My Workmate

Because of our WFH status, we are doing all kinds of fun things to stay connected.  One of them is to send in a pic of your pet and give them a professional title.   This is Tre, VP of Side Eye and Silent Judgement!

"Under"

Astrid is supposed to be exposed to different experiences, textures, noises, etc. but since we are on lockdown, it's been difficult.  In fact, puppy classes which we did every weekend, have been canceled.  So we have to be creative and find things that we can expose her to that are safe for all of us.  This morning, we went out early to the the local school, and practiced "under" at the benches where the kids wait to be picked up.  She is doing really well and Grace is amazing with her.

It's an....egg!

After about 5 days of acting like a maniac running back and forth and digging like crazy, Tre finally laid 25 eggs in her hut!  Check out how different they look in coloring and the difference in sizing.

Since we don't have a male, they were unfertilized, so we took them out pretty quick and threw them away.

She didn't seem to care and quickly went back to being a calm bearded dragon who enjoys sunning herself and eating roaches and greens.  She looked super skinny after laying all those eggs so she gets to eat as much as she wants.

The eggs were soft, like vinyl.  Think of it like a thick balloon. The inside didn't have a distinct yolk - it was just yellow oozy.   This was great excitement during this boring period of lock down.

It's a....Bee!

Our bees are supposed to arrive on Tuesday!  This is where they will live.   We have been spending the weekend learning exactly what we need to do when they show up - 3000 of them plus 1 queen!  Stay tuned for pics and stories.

Ouch!

True to our family experience, Astrid ended up injured from playing too hard!   Her and Hops were wrestling in the backyard this morning and hit teeth to teeth which left Astrid with missing or broken teeth.  They are baby teeth that are due to come out in the next few weeks anyway so its not a big concern.  Plus she has a vet appointment on Friday so we will get them checked out.

She was not too concerned about it.  This is her cradling in my lap afterwards.

Derby Pie

Derby Pie

1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup Karo corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons of bourbon (or to taste)
1 pie shell

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs and mix.  Add Karo syrup, salt and vanilla and mix.  Stir in chocolate ships, pecans and bourbon.  Poor in pie shell and sage for 45 to 50 mins on 375 degrees.

Egg time

So settle in for this story....

Since I have been working from home, my new workmate is Tre.  She sits right by where I work so I can watch her most of the day.

Earlier this week, she started going crazy - running back and forth in her tank, knocking over her plant, breaking her hammock and knocking her chaise lounge off her perch.

At one point I thought I saw an egg in there but when I went back 5 minutes later to take a picture, it was GONE!?!?

Then, on Thursday, she started digging at the bottom of the tank like she was possessed by a digging demon!

Grace was on a school call in the office, so I texted her and said "Tre needs sand to dig in ASAP"!  So G comes running out and gets a bin full of sand for the tank.  Literally, Tre dove into the sand and started digging like mad.  You can see the results in the pic above.  Her whole take is destroyed!

No eggs yet but we keep checking.

Tre taking a break from the digging frenzy!

Below is Grendel's tank, which is nice and neat and is what Tre's normally looks like.

Puff

When we make non traditional chicken pot pie, Grace has been making the puff pasty to go with it.  Last week this was the pastry she made.  HOLY MOLY was it delicious!

College Reunion

My college room mate and another close college friend did a reunion back in our college town a couple weeks ago.  We rented an old house right close to campus and spent the weekend catching up. Unfortunately it was during the time that my parents were stuck on the cruise ship so a lot of the time was spent with worry and doing research on the situation.

This is the cute old house we rented.  

This was the dorm we used to live in - Whitney Hall - AKA the great shit can in the sky!  I don't remember how or why it got this name but its well known.

Jill is recently single, so we took the time to get her signed up on a couple dating sites!  We took pics of her, wrote her profile and signed her up.  That was great fun!

Room mates- 35 years after we met

Astrid Update

The pu has been with us for over a month now.  There has been a lot learning, work and joy.

The first couple weeks were measured in 10 and 15 minute increments since we took her out to go "hurry that often.   But as she got bigger, she understood the expectation and could hold it longer.  So now we are at every 30 to 45 minutes.

We have especially enjoyed her company during the lockdown.  Above was a last minute phone shoot on St Patty's day.  G ran upstairs and made a scarf and bow and we took pics!

Above was one of her first outings (before lockdown).  We took her to Lowes and since she has not had shots yet, we put her in the cart.   Her other early outings were the bank, Sports Basement and Target.

Work from Home

I have been WFH because of the covid19 virus for almost 2 weeks now, I think....I have lost track already.   I have made the adjustment fine but miss my team.   In an effort to stay connected, we are doing virtual lunches via video conference and extra team meetings.

This was a pic that one of my team mates drew on our white board one day.  It gets a lot of attention.  People stop by all the time to tell me how it looks just like us!