Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Furry guest

My sister and her new puppy came to visit for the first time. Sam (the puppy) is a Great Dane mix and is roughly 4 months old. She's a rescue dog so forgive her boniness - she's slowly putting on weight. We've waited nearly a month before bringing her to meet Cooper to give her time to gain some strength. 

Looks like the time was right. The following photos are ample evidence that dogs love to play. 

Blurry action photo #1

Blurry action photo #2 (slightly slower though) 
Cooper is the blur on the right

Starting to slow down more.

Ta Da! Two dogs! 

Well into the visit. Still playing.
They played in the house. They played in the snow. They enjoyed several walks in the woods.

Cooper is now comatose on the couch. I imagine Sam, too, is snoring at home. None of us can wait for the next visit.

Sleeping positions

Ah, the easy life.

Cooper and T'BD know how to enjoy a cloudy winter day. Curl up in a chair, or on the hearth rock, and sleep the day away.

Oh so comfy

There are two beds right by the fire. She chooses the warm rock.
Both animals like to lay on or very near the hearth rock. The floor is warm, the rock is more than warm, and the beds get moved, fluffed, and switched around depending on how much time has been spent by the fire.

A pretty good way to spend the day.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

El Mexicano restaurant review

It's funny how you get in a restaurant rut - even if it's a tasty rut - when you live someplace long enough. Now that we've relocated, we're exploring the area all over again and finding new restaurants to try.

I've decided I'm going to start tracking and reviewing the restaurants that we try. First up is a Mexican restaurant in Saratoga.

El Mexicano on Broadway. We tried it for lunch on a snowy Friday and arrived just before noon. It was empty at first but soon started to fill up with a lunch crowd.

The tortilla chips were typical but the salsa was great. Full of flavor not just heat (although it was very hot). And the waiter brought a couple 4-inch cheese quesadillas (on the house) as an appetite teaser while we studied the menu. Nice! I had chillaquiles - fried tortilla strips covered with shredded chicken, cheese, and red sauce; baked in a small casserole so it stays hot. Wonderful! Needed some heat (nothing is spicy unless you ask) so I used some of the salsa on it. That did it. Chris had a combo plate of chicken enchilada and beef chimichanga. Again, wonderful! The chimi was small but absolutely stuffed full of tender slow-cooked beef flavored with onion, tomato and peppers. And the enchilada was great. Matter of fact, we didn't even need sour cream! The refried beans were rather generic as was the rice.

I had a margarita and it was tart and nicely mixed. Chris had coffee.

At the end of the meal the waiter dropped off dessert: a couple 4-inch tortillas stuffed with banana and deep fried, lightly covered in a cinnamon sauce and whipped cream - again on the house.

The meal came to $26 after tip and we'll definitely go back.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Facebook test post

Trying to get a post to feed to our Facebook page. Hmmm. Not sure this is going to work...