Mistaken identity

Sally and I were on our warm up walk before a run the other day. I run with headphones on to keep a good pace, and to keep motivated. I've been googling "160 bpm running songs" and there are many to choose from. I try to keep it loud enough, but not so much that I miss conversations.

Anyway, we were walking and passed a family with a couple of small kids. As we got closer, one of the kids said, "Is that Jasper?" And the mom said, "No, it looks like Jasper, but Jasper is at home." The kid proceeded to get a little upset because she thought I had their dog.

I called out as we passed, "Her name is Sally!" Hopefully that helped. I thought about how easy it would be to figure someone's got your beloved Jasper when doodles do kind of all look similar. Poor kid.

Tap, Tap. Is this thing on?

I received two inquiries in the space of 24 hours as to whether I was ever going to post again, so here I am :-)

Things are good, posts will likely be sporadic, but stuff happens and I think to myself pretty regularly that I should "get those thoughts down somewhere".

Yesterday was my birthday. I was a little trepidatious that I was going to spend it by myself, which can lead to brooding and not seeing the big picture. But I went to church, and while there got roped into helping out with something (which I actually love because it makes me feel useful).

I then went to a friend's house to pick up a dozen eggs and was delightfully surprised that she had baked me a cake and she and the family sat down and we all had cake and ice cream. What a thing to have no expectations at all (except the eggs) and have someone make that gesture. It really was a wonderful thing.

And people posted on my FB wall, and that's always nice. And my brother called and we got caught up on things.

And I walked the dog and bought her some actual bone bones because all the rawhide my Target sells now comes from China and that gives me the excuse to reduce her rawhide consumption. The bones aren't cheap, but I gave Sally the littlest one (it was frozen) and it kept her busy for about 30 minutes. They told me to take them away from her after she gets everything off so she doesn't splinter the bone, so I did that.

A close call

Well cared-for dogs don't worry about much, I suspect. Sally has her routine, and although she's home alone during the day, this is usually how I find her when I come home from work. I took this the day after we got back from our trip, and she was peacefully exhausted from having stayed with dog park friends for six days. 

Depending on what I've got going on after work, and how muddy the dog park will be (based on how much snow we've had recently), I either take Sal for a 20-30 minute walk, or go to the dog park. She doesn't like the head collar/ gentle leader I use, but it makes for a much better walk. She hangs her head while I put it on, but then perks up once we're outside. Treats help.

We were going on a different route around the neighborhood a couple of days ago, and were waiting to cross a street big enough to have a walk sign that you have to push the button for. The light turns, the "white walking man" sign lights up and we step into the street. A second later, a car starts to turn right and almost hits Sally. To my recollection, it stopped about a foot or two from her. 

He wasn't going very fast because he was starting from a full stop, but the sight of the SUV almost hitting my dog really scared me. I stopped for a couple of seconds in the crosswalk, the driver looked kind of sorry, and we both continued on our way. Sal, for her part, was unscathed by it all, and just kept going. 

I, of course, then pondered how fast stuff can happen. I also thought about how much I love this darn dog, who has been so good at keeping me company and is an easy keeper. There's nothing to change about how I get around, really. I'm pretty good at checking for traffic wherever we go for walks, but it's good to get the occasional reminder.

Assumptions

A week or so ago, I heard Sally walking around in the living room (where she sleeps) before I got up. When I came out, she was staring at a spot on the wall behind the phone table, and it was then I figured I had a mouse. It's that time of year. 

I didn't have any mice last year, but the year before that I had several. A pregnant one might have moved in, it seemed. I had always been an advocate of snap traps as humane and effective, but that was when someone suggested the grey plastic ones pictured above. Truly a better mouse trap. 

Fast forward to Sunday night, where I went to play board games, and got home around 6:30. I fed and walked the dog, and was done with that around 7:30. I had had the traps set for a couple of days, and didn't think about those much.

