Thank You Mr. President!

I didn't know about this until today, but...

The Adoption Tax Credit has been increased and extended in the new Health Care Reform bill that President Obama has signed today. The Adoption Tax Credit will be increased by $1,000 retroactive to January 1, 2009 (from $12,150 to $13,150 in 2009 and from $12,170 to $13,170 in 2010) and it has been extended to December 31, 2011.

Think I'll use the extra dough to buy some tea bags...

This is great news for adoptive parents.

I've Lost That HRC Feeling (Again)

Gilbert Baker, creater of the famous Rainbow Flag, shows his feelings for HRC efforts at a recent rally for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in New York City.

Never a big fan of the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) here.  They are the self proclaimed "Face of the Movement" for gay equality.  Their whole message to main stream America is "Hey we're gay, but we're just like you, so accept us, be our friends, and if it's not too much trouble (and we're asking this very nicely so as not to offend) maybe you could, like, not vote us into obscurity in the next election by taking away all our rights?  That would be so awesome since we want to be just like you and everything!".  How about NO.  For some time now I haven't been seeing much success.  You've lost every ballot measure, including Prop 8 in California (how you managed that I have no idea, although I do remember reading a post on Andrew Sullivan's blog about how while protestors were jamming the streets HRC was hosting an expensive wine tasting to raise money.  And no I'm not making that up for laughs.) and have tried to thwart every effort to push gay marriage to the Supreme Court, only now trying to push your way into the current case brought by Ted Olsen after initially trying to stop it.  Anti gay legislators here in Arizona are pushing a bill through that is going to push single people to the end of the line in adopting from the state system.  I think we all know "single" is code for "homo".  What does HRC do?  They send out a plea for money and action to protect the rights of "single people".  The entire campaign (at least from the message I got and the stuff on your website) does not even mention gays!  You're HRC for pete's sake!  If you can't even say the word gay how the hell do you think you're going to advocate for us? 

HRC has been lobbying Congress to help pass health care reform.  It was announced that all the provisions of the bill that were there to help LGBT people have been dropped from the final version.  The biggest one, impacting my family, is the unfair practice of taxing domestic partner health benefits.  What this means is that the amount of money that is covered under our health care plan for a medical visit beyond the copay is taxed as income at the end of the year.  Why are we paying taxes on that when married couples aren't?  That's potentially a lot of money.  Apparently outraged, HRC posted this on their website:

While we are saddened that the House has abandoned provisions that would make care more accessible and affordable to our community, we recognize that the health reform measure will still help all Americans, including LGBT people. Important reforms like eliminating pre-existing condition limitations and expanding Medicaid will significantly impact people living with HIV and AIDS. We urge Congress to pass this legislation, addressing the nation’s dire need for reform in our health care system and clearing the way for Congress to act on the many issues it needs to address, including ones of great importance to the LGBT community.

OK maybe not outraged, but at least saddened.  I'm saddened too, since you spent a year on this and got, as usual, absolutely nothing.

You are good at hobnobbing with Congresspersons and holding expensive A-List Gay cocktail parties and exclusive NYC galas that most of us can't afford.  You're also good at the constant pleas for money and membership that flood my inbox on a weekly basis, but at this point it seems like your reason to be has risen above your reason for being.  A massive amount of money is raised and donated to politicians who quite honestly are not delivering on the change we're demanding, or that you are so politely asking for.  Now that I'm a father, I'm tired of waiting.  I'm tired of being told to be patient.  Quite frankly, I'm angry at the amount of time that has been wasted.  And I'm glad to see someone else gets it too.

GetEqual has recently launched and is also tired of waiting.  I applaud them for getting back to basics.  We need the lobbying, but we need some old fashioned ActUp strategies to go along with it.  A personal hero of mine, Lt. Dan Choi, was arrested the other day for handcuffing himself to the gates of the White House to protest Don't Ask Don't Tell.  He's made so much sacrifice already, and now this.  I'm so glad we have people like Lt. Choi doing what needs to be done to make change.  If GetEqual had half the funding HRC has what a wonderful world we'd see.

These Two Mommies

Please welcome our dear friends Kim and Gerry to the blogworld as they begin their own journey to adoption.  We met them via the internet, and they are such special people we know they will make wonderful parents someday.  There is a soul out there right now waiting to become their child when the time is right.  Please welcome them to our little family ring!  (That's them in the post below at the Scottsdale Art Festival with us last weekend...)

