The Sunday Schnauzer – Mommy’s Little Devil

On November 27, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer33 Comments

My daughter shared these pictures of Bowser getting up to no good this week.

Bowser: *Why you looking at me like that, Mommy?*

Bowser: *At least I’m still Daddy’s little angel….*My son-in-law, doing his Bo Burnham impression.

Hope you are having a great weekend (and great long Thanksgiving weekend, to my friends in the US)!

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – Oma Takes Me to Donna’s House

On November 20, 2022November 16, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer27 Comments

Oma had to go to Parksville for a ~~haircut~~ grooming, so Donna said to drop me off at her place. Oma told me to be good. I WAS good.

You can see that right away I took charge of the loose slipper situation.

Here I am waiting for Oma and Donna to go for a walk with me. I like to carry my own leash by holding the poop bag purse in my mouth. It makes the humans laugh. I don’t know why. Walkies are serious business!

Donna liked taking pictures of me on the trail.

Donna made this picture of me look so artistic. It was kinda wet out but I didn’t care. I never care about the weather.

Donna wants me to pose but I gots ‘sploring to do!

Oma says Donna captured me doing my Littlest Hobo impression here.

I hope you are as good of a guest as me, when you go visiting. Remember to herd up those loose slippers!

Rock on,

The Bowz 🐾

Because You Asked – A Snack Trip to Spain

On November 17, 2022November 16, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, Because You Asked37 Comments

The catch-up binge of snack boxes is behind us, and I was relieved that there were only 3 more boxes to go through, to be fully caught up. Imagine my relief when the next box I opened was a duplicate of one we had just tried (South America)! I didn’t even want to complain to Universal Yums about getting a duplicate…I was just glad we were now down to only 2 more boxes to review. Oh the pressure I had been feeling, seeing those boxes pile up!

The next box I opened (the October box, I believe) takes us to Spain.

Once again, Donna hosted for this box ~~devouring~~ sampling, and we even had an Extra Special Guest Judge on hand. I will reveal who later in the post!

Ru Pauls Drag Race I Cant Wait GIFfrom Ru Pauls Drag Race GIFs

Also, this rascal joined us (but did not get to sample anything):

First up:

The writeup says that these are Spain’s famous caramel candies. Think *extra special* Smarties.

Next up were corn puffs, but with a sweet instead of savoury twist:

Forgot to take a picture of this before it got unwrapped:

This next one was, well, something else.

The sulphurous fumes hitting the roof of the mouth as you tried one of these fried-egg flavour chips was quite the experience. Very eggy and not in a good way, we all agreed. Supposed to be indicative of the “classic Spanish *huevo frito*“. *Esto no sabe bien*. Pass.

Next up: a peanut flavoured confection.

Spain’s favourite treat for over 400 years, apparently. Delicious, even though I was still getting hints of egg in my mouth from those damn chips.

From sweet to sour:

Another winner. Who doesn’t love a sour gummie? One of us, apparently 😉.

And finally:

Pardon the out-of-focus shot of this chocolate pine nut candy. Made from an 80 year old recipe, apparently. A man had a surplus of pine nuts and gave them to his neighbour, who mixed them with sugar, milk and coffee to make this delightful candy.

After all of those rich treats, Donna treated us to some fresh fruit and veggies.

Have you guessed the extra judge yet?

Our esteemed judging panel (ignore Bowser), including guest judge hubby Richard – who was born for the role!

And here is our scoring:

One more box to go (I think?) and the gift subscription is complete. Any guesses as to where that box is from?

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – Snow!

On November 13, 2022November 11, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer39 Comments

We had some snow this week. Early and atypical for Vancouver Island. Bowser had not seen snow before now, and I think he kinda liked it 😉.

Gotta shake off the snow after a romp through the bushes.

Is it fall? Is it winter? Let’s call it *Flinter*. It’s beautiful no matter what you call it.

Blue skies emerging as the clouds dissipate. Soon the snow will all disappear.

We hope you are having a fabulous weekend no matter the weather.

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – First Howl’oween

On November 6, 2022November 4, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer35 Comments

Bowser was pretty excited for his first ~~Halloween~~ Howl’oween. He wanted to get into costume right away!

But it was such a beautiful morning, we just had to get out for a romp.

Followed by this:

Finally it was time to get things ready for the kiddos. I got to use my new firebowl for the first time.

Our street was pretty dark and scary. We are surrounded by 3 mobile home parks so that’s where the bulk of the kids went (higher efficiency in candy scrounging 😉). We could hear them laughing and screaming but only 4 intrepid souls came to our yard all night.

Still, we enjoyed a pleasant Howl’oween by the fire.

We hope you had a lovely October 31st as well.

Rock on,

The WB

What’s On Your Plate Blog Challenge – Bingeing on Universal Yum Boxes Edition

On November 2, 2022November 15, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, Because You Asked, What's On Your Plate39 Comments

Whoo boy! It has been a time since Donna and I reviewed a Universal Yum box, hasn’t it? Between my summer of endless moving/renovating and Donna’s summer of endlessly being away from home, I think we saw each other once in 3 months. The Universal Yum boxes continued to keep coming of course, and I managed not to lose any in all the upheaval. When Donna and I finally got together in August (briefly), we cracked open the May (yes, May!!!) box, which happened to be from the UK.

