Damn good dog

Yes, that saying is typically reserved for UGA bulldogs (and the title of a book about the UGAs), however I thought it was also an appropriate title for this post.  After 17 years as a faithful member of our family, my sister’s dog, Allie, passed last week.  She was part beagle, part terrier of some sort… she had the loud beagle bay/howl and the seemingly never ending energy of a terrier.  She was my sister’s first “child,” keeping my sister company when she first moved out on her own.  Yes, she was a somewhat psycho/crazy dog that loved to lick, and lick, and lick, but she was  also super sweet.  When she was a puppy, she seemed to bounce when she ran, which earned the nickname of Allie-Roo, which then transitioned (at some point) to Allie-Rude. 

Allie, Christmas 2005

17 years is a long time for a dog and part of me thinks she hung on so long just to spite my brother in law.  He is not a fan of dogs, but understood that she came along with my sister.  He and Allie somehow managed to coexist under one roof, sharing my sister while pretty much ignoring each other.  Allie had some ups and downs with her health over the last couple of years and I received several phone calls saying, “Allie is on her way out,” only to find out that she bounced back a few days later and was acting “normal” again.  Each time that happened, I could almost picture her standing in their kitchen looking at my brother in law thinking, "I'm back" or “you thought you were about to get rid of me?  Ha, not so fast!”

There wasn’t much else going on here last week; we just tried to settle into 2013 by hitting the gym most days, only to then offset the workouts by going out to eat and baking sweets for a dinner party.  We went bowling with friends on Saturday night, the first time in over a year since we had bowled.  We bowled three games, divided into the CFO’s favorite teams, Guys vs. Gals.  Unfortunately for her, the Guys dominated the Gals, easily winning all three games.  Personally, my best game was the second game, when I scored a 151… not too bad considering I hadn’t played in so long.  That score ended up being the highest score out of our group for the night, go me. 

The CFO found her groove in the 3rd game and she was beating me all the way up to the last frame, where I finally reacquired my ability to hit the lead pin.  I ended the game with two strikes and a 9, which shot my score way above hers.  She was not happy (she hates to lose), which, of course, made me laugh and rub it as much as possible.

 Chocolate brownies (from scratch) topped with melted caramel and chocolate chips