Veterinarians always tell us at our dog's annual exams to brush their teeth every day. We have tried several types of brushes designed for dogs with special flavored toothpaste, but it just seems to be more trouble that it is worth.

We have discovered a great product that makes brushing their teeth every day easy. They are pre-moistened wipes, kind of like baby wipes, soaked with antiseptic, mint flavor, and baking soda. I can wipe all of Mitch's gums and teeth in about 20 seconds. We think he actually kind of likes it too. He struggles just a little bit when I am doing it, but when he sees me grabbing the container and pulling one out he still comes over and waits for me to start working. His breath is really good too. We keep them on the coffee table and I do it in the evening while we are watching TV.

These are the ones we are using now and got them at PetSmart.

Go Bears!

Pringles has a new product line called Pringles Select. We tried one today that is particularly good: cinnamon sweet potato. Lightly sweet taste with a nice dusting of cinnamon. A one ounce serving has 40% RDA of vitamin A. We will probably get them again.

Oranges have been bad this year. They have been juicy but not very sweet or flavorful.

Luckily Fuji apples have more than made up for them. Every Fuji we have had this season has been fabulous. Mitch has even turned into an apple whore. When I first gave him a little piece a few weeks ago he didn't know if he liked it or not. Now he follows us around if we are eating an apple hoping for a bite.

Meijer had a 3 pound bag for $1.50 a few days ago.

After having Mitch for 1.5 months now I am convinced that greyhounds make the best pets for most people.

1. Very gentle. Have not seen any aggression towards anyone yet. Has been OK with kids touching him. Has been OK with clipping his nails, touching his feet, putting clothes, muzzle, boots, etc. on him.

2. Very quiet. Not a barker. In the morning when he is ready for breakfast and to go outside he has this cute little yip he makes, but that is about it, and then he only yips a few times and then stops. No whining. No barking when someone comes to the door or sees another dog walking in front of the house. If you want a guard dog then a greyhound is not for you. I don't think he would be very good protection while walking down the street at night, but I think just his size would be enough to deter someone from bothering you. He is a big dog, and someone that didn't know he was a greyhound or what a greyhound is like would just see a big dog and leave you alone. But if they decided to mug you anyways I don't know if he would do anything. Goliath was good protection. If he sensed that one of us didn't like someone walking on the sidewalk towards us, or thought there was someone in the house, backyard, etc. he let them know he was there and was pretty scary about it.

3. Very affectionate. He needs lots of petting and attention, and that is the way we like our dogs. When Sheri is at home working all day he needs to be in the same room with her and every couple of hours he gets up to check-in with her and get some petting. Just about every time I get up to use the rest room he has to get up and follow me in to make sure he doesn't miss anything. This might not be good for some people, but we like it that way. I think cat-people generally like their pets a little more standoffish.

4. Clean. Greyhounds do not have undercoats, do not shed very much, and have very short hair. If Goliath rubbed up against you after putting on a suit you would have to get the tape to get the hair off. Little balls of his hair would accumulate in corners and under the bed. We called them tumble weeds. Mitch can rub up against you and you will not find one hair on your clothes! Some people that are allergic to dogs can actually tolerate greyhounds.

5. Attention getting. I like the attention he attracts while walking him. I can't wait until the summer months and all the new girlfriends he is going to attract! The few times we have taken him downtown it seems every head turns as we walk past. Some stops us at least every 15 minutes to ask about him and to pet him.

6. Low exercise requirements. It seems like the world's fastest dog would need a lot of exercise, but they don't. They are huge couch potatoes. Of course regular exercise is good for them, and us, but they are not demanding about it. Some dogs start acting up and chewing inappropriate things as an outlet if they don't get enough exercise, but greyhounds are content just to sleep and cuddle most of the time. Sometimes while watching a movie we will notice that he seems a little restless. He will get up, come see us. Pick through his toys, walk around. We will pause the movie and take him outside. A lot of times he will do a few high-speed laps around the yard, take a pee, and then come in the house and go to sleep. When we do take him for walks he needs at least a couple hour nap afterwards to recover. The excitement of a car ride is enough to wear him out for a while too. I have no doubt he could keep up with an active runner that ran several miles a day, but he is totally fine with just hanging out too.

We had a really fun morning outside despite it being cold and wet. There is a "sport" called geocaching. It starts by someone hiding something someplace. It is usually something like a Tupperware container with some small trinkets inside. They record the coordinates with their GPS and then go to a site like www.geocaching.com and post where the cache is.

