Meet Bruno

As you know, back around the beginning of November, I gave my lab mix puppy, Champ, to a friend because they had a huge yard and another dog he could play with.  It wasn't fair to him to be stuck in a cage for 10 hours a day, then have nowhere to run outside at my townhouse.  I found out that he died this past weekend for unknown reasons.  Their other dog was a 13-year-old German Shepherd.  That dog died on Thursday or Friday.  Then they said Champ was really said, he slept in the other dog's bed and once they buried the other one, he laid on top of that area and wouldn't move.  He was throwing up some, so the doctor gave him some antibiotics and said he had a cold.  On Saturday around 11pm, he died.  They called the vet before and said he was getting worse and he died with the vet.  They don't know if they both got into something or what happened.  Champ would have been 3 next month :'(

In the meantime, Ana and I had been talking about getting a small dog.  She met someone with a Yochon (Yorkie and Bichon) and fell in love with it.  Its a small dog (doesn't get much bigger than 10 Lbs), and it doesn't shed, which is perfect for those with allergies.  So she started looking online to find one.  The best one she found was in Iowa, a 5 hour drive.  So on Sunday, we took the trip and got Bruno.

He's a cuddler and loves to be held.  He's playful and still sleeps a lot.  He sleeps under the bed with his head poking out from the bed skirt.  So far he hasn't had any accidents in the house, but we've been good at catching him when he starts sniffing.

I, personally, love big dogs like labs and golden retreivers, but it doesn't make sense for me to have one with my small house and no yard.  I love little Bruno, and he's getting really attached to me!

Penne Rosa Recipe

Ingredients:
-Chicken Breast pieces (as much as you would like, I do about 2)
-1 box of Penne noodles
-2 TBS Olive Oil
-2 TBS Butter
-Diced Green Onions (optional)
-Minced Garlic (to taste)
-2 small cans Tomato Sauce
-1 CUP Heavy Whipping Cream
-1/2 CUP Grated Parmesan Cheese

I cut chicken breasts into small pieces and season it with some Montreal Steak Seasoning, salt and pepper.

In a skillet, I heat some about 2 TBS of olive oil and about 2 TBS of butter.  Once hot, I'll put some onions and minced garlic into it and let it sizzle for a minute.  Then I cook the chicken breasts in the skillet.

In a separate pot, I cook a box of Penne noodles (1 or 1.5 LBS) according to its directions.

In a bowl, mix 2 small cans of tomato sauce and 1 CUP of Heavy Whipping Cream.

Once the chicken is cooked through, add the sauce mixture to the skillet.  Cover and simmer on medium-low for about 5 minutes.

After the 5 minutes, add about 1/2 CUP of grated parmesan cheese to the chicken and sauce mixture along with a little basil and/or italian seasoning.  Simmer for about another 5 minutes.

Then mix the sauce with the noodles and serve.  This recipe goes great with my other one for the Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits.

Made The Switch To The iPhone

Most of you that know me know that I'm a smartphone addict.  I love my phones.  Over the past years, I've used Windows Mobile, Symbian (Nokia), Blackberry, Android, and Windows Phone 7.

My list of phones I've owned in approximate order:
-Palm Treo 700wx - Windows Mobile
-HTC Vogue - Windows Mobile
-HTC Touch Pro - Windows Mobile
-HTC Tilt - Windows Mobile
-HTC Fuze - Windows Mobile
-Nokia e71x - Symbian
-HTC Touch Pro 2 - Windows Mobile
-Blackberry Tour - Blackberry
-Google Nexus One - Android 2.1-2.2
-Samsung Captivate - Android 2.2
-Google Nexus One Again - Android 2.3
-HTC Surround - Windows Phone 7
-HTC Inspire 4G - Android 2.3

Wow, that's quite a list there!

And now, as of this month, I'm using a 32Gb iPhone 4S.  I know people were disappointed when Apple announced the 4S because it didn't offer a whole lot from the 4, but for someone that's a new iPhone user, it only made sense to buy the 4S.

And guess what...I love it!  I love not having to spend hours tweaking my phone to get it how I want it.  I love not having to reload my apps because I had to load a new ROM onto my phone.  I love the selection of apps that are out there, even compared to Android.

We have music docking things in the house (an iHome, and a Klipsch stereo), so its nice to be able to dock it and play music and have it charge all at once without a bunch of messy wires everywhere.

Reception seems better than my past phones and I don't think I've dropped a call yet.

Windows Phone 7 (WP7) was nice, but its not quite mature enough for me.  There wasn't a big enough selection of apps for me.

Android has been my favorite for a while now, but it would slow down and require reboots too often, plus lots of tweaking to get it to run how I wanted it to.

Where I used to suggest Android to people, I have to say that I'm now an iPhone fan and will suggest it to people.