Veggie Delight

The Schnoogs and I were happy to return to our Wednesday night dinner routine this week, celebrating with a Vegetarian Chinese find...a location that is a whopping 4 or 5 blocks away from Holly's dorm.

Touting all vegan/vegetarian options, Veggie Delight had a huge menu that took us some time to peruse. I must admit that I was a little distracted by the funky green decor with pink accents, combined with mirrors, wood carving and blue twinkle lights. I would like to identify the look with some intelligent-sounding name, but perhaps it is best to just leave it untitled or drop it In the larger bucket of "eclectic and almost tacky."

The design of the restaurant aside, Holly and I settled on some orange veggie chicken (described on Yelp as a must-have), lemon veggie chicken, broccoli, brown & white rice and wonton soup. Everything was extremely flavorful. We weren't wild about the texture of the lemon veggie chicken, but the sauce more than made up for it AND the portions are generous, which means that Holly and one of her roommates will be enjoying leftovers for lunch on Friday.

Not a bad deal for a starving college student!

3 on a Leash

David takes on the task of walking our dogs - all 4 of them - twice a day. Admittedly, Shadow does not cover the distance she used to so it is really the equivalent of a 1/4 mile or so with all 4, back to the car to let Shadow relax and then off with the crazy pack for another 2-3 miles.

We like the weekends when I am along for the walks, as it is nice catch up time for David and I, and we can each handle 2 dogs - 1 leash in each hand - without too much craziness. The pups love it and certainly make the most of their time cruising the great outdoors.

Walking 3 dogs, all on retractable leashes is no easy feat. I can hold my own, but must admit that if the pack ever decided to make a break for it on my watch, they could probably orchestrate it between Scooby's strength, Daphne's clumsiness and Fred's deafness.

Don't let on to my weakness with them!

Perseverence

After blogging it up about the 3 crazy dogs on their leashes, it seems only fair to share this shot of Shadow, following loyally behind on her 1/4 mile "victory loop" at the start of our morning walk.

She is 15 years old, arthritic, aching and the sweetest, most tenacious pet we have ever had.

Every once in a grand while she opts to stay home when we gather the pack for a walk, but for the most part, she shuffles along to get up, slowly walks out to the truck and patiently waits to be lifted up and in.

Her portion of the walk is fairly functional as she tends to business and slowly makes her way along the route. She certainly isn't fast, but she always keeps going. That dog perseveres, period.

As Elizabeth is no doubt saying right now, God bless Shadow.

Team Lucille

The lack of postings of late is in no way an indication that nothing is going on. Quite to the contrary, as a matter of a fact!

I will be blogging about things from a month ago at the rate I am going these days, but for today we have to only look back a few days...to Saturday...to enjoy a nice morning in beautiful Huntington Beach with some of my favorite peeps, a very cute dog and a worthy cause.

The Memory Walk is an event introduced to me by my fine friend Elizabeth, who leads a team each year in honor of her mom (named Lucille, hence our team name!) to help raise money and awareness for Alzheimer's, a disease that sadly affects many people - either those who suffer from the illness themselves, or their families who sadly watch the deterioration (and eventual loss, as was the case with David's Dad last month) of the people they love.

Elizabeth has been coordinating walkers and donations for several years now, inviting me to join her this year. After checking out the event on the website, I realized that they encouraged dog participation too, so we decided that it would be a nice event for Fred Fairbanks IV. All dogs were given a purple memory bandanna to sport, which Fred did willingly. The dog costume contest however, we politely declined. Fred is not into dressing up, even if it is Halloween.

We had a great time on the course (we opted to do the longer 4-mile jaunt). Elizabeth, Kris, Terri, Brandy, Jim, Gay, Fred & I all trekked along the boardwalk in support of the cause and the perfect So Cal day. It was one of those events that was just special...it made me think of David's Dad a lot, so I was kind of quiet, but it was a very positive and uplifting experience, especially with all of the volunteers along the course, cheering us on.

Fred did very well in his debut outing and celebrated his walk with a bit of breakfast on the beach after the walk, followed by a long snooze in the car, his fur blowing in the breeze created by the open sunroof.

It was a good day for Team Lucille indeed!