Leslie's Mm-Mmm Good Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups shortening

3 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

one package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Whilst my directions to myself read, "350 degrees, 12 minutes or less... play it by ear, champ!" I realize you, dear readers, may want more details. So here goes:

Mix together the first five ingredients, like so:


In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients, like so:


Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients, like so:


Add chocolate chips, like so:


Mix together, like so:


Take a moment to admire the REAL, non-imitation vanilla Leslie purchased in Ensenada, Mexico for $3, like so:


Place cookie dough in spoonfuls on cookie sheet (lightly sprayed with no-stick spray if you want these babies to slide right off), like so:


Take cookies out of 350-degree'd oven after sometime between 11 and 12 minutes, like so:


Take a picture of Dave and Danny enjoying the scent of fresh-baked cookies, like so:

Stinky dogs are where the heart is...

We finally arrived back to our lovely apartment in San Diego. We returned during the play-off game between the Chargers and the Colts. They only reason I knew that was because our complex was unusually noisy with eruptions of cheering and boo-ing.

It took us forever to unpack, but the dogs didn't mind because we let them out first, and they were able to run free in their home - stretch their legs after more than 10 hours in the car! Actually, now that I think about it, it was close to 12. How could it be close to 12, you ask? The damn dogs! Usually they are great on long car rides, but Danny couldn't stop whining for the first half of the trip (and large parts of the second half). So we had to frequently pull over to various fields of weeds, grass, and dead leaves to let the dogs relieve themselves. The problem was, they only ended up relieving themselves about half of the time, so the majority of our stops were big wastes of time.

Danny took a particular liking to one pile of dead leaves. He'd sniff it, then roll in it. I said to Dave, I says, "I've seen dogs do this before, but it's always been a girl dog, and it's always been poop that they roll in." Hmm, I said to myself, as I sipped my hot chocolate and continued observing the dogs. When I retrieved Danny, I saw some fresh brown streaks on his neck. Poop. He was rolling himself in some poop. And we just stood there and watched it.

So the car reeked for the next couple of hours until the poop apparently dried onto his fur and was no longer so incredibly stinky. A couple of hours later, I glanced back at Pearl in her crate, and saw some regurgitated partial pebbles of food. She had barfed, who knows when... and had just been sitting in it.

Once home, we let the dogs calm down for about an hour, then we bathed both of them. Another one of the (many) perks of having a small dog is that it takes 5 minutes (max) to thoroughly bathe them. Danny dried off almost immediately, but Pearl took longer. The apartment was, of course, cold when we returned, so I cuddled with Pearl while she dried. Then Danny tried to get in on the cuddling action. Dave was moved to take a picture (after I said, "Take a picture!"). It's really just great to be home.