unfortunately their La Quinta had recently been updated which meant no outside entrances. This was virgin territory for us.

Here's how we handled it.

1) We scouted out the scene, driving around the building to see if there were back or side entrances (there were some on the side).
2) After parking a safe distance from the view of the front desk I ran in and got us a room on the ground level as close to the end as possible.
3) We parked around back and I ran in to check things out. Much to my dismay, the room wasn't very close to the end of the hall, but instead was 30 feet from the front desk! Time to improvise.
4) Carrie and I gathered up everything we needed to ensure that we would not need to make more than one trip (anxious dogs make noisy dogs). Then, since we use Gentle Leaders, we removed their collars to avoid the tell-tale sound of jangling tags and made a run for it.

Success.

Maybe the dogs were just too damn tired, or they were just in on the plan, either way, they were awesome. Our escape the next morning was a little more challenging due to the fact that our door pretty much opened up to the breakfast area, the solution to this little problem was to create a diversion at the waffle maker while Carrie, Luka and Zoe made their escape. MacGyver would have been proud.

Oh, a couple of more things we've learned over the years.

Ice buckets make great water bowls, always turn on the air conditioner full blast to muffle sound, and close the blinds—not to keep people from seeing in, but to keep your dogs from seeing anything they feel they need to warn you about.

Hope this helps you on your next trip.

Craig

sew and tell: baby bibs

It's been awhile since I've fired up the sewing machine, but I was inspired to take on a new project as we get closer to the arrival of our niece or nephew. So here you have it: baby bibs.



While these were fairly simple to put together, the biggest challenge was finding fun fabrics that would work for either a girl or boy. I figured you can't go wrong with doughnuts, monkeys, sea creatures and Jayhawks. (Some may disagree.)

The stars at night were big and bright.

It's become somewhat of a summertime family tradition. As soon as the the thermometer starts to consistently crack the 90s here in Kansas, we load up the car and head deep into the heart of Texas for a little R & R in the cool, Mediterranean climate of Houston.

So that's what we did for our Fourth of July weekend.

Refreshing temperatures aside, we love going down to Houston because it provides us with a great opportunity to spend some quality time with Curt and Cheryl. And with the baby on the way in September, it was kind of a last hurrah before we start a new chapter.

As usual we had a great time. We rolled into town a little after seven on Thursday, delayed by an impromptu visit to the vet (Zoe ripped a nail) and an incident at a Love's convenience store in Ardmore Oklahoma (Carrie's not talking about it). The next morning we headed down to Curt and Cheryl's boat to let the dogs play in the ocean and to hang out around the pool. Luckily we got to do a little of both before a monsoon left us huddling together under the roof of a pool-side Tiki bar and ultimately forced us to scramble back to the mainland. That night we treated ourselves to best fajitas known to man at El Tiempo. (Seriously, words can not describe how good these things are, if you ever find yourself in the area you owe it to your self to get a pound of chicken.)

The next morning I got up at five (what in the hell kind of vacation is that?) to join Curt for his Kenyan Way running club (seriously). It's this thing Curt and Cheryl have done for a couple of years that teaches you to train like the Kenyans do—which I was happy to find out just means putting in a lot of hill work instead of what I envisioned—running shoeless while been chased by rabid cheetahs. Seven miles later we were back home just as the girls were getting up for their day at the spa (somehow I drew the short stick). So, while they were off getting pampered Curt and I cruised around town, first to go and see his swanky new corner office then stopping off to take a look at these huge sculptures of each president's head which sat in rows outside the artist's studio. They were absolutely amazing.

From there, our weekend pretty much just consisted of hanging around and gorging ourselves, before we ultimately packed up and headed home around seven on Sunday night—driving as far as Gainesville before settling in for a couple hours of sleep (more on this in a later post).

By noon the next morning we were back at home—and for Carrie—back at work. No reason to get too down about it though, we'll be making the journey again in just a couple of short months to meet the newest member of the family.



Here are a couple of photos of the nursery-in-waiting.





Funky nightlights.







Zoe and Luka found the nursery very soothing.



*I've also added a few new shots to my flickr page if you want to check them out.

My ultimate blond moment

I went brunette.

Pot of gold

If you haven't seen this before, you owe it to yourself—if only for the amateur sketch, it could save your life.

Thanks to Dooce for reminding me of its wonderfulness.