Some recipes

Right now my stomach is growling as dinner cooks away in the oven. So I want to write about food… one of my favorite things in this life!

Above are the s’more bars that I am going to make tonight. They look pretty rich, but my hubby found the link himself and requested them especially, so I am going to make them for him, and I bet I will like them as well. I usually bake a sweet thing once a week that we munch on for a few days. It is much cheaper to bake something then to buy desserts at the store (generally). In the summer we keep our eyes out for good deals on ice cream though.

The link to the recipe for these bars is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bettycrockerrecipes/3307399156/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Now to the real food. What I have cooking in the oven now is a recent addition to our weekly or bi-weekly staples. I buy frozen Tilapia (usually from Meijer) and it is usually around $4. A bag comes with 5-6 tilapia filets which will feed us 2 or 3 times, so it is quite a deal! The fish doesn’t take long at all to thaw. I spray a small pan with some cooking spray, then add the thawed fish (I usually just cook 2 filets at a time). I melt a tablespoon of butter and pour it over top, along with a half of a freshly squeezed lemon. I add a clove of garlic, some black pepper, and dried parsley then I pop it into the oven at 375 for 25-30 minutes. It is so easy, so healthy and so yummy.

Along with fish I usually cook a starch and a vegetable. Tonight I cut up one potato into thin slices (so you have round potato pieces). I sprayed a cookie sheet and laid the potatoes on top, and drizzled some olive oil on top of them, sprinkled them with some fresh garlic, pepper and dried rosemary then put them in the oven along with the fish.

My favorite vegetable to make right now is snow peas. I just pick up a handful of them from the produce section and they are usually cheap. I wash them, cut the ends off and saute them in a small skillet with olive oil, garlic, red pepper and some ginger. You are probably catching on to some of my favorite things to cook with :)

Tonight I am heating up some leftover corn and green beans that we already have. The snow peas will be saved for later this week. I can smell the tilapia now… I am ready for dinner.

Here are two of my favorite recipes of all time! The chili we make about twice a month in the winter, and then once a month in the summer. The asparagus pasta is more of a special occasion meal because asparagus can be pricey. You should try them! They are delicious and pretty healthy. Enjoy.

Texas Lightning Chicken Chili:

2 tsp. olive oil

I cup chopped onion

2 Large garlic cloves, crushed

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken, cut into pieces

3 tsp. cumin, 2 tsp oregano

1 can great northern beans

1 1/4 cup chicken broth

15-20 slices of jarred jalapenos (chopped)

hot pepper sauce (20 drops)

Black pepper

4 oz. Mexican cheese

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion and garlic and saute 3 minutes. Add chicken to skillet along with cumin and oregano and saute until the chicken is no longer pink. Stir in beans, chicken broth and jalapenos. Cook gently for 5 minutes until sauce begins to thicken. Add hot sauce and a little black pepper. Stir in cheese until melted. Serve with a little mexican cheese on top and tortilla chips to dip in it.

Asparagus pasta

5 minced garlic cloves

1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

2-3 dashes hot pepper sauce (add more if you like spicy!)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 Tbs. butter

1 lb. fresh asparagus, cut into pieces

1/4  tsp. pepper. Salt to taste.

1/4 cup shredded parm. cheese

1 box of penne pasta

Cook pasta as directed.

In a skillet cook garlic, red pepper flakes and hot pepper sauce in oil and butter for 2-3 minutes. Add asparagus, salt and pepper. Saute until asparagus is crisp (8-10 min). Add parmesan cheese. Mix well. Drain pasta and put it in a large bowl. Pour asparagus mixture over top and toss.

I cook this with pan-fried chicken. Thaw and trim enough chicken to feed 4. In a skillet melt 2 Tbs. butter. On a plate sprinkle some italian bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese. Bread the chicken with this mixture. Put the breaded chicken into the skillet when butter is melted. Cook until it is lightly brown on both sides. Sprinkle with some lemon juice and let it simmer on low heat for 5 minutes before serving.

Yum! Now I am ready to eat.

14 months...

Sunday is definitely my favorite day of the week. David and I really try to take a sabbath on Sundays; a day away from school, work, and stress so that we can reflect on what is really important. We aren’t always perfect (in fact I just finished up some analysis homework and as I type I am patiently waiting for David to finish reading for class tomorrow), but we really do try.