Around 3:30, Sally starts pacing outside my door. Back and forth. I assume she has seen the mouse, and since I can't do anything about it, I mostly ignore her, and then holler to go lay down now. When I finally get up at 5:30 she is frantic because she has to pee so bad, because I forgot to take her out one last time because it was dark when we got back from our walk at 7:30. Geez. 

I find the mouse in this trap. Guess it wasn't the mouse after all.

We proceed through the usual morning routine, and I let her outside to the yard while I get my breakfast. Just after that, Mr W's dad stops by to drop off the kid's stuff for the week, and the dog barks and seems to want to come inside. I let the dog in and leave for work.

Mr W and I come home to find that Sal has pooped and peed on the rug, and apparently did neither of these things when she had the chance in the morning. Totally off schedule.

But all seems to be well now, and we're back on it. I'm glad I caught the mouse early in the process. They do make a mess. I've gotten better about storing food, too, so it must have been moving around a lot to try to find something to eat. No more zipping around behind the cabinets - ha! 

Hopefully today will be less eventful.

We pause in this week's news to bring you this

Good gravy, it's been a week full of challenges and tragedies.

I could use a cute dog picture about now.

Stealth Doodle.

Sheep dog

Submitted almost without comment, except to say that she swam in clean water after this, and had a blast.

Lucky me!

Sniff-sniff (in the good way). I am the very pleased beneficiary of Susan's generosity. I entered her Valentine's Day poem contest and was picked as the winner (randomly). Here is my Valentine's haiku:

I've seen so many

pictures of hearts and flowers

Almost the 15th

I WAS weary of all the mushy stuff this year. Anyway, I received a fabulous-smelling bar of handcrafted soap, as well as a handknit towel! I know the stuff is supposed to be used (fer cryin' out loud) but it's hard to use stuff that is so nice. I'll try my best.

When I first opened the package, I had the soap close to the edge of the table. This was like a magnet for Sally the dog, who is tall enough to have her nose on the table. She paused for several seconds, "drinking in" the smell with interest. Funny. 

So, thanks, Ms. Susan! You made my day. Now I shall think of a way to pay this forward.

The dog has no idea

It was a busy week at work last week. The big presentation went well and I was pretty stressed out about it, so it's taken a few days to get back to feeling normal. I'm grateful that as a (mere) contractor, I was given the opportunity to make my pitch in the first place and to talk about that value of what I do.

I stayed later than I usually do on Thursday and Friday, and wasn't able to do my usual after-work trip to the dog park with Sally because it was dark. I've noticed, now that she's six, she does OK with a walk instead of the good running around she does at the dog park. As an aside, I'm pretty sure she's likes the dog park for the human interactions too, as she will go up to everyone in the group of people that I hang out with and stand there until they pet her.

Anyway, usually after two days (I walked her Wednesday as well, instead of going to the dog park) of walks, she's a little restless around the house, which can lead to mischief on her part. But it was close to 6 pm Friday when I got home, so we walked again. The funny thing was that I felt kind of bad because she got "only" a 30 minute walk. Poor dear. Without the head collar even, as she dislikes it so much that usually all I have to do is show it to her when we're walking and she's pulling, and she'll stop pulling on the leash. Smart cookie.

I tried to tell her how good she has it, between the good chow, treats, no siblings, use of the bed all day in peace and quiet, but she has no idea. There are dogs, I tell her, that have to sleep OUTSIDE, whose owners actually hit them for normal dog behavior, who run around loose and get hit by cars. She, having no frame of reference (sleep at night? outside?) has no idea of how good she has it. I guess that's how it's supposed to be.

Carry on

I caught a head cold last weekend and it's still hanging on, making the rounds between throat, nose, head and chest. Blah blah blah. I'm not incapacitated, but sniffly and feeling a little puny. I've been thinking about when I was sick for the better part of February with a nastier bug, and am trying to get enough rest so it doesn't go there.