Now, I usually show pictures and writeups of each individual item when I do a box but not this time. Because I would be at my computer all day creating this post, and you would be on your devices all day reading this post and no one wants that to happen! Because gentle reader, there are 3 more boxes to come!!!

After all of hard work, we walked to my new “local”, for a pint (and a curry). In keeping with the theme, ya know 😉.

So, due to all the craziness of the past couple of months (moving, helping my sister move, more moving, hosting a friend for a week, still more moving…) I never did get around to posting the May in August box. Until now that is. Last week Donna and I were able to get together again for the first time since August, and I brought over the June, July and August boxes (and I still have September and October in my closet, with a notice to pick up November at the post office!).

Thailand, India and South America (June, July, and August).

Thailand scorecard. Me: The box only has 2 things in it! Also Me: Thank gawd…

India scorecard. Also several items *missing in action*.

South America scorecard. A complete box, at last.

Donna whipped up a delicious board for us to nosh on, afterwards. To balance all of the sugar. We forgot to take a selfie for the 3 boxes. Blame it on the snack overload. ~~I did.~~

Four boxes down and 3 more to go. I’m actually glad the subscription is coming to an end, even though I’ve enjoyed it, enjoyed sharing it, and enjoyed blogging about it. Seeing all those boxes pile up though…overwhelming!

If you’re dying to know about a particular snack, please let me know in the Comments and I’ll give you the deets. Otherwise, please accept this half-assed offering for this month’s WOYPBC!

Please share with Donna and/or myself what’s on your plate this month! I’ve cheated with this month’s post, and Donna has done the same (yet differently). Please check her out here! And here’s the Link Party, if you are so inclined.

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – I Helps

On October 30, 2022October 29, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer41 Comments

Oma is building a new bed for her ~~den~~ bedroom.

Oma says to ignore the big X through the “build it alone” cartoon. Where is the dog helper in these instructions, I wonders…

Oma won’t stop working even when *I know* it’s time for a break.

Finally! Oma joins me on the couch after bed frame is completed.

I try to sit on Oma’s head to get more comfy. Oma gets up after this and starts building the drawers for the bed.

Oma has the drawer building mastered by Drawer 2, so I moves on to other projects.

Oma did a good job, with my help of course.

I get to do this again when Oma’s desk comes (in boxes). Yippee!!!

I hope you are having a good weekend and maybe helping too.

Rock on,

The Bowz 🐾

The Sunday Schnauzer – New Bed at Oma’s

On October 23, 2022October 22, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer28 Comments

Hi everybody! Bowser here. Oma is really tired from all of her moving and renovating stuff and she said I could write another blog post. Yippeee! And she got me a cute little bed for when I am visiting. I jumped into it right away, as soon as I saw it. Oma didn’t even have to explain it was for me…that’s how smart of a dog I ~~can be~~ am!

I had to bring one of Oma’s old trail shoes into my new bed with me. I don’t know why.

Oh yeah! I remember why now. It smells very interesting!

I feel like Oma is watching me with disapproval.

Please don’t take *my precious* away from me (again), Oma!

And of course, she did take it away. She always takes away certain things from me. Luckily I have a den full of other things to ~~chew the shit out of~~ play with.

I hope you have lots of toys to keep you busy this weekend.

Rock on,

The Bowz 🐾

The Sunday Schnauzer – Dodd’s Narrows

On October 16, 2022September 29, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer, See the Beauty41 Comments

A few days before I was set to leave for the mainland to help my sister move, Bowser and I hit the trails. It was going to be such a gorgeous fall day, I was tempted to try him out on the longest walk yet in his young life: the Cable Bay Trail and Dodd’s Narrows. It ended up being about a 6K walk (and of course it was more like 8 – 10K for Bowz because I let him off-leash when there was no one around). He loved it!

Remember this photo, from the first time I visited this trail?

This time: *Battle of the Mustaches*. Who wore it better? 😜

Now with less trees…😄. Tide is rushing in.

Looking for sea life. We did see one sea lion, on the way back from the Narrows. Bowser was intensely interested, but thankfully did not run into the water after it, like he does for sea birds. 🤦‍♀️

Bowser demonstrating his nose grooming ability/agility.

A well-deserved nap on the couch afterwards (for both of us LOL!).

We hope you are enjoying a fabulous fall (if in the Northern Hemisphere – otherwise, Happy Spring!).

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – Sharp-Dressed Dog; Teething Continues

On October 9, 2022September 24, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer35 Comments

Hi everybody! Bowser here. Oma is super busy ~~tired and cranky~~ so she said I could write this post. Lucky me!

First I want to show you my new haircut. Yup, I got my first “grooming” right before I went to the Vet for something? I don’t know what it was because I was so sleepy but I went home with a funny thing tied to my head. Anyways, that is gone now and I hope I never have to wear it again.