Today was a wonderful Sunday. Church really hit David and I hard which made for a reflective rest of the day. And a lot of times when we start reflecting, we also start dreaming, then we start planning.

As we started dreaming and planning for the future today our finances came up… I know, not a super fun subject, but one which you have to talk about as a married couple. During the week when we are going crazy with school and homework we rarely have time to take care of the “everyday” things of normal people, like bank accounts, grocery shopping, and house cleaning. So lots of times we have to do these chores on the weekend. Anyway today finances came up and it sparked lots of things in my mind.

I will leave a budget post till a later date, otherwise this one will be much too long, but another thing that came up was saving some extra money up for when David graduates. Most law students (about 90%, at least at UK) don’t have jobs lined up right when they finish school because after 3 grueling years of torture, these lucky students get to take a HUGE exam at the end of July. So for most law graduates the months of May through June are devoted to studying for the Bar. Few people get hired by firms before they actually pass the bar, so naturally we will have to plan ahead for that time when David isn’t bringing home the bacon (but is instead studying very hard!). 

As we were talking about this time in our future, how much we need to save, etc. I suddenly realized that there are only 14 months left until he is done with school. 14!! I am currently pursuing my PhD in Math, which takes 4-6 years, however in May 2012 I will have completed my Masters, so I could potentially be finished at that time too, and even if I do choose to continue on for the PhD those last 3 years are much more relaxed than the first two. But the joy of it all is that in 14 months we will be finished with the nitty gritty of graduate school, and although that may sound like a long time, it sounds very close to me.

I think that in some ways I have been thinking that this is where David and I will be forever… in law school and grad school, always doing homework, staying up late, studying for exams, scraping by on TA stipends and library jobs. It is so easy for me to forget that all of this hard work and perseverance is a means to an end. These are the harder years when we have to invest our time and energy into our passions and strengths so that someday we can have a family, be able to bless others and accomplish God’s purpose for our life. We try to enjoy every second of the life that we have today, and every day we keep our eyes and hearts open to opportunities that God brings us to make a difference in someone’s life here and now, but I also need to remember that this isn’t where we will always be. Someday, and very soon, we will be out of the transition stage and to a place where we can have normal jobs, real weekends and a more settled life.

Of course, there is a bright side to where we are now. For example, Spring Break is coming up in two weeks and once there is no more school I am very aware that those long breaks go away. Also, we love our tiny apartment where our biggest responsibility is taking out pup outside and feed our fat cat. I think there is always a tension between being content in the here and now, and yet hoping and dreaming for the future. I doubt that this tension will ever go away in this life… we aren’t meant to be completely satisfied and at rest here.

Today a weight was lifted off my shoulders when it really hit me that we won’t be in grad school forever. In fact, there are only 14 more months! After that, who knows where we will be. 

Ahh.. the weekend

Today has been a really good day :) And in fact, so far this weekend has been great. In general we have done nothing… really!

Yesterday I had my numerical analysis exam, which actually went really well I think! I was the first one finished and I felt like I was well prepared. After getting that out of the way I went out to lunch with a good friend at Bourbon and Toulousse (probably didn’t spell that right). It was delicious! Then I came home and sat on the couch and watched things on Hulu… like Modern Family, Community and the Bachelor. Guilty pleasures.

After that a few friends came over for a game night and we had a ton of fun. The night was laid back, and was absolutely perfect after the week that I have had.

Today has been like a Saturday that I feel like normal people have.. as in non-graduate student people. We woke up and had breakfast then did some much-needed cleaning around the house. After that some friends came over with their adorable baby boy. We hung out as he laughed his head off at Rooney and crawled on the floor. Then I made some chicken chili for all of us and we had a great lunch.

After lunch David and I started on our taxes… I washed dishes, looked for a new cell phone (mine is sooo messed up!), and then I got on my computer.

Last week I realized that Tumblr has like 200 themes that I never knew about! I got really excited when I found it out, so today, as you can probably tell, I did some work on our blog. It took quite some time to figure out how to get that picture at the top. The theme had an option to upload a picture, so first I made the collage in picnik (Melissa told me to do this part… she is so smart), then I tried to upload it. Long story short I ended up having to edit some of the html code… which was a bit scary! But I finally got it to be perfect, in my opinion, and I am kind of proud of it now.