Artsy Fartsy

The last few posts were kinda heavy, so just for fun we spent Sunday at the Scottsdale Festival of the Arts.  A great Arizona day in the mid 70's, some great company in Gerry and Kim, and beautiful art of every kind.  Well except the $5 kind, which is what I was looking for...

I dare you to fill Grandpa's pool with plastic bags and claim it's art!

Relaxing after looking at art we can't afford

Resting in the grass

With our friends Kim and Gerry, who have just begun their own adoption journey with IAC

Everything Will Bring a Chain of Love..

Apparently I'm a week behind in blogging.  We've been back from California for a week now and I still have not unpacked my suitcase.  I should write a post about my procrastination problem, but that can wait for another day...

Our reunion with Sabrina's birth family was incredible.  There was a little trepidation on our part at first, because the original plan was to meet at a restaurant in Long Beach.  About a week before we left, "Lucy" (*not her real name) emailed us and said her mother wanted to make lunch for us at her place.  We were a little leary about this sudden change in plans, but we talked about it and decided that she had such trust in us, and made such a leap of faith by chosing us to parent her baby, that we needed to repay that trust back.  So on Saturday, we left our hotel in Old Town Pasadena and headed down to her home about a half an hour away.

We did not know what to expect as we had only met Lucy at the hospital when Sabrina was born.  I was not sure if there would be tears (I thought I would be emotional!), laughter, tension, or what, but I knew I was being silly.  We have a great relationship with Lucy and I mentioned to Gregg that I thought she would be more nervous then we were.  When we got there, she came out onto the front porch as we unloaded the car, and right away I knew this would be a good visit.  I saw a woman with a big smile on her face, just looking so happy.  When we got up to the door, she hugged us both but didn't take Sabrina from my arms.  We walked in and her mom was in her room still getting ready.  Lucy's two girls, 8 years old and 20 month old were sitting there waiting.  The older girl had a big smile on her face; the younger one looked a little unsure of us.  I could tell the older girl took good care of her sister.  When I put Sabrina down, she crawled right over to the kids.  The older girl gave her a big hug.  She turned to her sister and said "It's OK you can play with her, she's our sister".  I admit seeing the first meeting of the sisters made me a little misty.  It took Lucy a bit to pick her up, but when she did my gosh what a smile came on to her face!  Sabrina was in her happy mood (as usual!) and put everyone at ease.  After about a minute, we were all laughing like a big family.  I tried to get Sabrina to give out the gifts we brought for Lucy and the girls, but I guess we forgot to tell her that whole thing about being better to give then receive so I did it myself.

When we met Lucy's mother, we were at ease right away.  She is the kind of person that lights up a room.  We got big hugs, and she adored the baby.  She was able to make us feel so welcome in her home immediately.  And what a feast!  She's a fantastic cook, making a huge lunch of seafood jumbalaya and all the trimmings.  The best part of the entire day was at a point when the adults were sitting around the table talking, and the girls had moved into another room.  We could hear squeals of laughter from the three of them and that just made my heart sing.  We took tons of pictures.  We ended up staying there for over four hours, just laughing and talking.  We're so glad we ended up in her home, where we could all talk and the girls could get acquainted.  Lucy's mother told me her heart was at rest after meeting us and seeing how we interacted with and loved her granddaughter.  I told her our family had grown some more that day.  We received a warm and wonderful email from her the next day.  I think we are all looking forward to our next meeting.  Open adoption is truly a wonderful thing.

We Are Family

With the judge after the adoption

Well it's finally over.  The adoption was finalized on Friday March 5th.  We made the drive over to Los Angeles Thursday afternoon and got our hotel in Old Town Pasadena.  Sabrina was pretty good, but she got in a power nap for the last hour or so of the drive.  She thought the hotel was just so much fun, and spent from about 9 PM to 11 PM zipping around and having a blast way past her bed time.  In fact, she decided this was fun enough to keep going until around one in the morning.  So what if we were due in court at 11 the next morning for only the most important event in our family so far.  She managed to get up and get ready anyway...

Sassy

One member of our family, Bobby's Hair Spiking Product, was inadvertantly left home.  Driving around the courthouse for forty minutes did not turn up a single store were I could get some.  My signature feature, great hair, is sadly left out of our picture.

