TPLO

I should probably count myself fortunate.  We made it 10 years with no serious injuries, no tennis balls swallowed, no daring leaps that resulted in broken bones, no drinking tasty chemicals, or any other accident that always seems to be looming on the horizon with creatures that don't seem to think for themselves very well.  However Dakota, master of faking leg injuries to get treats, has finally become his own boy who cried wolf.  I began noticing the slight limp in the right hind leg and the shaking after we walked a couple months ago.  I attributed this to his impending 10th birthday - 70 years old!  The door bell rang one evening and Dakota jumped up in a fit of excitement at this chime that announces the arrival of another member to his pack, and more importantly potential treat opportunities. I knew immediately something had gone wrong. He pulled his leg up in a very tight ball and wouldn't put it down at all.
The vet confirmed my fears, Dakota had torn his Cruciate Ligament (same as ACL in humans).  The procedure recommended was the Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy (TPLO). Actually it's a rather ingenuous procedure where they cut the tibia bone, re-orient the geometry of the bone, and bolt it back together with a plate. Once healed the knee no longer needs the cruciate ligament to function properly.
We had the surgery done on July 31.  Dakota stayed overnight at the vet's office.  Picking him up the next day he was beyond pitiful with the large cone on his head, shaved leg, and square shaved in his back.
The first couple days having him at home have been quite challenging.  Just because he had knee surgery certainly didn't change his personality.  We have tried to contain him to the living room, but naturally he still wants to hobble around the whole house.  The coffee table is sitting on the couch to prevent him from trying to get up there, and he is having to sleep in his crate at night to prevent him from thinking he can still jump on the bed.  If the surgery wasn't several thousand dollars, it would be kind of amusing to see exactly how a three legged dog would jump on the bed!
His ankle joint has swollen up badly, but I'm told this is normal and a cold compress can help help reduce that. Continuing his physical therapy, which consist of flexing his knees for 15 minutes. Anybody that knows Dakota well, knows that 15 minutes of touching is way too much for his aloof attitude.   I caught him this morning testing his foot on the ground which is a positive sign.  Hopefully a full recovery is only 8 weeks away!

Happy Flag Day...and Bourbon Day?

June 14th is Flag Day, and I have enjoyed driving by the multitude of American flags waving in the breeze through the median of Litchfield Beach today. Something about seeing so many flags waving creates an overwhelming sense of pride for my country. Go USA!

But...today is also Bourbon Day!  Now, with my Kentucky roots and Ben's love of bourbon, this sounds like our perfect holiday.

Garden & Gun published an special section on Bourbon in their February/March issue in 2010 titled "The Bourbon Renaissance."

After reading the article, Ben was then on the hunt for a bottle of the above pictured Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve, 15-year-old Bourbon. This hard-to-find, small-batch bourbon is only released twice a year, and if you are lucky to find a bottle, you would be advised to purchase it on the spot.  It won't be there tomorrow.  Luckily, Ben was given a bottle, and he enjoys it very much, only drinking it on special occasions.  I think Bourbon Day is a good enough reason to break out the Pappy and mint julep glasses!

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

On this sweltering day with our first temperatures peaking over 95, I am looking for any excuse to cool down.  If I could skip out of work to head to the pool, I would.

This delicious recipe for a Rasberry Basil Limoncello Cocktail sounds like the perfect way to cool down after a hot day and wind down on the backporch in the evenings.  Plus, it doesn't hurt that it has a beautiful presentation!

This recipe came from Style Me Pretty Living, and it looks and sounds delicious.  I plan on making some of these as soon as I can get my hands on all the ingredients:

Raspberry Basil Limoncello Cocktail

PREP TIME 5 Minute/s

COOK TIME

TOTAL TIME 5 Minute/s

Ingredients

• 2 lemon wedges
• 4 basil leaves, roughly torn
• 6 raspberries
• 1/2 tsp. superfine sugar, optional
• 1/2 ounce limoncello (preferably homemade!)
• 1 ounce lemon vodka
• champagne
• ice