When someone goes and finds it they can take a little trinket and leave a trinket of their own. There is often time a little paper log where you can leave your name, date, notes, etc. Sometimes they are easy to find and sometimes they are tricky. There are lots of different variations on what kinds of caches are left and how they are described and found.

Anyway, I have known about geocaching for years but never tried it. Early this morning after I let Mitch outside and I was just checking the Internet before I went back to bed something made me register at geocaching.com and pick out a nearby one.

I went back to bed and asked the now-awake Sheri if she wanted to go on an adventure, and she did!

We bundled up and got on our rubber boots and set out to find our first geocache.

It was at a nearby forest preserve.



Sheri was holding the GPS and led the way. I think she liked it because I was having a tough time keeping up with her as she dodged in and out of the thick brush and thickets. It was not on a trail. We were going right through the underbrush.

Sheri found it after just a few minutes of being in the general area. My current handheld GPS does not have WAAS and will therefore only get us within about 30 feet of the point I entered. Here she is retrieving the cache from its hiding place. Take note of her new boots she got yesterday.



Ta dah!



This is what was inside.



This is what we took.



And this is what we left.



We also left four Wetnaps. A lot of families do this with their kids so I thought they might be handy if a kid gets into something messy he shouldn't have.

We saw a buck and three does during our adventure too!







Afterwards we went to McDonalds for breakfast and to read the Sunday paper. I would say we spent over an hour outside hiking through the forest. It felt good to get up and get going like that. We think we are definitely going to do it again. It is a fun way to get some exercise in. We both had a nice tired feeling afterwards and our cheeks were flushed from the cold wind blowing on us.

After breakfast we went to Walgreen's to get a few things that were advertised in the Sunday paper and then to PetSmart to get a couple algae eaters for the aquarium.

Now Sheri is at a neighborhood food party that is kind of like a Tupperware party. All of the food is either ready-to-eat or only needs one or two ingredients to prepare. We aren't really too excited about the food, but it is a good way to meet more people in the neighborhood.

After I wrap this up I am going to go downstairs and watch the rest of the Bears football game and probably end up taking a nap and wait for Sheri to get back home. I don't have to work tomorrow because of the MLK Day holiday so we will stay up late and watch a movie, burn some wood and wait for the snow to start falling. The last I saw we are only supposed to get between 3 and 5 inches. Earlier in the week they were saying Chicago might get over 10 inches.

Very funny. I laughed out loud a few times.

Thomas S. Ruff


Loving Husband, Father, Brother, Grandfather and Friend. Tom passed away suddenly on January 6, 2007. Tom always lived life to its fullest and "seized the moment".

We hope that donations to his memorial fund will help save young lives, find cures for childhood diseases and enable children to live their lives the way Tom lived his.

We had a really nice Christmas and New Years holiday. Even though Sheri was on call up until New Year's Eve day we still both felt really refreshed from not feeling pressure to do anything and just enjoy cooking, eating, watching movies, burning wood, and playing with Mitch.

For New Years I made pepperoni bread. We were gone too long while the dough was rising and it blew the bowl right off of the counter.



It turned out excellent.



pepperoni
provolone cheese
parmesan cheese
garlic powder
oregano
basil
onion flakes

We had a little incident tonight with Mitch. I thought I would see how he responded to having his nails clipped. I did one of the nails on his back leg while he was lying down. He didn't even look up. Cool. I took just a little off of the first one to get a feel for how far down his quick grows.

On the second nail I found out how far down his quick grows. He let out a little yip and sat up. His first response was to kiss my face, like he was letting me know he was OK, and then he looked at his foot.

It started bleeding like crazy. After inspecting it for about 10 seconds he laid his head back down and let us figure out how to stop the bleeding. It just wouldn't quit.







Direct pressure didn't work because I think when we removed the tissue any blood that had clotted was disturbed and it started bleeding again. After doing that a few times I just let it bleed. It started to slow down after a minute and pretty much stopped after about three minutes. I guess the air helped to dry it out and create a cap.

I had a really unusual pizza tonight. It was a very thin crispy crust topped with artichoke hearts, prosciutto, ricotta cheese, and a couple other things I can't remember.

As soon as they take it hot out of the oven they crack in egg right in the middle of it and let it cook for a little bit just from the heat of the pizza. By the time they bring it to the table the egg is coddled. The server takes a spoon and mixes the egg up right in front of me on the pizza and then spoons the egg around the entire pizza. Surprisingly delicious. If I go back I would order the exact same thing which is extremely unusual for me.