More Than a Quarter of Porthos

Yesterday marked the four-month anniversary of our adoption of Porthos.  We survived the winter with a rambunctious adolescent Rottweiler.  Our house and specifically the trash can fared slightly worse.  He’s gradually adapting to confinement in the backyard when we leave to watch a movie or go grocery shopping, but he does not like to be crated when the weather is bad.  It’s sad that Terry and I, empty nesters, have to ‘babysit’ our dog and can’t trust him to behave himself when we leave the house.

We took him to the dog park for the first time on Sunday the 22nd.  For this first visit, I kept him close to me with the leash at the ready.  If Porthos decides to take off after another dog or person, there’s no way I could catch him.  He’s very agile and very fast, with powerful almost instant acceleration.  I got him to run through the tube at the park a couple of times and pose for a photo:

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Once Spring arrived, I started walking each dog every other evening. Porthos is a joy to walk and I get good exercise trying to keep up with him. Lexy takes her time and needs to be coaxed to walk farther than a couple of blocks from home. I haven’t been brave enough to walk both of them at the same time. Maybe in a month or so.

Book Review: Clash of Eagles by Smale (3.5 stars)

Clash of Eagles

by Alan Smale

3.5 to 4 stars

Good but not great.

As other reviewer(s) have noted, this ends up being a one-man show almost exclusively – Marcellinus, the Praetor of the XXXIII Legion, marching west across the Appallacians towards the mighty Mississippi years before Horace Greeley penned the phrase “Go West, young man.”  The Romans, and their Norse scouts, encounter various Native Americans with startlingly advanced technology for a stone-age culture lacking even the wheel*.

Marcellinus is the only truly fleshed out character.  All others – Romans, Norsemen, Native Americans – are barely cardboard cutouts in comparison.  Some of the Cahokians, in the latter half of the book, get more interesting, but not by much.

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Recipe Review: KAF Beautiful Burger Buns (4 Stars)

Since the temperature broke into the mid-60s yesterday under clear sunny skies, I decided to uncover the grill for dinner.  I started this recipe in the bread machine in early afternoon so the buns would be done when the burgers came off the grill.

Beautiful Burger Bun recipe at King Arthur Flour

I did not butter the buns before baking nor after baking.  Nor did I do an egg wash with sesame seeds.  I went completely easy and simple and just shaped eight bun balls and baked them.  Next time, I’ll probably divided the dough into ten or twelve pieces for smaller buns and perhaps add the sesame seed topping.

Both my husband and I loved the buns.  They taste and smell like great hamburger buns from a bakery, only very fresh!  I highly recommend this recipe.