Good Book, Sleepy Puppy, Meet George

I have been enthralled by Barbara Kingsolver's new book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" for the past week or so. The book was released in May 2007, but I only read about it recently and picked up a copy at our local library. The book is part memoir and part information guide and tells the story of how her family decided to grow all of their food and/or buy locally for an entire year. That means no hothouse-grown strawberries in December and no South American asparagus in February.

I'm about 3/4 of the way through the book now; so far, so good. The author lives on a 100 acre farm, which makes life easier when it comes to growing all you need to feed a family of four for a year. I've been gardening on a small scale for about 3 years now, and I still have so much to learn. Much like what we're trying to do with Waldo, we've also been cleansing ourselves of pesticide-ridden, commercially grown fruits and vegetables. We have several great family-owned farmstands around us that operate from April/June to October, but I haven't quite figured out what to do for the winter months. I'm not sure if I can handle eating a mealy, tasteless tomato from the supermarket again.

Speaking of winter, I just put in a heating pad for Waldo's bed. The pad was originally used for the Old Man and his aching bones. I figure that Waldo would enjoy it as well. What do you think?? Is that a sleepy puppy or what?

And finally, what has been big news around our house has nothing to do with dogs or dogs with cancer. I'd like you to meet George, our new MINI Cooper S. We picked him up last night and had fun driving him back home. Rich is super excited about it since he chose all of the accoutrements, so I suspect that I'll be allowed to drive it in a few months. =)