Anyway, it's been a good week. I sold about 14 bracelets this week, including one big order of seven that I will ship to the UK today. My insurance agent also bought two - how nice is that? I hand delivered those and refunded her shipping. I'm still feeling like I need to make more stuff for the craft show (my first craft show!) November 10th, so will try to get there in the next couple of weekends. I don't get much done during the week, craftwise.

My internet went out on Monday. My cable internet comes to my house from a line that runs above the alley beside my house, and it's low enough that if tall trucks come down the alley, it catches. My local phone line is right there as well, and that's gone out two or three times over the seven years I've lived here. This time that line was OK, but the cable went, but the guy came out on Wednesday and strung it up a little higher than before.

I'll leave you with a picture of my dog Sally and her Halloween costume from a couple of years ago. Truth be told, she wore it only for the few seconds it took to get the picture. She's not much of a costume wearer.

Zap

We had our first killing frost a few days ago, and these lovely Zinnias are no more. I had great luck with Zinnias this year. They liked it in the hot dry spots in my garden and I will (as I think I've mentioned before) plant more of them next year. These were starts from the plant nursery from sometime in June when starts were already 50% off, so it was a good deal. The sun was already low enough in the sky so that at mid-day, these were in partial shadow. 

In other news, Mr W and I came home yesterday to a Sally poop accident. Luckily it wasn't the kind where it is deposited far and wide around the house, but it was right on the wood floor in the living room. Now, my wood floor is old and worn - people tell me that the "look" is very in right now. I was very concerned, as I worked with a toothpick and then a piece of wire to extract poop from between the boards, that it was going to smell permanently. 

I sound like an advertisement, but I had a bottle of Nature's Miracle on hand and poured that between the boards and over the area and let it dry. It doesn't smell this morning, and I'll get down there and sniff the boards sometime today when I work up the courage to do so. I'm relieved, but Sal is still off, digestive-wise. I just let her out this morning and she's no better. I'll have to decide whether to stop in sometime today - probably should, and let her out. Do myself a favor.

And in other other news, it looks like I'll pick up the check for selling Graycie the campervan today. All's well that ends well and she goes to a good home. 

Ice, rest, elevate...and I forgot the last one

I got hit in the back of the knees at the dog park today and the front of my ankle was bent a little further than it wanted to go. A ballerina I am not! So it's sore, but I am not incapacitated, and it will hopefully be back to its old self in a couple of days. I've got some ice on it and actually have it elevated. For now.

That stuff happens so fast. I think everyone in our little group has been taken out by a dog at one point or another. More than once for some of us. Darn dogs.

It's funny how if someone goes down like that, it creates quite a kerfuffle with the dogs and many want to get right in there and see what's going on, my Sally included. The offending goofball of a dog (he absolutely earns that title in everyday life as well, well the goofball part) was utterly clueless about what he did. So funny. I can't be mad at a dog who has no clue.

My dog park peeps were totally awesome in making sure I was OK, and even made kindly pests of themselves to encourage me to at least run cold water on it from the spigot in the park. That felt pretty good, so I went home and got the ice. I appreciate their concern and will tell them again when I see them.

I made a bunch of new button-clay bracelets that I'll be posting on the Etsy site over the next few days and also on my other blog. It's very satisfying to make these. When it all comes together, I really like the effect.

Bittersweet

 

Mr W had his 5th grade "Continuation Ceremony" this past Friday. It was a nice ceremony, and at the end, a teacher read this little piece about how kids are like dogs, and teens are like cats. I hadn't heard it before, and when she read the final line it brought tears to my eye. The mom in front of me actually wept briefly. 

We went to a graduation party, and I don't know many of the parents very well, so I wasn't talking to people very much. I looked around and some moms were filling water balloons. I have to say that this will be my mantra from now on in social situations where I feel a little awkward. I will try to find a job to do. I stood there and tied water balloons for an hour and a half and chatted with a group of moms. It made the experience very pleasant. 

