We can have an endlesss supply of “Guinness”…

  Our son, Kelly and his wife, Cindy, were married in Ireland on Dingle Penninsula.  They have always had a great  love of that land…Cindy is “Southside Irish” and Kelly’s Great Grandfather Fry had some Irish blood in him.  So, when they decided to adopt a rescue dog, imagine their surprise that one of the dogs they looked at was a German Shepard named Guinness…Guinness came from Kentucky, is 5 years old and quite a handsome guy…

…but poor Guinness was badly abused.  His ribs show through his fur, he had ear infections and flea infestation so bad he had chewed the fur off his hind legs.  He was actually going to be euthanized if no one adopted him.  Some people are very leery of a dog of this breed, but Kel and Cin weren’t.  Because Kelly works one day on, 2 off, as a firefighter, Cindy has many nights alone and they wanted a dog who would be a deterent to anyone thinking to do some harm…enter Guinness the German Shepard.  Just for the record, he is VERY well behaved, walks on the leash right next to them, and seems to socialize well. When they take him in the truck, he just lies down in the back and sleeps…

 

He loves to ride in the back seat of their truck..just like a baby he falls asleep.  Now they just have to put some meat on his bones, poor baby.  They have only had him one week, so he is still meeting our family a little at a time…As some of you may know, our entire family at one sitting can be somewhat OVERWHELMING!

Tomorrow is our daughter, Chris and her hubby John’s 8th Wedding Anniversary!  That is one week we sure won’t forget ..for MANY reasons.  It was a beautiful wedding held at the Hilton in Longboat Key, Florida…

Ninety people attended and they were married at sunset on the beach….We all gathered for a family picture…John has a step mom and step dad too, so it made for very large family photo!

It CANNOT be 8 years already, right????

Two days after their wedding, Den and I headed for South Florida and the Florida Keys in our Cougar fiver.  We had reservations at Long Key State Park…We actually ended up spending a day with Chris and John, who were honeymooning on Key West..

I know, I know..come on, Ma..it’s their HONEYMOON!…As soon as MacGyver and I arrived at our park,  Chris called and told us to drive down to Key West and spend the day with them…on their honeymoon…”Are you two NUTS? Why would you want to hang out with 2 old people (not to mention we’re your parents) …and…on your HONEYMOON?????”  Chris replied, “Come on, Mom..GET OVER IT! LET’S PARTY TOGETHER ON KEY WEST FOR THE DAY!”….Well, they talked us into it and we had a great time…That evening when we arrived at our camper, what had only been a tropical storm became Hurricane Katrina ..and she was due to make landfall over South Florida and the Keys the next day. ….HOLY TIDAL WAVE, BATMAN!!

This picture was taken the night before we left Long Key, looking East out on the Atlantic.  The park ranger advised us to leave at first light in the morning, as they were evacuating the park.  The next morning when we left the  park at 4AM, it was lightening off the coast and heading our way…yep, a Category 1 Hurricane named Katrina.  As we got off the keys, they were closing the bridge behind us.  We drove North all day, until we crossed the Florida/Georgia coast ..and we came through some pretty heavy rain squalls and winds.  That Cougar did some rockin’ and rollin’….You should have seen all the Electric Power trucks headed South in the opposite lane of traffic…We sure did boogie outta there..But..that darn Katrina kept growing and growing…and we all knew what happened..devastation for the Gulf Coast…

Chris and John called us from the Hilton at Key West.  They had a room on the ground floor and Chris said it was raining sideways.  They had no power, ran out of food, and worst of all NO BEER!! She said that they waded through the street to Sloppy Joes and had bottled warm beer and a sandwich.  Their flight out of Key West was canceled, so John got a rental car when the bridge re opened and drove to Miami to catch a flight out…WE WILL NEVER FORGET THAT WEDDING…SHEESH!

Sunday night Dennis did some serious tag team grilling.  We had sweet corn and ribs ….and each required grilling on different  grills.  The corn we soaked in a bucket of water with husks on and that went on the gas grill.  The ribs I precooked in the oven at 250degrees for an hour and Den finished them on the Weber Charcoal grill….

……Left, just thrown them on the grill.     On the right…TRADA! PERFECTISSIMO RIBS!

Chef Dennis has both grills going at the same time…..no easy feat, but he managed nicely..(I like my chefs in shorts and shirtless )

“Saving one dog will not change the world, but surely for that one dog, the world will change forever.” 
                                                                                             ~ Karen Davison