Random Asides

I’m spending my day off moving to a different unit in the apartment complex (the address I may have emailed you won’t change, however) because the owner of the unit I was originally supposed to get balked at the idea of allowing a dog, even though the dog in question is the superstar, superfluffy love monkey that is Mr. Kittenheads. So anyway, they moved me into a temporary unit that was a timeshare not being used for a couple weeks until a permanent spot opened up, which is today.

After enduring yet another schlep of my stuff (though this time only down one floor and to the opposite end of a building, thankfully), I’m taking Wiley to Bullwinkle Ranch (my place of employ) so we can bark at the skijoring snobs. What is skijoring? Well, it’s where the human straps on cross-country skis but no poles and hooks their dog(s) on to a harness and lead. The dog then theoretically pulls the human along the ski trail and much enjoyment is had by both human and canid.

Skijoring is one of the major activities offered at Bullwinkle Ranch, and has been recommended to me every time someone there learns I have a dog. And every time, I laugh so hard at the notion of Smalls and me attempting to skijor that I nearly wet my pants. Forget that I am as coordinated on skis as a walrus on a skateboard. Forget that Wiley is 13 years old with an arthritic back and hip. Just the idea of him running in a straight line forward and not stopping to smell, pee, eat snow or back into me and do the "Gimme a Butt Rub" dance is most amusing.

And nevermind that the skijoring snobs I’ve seen on the grounds are all extremely fit and color-coordinated and have Labs and Huskies and Bernese Mountain Dogs that all have their own snow booties and doggie backpacks and an air of smugness to them (the people and the dogs). Yeah, not our scene.

Anyway, after Wiley has raised a sufficient ruckus, he’ll snooze in the car while I eat dinner with a couple other Cookin’ School grads who work with me at the ranch... the new restaurant on-site is having an employees-eat-free night.

As promised by the subject line, here are a few other things I’ve been meaning to post:
My apartment building is next door to the county rodeo grounds, open in July and August. I plan on Wiley raising a ruckus there, too, once it’s the season.

We found a back road near the apartment that’s plowed but doesn’t get much traffic, so we’ve been having some nice off-leash walkies (free-rangin’ it, as I call it) of a couple miles or more. But only in daylight. In addition to boots, canid and deer tracks, I spotted mountain lion tracks. Yikes! One of the maintenance guys at the apartment complex told me he’s seen them in the parking lot several times during the wee hours of the morning, especially in winter and early spring.

In other wild news: I’ve seen two foxes now on the side of the main road (alive and waiting to cross). They are so beautiful and sleek and much bigger than the ones I occasionally saw back East. Also: the crows. Good Lord, the crows. There are some ravens and a lot of beautiful black and white magpies that are much prettier and well-behaved than the ones I had to deal with in Moscow, but there are also a lot of huge crows around my apartment. Some of them are nearly the size of wild turkeys! They hang out around the snow piles and dumpsters and croak to each other.

My job continues to be challenging, but it’s more fun now that I’m getting settled in. In addition to devising a new menu for the new restaurant, I’ve had to work on one for the new coffeehouse, and a couple days ago Chef said we’re going to revamp the menu for the old restaurant, which was upscale ranch food but is transitioning to fancy-pantsed Continental with a ranch twist. He’s been really receptive to my ideas and the desserts and baked goods I’ve presented him, though my biggest fans are still the line cooks and servers, who devour my experiments and scraps like Wiley attacking a piece of salmon. It’s a challenge right now figuring out how much each outlet needs, the production schedule and so forth, as well as ordering ingredients and equipment, but I feel like it’s also a great learning experience.