Freestyle Friday

Kinsey and Sammy

As you can see on the right hand side of this blog, I've joined the Twitter tweeters. You'll also notice I don't do a good job of it. TGIF? WTF? I just couldn't think of anything else to say at the moment.

A writer friend of mine had a baby girl this morning. Yay, Christa! This is wee one #2, and now we're all waiting for her to post pictures on her blog and to see which one of us won her guess-the-baby's-weight contest.

Puppy Update: Kinsey is becoming a little easier to handle (ie my husband and I are suffering less blood loss). She's still high energy, but she's more focused and listens better now. I discovered a spray bottle with water really helps get her attention. She actually likes getting squirted, but what it does is make her stop doing whatever she's doing, like grabbing the banana off the table or the newspaper out of my husband's hands. I've enrolled her in puppy classes that start February 3.

Speaking of puppies, did you know dogs love sweet potatoes? Our local pet supply store sells a line of sweet potato treats for dogs. The things are hard as rocks, and I bought Kinsey the ones that look like dog bones. Expensive! They're just dehydrated pieces of sweet potato, so I decided to make some myself, though mine are more like sweet potato chips. Kinsey loves them like nothing else! So I'm sharing the recipe so you can make these yummy treats for your own dogs:

Take 2 or 3 sweet potatoes (organic is best for your dog), slice them length-wise about 1/4" thick. Lay the slices on a baking sheet and bake at 250 degrees for 3 to 4 hours. The longer they bake, the harder they'll get.

How about a healthy human treat? I discovered this by accident one day. I like cottage cheese, and I like dried cranberries, so I thought why not mix them together? It's a surprisingly tasty combination.

Did I mention Mystic Taxi is still in the running for Karin Tabke's First Line contest? I think we're up to seven lines now. I'll know by next Monday whether or not I made the next round.

On the publishing front, though any news about my book is still pending, I just found out that Pocket Books and Juno Books signed a co-publishing agreement! That's very exciting because it creates another opportunity for Knight's Curse. My agent emailed me today saying they're on it. So that's encouraging.

Have a great weekend, everyone!