Sunday snacks

Here are the pics of Jerry's birthday cake from last week:
Vegan Black Forest Cake

We didn't have any birthday candles, so I used sparklers- which I think look better !

I tried a piece and it was sooo rich, like a chocolate fudge cake!

Today we've made Vegan Spiced Ginger Cookies. I was thinking that they might be nice stuck together with some of the leftover buttercreme filling from the cake :)
The spicy flavour is nice especially at this time of year when the weather is starting to get chilly.

Happy Halloween !

This year Jerry was in charge of Pumpkin carving duties, and I think he did a very good job !


scooping out the gruesome insides


Pepe gets a fun hat

Moved into the front room for the tricky bit- carving. Pepe 'snoopervises' very closely

Ta-daaa !

Happy Halloween everybody !

Got a baby? Good luck keeping your house clean

What's a bigger enemy to a clean home: a puppy or a baby?

> A baby stays a baby for a lot longer than a dog does a puppy !

Happy birthday Jerry

Yesterday - 24th October - was Jerry's Birthday !
Here we are celebrating having a meal at Chaophraya. We went there with my mum & dad:


The food was okay; the "Tapas" starters were the nicest part. We went at 3pm so I think they were only serving the Lunch menu... Jerry chose a papaya salad- but it was a bit too spicy for him !

Today I am going to finish off making his birthday cake: Vegan black forest cake. I've made a couple of amendments to the recipe on the site so will have to report back on whether it's any good :>

Pepe and Jesse are good. Pepe has outgrown her winter coat from last year, the big fatty! Over on Pug Snuggly I love the 'Sailor Tattoo' ones. The clocks have changed for winter here so although it might not start getting colder right away, it'll definetly be too dark when I get home from work (5.30pm onwards) to be taking a walk in the park :<

Sunday summary

We went to the vets again on Saturday... but it was only for Pepe to have her booster vaccination. (annoyingly I couldn't find the record for her previous vaccine, must remember to have a 'proper' look for it). The vet also gave her a bit of a once-over and said that she still had some of her baby teeth! We were just talking to another dog owner during the week about their 5-month old puppy losing their baby teeth (a Bedlington Terrier). So, the vet said it'd be better for them to be removed - Pepe's mouth would be less crowded with less places for food to get trapped, then causing plaque which can lead to worse problems. Has anyone else needed for their Pug to have baby teeth removed ?
Pepe says: "if you take out my baby teeth, I won't be able to chomp my rawhides as much!"

More good news... bad news

Good news: Jesse's back !
I busted the outlaw out of the vet's (once again) this evening, and this time we nabbed a handful of drugs as well- he has to take Dantrium (to help relax his bladder) & Baytril antiotic ;(
I dread to think how much his tab has run up to now, but like I say the vets have been very nice about it & we can pay monthly- phew!

Bad news- Jerry didn't get the Waterstones job. Oh well. The wages were crappy anyway. At the moment he has an application for 8th Day Vegetarian cafe. Well, he even goes one better and is actually a *Vegan* and he has also worked in kitchens before so I think >hope< that he's a shoo-in for it. In fact we used to go in there quite often when we were "courting" *blush

Good news/ bad news

Well I'll get the bad news out of the way first- Jesse James is at the vets again for the weekend. On Saturday morning he was struggling to urinate again, and we know the drill by heart by now... At least we know he's in the right place to get the treatment he needs. The vets are also very good and are allowing us to pay off his bills in monthly installments, although at the moment it feels like we'll be paying it off for the rest of our lives ! ...so that's the reason why I've not been blogging very much, as I don't want to have to keep on putting gloomy posts about him continuing to have problems :(

And the good news is that Jerry has an interview for a bookseller position for the Waterstones chain. The rate of pay isn't great (£5.75), and it's only 20hrs per week; but it'd be a start. And I think after he completes a probation period he'd then be entitled to a staff discount (I'm a real bookworm!) :>

Other good news was that Jerry's dad visited us today and took us for a 'big shop' at the supermarket. It was so much fun! We got big packs of spaghetti & penne pasta, rice, loaves of bread, tofu, multipacks of chopped tomatoes and Baked Beans (Jerry's favourite), plus loads of fruit & veggies. I could have easily spent double what we did, but didn't want to take advantage. Normally we go shopping on an almost daily basis- not to the supermarket but to closer shops for bits & pieces, it's very strange for the cupboards to be full !