We are celebrating Greek Orthodox Easter at our house.
This year I am posting about the fun National Weeks throughout the year. This week is National Pooper Scooper Week!
This holiday was put into place to educate pet owners on the importance of cleaning up after their dogs. I did a little research and found that aPaws (The Asssociation of Professional Animal Waste Specialist) estimates that dogs produce 4.4 billion pounds of waste per year. That amount could cover over 900 football fields with twelve inches of dog poop! Thats a lot of shi#! By the way, aPaws was formed in 2002 when a group of people got together and decided they wanted to go barefoot without having squishies between their toes. They suggested having a National Pooper Scooper week in 2008.
With Spring here, and the snow gone, we find many of the droppings that were left behind from winter. This is a great time to clean up your yard from those droppings or hire a professional to do it for you. Dog waste pickup is a booming business. There will always be poop to be picked up. I know we have a lot thanks to Pippen...
How to celebrate the week? Make sure you pick up after your dog does his business (or hire someone to do it for you). You can also follow #NationalPooperScooperWeek on social media for collection tips and tricks.
I guess you know what I will be doing this week.....
I know I'm writing about National Weeks this year, but I thought it would be fun to do a little research on April Fool's Day.
April Fool's Day is celebrated on April 1st and is a great day to play practical jokes on friends and/or family. Some of the classic April Fool's jokes include: caramel covered onion and a fake dog poop in odd locations.
The trick to pulling off a good April Fool's joke is all in the planning. You have to be the first one to pull the prank that day otherwise the person will be on alert for other tricks. Some tricksters will go to great lengths to fool others.
I did a little digging to try and find out the history of the day. I mean, April Fool's Day was such a classic day when I was a kid. How did this day come about?
Some believe that when they made the move to the Gregorian Calendar, moving the first day of the year to January 1 (as opposed to April 1) that those who celebrated on April 1 would be called April fish and pranks would be played on them.
There are others that believed it is due to how Mother Nature plays tricks on us during this time of year with the weather. I can see that with the weather we have been having here lately. One day it's 68F and sunny and the next day it's 32F and snowing.
Apparently, there is a reference in Britain in 1776 in a written publication about a custom of making fun of people on the first day of April. It references this day as the ending of the 8 day feast and the first day of the new year.
Lately I have been taking my weird dog Pippen on long walks. I'm trying to get him back into shape. In other words, making him exercise instead of sleeping all day. Luckily going on walks is one of his favorite things to do in life (well, other than nap and worship the ground I walk on).
I'm sure that I have mentioned in the past that Pippen is a rescue dog. We have no idea what happened to him before he joined our family. I'm sure RT would answer that with, "A lot!" And that is what makes him weird special.
Pippen can get a little aggressive while on a walk. What makes him aggressive? Other dogs, especially those small ones. I call it his snapping turtle mode, that's where his jaw starts snapping, like he is trying to eat the other dog (which is probably what he is trying to do). It isn't pretty to watch or be the owner of an aggressive dog. People look at me like it's my fault he acts like a psycho snapping turtle crazy dog. They say that owners and their dogs are a lot alike, but this is not one of the traits that I share with my dog. I don't always aggressively try to attack everyone I encounter. This issue is something that we have been working on for awhile. I think we might be making progress. OK, it's been ten years and after every walk I feel like Pippen might be turning the corner. Unfortunately, on the next walk, everything that he learned is easily forgotten and I am left apologizing to other dog owners.
When we are out on our walks, I notice a lot of people walking their dogs and staring at their phones. I'm not sure if they are checking Instagram, updating their status on Facebook or looking up fun stuff to do on Pinterest. I mean, it's great to multi-task, but, not while you are walking your dog. You should be on the look out for "things" that you will need to clean up and other dogs/owners that are approaching. Especially those owners that are off to the side of the path, trying to keep their dog from killing attacking your dog.
What would you do in this situation?
Do you have any suggestions on what to say to these ignorant dog walkers?
I love salsa. And home made Salsa is definitely the best! I prefer to use fresh tomatoes in this recipe (well, as fresh as they are in the grocery store in the middle of a Chicago winter). This is also a great recipe to use with those tomatoes and peppers you grow in your garden during the summer months. I mean, that's one of the reasons why you have your own garden, right?
The recipe is so simple that you can make it year 'round. This salsa doesn't last long in our house.
If you make the Home made Salsa, let me know what you think in the comments below.
Here's the recipe:
Home Made Salsa
I had to dig this scary story out of the depths of my mind. It's an oldie but the message remains true to this day.
When my children were little, we went through a horrible nightmare a lice phase. Yea, before you get grossed out judge, I heard that kids getting head lice happens. You just deal with the situation and move on. I never had it growing up so this was a first time experience for me. This story isn't about our lice experience, although I should write about that another time. This just goes into a piece of information that I was given during this horrific awful nightmare experience.
During our lice phase, we had to clean everything in our house that could possibly have come in contact with anyone's head and could potentially be a place where lice could live. Look around your home. Imagine cleaning everything in a day before your children decide to put their head down on a pillow, couch, bed, carpet, etc. Everyone has their special tips and remedies and, believe me, at this point, you are willing to try anything. Some things work while others didn't produce the outcome expected, except more work for you.
At one point during this process, one of the kids had to go to the doctor. For some reason we had a different doctor. I brought up head lice during the consult. I explained everything I was doing to get rid of the pests and to prevent further outbreaks. The doctor was impressed with my cleaning and attempted prevention techniques. She went on to ask me if we had a dog. To this, of course I answered yes. The doctor started telling me that I should get rid of my dog. They are "unsanitary, dirty and he is the reason why you keep getting head lice."
Now, if you know me, then you know that there is no way in #ell I'm going to get rid of my dog. My kids? Well, some days it sounded very tempting (just kidding, I love my kids) but the dog? No way!
Luckily I had researched the subject and became quite the expert on head lice (I probably should add that to my resume). I told the doctor that she should do a little more research prior to answering a question when she clearly knew nothing about the subject. Head lice does not live on animals, especially dogs. A dog can not get or give head lice to a human. And there is no way I will get rid of my dog.
The doctor was shocked. My children were happy and so was I.
By the way, we did get rid of the head lice (thank God!) and kept the dog.
Oh, and to answer that burning question on everyone's mind, the dog never had head lice during this time.
This year I am posting about the fun National Weeks throughout the year.
This week we are celebrating National Cleaning Week. What an awesome time to place this holiday! Spring has sprung, warmer weather is hopefully on the horizon and it's time to put away that winter gear and start scrubbing those baseboards. OK. I probably won't put away all of my winter gear. I mean, let's be realistic here. I live in Chicago, it could snow anytime up until June.
Here are some interesting cleaning facts that I found:
