Welcome Levi Sizzle Meyer!

Levi is my sister Stacey's new dog, 1.5 years old, an English Cocker Spaniel (just like my parents' dog, Jake). Sooo cute! He's Cooper's little bro, so to speak, and Coop's maybe a little jealous of him. But not for long, I suspect, because Levi is such a kid-friendly sweetie. Stace and Cooper made it to Nathan's baseball game today, but Levi had to sit this one out. There are only so many busy little bodies Stace can handle at one time, and since Coop likes to run and run (and run!) at Nathan's games, Levi played doggie bench-warmer today.

Luckily, after the game, Stace and Coop were able to run home to pick up Levi and then head over here for barbecued pork ribs, biscuits, and a big green salad. Oh man, those ribs hit the spot, falling off the bone and spicy-sticky with a nice amount of Daddy Sam's Just Slop It On Barb-B-Que Sawce. Mmmmm hmmmm, them was good ribs, damn. Levi didn't enjoy ribs, of course, but he hung out by Coop's high chair hoping, in that fabulously ever-eager way that dogs hope for a taste of people food... Instead he scored lots of running in the back yard, enough to tire him out a bit. And for a one-year old English Cocker, that's not an easy thing to achieve! (As you can see, Cooper watched a little Ben 10 while we ate dinner; Stace perused Nathan's yearbook...)

Now, Levi Sizzle and Cooper are off to bed and it's high time to take my frizzy hair into the bedroom for an appointment with a good book, oh yeah. Nothing helps the digestion (of ribs, not light, ack) like a nice, long read. Have a good week!

Moderate it: hmmm, there's not really a way to moderate the ribs themselves - they're quite rich. The trick is to eat just a few, then fill the rest of your plate with salad, and call 'er a night.