Barktoberfest 2016

A group of dog lovers put together a Barktoberfest at Point Isabel every year right around Halloween. The even includes a parade and costume contest for dogs. For the past several years, I always missed it for one reason or another. This year I wasn't sure if I could make it either until the last minute. It had been raining which is unusual for California, where I can't remember when was the last time we weren't having a drought. This year's Barktoberfest was scheduled on Saturday, October 29th. It was still raining that morning. Around 10 a.m. the sun came out and the rain stopped. Around 11 a.m. the sun disappeared and it started drizzling again. I made a circus clown costume for Cracus a few weeks ago. He's been running around in Point Isabel in his costume. People smile at the sight of his craziness.

At 12:30 p.m., it became obvious that the sun was going to stay around. I quickly put on my Pikachu onesie and put Cracus in costume. I forgot the hula hoop I was going to bring with us as we rushed out the door.

We got a big bag of treats just for registering our names for the contest. We were number 9. After everyone had a chance to register, we paraded down the trail. Since I forgot to bring the hoop, all I could do was making Cracus walk on his hind legs and twirl around as we paraded. People were already amused by his "tricks." The judges were making notes and giving scores while we showed off our pups.

After a short parade, we turned back to the area where we first gathered and waited for the announcement of winners. It was nice that they divided the dogs into three groups by size. Cracus is a small dog. They announced the first runner up in small dog category. It was a pup who had a giraffe costume on. When they called for number 9 as the second runner up, I couldn't believe it. There were so many nice costumes. Maybe it was the twirling. We went up to the front, and someone from the audience asked to have Cracus "dance for everyone, so he happily did a few more times.  We received an award certificate with a big bag of prizes and had our photos taken. We couldn't stop smiling!

We will be back next year!

Passion Fruit Vines Reach the Roof

Over the weekend, Cracus and I returned to the old Sand Village Farm to check on the plants. Take a look at the passion fruit vines!  This is basically just one plant as you can see in the photo. It's now covered the entire arbor and reached the roof. Remember when I first blogged about it back in 2011 when it had its first flower?  There are fruits hanging down everywhere now. I like to pick the ones that are ripe, so usually they already fall on the ground. Those are the sweetest. They are dark purple. If you touch them while they are still attached to the vines, and they come right off, that means they are ripe. If you have to twist or pull them, then just wait for a few more days.

Cracus was so excited to be there. He ran around like a mad dog. He is always so enthusiastic about everything and every place he visits even though he has been there many times.  I just walked around and picked up all the passion fruit on the ground.  There were more than 20 of them. I can't wait to propagate some over to the new location. People need to know about this delicious fruit that has ten amazing health benefits. It's high in vitamin A and C, both are strong antioxidants. It's also high in fiber. A full list is available here on the fitness wiki page. However, I love it because it smells amazing and tastes so good. It always reminds me of my grandfather, who shared them with me when I was a toddler.

Making Chicha Morada

I recently had dinner at El Mono, a newish Peruvian restaurant, in El Cerrito. I loved everything they served - from the roasted corn appetizer, canchita, to the purple corn drink, chicha morada.  Ever since that night, I have been thinking about making a huge pot of chicha morada so that I can drink a lot of it whenever I like. This is something I have done for years. Whenever I like something a lot in a restaurant, I go home and make a huge amount of it from scratch. Over the years, I have made seafood gumbo, clam chowder, hot and sour soup, empanada, etc., etc.  I am not rich so I can't afford to go back to the restaurant and order the same thing over and over; besides, I have a huge appetite.

I already had the spices I needed in my pantry such as whole cloves and cinnamon. I have unlimited supply of fresh lemons and apples, so instead of using limes, I used lemons. All I really needed to buy were pinapple and purple corn. This morning I stopped by La Loma Market No. 1 while I was getting a complimentary alignment at Big O Tires across the street.  The produce guy was not sure what I meant by "purple" corn but as soon as I mentioned Peruvian drink, he took me to the Peruvian isle and showed me all different types of corn!  Wow! I was tempted to get some canchita as well, but I figured that I would make the drink first. I found many youtube videos and recipes on how to make chicha morada with slight variations from each other. I made my own modification as well. Instead of using sugar, I added honey to my drink. I have included a link above on how to make it in Spanish. You really don't need to understand Spanish to follow the young girl in the video. If a child can make it, you can, too.

I love this drink and sipping it with little chunks of pineapple in it!

Bench Makeover

Before photo of the bench

A few days ago, Katy from next door, told me that she saw a free bench on the curbside on her way home. She thought it might be something I would like.  We hoped  in my car, and she showed me where it was.  It was just about 3 or 4 blocks from home. I thought it was a nice bench even though the paint is chipping away. We also found a broken part, which I could easily just glue together. We managed to partially get it in my P.T. Cruiser and carefully drove back home.

 I first glued the broken part with my Gorilla Glue.  I thought about getting some Liquid Nails, but this broken part really didn't affect the functionality of the bench, so I decided not to spend extra money on it. I tightened the parts I glued together with a piece of red ribbon since I don't have clamps. It dried pretty quickly. I sanded the entire bench with a sanding block then hosed it down to clean it.

Glued the broken part with Gorilla Glue then held it together with red ribbon

I let the bench dry overnight before painting it. Even though I liked how the yellow color of the bench totally matched my house, I decided to paint it in lavender. I picked up a couple cans of Rust-Oleum Painter's Tough 2X in Satin French Lilac from Home Depot.  They are about $4 per can. I could have used a 3rd can to give it an extra layer, but the point here is to do it as cheap as possible using mostly found or free items. I spray painted the bench in the front yard. It was a windy day as usual in the Bay Area, so I had to stop frequently and seize the moments when the wind died down a little.  I am pretty happy with the bench's new look. What do you think?

After

Lulu's One Month Vacation With Us

Lulu is a young husky who stays with us at least once a year while her humans travel.  Her stunning appearance gets her a lot of compliments while we are out walking. People love the idea of getting a husky because they are pretty. Many first time dog owners don't realize they are also a lot of work. Huskies are high energy working dogs. As pets, they get bored easily. I was mentally prepared to take her out for two walks everyday and each walk would be at least 30 minutes. If she doesn't get her exercise, she could potentially start tearing things apart or digging big holes in the yard. In other words, she'd need to let out her energy in other ways. Lulu likes to wake me up in the early morning between 4 to 7 a.m.  I took some photos (with Wifi cam) of her pounding on my bedroom door in the morning. It's not exactly how I like to wake up in the morning.

Albany Bulb

Since she does not like Point Isabel, I have been taken her to other trails such as Albany Bulb, Motorcycle Hill Trail, Memorial Grove, etc. The other day I remembered that I have doggy backpacks that I got for Kelsey years ago.  I put them on Lulu we took a fast walk to El Cerrito Recycling Center to drop off some dead batteries and light bulbs. With the packs on her, she started walking in a straight line instead of trying to pull in different directions. We felt that we accomplished something after dropping off those items. When we hiked up Motorcycle Hill Trail, she also carried all of our drinking water.  Both Lulu and Cracus were super thirsty as we reached the top of the hill and couldn't wait to drink up the water.  

Arriving El Cerrito Recycling Center

My little helper, Katy, also tried some urban sledding with Luly using her skateboard. Lulu wasn't quite sure what we wanted her to do, so I had to run with Cracus in front of them for her to chase after us. Once she started running, it was too fast and scary for Katy, so I had to stop running.  We need to teach her some commands for pulling the skateboard.  I am a firm believer that a dog is happiest when he/she has a job to do whether is doing some funny tricks or carrying a few things.