Anyway, I hope you like it. And I hope this post wasn’t too boring. I just wanted to share how awesome this weekend has been so far. Now it is time for some homework… which sounds really lame on a Saturday night. But I am actually excited to get it out of the way so that tomorrow can be a real day of rest. Also, after we are finished with homework tonight David and I are going to watch Despicable Me, which we have heard is great.

So excited! Sometimes it is just the little things in life that bring me joy :) Like lazy weekends. Enjoy the rest of yours.

Today I worked out after teaching and when I got home I was so hungry! As I was walking my pup in the cold rain I decided I would make oatmeal when I got home. And it was the most delicious bowl of oatmeal ever. I made stove top oats then added peanut butter, about 10 chocolate chips and a little brown sugar and cinnamon.

It hit the spot on this yucky day! Just wanted to share :)

Back to studying.. which really isn’t so bad on a rainy day.

procrastination.

Hola friends!

I am currently procrastinating studying for my numerical analysis midterms on Friday.. and about a billion other things.

Let me tell you something crazy about procrastination. I never struggled with it through undergrad. I was one of those (rare) college students who started on a paper at least 10 days before it was due. Not once did I pull an all nighter in my college years… and unless I was having a great time with friends I pretty much always got 8 hours of sleep. Crazy, right! I was so insane about school in undergrad… and I guess it was never too challenging, so I always got things done well before they were due.

Then, I was brilliant and took a year off before going to grad school. Actually, I am so grateful for that year and how much it shaped me into the person that I am now. However, it definitely had a negative effect on my perfect student behavior. After taking a year off you kind of realize that school isn’t the end all be all… that there are just some things, lots of things actually, that are more important. Don’t get me wrong, if you are a student you should work hard and give it your all, but I just realized during my time off that stressing and worrying about it didn’t do any good. Which was an awesome and huge thing for me.

Alas… those good life lessons have led me to this night when I need to study for a class that makes me feel stupid every day. And I just don’t want to! I will, obviously, and I plan on making sure that I do well on the exam. But those lovely days of undergrad are over, and now I am being pushed to my limits. Every day I am mentally exhausted, and it is really like nothing else I have experienced before. I find myself thinking about math.. a lot. About really hard math (at least for me). And while this is cool sometimes, other times I just want to give my brain a break!

So here is to procrastination, or at least a healthy break every now and then :) Below is what I did tonight instead of proving the quadratic convergence of Newton’s Method:

Made dog treats for my pup.

Made cupcakes to bring into class tomorrow (it was one of my prof’s birthday Monday, so I figure it will be a nice surprise). Also, if you don’t have one of these tiny ice cream scoop things to bake with you need one… really you do. They are so nifty when it comes to putting batter onto a cookie sheet or into cup cake cups.

Oh yes, then I documented all of these things, imported the photos, then ironically wrote about procrastinating.

But really, these are the only math things I have done all day other than eat and listen to NPR in the car… back to floating point numbers, functional iterations and memorizing psuedo code.

Have a great night!

Weekend with the siblings photos. Dance blue and my cute brother with a cute puppy.

Weekend with my siblings

This weekend was crazy busy and I didn’t get as much work done as I needed to … at all. But, it was wonderful because my little brother, Josh, came down for the weekend!

On Friday night David and I met my parents in Dry Ridge for dinner and after some delicious LaRosa’s pizza, we headed back to Lexington with Josh in tow. He is 8 years old and it at a really fun age. On our way down to Lexington I was asking him about school (I know, I am the boring sister). We got on the topic of his report that he is doing on Rosa Parks and I asked him how they teach them to do research now. He informed me that they no longer use Encyclopedias, but instead just use the internet. That somehow led into talking about how people used to have portraits of themselves painted rather than having their pictures taken (when cameras didn’t exist). Josh then told us how amazed he was that people like George Washington could stand still for hours while someone painted him and not blink! It was great.