Sabrina was the star anyway.  She wore a white satin dress with a lavendar and seafoam stripe.  Gregg and I each matched one of the stripes, to symbolize our new family.  Surprisingly, lots of people at court picked up on it.  (When I showed the dress and shirts to my mother before we left, I could tell in her voice it choked her up a little.  Geez!)

I admit, I was tearing up during the whole proceeding.  I swore I would not cry in front of the judge, but when he pronounced us a family it was just so overwhelming.  They presented Sabrina with a teddy bear, and invited us up to the bench for the picture.  Everyone there was great, and we met a family (Christine and Keyvan and their son Devan) that worked with our agency and were coincidentally there at the same time as us.  Since the court was running behind, talking to them was a great way to ease everyone's minds.  We all had a bit of a challenge explaining our situation to Christine's mother but once she realized that (1) Gregg was not a representative of the adoption agency there to help me, (2) there wasn't going to be a mother and (3) we're Daddy and Papa, it was all cleared up.  She was so wonderful to be there for her grandson, and gave us big hugs when they came out of court.  She was crying, so I blame her for getting me going! (Who am I kidding I was already on the verge!)

Tomorrow I'll tell our story of reuniting with Sabrina's birthmother, sisters, and birth grandmother.

Waiting for the judge with Papa

Eat Like a Lady Not a Dog

That phrase came out of my mouth today, and it wasn't until about ten seconds later that I realized I just said it to a ten month old.  And in a serious way.  I had to laugh at myself.  Last year while dreaming of her, I never thought I'd equate her habits with those of a dog.  But when you put your face into the bowl to eat your snack, well...

Happy Birthday...Shots All Around!

Happy Birthday to Papa Gregg!  Even if it rained and we lost the gold to Canada, I hope you had a fun day.

Sabrina and I spent all afternoon yesterday shopping for two impossible gifts...a pizza oven that fits on the BBQ (I know it's February, but this is the desert, hell-ooo) and a Wii Fit.  What the hell is wrong with you Nintendo?  We get it, the Wii is a hot gift, but just maybe if you made more then like three at a time you'd sell more of them.  Wii Fit has been out for how long now, and still no one has it?  C'mon.

Gregg took Sabrina to her ten month checkup on Thursday.  She was fine in the waiting room, but when they walked in the exam room she freaked out.  She screamed waiting for the doctor, during the check up, and most fiercely, during the vaccinations.  They have "Nurse Weepy" over there who jabs the kids with the needles.  Problem is, she cries just a much as they do.  I can just see Gregg the Vulcan sitting there while the baby and the nurse are balling.  I'm sure he did some eye rolling.  It's a good thing I wasn't there or he'd have to deal with three of us.

We got up early and instead of making Papa a birthday breakfast drove down to the shot clinic at PETCO so the boys could get boosters.  They need them for their stay at the pet hotel while we're in California.  It urks me that I need to drag them down there and pay for the shots when I used to just get them at the pharmacy where they're only $9 and do it myself.  Apparently that isn't good enough for the Pet Hotel.  I'm sure the real reason is they want you to spend the money there on a vet visit.  So, $80 later...ugh.  At least they're set to go, and Sabrina lent moral support so there were no tears this time.

Chase relaxing after a tough day of shots

Typical Friday Night

After my last fun filled post I thought something a little lighter was in order.  Thank you though for all the comments.  It means a lot.  I got more comments on that post then any other on this blog, including the one announcing Sabrina's birth.  There would have been more but I deleted the ones calling me a hypocritical a-hole.  Sorry haters, but the outpouring of support shows you why this blog will NEVER be intimidated into going private (your stated goal) and will continue to be available to help other adopters in any way possible.

So, that's all I have to say about that.

Moving on...
Here's the typical Friday night.  First a bath, then pajamas and silliness ensues...

Follow that up with nightly story time.  Sabrina has always loved for us to read to her.

Follow that with a good night to Papa and it's off to bed.

Life doesn't get much better then this.

A Note to a Concerned Public

If you've read more then one or two posts on this blog, you probably have a good idea of who I am.  I can be serious.  I can be silly.  I can be emotional.  I'm definately opinionated and quite the smart ass.   I try to mix some humor into my stories.  Whether or not it's actually funny, well you can be the judge of that.  What I do think I have done is open my heart and post the things we've been going through for the past two years or so, at first in the hope that I'd find someone who's been there, and now so that maybe our experiences can help someone else who may not know where to start.  I've met an entire community of bloggers that have welcomed me into their circle.  Ultimately, I wanted a record of what this has been like so someday my little girl can read it and see how our family came to be created.  All honest, all open.

