Bar Keeper's Friend helped save my skillet

Over Halloween this past October, my roommate had an accident that involved my small skillet, yummy sausages and a hot burner. Needless to say, it scorched my pot and the burn marks wouldn't come out.

I was a little verklempt on how to get the burn marks off without having to get a new pot. Initially, my mom gave me an all green cleaner, because she had used it on a lot of her uncleanable items. After unsuccessfully scrubbing my skillet 'til my fingers bled, my mom recommended Bar Keeper's Friend. My roommate and I were talking about it and she got a bottle of it. Amazeballs! The skillet is (almost) scorch free.

So, in ode to this little wonder, I'm doing my own endorsement commercial via my blog. Don't freak out, it's only a :10 commercial rather than a :30 or :60 spot...geesh....

Camera pans to a young woman scrubbing in the sink. She rinses the pot and sees a sparkling, shiny Wolfgang Puck (love the product placement?) skillet.

The woman smiles and lookes into the camera while holding a bottle of BKF.

"Thanks Bar Keeper's Friend! You saved my skillet...and wallet...from having to be replaced!" *insert wink and cheesy smile here*

Buddy the Wonder Dog

Seven years ago on Father's Day, our family surprised my dad with a golden retriever puppy. Years earlier, Bandit, my dog, had passed after surgery to remove a fatty tumor from his rib/stomach area. When Bandit died, it came as a complete shock to our vet as well as us. Bandit had come out of surgery happy, eating, drinking, going potty, jumping and playing like he normally did. An hour after the vet tech had taken him out, she came back to the recovery room and found him on the ground without a pulse. We later were told there seemed to be bone marrow that had made its way into Bandit's blood stream and stopped his heart...something that can happen without vets knowing until it's too late.

Being that Bandit was my dog, I was completely ballistic; however, my dad took the loss hard as well. You see, with my brother off to college, Bandit was the other "man in the house." My brother's dog, Abby, was not the right personality fit for my dad; he couldn't bond with her like he did with Bandit. Abby was not a cookie that you could readily enjoy with milk!

Father's Day, a day to celebrate your father, should show your thankfulness in all he does for you and family. So, my mom's idea was to get him the perfect gift-one to make him happy.

That's when we heard about Sievers Retrievers in Meppen, Illinois. A local Decaturan had gotten a black lab from them and loved their pooch. My mom found their website and showed me the litter that appeared to be around Father's Day. The Goldens were beautiful, but they definitely were larger than a normal standard.

My dad always said that his next dog would be a Golden because "Bandit's personality matched a Golden's unconditional love and eternal happiness." SIDE NOTE: Bandit, the thief of our hearts, was a pound puppy of a golden/GSD/collie mix, and was the best dog ever.

Our family had only adopted our animals from the county shelter, and my dad was becoming active in the county animal shelter board as a volunteer and later its President. So, we wondered if there would be any push back from my dad. When Father's Day approached, my mom broke the news that we didn't have a present physically there. Of course my dad didn't show any disappointment and stated he didn't need anything. That's when we told him about the puppy. He got so excited and was like a little kid waiting for the appointment to meet the Siever family. The time came to make the trip...

Meppen is about 3 hours from our house, and we passed a lot of fruit stands that I wanted to visit (ORGANIC PEACHES!!!); however, our mission was clear--To see if the Golden we were visiting could be a part of the Ewers family. We finally arrived to Roger & Michelle Siever's home and drove up the gravel dirt driveway. My mom, dad and I got out of the car to see Roger walking through the dust cloud holding a pouting Golden puppy who looked like he had just been woken up from a nap.

This Golden puppy looked up at us with his brown eyes, black shiny nose and arms crossed...and we fell in love. He had a ridge of hair that ran from between his eyes straight down his nose. His coat was blondy-blonde. Beautiful, soft. And he had ears as soft as velvet.

We asked Roger why no one had wanted this puppy, but he couldn't give us a straight answer. Was it because the ridge of hair was seen as a "fault" by breeding standards? Was it the fact that he already weighed 11+ pounds at eight weeks old? Or, indeed, was it that Roger was hoping to could keep this blonde puppy because he had fallen in love with him too??? If you ask me, I think guess 3 is the answer why he was the last pup standing.