Saturday, I volunteered at the old-time music festival that a couple of my dog park friends (and the people who told me about the weekly jams) helped organize. Again, I didn't know many people there, so walked around a bit, and then sat at the ticket desk for an hour before my shift started, chatting with the other volunteer and people who were coming in and milling about. There were two jams that were held right in that area, so I got to listen to good music too. I'll feel more confident next year participating music-wise, and left my banjo in the trunk. I do enjoy doing that kind of volunteering. Keep busy, chat with people, and have a job to do. 

We took Sally to the dog park in town that has a pond, and she loved it. We've been there a couple of times, but it's farther away from our regular dog park so we don't get there often. We threw the ball into the water for about 30 minutes and it wiped her out (in a good way - she was tired). I had felt bad because I left her alone all day Saturday to go to the festival. When I got home it was raining, so I didn't walk her that day. I will definitely remember the pond for hot days this summer. The water wasn't something I'd want to swim in, but for dogs it was fine. She ended up looking cleaner than when she went in. Not surprising, as I've had to wait an extra month for a grooming appointment due to one of the groomers quitting. 

I got my sample buttons sent off to the button lady. I like the colors and how they turned out. I improved my method of poking the holes in the buttons after a bunch of trial and error, and feel capable of turning out 800 in a relatively short amount of time. Fingers crossed and I'm glad for offers of help from a couple of friends. 

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Raised Beds 5-27-12

I thought I'd post a few raised bed pictures today. I'm not quite done planting, but what's there is doing well. Above shows what I refer to as the 'third' raised bed, although with the raspberries in the corner, it's really the fourth. I extended the soaker hose from the bed on the right, and consequently that bed doesn't get quite as much water as it used to. I think it's enough, though.

This bed has strawberries and... parsnips! Yes, parsnips. The garden store I was at had them, so I got them on a whim. I looked for seed potatoes at the garden store and they were out, so I bought some organic Yukon Gold spuds and am waiting for them to sprout so I can harden them off and plant them in the front part of this bed.

Here's my problem-child raised bed. Too much water at the end of the soaker hose last year combined with faulty corner reinforcement efforts on the part of the gardener (*ahem*) and the corner split over the winder. I've pounded several lengths of 3' rebar and it'll hold for another year or two. Note to self: next time, reinforce corners at the outset. I've still got the corner braces in the garage, unopened. This bed has my one tomato plant (several friends are planting many, many plants and I plan to be there to say, "Sure, I'll take a few extra, no problem"),  a few broccoli from seed that I'm not sure will do well because it's kind of late to be planting broccoli, and some herbs. 

The neighbor's volunteer mint is along the fence line on the right. I'll beat it back a few times over the summer, but don't really mind that it's there.

This one has onions on the left, a couple of cantaloupe plants, my lettuce and spinach, and carrots. I also planted some Calendula and Marigold seeds. Because I felt like it (ah, the benefits of being the only gardener in the house...). Getting to be time to harvest some of that spinach, it would seem.

My pot of flowers. Not much to see here yet. This one has some volunteer Nicotiana from last year, Gazania, and Viola. Raspberries in the back.

Obligatory dog picture. The Tail says, "I'm watching out for potential interlopers. Or cats. Or something. Maybe squirrels." She really needs a haircut, but her appointment isn't until June 7th. She's pretty wooly at the moment. 

This weekend brings graduation parties and a picnic with the single parent group tomorrow. The weather's been windy but nice. 

Please curb your enthusiasm

I'm in the process of switching dry dog food for Sally. I did some research, and switched to a Diamond brand for large breeds. It's not that much more expensive than the Iams I was buying, and it got good reviews. Plus I can patronize the local feed store, which I like to do when I can.

I've been mixing about half and half for the last three mornings, and she's tolerating it well. Tolerating it well may be a bit of an understatement. When I was pouring the food into the plastic bin in the kitchen (still have to buy another bin to put the rest of the stuff in to store in the basement), she was right there, trying to gobble it up as it poured.