We didn’t do much Friday night… just went to WalMart for some groceries then watched the new Karate Kid on Netflix, which was surprisingly not bad! He woke up early Saturday morning and we had doughnuts from Magees, then went to the dog park for 2 hours, then had lunch and then went to Memorial Coliseum to support my sister as she participated in Dance Blue. I don’t know if you have heard of it, but it is an event put on by the University every year. Tons of students (about 700) participate in it; they raise money which goes to the pediatric oncology unit in the UK clinic, and then they stand for 24 hours straight! That is right… not only do they stay awake but they can’t sit! I was so amazed by all of them. The participants are taught a line dance that they do at the top of every hour, and it is so cool to watch all 700 of them do it!

After stopping by to encourage Jen we headed out the Humane Society to show Josh the cute kittens and puppies. We hung out there for most of the afternoon, just playing with one cute pup after another and it was really fun. When we got back home I took a nap before dinner and then after dinner we headed back over to Dance Blue where my parents met us to watch Jen and the other participants to the final line dance. After that, we went to Orange Leaf for some delicious frozen yogurt.

All in all, it was a great weekend! It was very, very tiring to have an 8 year old around for a whole Saturday (really, I have no idea how my parents do it). But, it was such a blessing to be able to spend time with family.

However, quality family time means no homework gets done… which is a bad thing. I guess I am procrastinating as a type, and I have a ton to do! I have my first midterm of the semester at the end of this week, and in between now and then I have 3 homework assignments to finish. Yuck. Sometimes I really love school, and then there are frustrating, long, and tiring days like these when I just don’t want to think about numerical methods or Lebesgue measure or stirling numbers anymore…

Wish me luck! I will try to keep you posted as much as a can.

Very early this morning I got a text that I had been waiting on for about 30 hours… that one of my best friends had her baby! He is a precious baby boy named Alister and is perfectly healthy, as is mommy. Unfortunately Meagan and her husband live all the way in Arizona, so I won’t get to meet him for a few weeks (until Spring Break!). Although I am sad that I wasn’t able to be there for Meg during her pregnancy and Alister’s birth, I am so excited for her and Nate!

Lately it has seemed that everyone in my life is pregnant. At first it was such a crazy feeling to know that some of my closest friends were going to be mommies (or daddies). It was a weird, “wow, we are old” feeling, as well as a nervous feeling, knowing that I could be in the same position before I know it. In a lot of ways it was hard too, at first. I think that being the oldest in my family (as in brothers, sisters and cousins) I have always been used to experiencing everything before most people that I know. David and I are planning on not having kids for a while, so for a little bit I felt like I was being left behind. But then I began the exciting journey of watching a very close friend of mine go through every part of her pregnancy and realized… wow, I have a lot to learn. And what a blessing that I get to learn it from some of my very own best friends!

In so many ways I have been feeling lately like I am cheating… or getting away with some spying. I have the opportunity of having some seriously wise and wonderful women in my life learn to be mommies before my own eyes. They share their wisdom with me; they are honest about their struggles; they are open enough to let me in on the things that most people don’t tell you about having babies. On of my great friends, Melissa, is an amazing mom. period. And she is super brave. I tell her all the time how thankful I am that I get to catch a sneak peak into adventures like natural birth, cloth diapers, green cleaners, and homemade baby food. Without her, I doubt I would have every considered these things as options for when I have a baby, but now I want to try all of them! She has encouraged and inspired me… and I am so excited for the other awesome soon-to-be moms around me to do the same. I never knew that having people go through things first was so great!

Don’t get me wrong… some days I have baby fever. I mean, once you have met a bundle of joy which was created by God through some of your best friends you really begin to appreciate the gift of life. However, I love where David and I are and I don’t want to change anything yet. I figure that I still have a TON to learn… and as my friends continue to have babies I just get to catch a few more sneak peaks.

So congrats again Meg and Nate! And to all you parents out there. Take joy in the fact that you are truly amazing to all the rest of us :)

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

The Golden Ratio

The Golden Ratio

If you have never heard of this crazy number… you better check out this website (click on the title to get to it). The other day in my discrete math class we were talking about these things called generating functions, which sound kind of complicated, but they are just ways of expressing a list of numbers. A special list of numbers (a sequence) is the Fibonacci sequence. If you start with 1,1 then the next term is obtained by adding them together; so 2. Then the next term is obtained by adding 2 and 1; so 3. You repeat this to get an infinite sequence of numbers: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987,…