Roger took us into their house to meet Michelle and their children. Roger said to us, "The dogs aren't allowed in our house (as he carried Buddy inside with us). They have their own house and huge acres of land to run on." Michelle was a sweet lady who started feeding the puppy cheese and said "This little one absolutely LOVES cheese. We'll give you a slice on the ride home if he gets antsy. Food always calms puppies down. A lil treat!" She fed the pup a little piece of cheese, which made him smile and wiggle with joy.

We took the puppy home that day, and my dad named him Buddy. We drove home, with my dad in the back seat holding Buddy. An hour into the drive home, we stopped to let Buddy potty. Buddy ran to the grass. In an excitedly cheery tone, my mom said "Good boy, Buddy!" Hearing my mom so happy made Buddy's eyes light up, and he ran right over to her, doing his puppy pride dance around her feet. Seriously adorable! Back in the car for the other 2 hours, and my dad gave Buddy some of the cheese Michelle had given them. A half hour after that, Buddy barfed up cheese, water and puppy food ALL OVER my dad. Needless to say, it was both hilarious and stinky!

The past 7 years have been happy, loving and joyful. Buddy has been a saving grace to my dad when he felt there was no one at home to talk to, his job pissed him off and my dad needed a calming presence. Work would stress my dad, and he would come home cussing. Intuitively, Buddy would realize "Hey, Dad's freaking out AND HIS FACE IS TURNING RED!!!" So, every time Buddy hears my dad using certain words (SHIT, DAMMIT!) he runs up jumping up and down as if to say "Call the heck down or you'll have a heart attack, Dad!"



Buddy now has 2 adopted (shelter) brothers, Kaiser and Cody. Kaiser was adopted from the animal shelter on a cold, rainy February day. An animal control agent called my dad when a long-haired German Shepherd was relinquished by its owners. My parents had been looking for a possible companion for Buddy since Abby (my brother's dog) had passed. My mom really wanted a shepherd, because she had been around them through her childhood and believes them to be one of the best dogs ever! When they saw Kaiser, his self esteem beaten down and shivering from fear, they knew he needed a loving home. Ours would be perfect. Cody was another owner surrender who came in when he was about 3-4 years old. Apparently, his "destructive" behavior was too much for his family to handle. I mean, Cody's torn some things up but not too terrible. We found out he was a Flat Coat Retriver, a breed I'd never heard of. They're basically a black Golden! SUPER CUTE & FLUFFY!!! Buddy loves his brothers...and they love him. They can't do anything without the others.



My dad and "The Boys" (along with our cat Figaro...who wants/thinks he's a dog) form a pack. The Boys look out for my parents, especially Dad, and offer a heartwarming comfort.

Back in college, I took one of my creative writing courses and told my dad I wanted to start writing children's books with Buddy as the main character. The series being called "Buddy the Wonder Dog." Buddy seemed to escape every bout of sickness or injury...like when he would eat HANDFULS of mulch without it tearing up his stomach or eating the chocolate chip cookies left on the counter without puking. That was until recently....



A week or two before Thanksgiving, Buddy was taken in for a hard mass on his shoulder. You should know our vet, who we lovingly call Aunt Doctor Becky (ADB), has a Siever's Golden after she saw us with Buddy. Her dog, Winston, is Buddy's uncle!!! ADB took x-rays and couldn't find anything--so she and my parents thought it might have been a sprained shoulder. When it didn't get better, my parents took Buddy back in for a biopsy. That's when ADB discovered that our Golden boy, Buddy, has Stage 1 bone cancer. Today, he went to have additional tests run at the University of Illinois' Veterinary Medicine building. We are blessed to have one of the top 3 vet schools within an hour drive. Because of the tumor already growing deep into the bone and tissue, the recommendation was to have the leg amputated. My parents think the surgery will be tomorrow or Thursday, but it was a hard decision for my dad to make. ADB is an alumi of UofI Vet, and my parents have asked her to do the surgery as we trust her more than anyone with Buddy.

There's so much of the "unknown" for this choice. What will his quality of life be like? Will he be able to play, run, walk, swim and enjoy his life as he would have before? Will Buddy fully recover? Will he forever be in pain that he hides and can't tell us about? Or will he be a part of that small percentage of dogs that wake up from the surgery and cry in agony as they see their missing limb for the first time? In that small percentage, will he be one of the dogs that recoil from human touch because he is so self conscious and upset? What will his doggie self esteem be?