Instructions

1. Add the raspberries, basil and lemon wedge to a high ball glass.
2. Muddle until raspberries are pureed and basil has been bruised.
3. Fill glass with ice.
4. Add limoncello, lemon vodka, sugar and stir until sugar is disolved.
5. Top with champagne.
6. Garnish with a single raspberry and lemon wheel, if desired.

http://www.stylemepretty.com/living/2013/06/13/raspberry-basil-limoncello-cocktail/

Asheville: A City We Love

We have taken a hiatus, but we are BACK! It's tough work planning a wedding, fixing up a house, and overseeing conferences.  As we slow down {some} moving into the summer months, we aim to be better bloggers.  This post from Garden and Gun {one of our favorite magazines} was the inspiration for today's post:
http://gardenandgun.com/article/city-portrait-asheville-north-carolina

Last August, we traveled to Asheville, North Carolina for a long weekend.  I've been to the Biltmore and the Grove Park Inn previously during the holiday season, but I had not been to Asheville's downtown, explored it's surrounding areas, or STAYED at the Grove Park Inn.  I was looking forward to checking out all that Asheville had to offer, and I had a great guide to show me around.

We arrived mid-morning on Saturday and set out on the streets of downtown Asheville, pursuing the eclectic mix of boutiques, antique stores, and other novelty shops.  We stopped for lunch at Lexington Avenue Brewery, sampling one of the many local breweries in the Asheville area.  We sat at the bar, ate our lunch, and enjoyed the delicious beers as we people-watched.

After lunch, we milled around downtown awhile longer before jumping in the car and heading to Highland Brewing Company for the Brewery Tour and evening concert in their tasting room.  I had done a little research prior to our trip, and we had planned on going to visit the brewery of some of our favorite beers.  We highly recommend working this into your itinerary if you are going to be in the Asheville area, because you are able to tour the facilities, see how their beers are made and why Asheville is such a great place to brew, and taste the beer!  They even have special, small-batch brews that they only serve in the Highland Tasting Room.  You can get all the info here:
http://www.highlandbrewing.com/

Adjacent to the Highland Brewing Company is the Troy & Sons Distillery, which makes moonshine.  After our Brewery tour, we were able to go through the Distillery Tour.  We enjoyed seeing how moonshine is made {not in your bathtub} and sample the different varieties they have.  I opted out, but Ben enjoyed them. The guys working there said they are starting to market to local restaurants and establishments to offer the moonshine as an alternative to Vodka or Rum in mixed drinks.

We stayed at Highland Brewing Company a little longer to listen to the local bluegrass band that was playing in their outdoor park area, appreciating the cooler mountain air and a break from the steamy, humid temperatures at the beach.  We left to check in at the Grove Park Inn, and we were so fortunate to be able to stay there since Ben's conference was taking place at the Inn.  We were assigned a room in the "old hotel," which you have to take an elevator nestled in the large fireplace that is manned with an attendant at all times.  When we stepped off the elevator onto our floor, it was like we had stepped back in time to the 1920s.  Much to our surprise {and delight} there was a plaque on our door identifying it as part of the suite that F. Scott Fitzgerald stayed in when he visited the Grove Park.

That evening we headed back to downtown Asheville for dinner at Barley's Taproom & Pizzeria, meeting up with some of the fellow South Carolina-LEED Conference attendees.  Barley's offers a wide assortment of beers, and the pizza is delicious.  You can even order by the slice!  We made our way back to the hotel to enjoy some music in the Great Hall, overlooking the twinkling city skyline before turning in for the night.

Ben had given me a special surprise a few weeks before our trip with a massage and day pass at the Grove Park Spa.  I had been looking forward to this experience, but I was a little nervous, as it was my first massage and first spa experience.  But let me tell you, it was incredible.  The massage was wonderful and something I desperately needed, and getting to lounge around all day at the spa was just what I needed to unwind.  If you can make plans to go, the Grove Park Spa is worth every penny! And yes, it is just as magical as it looks in the photos:
http://www.groveparkinn.com/the-spa

The remainder of our trip was full of Ben's conference activities, but it was a great get-away for both of us.  Asheville is a fun city with lots of things to do and see.  We hope to make it back there soon to explore more that the city has to offer...and try out some more brews!

Tell us about your favorite spots in Asheville!

