dog park, yard work & good food

Let's hear it for sunshine! (I'll just assume the Internet is rejoicing along with me.) The local dog park opened yesterday (I'm not even kidding - Doug has been talking about this for months, people. Months.), so we took Zoo over. Sadly, I forgot my camera, because she was hilarious. It's not that Zooey is antisocial... but she's just really submissive to every other dog (or baby piglet) ever. Doug thinks it's because a German shepherd attacked her at the last dog park he went to. Regardless, last night I felt like a parent on the first day of preschool, trying to get my shy toddler to play with the other kids.

Today, we had a productive day. Doug took Zoo to the dog park with our friend Troy and his dog (Troy's girlfriend, my friend Maria, has a really fun food blog here!). Then our friend Nick came over and he and Doug assessed our lawn, made a trip to Home Depot & started the backyard overhaul. Would you look at these manly men?

Here's the other side of the yard - a work in progress...

In the meantime, I contributed by walking Zooey and providing nourishment.

(Tried a new chocolate chip cookie recipe, ala Annie - so, so good)

For dinner tonight, I finally tried another Annie recipe that I've been drooling over for awhile - Teriyaki Burgers with Mango Pineapple Salsa. Wow. WOW. These are AH-mazing. A tad bit messy, but worth every sweetangy (I just invented that word), delicious bite.

Made, of course, with Excelsior Farms beef.

And that's pretty much it!

Except, listen to this song (Jeanette, I'm looking at you).

Oh, and I have 14 days of school left.

That's all!