Welcome Home Cracker!

We finally got our little dog. He is a 4 year old miniature dachshund named Cracker. We think he's adorable! His owner was sent to Iraq and the wife moved in with her mother. The mother didn't want Cracker, so they took him back to the breeder where they originally got him.

He is such a good dog! He is very well behaved and affectionate. We think he's feeling a little attention starved after being abondoned by his owners. He had been back at the breeder for three months, living with 130 other dachshunds. Poor little guy.

Now he is home with us. He absolutely LOVES Charlie. He follows him all around the house. I think he likes me too, but Charlie is definitely his new best friend.

The Next Best Thing...

...to Sprinkles Cupcakes would have to be the Barefoot Contessa box mixes.

Yesterday I decided to stop by Sprinkles to pick up a few Father's Day cupcakes for Charlie. I figured the store would be busy, but as I pulled into the parking lot I realized that "busy" was a major understatement! After finally finding a parking spot clear on the other side of the shopping center, I made my way to the store and took my place at the end of an incredibly long line.

The last time I had seen the Sprinkles line even close to this long was on Valentine's Day - and even then it was only half as long as what I was facing yesterday. After about ten minutes I threw in the towel. I knew I wouldn't be leaving with cupcakes anytime in the next hour or more.

But then on my way back to the car I decided to stop in Sur La Table. Lo and behold the Barefoot Contessa cupcake mixes!!! Charlie and I had tried the chocolate ones before and they were fantastic. This time I went for the coconut. I made a second stop at Bristol Farms to pick up a few ingredients. $14 (these mixes aren't cheap) and 10 minutes later I was on my way. I glanced at the Sprinkles line again as I drove past... the guy in the green shirt who had been in front of me hadn't moved an inch.

Making the cupcakes myself probably took just about as long as I would have spent standing in line at Sprinkles. And for $14 I now have a dozen cupcakes instead of just 4. They are worth every penny. These things are to die for. If you'd like to try one, just stop by before we finish them all off!

The Impossible Rescue

For the past month, we have been trying to adopt a dog. What we thought would be a quick and easy process and turned out to be very frustrating and disappointing.

In case you were wondering.....we did not get Buddy (from Carrie's post below). The owners never called us back. We don't consider ourselves too picky....we want a medium sized dog that is not a puppy and is somewhat well behaved.

We were hoping to adopt a Dachsund named "Brownie". His owner is a Chinese woman in Garden Grove who worked too much and no time for him. After two weeks of emails, phone calls, and cancelled meetings, she decided to give Brownie to a family member. We liked him and were sad when we didn't get him. Here's a picture of Brownie:

Later, we found another dog on the internet. His name was Buddy. He is a black dachsund, that is 3 years old, house trained, and a little overweight. (this Buddy is not to be confused with the original Buddy in a previous post). We called the animal rescue, spoke with the adoption coordinator many times, filled out the applications, our references were called, and we set up an appointment on Friday night to go to Pomona on Tuesday for the final interview and adoption. We received an email from them today telling us they gave Buddy to someone else! We were very angry and disapointed. Over the weekend we went out and bought a collar, leash, dog bowls, toys, crate, and special diet dog food.

Our serach continues for a dog.........we didn't think it would be this hard. We'll keep you posted.