Scared the living daylights out of me

I had the most frightening thing happen to me this morning. I'm still all wide eyed and jumpy.

Our two dogs sleep on my bed at night, and every morning (or at least every morning that I'm not in a tearing hurry because I overslept) I give them a good puppy massage and head rub for their wake up call. (Hey, they're only 24 inches long - doesn't take too long.)

This morning the male had flopped over on his back while I was scratching the female's ears, and suddenly he started hacking.

I rolled him over and patted his back a bit while he tried to cough up whatever was in his throat. But within a few seconds it became apparent that it wasn't his throat but his windpipe. He got pretty agitated and huddled against me, still hacking something terrible. I was just starting to wonder if I needed to do something when he jumped down from the bed and tried to throw up, but that wasn't working either.

I'd just gotten to his side when he suddenly went limp and collapsed!

I was terrified! I know human first aid, but had no idea how to do the Heimlich on a terrier, or what I'd rupture if I tried! It all happened so very, very fast! He's only a fraction of the size of a human adult, so I guess it takes a shorter time to choke out, but even so..!

I'm the oldest of seven children and I don't remember anything like that ever happening with any of us. I can't imagine what goes through a mother or father's mind if their baby has problems breathing. SCARY!

Fortunately, whatever was blocking his airway slid to the side when he passed out and he woke up. That was the longest 10 seconds of my life!

He and I sat on the floor while he gulped down air and looked pathetic and I hugged him and tried to calm him down. It had scared him, too.

I didn't want to leave him this morning, although Holly was taking good care of him and I keep calling home just to be sure everyone is still alive and kicking. I can't get the image of his poor little inert body out of my mind. :(

Moral: Learn pet first aid and pray you'll never need to use it.

One of those question thingees

A good friend sent this to me (Hi Aleathea!!) and I thought, what the heck, I'll just post the answers here. So.. everything you didn't need to know about me:

What time did you get up this morning - 2:30am, 5:45am, 7:15am (the dogs were restless)

Diamonds or pearls - Pearls

What was the last film you saw at the cinema - *shudders* Mama Mia. I have since repented, although I'm still singing ABBA songs in my head.

What is your favorite TV show - Not really into TV. SG1 stopped being good four years ago. Lost was fun the first year. Fringe is getting to be gross. We watch Antiques Roadshow, The Big Bang Theory (when it's not raunchy) and cooking programs. Pretty much leave the TV off otherwise.

What do you usually have for breakfast - Cheese omelette or oatmeal

What is your middle name - Heather (heh. Trick Question)

What food do you dislike - Aspic. Don't ask.

What is your favorite CD at moment - The Veronicas. (Yeah, so shoot me.)

What kind of car do you drive - Audi A6

Favorite sandwich - Turkey and avocado on a croissant with sprouts

What characteristic do you despise - Narcissism

Favorite item of clothing - Fuzzy Pajamas

If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go - erg... can I get back to you? I want it all.

Favorite brand of clothing - I hate branded clothing. I rip off the tags. If they want me to advertise for them they'll have to pay me, not charge me.

Where would you retire to - Montana

What was your most recent memorable birthday - 8th. I caught a 2 pound rainbow trout and my Daddy baptized me! (Not at the same time or in the same place.)

Favorite sport to watch - Football

When is your birthday - Bastille Day

Are you a morning person or a night person - Night! Please, please night. It must be night! (I hate to get up in the morning.)

What is your shoe size - Dory

Pets - Two sweet but spoiled Cairn Terriers (think Toto).

What did you want to be when you were little - Astronaut / Fighter Pilot

What is your favorite candy - Toffee

What is your favorite flower - Heather (another trick question). Oh, ok. Peach colored roses or glads.

What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to - October 31st - Halloween!

What are you listening to right now - Nothing. Not big on filling my head with music 24x7.

What was the last thing you ate - Sour cream coffee cake and apple cider at our office Halloween party.

Do you wish on stars - Every night

If you were a crayon, what color would you be - Purple

How is the weather right now - Gorgeous! Cool, bright and totally autumn.

The first person you spoke to on the phone today - Statistician (at work)

Favorite soft drink - Ginger Beer (oh, I wish you could still get it).

Favorite restaurant - Thai

Real hair color - of course! (brown)

What was your favorite toy as a child - Teddy Bear

Hugs or kisses - I'll take anything I can get.

Chocolate or Vanilla - Vanilla

Coffee or tea - Peppermint/Chamomile tea (our house blend)

When was the last time you cried - reading a book the other night

What is under your bed - Dust bunnies the size of Cleveland!

What did you do last night - Made Halloween cards

What are you afraid of - If I tell you, you'll have power over me...