Adoption is a fact of life.  Every one is different, as everyone is different.  I'm so thankful that we connected with a woman that has a good head on her shoulders, who has really thought about what she was doing, and who wanted the best for Sabrina.  Ten and a half months have passed since her birth, and her birth mother, with the support of her family (and I hope to a degree us) is doing very well.  We have a constant email and picture exchange, and we are all very excited to meet up for the first time since the birth next week when we go to California for finalization.  Even more special for us, we will be meeting at her mom's house.  We were going to take them to lunch, but her mom wants to make us lunch so we can all relax and feel comfortable while we get to know each other better, and they can enjoy Sabrina.  We are very happy to welcome each other into our respective families and bond over our common love for this special little girl.

As she grows older, no matter how well we think we're doing, she's going to have questions.  She's going to have times where she may feel some pretty intense emotions about being adopted.  Add to that the fact that she's got two fathers.  I don't pretend to know what this will feel like.  I don't have that experience.  But I do know what it feels like to grow up and know you're different than everybody else.  It can be pretty overwhelming at times.  The lines of communication with us will always be open.  She has friends that have same sex parents.  There is a support system for that.  I have a feeling her birth mother will be there for her.  Hopefully after next week, so will her birth grandmother.  Not to mention the huge adoptive family who took her into their hearts from day one.  She's going to be fine, and I bet she'll be a hell of a strong woman when she grows up.

Why am I posting this?  Apparently my happiness over having a baby has angered a small group of adult adoptees and holy rollers.  I've been told I hate adoptees; am stealing my daughters heritage and celebrating her loss of identity; the usual "God hates fags" mantra; had profanity filled tirades flung at me, my partner, and my family in general; and Tiger Woods has stopped answering my calls (OK I made that last one up).  I've even had posts featured on select hate blogs.  Ah the price of fame...

This blog is about my family.  It's not a forum for debate, so yes these comments have been and will continue to be deleted.  Compared to the vast majority of comments of friendship and support, there are not very many of these.  So bitterness, profanity, and good ol' fashioned fire and brimstone are going to be removed (the lame attempt to guilt me into keeping them there by starting the comment with "you're prolly (sic) going to delete this but..." isn't working).  I've enjoyed your rants, but if I want to read a page of misspelled grammatical terrorism and irrational hatred, I'll pick up Sarah Palin's new book.

Get Giraffe Over Here

"Charlie"

Sometimes I think I write posts just so I can come up with hilarious titles.  Well hilarious to me...

Anyway, today we took our first trip to the Phoenix Zoo as a family.  I'm sorry to hear about something called "snow" in the rest of the country, but for us here in Arizona it was another gorgeous weekend in the low 70's.  Eat your hearts out New England...

I think Sabrina had fun.  She didn't say much, she just spent the day taking in all the sights, just getting real quiet and looking around with a look of concentration on her face.  Sometimes that means she has to poop, but she did that before we left so I know it was concentration.  Animals that weren't close to us and just layed there (I'm talking to you lions!) were pretty much ignored, but the "action animals" as we called them grabbed her attention.  She really liked the monkey villiage, where you walk in and the squirrel monkeys are jumping all over.  We stayed in there for a bit and she was paying close attention.  So were we, as we remembered those rumors about monkeys and what they do with poop.  I think the highlight was when she got to feed the giraffe.  We walked up to the observation deck and...

Guide:  Hi guys have you ever been this close to giraffes before?
Gregg:  No this is our first time.
Guide:  Well don't worry just stay close to me and don't try to pet them.
Bobby:  Pet them?  Oh we're not going to try to do that.
Guide:  Well some people try to do that while they're feeding them.
Bobby:  Feed them?  I thought you were going to do that.
Guide:  (pointing to Sabrina) No she's going to do it.  Now here's some lettuce.
Bobby:  She's a baby.  Gregg I didn't know--
Guide:  Here you go now don't step past this line.

At this point he put a piece of romaine lettuce in Sabrina's hand and suddenly there were about five giraffes peering over the fence at us staring at it.  I'm standing there hoping they are going to help us get her arm back when they tear it off so we can have it reattached, and if this would interfere with finalization in a few weeks.  Gregg was getting out the camera, so I guess I was the only one wondering what was wrong with this picture.  Don't get me wrong.  I love nature.  I just don't want to touch it.  Which is strange because as a kid I was the one catching snakes and frogs.  Lately, not so much.

