I lost Chuck

Well, I lost the dog today. We were walking in the mountains, just Chuck and I and I had him off leash. We were trotting along headed for the vet for a flea treatment and a look at a couple of cuts he got yesterday while charging around the mountain when out of nowhere came two enormous black labs running full bore for us. Chuck took off like the wind....gone. I called and called and called. The other woman's dogs came back, she eventually took them home, and came back to help. After about 45 min we decided he just wasn't there, and she gave me a lift home, also offering to drive me around the hills and town to try to find him. We stopped and asked everyone we saw if they had seen him, and as we got closer a couple of people thought they had....hope rose up in me. I was upset at losing him, and couldn't bear thinking about telling the girls....anyway. The good news is that he beat me home! (Those dogs are scary woman, I'm outta here...YOU deal with them you slow footed human) The man got home, and the front door buzzer went off, it was the lady from the refuge saying she had seen Chuck loose. My husband ran down the stairs and called him, but there were a ton of cars, and Chuck was a little freaked. He also still thinks of the man as a scary guy sometimes....so he trotted off. (He's got a bit of a fear thing about men...particularily Spanish men...It's getting better, but the husband is being tarred with the same brush a bit.)

The man ran upstairs and got shoes, and managed to catch him again without too much trouble. Chuck has several more cuts for his efforts, and is very tired. We gave him a little bonus snack at lunch, and he can sleep this afternoon while I work. I may try and take him to the vet this afternoon, but more likely tomorrow. He's busy grooming himself at length...lots of cuts to lick. When I left for work, instead of looking resigned and depressed, he actually looked pretty darn content. Glad to be home.

Well, I had a stressful hour or two, but he's home and basically fine.

On a funnier note, last night we were talking about a crab that we had seen in the Bahamas a few years ago while we were snorkeling off Big Majors....it was walking vertically along the bottom on only it's very back pair of legs, holding the others stretched up above it's head...the eldest's comment,"Put your claws in the air! REACH FOR THE SURFACE!" Maybe you had to be there, but we all still keep falling into giggle fits when we mention it.

Thai sticky rice. Beth at Blind as a Bat asked what it is. If you go to a Thai restaurant it is the rice you MAY get. There are four main types of Thai rice. Jasmine rice, which is fairly common...a long grain rice with a beautiful scent when it cooks. Cargo rice, which is a red rice before it is husked...you can basically only sold as a brown rice, and was viewed as an invasive weed, but is now being marketed. There is also black sticky rice, which is a long grain rice, and is black on the outside, and is most often sold as a dessert in Thai restaurants but is the staple rice in, I think, the northern part of Thailand. It is black...duh, and if you cook it a long time, it globs together without being gluey...particularily cooked till it is like that then you pour sweetened coconut milk over it and eat with mangoes..failing them, peaches would be good...a sweet tart juicy fruit. It is also good on its own. Then there is Thai sticky rice, which is the white version of black sticky...obviously a long grain white rice, that keeps it's shape...as in it doesn't turn into wallpaper paste, but adheres into balls, and you traditionally eat it with your fingers while dipping it in sauces. It is slightly sweet, and is sometimes called Thai glutinous rice. The kids love it, and so do I. Both of the sticky rices are best if they are steamed.

Working like crazy today, so that's it for now.

Glad we got the Chuckster back.

*phew*