Well.. this seemingly simple sequence has a generating function with the golden ratio inside it! In fact if you take the numbers way out in the sequence (the really big ones, like 610 and 987) and divide the bigger one by the smaller one, the proportion approaches the golden ratio. And the golden ratio is an irrational number! Even cooler than that… it appears everywhere: architecture, geometry, music, nature. Here is an awesome quote from the wikipedia article:

Adolf Zeising, whose main interests were mathematics and philosophy, found the golden ratio expressed in the arrangement of branches along the stems of plants and of veins in leaves. He extended his research to the skeletons of animals and the branchings of their veins and nerves, to the proportions of chemical compounds and the geometry of crystals, even to the use of proportion in artistic endeavors. In these phenomena he saw the golden ratio operating as a universal law.

In 2003, Volkmar Weiss and Harald Weiss analyzed psychometric data and theoretical considerations and concluded that the golden ratio underlies the clock cycle of brain waves.^[51] In 2008 this was empirically confirmed by a group of neurobiologists.^[52]

In 2010, the journal Science reported that the golden ratio is present at the atomic scale in the magnetic resonance of spins in cobalt niobate crystals.^[53]

Several researchers have proposed connections between the golden ratio and human genome DNA.

Anyways… I think all this stuff is really cool and it really blew my mind this past week. I think it shows so clearly the beauty of mathematics, God and His creation.

My wonderful husband

Today I want to brag about David. He is truly wonderful.

These past two days have been insane for me! In the last 35 hours I have finished 4 homework assignments, graded 60 quizzes, prepared for a lecture, taught a recitation, taught 17 4th grade boys about shapes, tutored 3 high school boys, and graded 570 exam questions. Pack that in with eating, sleeping, driving, etc. it has been a crazy start to the week. Plus… I think I am coming down with a cold :( So needless to say, this afternoon I was a little stressed.

After coming home from my second tutoring “job” around 6 this evening, I was expecting the normal night of cooking dinner and a few household chores on top of the mounds of grading and homework. But when I walked in the door… I smelled something amazing. David had cooked us pan-fried chicken, corn and mashed potatoes for dinner (the potatoes were left over, but still great). It was on the table for me when I walked in! He had also vacuumed the carpet, swept the floors, washed the dishes and put away our laundry.

It was truly an amazing feeling coming home and having all of those weights lifted off my shoulders. It was a perfect end to a crazy afternoon, and there is something so comforting knowing that someone out there knows exactly what you need, exactly when you need it. I love him!!

Now back to homework… 5 weeks till spring break!

Self Discovery

Today I have discovered many things about myself. None of them are deep, just kind of random. But I like days like these…

First of all, I found out that I hate when manufacturers don’t think ideas all the way through. Two examples:

1) One day someone had the idea that in order to make it harder for people to steal things, like say digital watches from Target, they would put it in an unnecessarily large package which they would then make impossible to open. This seems like a great idea.. until I, the virtuous customer who pays for the item, can’t open it! Then I proceed with scissors, and yanking and inevitably hurt my hands.

2) All of us ladies like to paint our nails with polish which has some durability… that won’t chip the very next day. One person’s solution to this problem was to make nail polish that would really, really stay on your nails. However, they didn’t think through the fact that I some point I want to take this dark red polish off of my toe nails and change it up a bit! Thus, I have to work very hard for about 20 minutes and use 8 cotton balls just to get silly nail polish off.

Ok, done complaining. I am not really mad about these things… I just find them funny!

On to more positive notes. I found out tonight as I was searching stores for a pair of shoes (which I have needed for a while) that I am bad at shopping. I don’t have much fashion sense to begin with, but I think the biggest problem that I have with shopping is that I am a bit of a perfectionist. I know, all of you are shocked. But most of the time when I am looking for something specific I get an idea in my head of what it should look like, how much it should cost, how it should fit etc. and then I can never find something that fits the bill! Tonight I was looking for a pair of practical, comfortable but cute pair of black flats to wear to teach in. We looked in DSW for a long time and every shoe I tried on didn’t quite work. I think that I finally found something similar to the perfect purchase that I had in my head at Target… but I am still not completely sure. I guess time will tell.