Charlie the giraffe leaned way over and gently took the leaf of lettuce from the baby.  She couldn't take her eyes off him.

Bobby:  She likes him.  I think it's because they look like puppets.
Guide:  Ha ha ha!  I never thought of that before.  They do look like puppets.

We feed them some more, and actually it was really kind of cool.  We saw the monkeys, rhino, assorted savannah creatures, komodo dragons, and a bunch of others.  We sat and had snacks by the pond while Sabrina watched the ducks.  It was a really fun family day.  We joined the zoo so we can make some more trips back to see the rest of the animals.  On the way out, we stopped and bought a stuffed giraffe for the baby as a prize for being brave like me in the face of danger from the killer long necked beasts.  This is one of the things I've waited for.  I love my family...

Awww...

Urban Outfitted

Tell me this kid's not a hipster...

As Seen on Those Two Daddies

It's time to begin building my branded empire.  Ever since some idiot sold millions of you a bathrobe, told you to wear it backwards, and made a fortune (you know who you are...) I've been thinking of innovative ways to make money.  I mean, you bought the Snuggie and probably thought it was great until you hung it in the closet next to your bathrobe and said "Heeeeeeeey, wait a minute..." right?  Well that success can be duplicated!

Picture it...you're trying to give your baby a bowl of puffs on the floor while she plays with her toys, but every time she tries to get one she spills it all over the place.

Announcer:  "Ugh!  The tipping!  The spilling!  The pretending you didn't notice the dog hair when you put the puffs back in the bowl.  There's GOT to be a better way!"

Well there IS.  A bowl that's small enough for baby, but won't tip over, and won't slide around the floor.  Kid colored would help.  So Ladies, Gentlemen, and Those Who Have Yet To Make Up Their Minds, Those Two Daddies presents to you...Wonder Bowl.

Now OK I know what you're thinking.  You've seen this bowl somewhere before.  I got a huge lecture from someone that lives here about not feeding his daughter like some household pet or something like that.  He's not seeing the profit margin here.  Just put that out of your minds for a second and consider this.  Rubber base so no slidding around the floor.  Low center of gravity so it's tip proof.  Stainless steel cleans in a jiffy.  And it's pink.  So really, this was designed for a child right?  Stay with me for a minute.

Announcer:  "Wonder Bowl's tip proof design keeps even the messiest messes in the bowl.  No more back breaking cleanups.  No more looking the other way as the baby helps the dogs lick cheese off the floor.  Now how much would you pay?"

That's the beauty of it.  Thanks to Target's bargain section, I get the bowl for a buck, and sell it to you all for three easy payments of only $9.99 each.  I was practically drunk with self satisfaction at how smart I am over this idea and why didn't I think of it sooner.  (Maybe because I typically don't shop for the baby in the pet store?  Meh.)  So production is taken care of, and Wonder Bowl is currently being user tested by the QA Department:

Phase One is a success.  She's probably marvelling at the ease of removing the puffs from the patented space age non-stick surface.

Phase Two sees some puffs on the ground, most likely due to sloppiness of the tester and being distracted by that Elmo.  Notice the bowl has not skidded across the room.  So far it's performing as designed!

Damn it!  Who knew the bottom of the bowl was made out of some tasty material, probably some type of sugar based metal.  Or, perhaps the Wonder Bowl is a success after all, and this test failed due to user error.  Yes, that's it!  If she followed the instructions, which clearly state "Do not eat Wonder Bowl" the puffs would still be safe.  She's voided the warranty.  Seriously, who throws away the snacks and eats the bowl?  Ripley, Chase...clean up in aisle one!

Adoption--Get Creative!

Adoption always carries with it some sacrifices, most often monetary.  But sometimes it can be more then that.  Many of you are also followers of Michelle, and her current adoption came suddenly and unexpectedly and brought some degree of financial hardship with it.  But you do what you can to make those dreams come true.  But what if you had to give up everything to create your family?  What would you do?
While we were couped up in our hotel in California waiting for ICPC to clear, I got on our agencies site and found out one of the waiting families lived within minutes of where we were staying.  So I sent them an email just to say "Hi" and wish them luck.  We ended up meeting Rob and Joey for lunch, and they invited us over for dinner one night.  It was great to meet them and we were happy for the hospitality.  We've kept in touch since, and hope they adopt soon.  So far, they are still waiting.