Happy New Years

2012 has rolled into the ages, leaving us with but memories.  For Clemson fans it ended on a much much higher note than it began. This year brought much joy and some great new beginnings.  While there were definite moments of sadness and many regrets of uncompleted task, 2012 will be remembered as a year of new starts.  While we didn't keep our goal of reading 50 books or camping every month, we did find new jobs, got engaged, and bought a house.  Shows how the best laid plans are often not the ultimate path we take.
2013 offers the same promise each new years does - a fresh chance. We hope you will join us for not only the path we plan to take but also for the unexpected joys that arise along the way. You, our friends, mean the world to us and we can't wait to share time with you all this year.

Happy 12-12-12

Only happens once every hundred years, so we'd like to wish you a blessed day. Though today is numerically special, so is every other day. Make the most of it.

Proposal Story 10-27-12

Once I had selected the ring, the actual planning for how I was going to pop the question began.  I knew I wanted to involve our friends and family and also bring in some places that were significant to us. Therefore idea for a scavenger hunt proposal had always been in the back of my mind as an idea.
On Friday, Oct 26, the weather was perfect before Hurricane Sandy blew past the coast. There was a light breeze and the rain held off, so I took Johanna to eat at Burky's Burgers and to play putt-putt at Treasure Island Golf.  This was one of our first dates together.  Johanna kicked my butt with a strong back nine performance.

Typically on a Saturday morning, Dakota gets up like clock work at 7:30. Today was no exception. After I walked him, I tied a note around his neck that told Johanna to look what daddy left on the table for you.  I went to Target leaving Johanna asleep. Nick and Nicole called her a short time later and told her to get up that she was to have breakfast with her mom.  When she followed Dakota she found 11 roses and a card on the dinning room table.  At each stop or phone call throughout the day, Johanna was asked a trivia question and got a letter for each right answer. This ultimately was a word scrabble that spelled Brookgreen. Wasn't very difficult, but again I wanted our families to have an excuse to call her throughout the day.
After breakfast with her mom, she was instructed to go to Market Common where she meet Brian and Nancy at Barnes & Nobles. They read the following three passages to her:

“Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.”

--- The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

When he looked into her eyes, he learned the most important part of the
language that all the world spoke – the language that everyone on earth
was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something
older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. What the boy felt at
that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his
life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing.
Because when you know the language, it’s easy to understand that someone
in the world awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in
some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, the past
and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the
incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by
one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul
for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would
have no meaning.
---Paulo Coehlo "The Alchemist" 

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
---“The Velveteen Rabbit ” by Margery Williams
Then she went to Pottery Barn to meet Kaci and she read the following passages to Johanna:

“Home. Few words in mankind’s existence hold such power. The word itself conjures memories of all the senses. The smell of Christmas morning, the feel of the each door knob, or the sound of each creaking floor board.  The Greeks first born goddess was Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth and Home. Her name means “the essence”.  As you and Ben form a life together remember the essential role home will always play. It is the place you two will always have together.

Johanna then went and had a drink with Tommy and Joan at Gordon Biersch which was the site of our first official date. After that she went to Tommy Bahama for lunch and was surprised by Elizabeth, Larkin, Sarah, and Nancy waiting for her.

After lunch the girls traveled south to Pawleys Island and drove by the new house.  Then they went and had manicures or pedicures done. At this point Nancy had Johanna's dress and made her change into it for "dinner plans." By this time though Johanna had unscrambled Brookgreen and was suspicious something was up.  I had arrived at Brookgreen an hour before they did. Fortunately the threat of Hurricane Sandy had postponed a planned event at Brookgreen and kept all of the visitors away.  After a very nervous wait at the end of the Alley of Oaks, I saw the group of girls coming through the garden entrance. They stopped at the gate and sent Johanna down the oak path.  It seemed like eternity for her to walk down the path and take my hand.  I asked how she had enjoyed her day and that I wanted to bring her a place I thought had meaning and beauty.  I had the 12th rose in my hand.  After she said yes, we were joined by her friends and walked through the gardens, enjoying the peacefulness of having the place to ourselves.  We then meet up with a large group of people at Salt Water Creek for a special dinner.