Coffee for Meagan

....Not dissimilar to Flowers for Algernon

As some of you might know, Meagan has just recently begun to drink coffee. She has never liked it until the past six months or so, and is now a (decaf) coffee addict! Seeing as there are now two coffee drinkers in the house, we thought it would be a good idea to head to Bed, Bath and Beyond (armed with our weekly 20% off coupon) to finally get a coffeemaker for home. We chose a lovely Cuisinart model that grinds the beans and all.

Last night Brad gave Meagan a tutorial in how to make coffee. She has literally never made it before! (This would be the moment to interject the famous story of Meagan making coffee at the Donut Den in Zionsville, but it's a bit too long. Ask her next time you see her!) Being the good student she is, Meagan carefully watched Brad measure out the beans, place them in the grinder, fill the water up to the appropriate point and press the appropriate combination of buttons. And violå! Coffee! Very good coffee, actually.

So, this morning Meagan set out to make her very own pot all by herself. She went down the checklist: measure the scoops of beans, place them in the grinder, fill the water up to that line, push the appropriate buttons, and violå! Coffee grinds ALL OVER THE KITCHEN (which, naturally, she had just cleaned). You see, you need to also put in the filter, filter basket and pot. Where Meagan thought this coffee was going to go, we aren't sure. (Directly into her mouth?) After about 15 minutes of cleaning up coffee grounds from every crevice of the surrounding area, Meagan successfully brewed her first pot. And it was pretty tasty despite the missteps along the way.

Bizarro World

Last night Brad came home to an unusual site while Meagan was at rehearsal. He walked in the back door to find Cal stretched out and enjoying our large leather sofa. Even when Brad said his name in surprise, Cal remained comfy and cozy in his spot. This is extremely unusual as the dogs are not allowed on the furniture at all and tend to follow that rule practically perfectly. Brad called it "Bizarro World" and laughed it off, as did Meagan.

Then, today after returning from the gym Meagan walked into what seemed like an innocent scene: two dogs wagging their tails as she entered the back door. It was only as she wandered through the house that she noticed something amiss. A large and long animal, possibly a German Shepherd, definitely had lain on the couch. Rumpled cushions and dog hair led to this conclusion. Shaking her head, she headed to the bedroom to set down her gym bag and found another surprise. The neatly made bed was decidedly rumpled with pillows strewn all over it. It is possible that there was not one, but two German Shepherds involved in this. And it is also possible that rather than merely laying on the bed that there had been some jumping around on the bed. Hmmmmm.

What could be the reason for this sudden change in behavior? Have we truly entered "Bizarro World" (watch Seinfeld for a more detailed description of what this world is like) or could there be a cause? Could it be that the dogs no longer found their own beds sufficient? Seeing as the beds they have been using were bought to replace some far cushier, larger beds (which we could no longer find at the time), this seemed possible. Therefore, an emergency trip to Petco was undertaken. Below are the results. It looks as if the problem may be solved for now. (Note the folders lying across the couch in the background of one picture. This may also help to solve the problem, along with a closed bedroom door!)

Click on the pictures for larger versions...
Big beds for big dogs. Nice face, Cal:


Cal happy on the other:


Gracie staking her claim on one of the beds:

Still boring...But some fun pics!

Hey, everyone! This is just an apology to all of you that check our blog regularly - I promise we will put up something good soon :). Meagan is still crazy busy with teaching and rehearsals, leaving little to no time for anything Blog-worthy to happen. Brad has been traveling up to SF for business, too.

This weekend we are looking forward to seeing our good friend, Steve Schuppert, who will be in town for a bachelor party. We'll also be going back home to Indy for Jason Brown's wedding in about a month. It will be great to see a bunch of old friends that weekend, as well.

As for now, Meagan is getting ready to start dress rehearsals for Man of La Mancha, which opens on the 28th. We promise to post some good pics from that, too. Here's to breaking a leg!

And to makeup for not posting anything good in a while, here are some of our favorite pics from the past year:

Cal and Gracie about to receive a special treat that Brad got them for after their baths. (Yes, Brad did this COMPLETELY on his own!)