This morning, I woke up around 4 am to the sounds of her pacing outside my door. She sleeps in the living room because I'm such a light sleeper and she grumbles and shifts a lot. I called out for her to go lay down, which she did. From this I can only conclude that she wasn't in urgent need of going outside for a potty break, and wanted to get more of the yummy new food.

I got up at my regular time, and I'd like to report that at this moment, she is sleeping on my bed with a full tummy. Maybe I should call home a few times today to wake HER up out of a sound sleep...

Hey! Is that the Easter bunny?

Sometimes, when Sally's excitedly barking at another dog being walked and I go out there, say, to take a picture of my third raised bed, she tears around the yard a bit. Or maybe that's the Easter bunny, it's hard to tell.

Mr W helped me shovel the soil out of the truck and later commented that he felt pleased (or the 11 year old equivalent) to have helped build it. The design is an experiment. I had the landscape timbers from a year or two ago, and have just stacked them in three courses. I then had 3' pieces of rebar that we pounded in to hold the timbers in place. Using the longer pieces of rebar helps make an easy dog fence, we'll see how good that holds when there's strawberries in there. Sally may not be able to contain herself. 

I still have to cut the soaker hose and attach the fittings so the irrigation goes from the bed on the right to the new bed. Probably today, but still not a huge hurry here on April 8th. 

Happy Easter, all. 

Dog food

This is my beloved Sal, taken this morning. Sally the Doodle. She turned five last December, and has been a happy healthy dog. It's good for me in many ways, but I am grateful to have her here especially when Mr W's with his dad.

Anyway, I went to visit a friend yesterday who is housesitting at this really nice place a little north of town, on one of the few lakes in the area. There aren't any natural lakes around here; they're all for irrigation, so she said the water goes up and down throughout the season. Nice digs though. Her friend is in Hawaii for 4 months, so S and her husband P and their two dogs get to do some lakeside living for a bit.

She's had the misfortune of having two dogs die before their time in a pretty short time frame. She and P are fans of German shepherds, and after the second dog died, she decided to get a puppy from a reputable breeder. That puppy is about 11 months now, and my oh my, what a handsome guy. I should have taken his picture. He is a beautiful dog. We got to talking and she said she is feeding him a raw diet.

She started it when one of her other dogs had health problems that were eased by the diet, and she just kept going. The prep would be prohibitive for me (unless I could make two portions and turn around and cook Mr W's share....). Her distain for kibble was strong, and it's making me think I should at least look into whether changing to a higher quality kibble for Sally would be good for her health. The question is: is a better quality food (and can we measure that just by the sticker price?) beneficial for a healthy dog?

It's hard to say because she's already healthy, you know? And down the line, if she does get sick, it'd be difficult to attribute that to her diet. I don't buy the cheapest food on the shelf, but I do buy Iams for large breeds at Target. This was a conscious decision, after trying to buy a more expensive kibble at what we call "the dog food store" when she was a puppy and having them be out of the brand, twice in space of a few weeks. I didn't want to vary her food too much, so I decided to feed her something I could get easily all the time.

For her part, Sally's a good eater. Scarfs down whatever's in the bowl, so I'm sure she'd be on board with a menu change, should it come around. If anyone reading this would like to weigh in, please do.

In other news, I checked the want ad for Graycie the campervan and as of this morning it had gotten 355 views. Not bad.

The Sally diet

I took beloved doodle Sally to the vet yesterday because she's got ear gunk. She's got sort of heavy ears, so I do look for gunk occasionally, and this round seems to have developed pretty recently. When we got there, they of course weighed my dog.

70.8 lbs.

Excuse me? Can you do that again? I remember her weighing 80 ish, and at one time 85 lbs. The nice tech reweighs my cooperative non-wiggling dog. Yup. 70.8 lbs.