And the last thing that I found out about myself is that I really love purple. Most of you probably know that I like purple, but I think that I have reached a new level. With the purchase of another purple item tonight I have brought the list of purple things which I carry or use daily in my life to an all time high: my backpack, lunch box (yes I have one), water bottle, iPod, headphones, watch, gym shoes, and scarf. I also have lots of purple jewelry and clothes, 2 pairs of purple shoes and as we speak I am wearing purple PJ’s! Most of this is not my fault… it is the color that everyone has bought for me for years. But now, as I pick out things to buy, it is just easier to buy everything purple. This way I can always match, I guess.

Well I think that is all for today. Sorry for the more random post, but this is what happened today. Actually mostly of what happened was lots and lots of math! But you probably don’t want to hear about that. Have a great weekend!

And remember: GO STEELERS!!!

The problem “What is 1+1” was posed to a mathematician, an engineer and an accountant. The mathematician took out 5 sheets of paper and using induction and Zorn’s lemma, among other things, answered, “It’s 2.” The engineer took out a sheet of paper and after a few scribbles answered, “It is approximately 2.1”. The accountant replied, “What do you want it to be?”

The problem “What is 1+1” was posed to a mathematician, an engineer and an accountant.

The mathematician took out 5 sheets of paper and using induction and Zorn’s lemma, among other things, answered, “It’s 2.”

The engineer took out a sheet of paper and after a few scribbles answered, “It is approximately 2.1”.

The accountant replied, “What do you want it to be?”

~Dr. Russell Brown

Rooney

Tonight’s post is dedicated to Rooney, our beloved puppy.

It is hard to believe that he is almost 9 months old! And that he has only been around for about 6 months. David and I both grew up with pets, so when we got married it wasn’t long before we had gotten a cat. And a cat is a great pet. However, as I think most people would agree, dogs are much better.

This past summer David and I began to look at puppies at the humane society, then online, and then came the day when we purchased a “Puppies for Dummies” book. We used this book to help us to decide if we were ready for a puppy, what kind of dog would fit our lifestyle and how to pick out the perfect puppy. We decided that we definitely wanted to rescue a pup from a humane society and that we wanted some kind of Australian Shepherd mix (they are a great, smart, eager to please breed!). One day late in July I found exactly that at a tiny humane society in the-middle-of-nowhere Kentucky. We went to the shelter one Friday evening to see if the little guy was perfect for us and of course, couldn’t resist. So we brought home this sweet, adorable guy :)

It is so crazy to me how much a pet becomes a part of your life, and so quickly! The first few weeks David and I weren’t sure what to do with him… other than the obvious: feed him, give him water, attempt to potty train him. One of our early mistakes was to try to walk him.. like for miles.. when he was about 12 weeks old. We soon found out that wasn’t going to work!

Soon Rooney had a wonderful friend named Silas! He was the puppy of one of my good friends.

As the summer progressed and Rooney got older we started taking him to dog parks, to the farmer’s market, on short, reasonable walks and for lots of rides in the car. He was so easy to potty train and in the past 6 months he has learned an impressive amount of tricks. He really is eager to please us :)

Now I really, really love this dog. I love to take walks with him, play fetch with him, and it is so great to come home to a pet that is really excited to see you. Also, it has been great for David and I to train him together and share the responsibility of having a puppy. I must admit, Rooney’s worst habit is chewing (and he doesn’t really do that a ton) and he just so happens to get a hold of a lot more when I am not around… but we are working on it!

Here is the mischievous side of Rooney…

And the sweet side :)

He has definitely grown up quickly on us…

It has been really fun to see his personality grow as he gets older. He is definitely a funny dog… very attached to us and timid around other dogs. He is scared of a lot of things, like the vacuum cleaner and hairdryer, and he absolutely hates it when you pick anything up high, like a backpack, box or a bag. He is definitely playful, but also very sweet and, of course, he terrorizes our cat (like any good dog would).

We are not sure if he is actually an Australian Shepherd… he probably has some hound or Beagle in there somewhere. But his temperament and size turned out perfectly for us.

I am not going to lie, having a dog is a big responsibility, especially with us both being in grad school. But it is very worth it!

Now you probably think I am obsessed with my dog… which may be slightly true. I just really love how big a part of our family he has become and I am very happy with our decision to get him. It has taught us a lot and has been hard at times, but Rooney is a wonderful pet and we love him!