Will Buddy feel as though we did this to him on purpose and feel as though we don't love him? Will Kaiser and Cody accept him back after surgery?

Buddy is pure joy. All he wants is: food, pets, hugs, cuddles, Bite-n-Fight play, walks, swimming in the pool and sleepy time. Doesn't seem like so much compared to what I want...a magical cure for him that leaves him in-tact and out of pain.

I love Buddy the Wonder Dog. I can't wait to get home for Christmas and snuggle up with him and pet his velvet ears. His first Christmas in 7 years that he won't be able to play in the snow....wonder if mom will let us build a snowman INSIDE for him! Hmmm....

Winter and the Holiday Season...puts me in the spirit!

This winter marks my fourth in the city. And still it never ceases to amaze me. The weather goes up and down, round and round, all within a matter of days. Last year's winter was one of the worse I've ever seen in my life, and I started this winter thinking about that fact and caught myself cringing.

The Windy City definitely becomes crazy...where people look like night ninjas as they wrap themselves from head to toe to protect themselves and defeat their foe, Weather. As the day begins and ends, you see Chicagoans bustling up to the bus and el stops with nothing but their eye balls showing. You remember in "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation," where Audrey's eyelashes/eyes get frozen as the Griswold family hunts for the perfect Christmas tree? Yeah, that actually happened last winter. Your eyes froze open and your eyelashes were mini icicles of tears. Pedestrians protect their feet with humongous, furry boots to keep any snow from touching their socked feet. The shelves at Walgreens and CVS are out of stock for hand warmers. Everyone is on MISSION: HYPOTHERMIA HATERS.

But boy do the electric and gas companies love Chicago weather...where they literally reap rewards far greater than you could imagine. Sky rocketing bills each month to protect against the cold. Being that I had steam heat for the past 3 winters, paying the gas bill this year will be interesting, especially since I have 2 fully exposed walls and no insulation in the building.

I shouldn't complain as my friends in Minne-Paul get weather far worse and extensive than Chicago; however, Chicago winter sucks.

But there are the positives. The first snow fall looks like shredded coconut making a humongous cake for us all to devour with pleasure. The pure white that first morning makes you want to throw on a snow suit, make snow angels, build a snow man and sip hot cocoa. Our family dogs, which we've termed "The Boys," run around the yard flicking mini puffs of snow up with their noses and trying to eat all the falling flakes. If I could take the entire winter off to watch The Boys play all day in the snow, I would. Seeing them happy and carefree turns me jealous to the overworked, hyper-stressed individual that I appear to be today.

Winter should bring back your childlike outlook on life. How quickly things change and to enjoy the beauty and magic that this season brings.

As a tribute to the child we've all lost, I want to tell a story that I still remember to this day and doubt I will every forget. Three winters ago, I was home in Decatur for the holiday. My dad and I needed to do some final Christmas shopping for my mom and grandma. We ended up running to the mall before it closed. As we parked our SUV in the lot and got out, we fell in step behind a younger dad and his daughter. The little girl appeared to be about five or six and wore a pink puffy jacket with a white faux fur collar. She had a tassle pink polka dot scarf and mittens that matched her jacket.

The snow was falling that night and looked beautiful against the almost set sun. The little girl looked up at her dad with an awestruck smile and asked, "You know what Daddy?" Her dad looked down at her with a patient and loving smile and asked "What?" She looked back up toward the sky and raised one of her cute, little, gloved hands and answered, "The snow looks like sugar falling down from heaven." With that, her dad swooped her up in a hug and propped her on his hip.

I looked at my dad with a huge smile and whispered that that was the cutest thing I've ever heard. He said, "You know, Cissy, kids have the purest outlook on life and make you see things in a way you never would have." While I've never had a maternal instinct in my life, that was one of the very few moments I've wanted children...just to experience those cute little quips that kids have. I know I used to look at life so pure, verses jaded.

My Christmas spirit is bounding uphill each day as we get closer to the 25th. Our family has been through a lot this year, and I have many blessings and things to be thankful for. Next steps are to await the sheet music to our Christmas Service at church and go caroling drunk off of Irish hot chocolate. Now THAT's the way to get in the holiday spirit.