She's a large dog, but still this is a lot of weight to have taken off in the last year without me really paying attention. The vet wasn't concerned, because she's healthy and she was too heavy before anyway.

Our secret? A smaller scoop for her food. I don't remember what happened to the old scoop. Oh, wait, yes I do. It was an old pint-sized container from a deli and she chewed it up. Take that as you will.

I looked in my vast tupperware library and found something that I could fill to heaping and was the 1 1/4 cups she gets twice a day. And we've been using that ever since. She still gets plenty of treats, so I guess we're doing it right. It was just sort of weird that it was happening without my realizing it.

So now (she says, facetiously) I'm going to write a book on how if you buy my special set of plates and measuring spoons and cups, you'll be able to lose 15 % of your body weight in a year. ;-)

I'm blaming it on the dog

Like a lot of people I sometimes have trouble staying asleep. I don't have much trouble falling asleep unless I've miscalculated my caffeine consumption that day, and I'm thankful for that. My problem is waking up at 2 (or 3 or 4) and not being able to get back to sleep. Stress is usually the cause, but before I left for my trip I was sleeping pretty darn good for several days.

Since I got back home from OH on Saturday, my sleep's been so-so. I guess that I am getting enough because I haven't gotten a cold (yet). I sat next to a hacker/wheezer/sniffler on the plane ride back, and my niece was coughing as well (with much better technique, coughing into her elbow, btw), so I thought I might pick up something. I don't feel like I'm getting sick, but I don't have that "man, I got a good night's sleep last night!" feeling.

Nothing's wrong, nothing's amiss.

Thus, I blame it on the dog.

Miss Sally spent two days in the kennel that she has been do many times in her 5 years on the planet. The twist in this stay was that my friend B from the dog park picked her up. Sal's done this before, too. B has a nice dog and she and Sally get along just fine. When they play, it has high entertainment value. And B, being the good dog owner that she is (and she lives within walking distance of the dog park) took her dog and Sal over to the dog park and left them with the other folks in our little group that goes at the same time each day. Apparently this was the last straw for Sally, as she apparently bayed like a hound when B had to leave to give a music lesson. It all worked out, and I'm grateful to the dog park folks for taking good care of Sally, even if she was a bit flummoxed by the arrangement.

I think it is this flummox-ment that has caused her to be restless the last few nights, and that's been waking me up. I've got a small house. Sal sleeps in the living room, and I sleep in my room, which is right next to it. So every time she got up and shook those tags, I woke up. There's a spot on the floor (probably right on the other side of my bedroom door) that has a squeak (it's an old house) that wakes me up. I finally got smart and took her collar off last night, but she was still milling about during the night. I'm hoping this is a temporary thing, as I've got no where else I'd like for her to sleep. I think I'd lose a lot more sleep if she was in my room (I don't think she'd stay on the floor). Maybe ear plugs...

In other news, I gave away three bracelets while I was traveling, one to my BIL's (my sister's husband) new girlfriend, who lamented that she needed a gift, and the person would love something like my bracelet (we were talking about me making them at the time, so it didn't seem like a cheap play to get a gift on her part!). I took off the bracelet and gave it to her. One bracelet in circulation in OH. I gave one to my SIL who with my older brother was headed out to CA and she gave one as a gift to a person that liked it and wanted to see more of them. One bracelet in circulation in an upscale part of CA. The last went home with my SIL from Charleston, and so will be seen in South Carolina. She's a jewelry maker herself, and gave me great feedback, and a simple way to make my clay medallions into earrings (clever!).

Looking for something?

Mr W had running practice yesterday, and we were at a nice big park in town. It's been really nice to visit different parks around town as part of his practice. Yesterday at dinner, he said, in the manner I imagine most kids' minds work, "So, why aren't you going to Spin class on Mondays anymore?" I said, "Because I have to take a certain boy to practice on Mondays." "Oh". But it's over soon, and he's liked it, so I don't mind.