Brad and Louis at our favorite spot, Crissy Field, during Louis's visit to our home in San Francisco.

Watching the sunset in San Francisco.

Gracie about to get her treat from Brad.

Christmas Eve in San Francisco with the Todds:

Gracie at her happiest - invited on the bed!

A San Diego sunset while we were down here hunting for a place to live.

Tails of Joy

Hey, Everyone!

Just a quick little note. I was looking at the "Tails of Joy" on the Westside Rescue website (I check it now and then because they are going to put up some new pics of Cal and Gracie) and there is a really touching one at the bottome of page 41. Kind of sums up why we've gotten so attached to helping these pups (hence our Help the Shepherds post a while back). Here's the link if you want to check it out:

http://www.sheprescue.org/tails%20of%20joy%2041.html

Oh, and Sam's story on page 42 is just incredible, as well.

(Sorry - I know there is a lot of dog-related info on our blog. Everyone has that one charity that really gets to them; It's just our little attempt to make one sad thing in the world a happy ending. Some good karma, if you will!)

We're Boring This Week!

Hey, everyone!

We haven't forgotten the blog all this week; We just don't have anything "Blog-worthy" to report! It was a bit of a crazy week: Meagan flew to Wichita for an audition (went well) where she got to sing in a 2,000 seat hall (fun!), we loved watching the Colts kill the Saints on Thursday, Brad had a trip to the E.R. due to a hard hit on the head Thursday night which kept us there until the WEE hours of Friday morning (he's fine) and Meagan's been busy with rehearsals for Lyric Opera San Diego's production of Man of La Mancha all weekend. And naturally, we are both now playing fantasy football (Meagan's rookie season), so we've been keeping a close eye on the San Diego Squirrels (Brad) and San Diego Pandas (Meagan). Whew!

On a kind of cool note, Meagan did find out that she was accepted into the "Core" for San Diego Opera's chorus. That means that she is hired to sing in all of their shows next season. The opera here is one of the biggest in the country, so it should be a pretty cool experience to share the stage with the world-famous singers that come through!

Hopefully we'll have something more "Blog-worthy" in the near future. Keep us posted of your own news!

All the best,
Meagan and Brad

Palomar Mountain

We just returned from a great family vacation on Palomar Mountain. We rented a little cabin 5500 feet up the mountain, piled the dogs in the car and drove an hour and a half northeast of San Diego for a three day vacation. (Still in San Diego County though - isn't that amazing?) It was a great break for us all - cooler temperatures in our shady cabin, no phone, no TV, no cell service or internet. Just lots of reading material and walks with the dogs. Gracie has always loved our getaways to the woods (Mendocino County, the Sierra's), but this was Cal's very first look at the country, seeing as he is from South Central L.A.! It was a lot of fun to see them running as fast as they could in a wide open space. I'm sure they will sleep for days!

We also got to see the first substantial rain (the first that Meagan had even seen in San Diego!) while in the cabin. We had a couple really good thunderstorms. We found out that Cal is terrified of thunder (see pic below). Gracie, however, would take it on if only she knew what it was! (Unfortunately, every time she barks at the thunder it stops, therefore making her think she has scared it off. A never-ending cycle!)

Below are some picture highlights.

I also included a funny picture at the very bottom of our version of an air conditioner. We returned today to 100-plus degree heat, and, like many Californians, we have no AC! Seeing as most days this summer have been between the 80's and 100, it has been a sticky one.

P.S. Many of you might be quicker than me, but I just realized that if you click on a picture you can view a bigger version.

Our little cabin, called The Cedars:


The meadow above the cabin where the dogs had plenty of off-leash time:


The view from about 5500 feet up Palomar Mountain:


Cal's first walk in the woods:


Playing a lot of fetch:


Stopping for A LOT of water:


Guarding the tastiest ball:


Crashing after a hard day's work. (If only they liked each other!):


Hiding from the thunder:


Taking on the thunder:


Our California A.C. (a.k.a. ice in front of the fan):