I'm not speaking for them, but wanted to share their story.  They lived in Florida, where men are men and sheep are nervous.  Probably the most restrictive state for gays in the union.  I actually find it ironic that a state that hates gays so much is most famous for "Hanging Chad" (think about it, I'll wait...) and a duck in a Navy outfit with no pants.  Gays cannot marry or adopt children there.  All they can do is be hairdressers or Governor.  But they wanted to have a family, so they sold their house, left their families, and moved to California.  I'm not sure I could actually make that leap.  They put everything on the line for a baby.

But they didn't stop there.  They were out in California alone and put everything they had to the adoption.  So who do you turn to when the adoption expenses really start adding up?  Candy Spelling of course!

Rob and Joey got a spot on the E! channel show Bank of Hollywood.  It's a show where you walk on and ask for money, and if the panel likes your story, they give it to you.  They asked for roughly $49,000.  Now they were preceeded by a group of pirates that wanted $600 grand for a pirate ship (denied!) and a Paris Hilton wannabe who wanted something like $30,000 to not work and do...well I don't know what she wanted to do I didn't pay attention to her.  (Neither did the judges because she didn't get a dime.)  Rob and Joey told their story and I think did a great job.  It was really touching.  They'll make great parents some day.  The judges agreed, and they won the cash.  That money will help them if they need to travel out of state when they match or help a birthmother with expenses.  I have to say it's a creative way to make the adoption afordable.  I guess reality shows are good for something.  On the other hand, reality TV has made "The Situation" a household name.  Meh.

Hopefully, this will help get the word out about "These Two Daddies" and help them find a match.  I think the show hits the right demographic.  Rob and Joey, I'd be happy to lend you some space on the blog if you'd like to do a guest post to tell your story...just let me know, and good luck!

Mojo Munchies

*The inspiration for these treats comes from our dear Sheltie, Mojo, who passed away in 2006.  One of the best friends I ever had.

I've been sort of craving for oatmeal cookies lately.  For some reason, every time someone makes them they feel the need to add raisins.  I never cared for raisins much; I used to eat them as a kid from those little boxes they came in just so when it was empty I could make a whistle out of it.  Being a nerd, it never occured to me to just throw the raisins away and play with the box.  Damn.

Well today my  wonderful boyfriend made me some oatmeal cookies with dark chocolate chips and boy were they good!  So with my new paying it forward attitude, I decided to return the favor to The Boys who are, admittedly, terrible cooks.  (Note: This is my second installment of "Cooking With Bobby"--you foodies can get my Fabulous Cupcake recipe here.)  Here is my recipe for Mojo Munchies, a healthy and actually pretty tasty Labrador snack:

Mojo Munchies

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked oatmeal                          1 egg, beaten

1 tbl. boullion granules                               1/3 cup butter

3/4 cup powdered milk                              1 1/2 cups hot water

3/4 cup cornmeal                                       3 cups whole wheat flour

3 tbl. parsely (fresh if possible--for breath freshening)

Now the most important step in the entire process is this:

Once that's done, in a large mixing bowl combine the oatmeal, butter, and boullion and pour the hot water over them.  Let this sit for about 5 minutes to soften the butter and cook the oatmeal.  Mix.  Next, stir in the powdered milk, egg, and cornmeal.  Start the mixer.  Add the parsely.  Begin adding flour 1/2 cup at a time.  Once done, you may need to add either a little more flour or water to get the dough to a stiff consistancy.  Let the dough knead for about 3 minutes after that.  Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick, then cut into bone shapes with a cookie cutter.  (Oh yeah you should have already preheated your oven to 325 degrees--oops!)  Bake at 325 for 50 minutes; turn off the oven and let sit in there for about 30 more.  Remove cookies and let them harden and cool for about an hour before feeding to your salavating dog-beasts.

Since I've made these plenty of times before, The Boys know the scent.  Ripley feels the need to sit in front of the oven for an hour whining and drooling long strands of saliva all over the kitchen floor until they are done while I get annoyed and start yelling "Seriously Ripley?!" every ten minutes or so.  I guess that's an unsolicited endorsement from a satisfied customer.

We miss you Mojo...you would have loved the girl!