He wanted to take the dog again, while he was running, but they weren't getting started for a few minutes, so I took Sally the dog over to the dog park part of the park. This particular dog park has a pond. Did I mention that my dog is half water dog and half water dog? She's a Labradoodle, a half Lab-half Poodle mix. Puddles, cups of water, damp rags, you cannot keep my dog away from water; don't even try.

The protocol involves excited bouncing up and down on her front paws, followed by a beeline to the edge, trotting in, and then laying down in the water. Then she gets up, gets out and repeats. Yesterday, I had her squeaky orange tennis ball, so we played fetch in the pond for a little while. I made a short throw once and she overshot where the ball was. She spent a minute testing and rejecting the other tennis balls floating on the water (she's pretty particular about her orange squeaky tennis balls). Then she puts her entire head under water. One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, and up. I wonder what she's doing until I realize she's looking for the ball. How's that for dedication?

I think it's so interesting how no one taught her to do that. I don't know if that's Lab or Poodle or some hybrid trait in her, but it was neat to watch. She never sputtered, or coughed. I did eventually convince her that the ball was closer to me, and she found it, but it was cool to watch the processes, and the other dog owners got a kick out her too. It makes me wonder about things we humans do, just because that's who and how we are.

Image from here.

Getting back to it

Mr W and I had a fabulous time in MN. No doubt about it, flying was so much easier than driving. We had direct flights, and had minor delays each way, but got there in a reasonable amount of time. That's about all one can ask from the airlines these days, it seems. They did accommodate us when I asked to switch our seats so we'd sit together, and that was nice of them.

What did we do? Besides the talk my SIL and I attended, which I'm still ruminating over, we did a bunch of stuff for Mr W. We went to the Science Museum of Minnesota, which had the King Tut exhibit. I had missed the boy king when he was in Denver for several months, and it was a nice surprise to be able to see it in MN. Cool stuff, and I'm glad we did it. Mr W was trying to wrap his head around the time frame, and was suitably awed. They had pictures on the walls that Howard Carter took when he discovered the tomb, and then had the objects right there. That was cool.

We also, godhelpus, went to the Mall of America, so Mr W could do rides at the indoor amusement park. I'm of the opinion now that he likes the idea of an amusement park much more than the actual things, because he's just one of those people who has a lot of trepidation about strapping into a ride and getting tossed around. His dear aunt and I tried to bribe him (well, technically it would have been a reward because he'd get it afterwards) with a generous trip to the Lego store, if he would go on the easy rollercoaster that spanned the entire indoor space. We got up to the platform twice and he bolted both times. I won't lie; it wore me out.

We also ate really well, and I've got the extra couple of pounds to prove it. My SIL goes to the gym regularly, so I tagged along for three of the days and worked out. At least I made an attempt to mitigate the ice cream, steak, etc. It was just really nice to visit with two of my favorite people, and I was glad they were able to fit in our visit between all the summer travel they have scheduled.

I took the day off yesterday, which was a good method of re-entry, and now am getting back into the groove. Nothing new on the job search front, but a co-worker mentioned that he had a phone interview and they surprised him with some of the standard interview questions that I probably don't have good, quick answers to yet. So, I got a book out of the library and will brush up on that this weekend in anticipation of an interview. I had lunch with BW, and that has all been fun so far. A couple of days ago, I got an email through the dating site from someone who lives about an hour and 15 minutes away from here. He seemed nice enough, actually did have a background in science, but I replied that logistically, I couldn't see us being able to swing it. It underscored the importance of finding a local guy.

Oh, and the little experiment in having Sally stay with a dog park friend and her dog instead of at the kennel worked. Almost too well. The group of regulars reported that she was too exhausted by her almost constant playing with the other dog that she didn't want to chase the ball when she came to the dog park. She's been pretty much sleeping since I picked her up yesterday. A job well done!