… Alas, Platelicker and The Cat have been usurped by wildlife yet again. It’s not that they weren’t engaged in entertaining and photogenic activities over the weekend — wait a sec, is shedding photogenic? Okay, scratch that last part. …

… Then Chopper made me peas with onions and garlic. And they were almost extremely tasty. Almost. To anyone who loves peas, they’d be ambrosia. For me, maybe just a bit more garlic to completely cover up that pea taste and I’m there. …

… They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but Miss Dominique Araucana, she nailed my ticker without cooking a lick.

Maybe it was that voice, all silky chocolate, or maybe that cherry-lipped pout of hers, sweet as a basket on Easter Sunday. All I knew is one look and I was toast. …

This has gone on long enough. First, the internet connection goes out two weekends in a row (right when I’m about to launch my nefarious plot to take over the blog… just you wait… mwrooow…) and then this weekend? It’s a frickin’ holiday weekend, so what does my female captor do? She taunts me with paper. …

… January 2004, six months before the wedding, budget the size of a postage stamp, I had this crazy notion. Why spend money on flowers when they’ll just wilt the next day? We’ll go origami! …

… The scariest wagers are the ones you make on yourself and on your own future success. It’s so much easier to just take what you’ve got and make the best of it, but what it came down to for us was this: The best of it had sunk us deep into a pit of stagnant muck and we had to risk something crazy to dig ourselves out. …

… And we here at Belly Timber, being rather nautically inclined to begin with, believe that nowhere else can one find dishes more quintessentially English than aboard the great ships of the British Navy during the Golden Age of Sail. …

We’re off to the big city for three days to play with other puppies, so everyone be good to each other while we’re gone and remember: messy cooks spill the best treats, so what ever you do, don’t clean up as you go!