Salty or sweet - salty

How many keys on your key ring - Three

How many years at your current job - 13

How many towns have you lived in - urmm.. 8? When I was 2 we moved several times and I can't keep that straight.

Dessert by Default

Today was the perfect day for an autumn dessert.

Although it was warm, the leaves were blowing and it LOOKED chilly, so I was ready to cuddle up with a bowl of something soothing.

I've been drooling over Stephanie's Crockpot Crème Brulee for two weeks now, and this seemed the time to do it. On the last trip to the store I'd actually bought cream, and the egg supply in the house is high, so I grabbed all the ingredients and started plotting.

Fortunately I looked for a baking dish first (which is highly unusual for me). You see, the dish has to fit inside the crockpot insert, and then is given a nice water bath. Problem was - none of my baking dishes fit inside my 4 quart slow cooker!

Despair!

I finally pulled out the ramekins that I purchased years ago (when I was convinced I'd be entertaining scads of people on a weekly basis) and tried them. Well… one fit. Just one.

Dejection!

If that wasn't enough to convince me to purchase a larger crockpot, I don't know what will.

In the meantime, I was dessert-less.
However, I did have apples… oh yes… I have apples! Yum!

I've been making apple crisps for most of my adult (and even adolescent) life, so I hardly ever use a recipe anymore. Just throw the things together. You know how it is - just put that brain in neutral and cook!

So I started slicing apples and then I threw together the flour and spices (which smelled heavenly) and sugar, and tossed the apples… Whoa… wait a minute…

About that time I realized my hands were making apple pie, not apple crisp. Doh! Worse, I also found that the only rolled oats in the house are in the big twenty pound bag I just bought for food storage.

*sigh*
I really need more sleep.

Although apple pie sounded good, I didn’t want to make crust, so - time to punt.

Last week I purchased a box of store bought ginger snaps. Don't ask me why - I hate those rock hard versions of my favorite cookie. But I was auditioning a pumpkin pie/cream cheese dip recipe for a Halloween party and I needed SOMETHING to dip in it. The pumpkin dip turned out to be, frankly, blechy - so I was stuck with almost a full box of these tooth chipping cookies.

Out came the cookies, artfully arranged on top of my lovely apples, dotted with butter, and the whole thing is in the oven now, baking away.

I've got fork in hand.
I'll let you know how it turns out.

UPDATE:
I checked on the pudding (for lack of a better name shall we use the English designation? I always wanted to do that.) The cookies looked, if anything, even harder. So I pulled it out, grabbed a spoon and mixed the topping (cookies) into the apples.

15 minutes later the cookies had melted into a warm, gooey gingerbread and dessert was ready!
My sister Holly said it was very good, and she's not as gahgah for ginger as I am.
I'd post a picture but...um... it's gone.

Verdict - any dessert is a good dessert. :)

Bring back the camera!

People may complain about the late, wet spring or the early chill this fall - but combine them both and you have fall leaves in Oregon that rival New Hampshire!

My parents were visiting for the week, so we thumbed our noses at gas prices and took several long winding drives in the country. On the first drive we looped south around Mount Hood then headed north through the Hood River apple country. Such a great drive! The mountain was in top form with a beautiful lenticular cloud (Hood is famous for that). Later in the afternoon the cloud started to blow apart and I got a few spectacular shots from the east side.

There are many varieties of maples and alder around Hood and they were all in spectacular color. I was amazed - it's not been this beautiful in the 15 odd years that I've lived here.

Just before we hit the Columbia River we stopped at a lovely orchard and to my surprise we found Empire apples.

I don't think I can adequately describe my passion for Empires. Some people swear by Honeycrisps, and my mother has an overt fondness for Jonagolds, but I lust after Empires. A good hard CRUNCH, sweet/tart juices and a deep flavor that brings to your mouth all that is beautiful about autumn. I first had an Empire when I was in graduate school, and I've been lost ever since.

Find an Empire. Indulge!

Sadly I only bought a dozen apples, and my family seems to agree with my passion because the Empires are gone already. Time to either pout or drive back to Hood River…

On Saturday we went west instead of east and meandered down through Yamhill county. More golds then reds out there, but still such beautiful vistas.

We made food our driving force once more and headed for our absolute favorite place to get hazelnuts - the Schmidt farm, south of McMinnville. This time I simply gave in and bought 50 pounds. Yes, 50 pounds of hazelnuts! (There were only 48.5 pounds left by the time we got home.)

As usual the Schmidt's farm looked lovely and they kindly let me wander around taking pictures. You might recognize a few on my cards later this fall.

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, be sure to get out this week and see the leaves before they are gone!