Thursday started horribly. I woke up when my man's alarm went off at 5:21. I need to leave the house no later than about 5:23 to catch the van. I missed it. I ended up running out the door without any food. I didn't even manage to grab my backpack. I also forgot it was my turn to bring Thursday morning treats. I will never live that down. Now I have to bake like crazy to try to make it up to my coworkers. The rest of Thursday went pretty much along the same lines. I had a headache. It didn't go away until I left. Luckily for me I left early. The Secretary of Energy was coming for a visit and gave a speech at my work. He made everybody stay over an hour late for it. I decided I wasn't interested in anything he might say, so I left well before he got there. I'm glad I did. My man said it wasn't that great, except for the hour of overtime. Instead of standing around in the June sun, I went and had my industrial bar changed out. Now it's a spiral with pretty sparkly gems on the ends. I also made an appointment to have my hair done and I donated some stuff to Goodwill. I also tried to give a homeless man some food for his dog, but he wouldn't take it. The dog seemed in fairly good health, so I decided not to push. Also the man was really scary. I don't think I'll be doing that again. At least not when I'm alone.
When I pulled in the driveway I saw that the lawn had been mowed. It was immaculate! I was trying to figure out when my man had had time to mow the lawn. Then I walked in the house and the kitchen was absolutely spotless! A huge grin spread across my face. Now I know why my dad always had us clean the house really good when Mom was coming home from a business trip. It is an amazing feeling to come home to a clean house. My man came home almost two hours later than he normally does. But he had some lovely dry-aged steaks from the local butcher. He threw them on the grill and made us steak and eggs. It was delicious. Pepper got the scraps and took care of the dishes. She's quite good at cleaning dishes. Before he started making dinner my man asked if I had mowed the lawn. I was puzzled, no I didn't do it, it was like that when I got home. The kitchen too. I told him I thought he told the little one to do it. He said he hadn't told her anything. Then we got a text from the little one "Please try not to make a mess, I just cleaned up." Oh the irony. A teenager telling her parents not to make a mess because she just cleaned up! I told her we'd try not to.
Friday I woke up late again. I didn't wake up until 7:21 (what is up with 21??) when I had planned on getting up at 7:00. I had to rush to get to the gym for my 8 o'clock appointment with Brian. I did 13 minutes on the treadmill before he took me to one of the back rooms. Ok, that sounds bad. It's a smaller workout room with equipment mainly focused on training athletes. He had me stand in front of a bench and do squats where I just bumped my butt on the bench. Then he had me stand in front of a box that was just over knee height. He told me to put my right foot on the box, then step up on it 10 times before switching legs. I looked at him incredulously. My last summer of College I was in physical therapy for my knees. The gave me the same exercise, but instead of an almost 2 foot tall box, they gave me a one inch tall box. One inch! And I couldn't even do that ten times! Well, that was at the beginning of my therapy. By the end I could do 25 steps on a 10 inch box. I told Brian we'd better start a little shorter. He looked at me, then agreed and allowed me to start on a one foot tall box. I did five steps on each leg on the shorter box. Then I did five on the big box. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Wasn't fun, but wasn't torture either. The rest of my workout was more strength and range of motion training. I only got dizzy enough to have to stop once. And I did wish I had my inhaler by the end, but it wasn't too bad.
After the gym I ran home and hopped in the shower. I was getting out of the shower about the time I was supposed to have Pepper at the groomer. Great. I rushed through getting dressed, loaded Pepper in the car and practically flew down to the groomer. There was a bit of a traffic jam at the front counter, but Pepper was very good. Pepper LOVES Miss R. My sweet girl isn't afraid of going in the car, the groomer, or the vet. I asked Miss R. to cut Pepper's ears really short since we've been swimming in the canal. The longer her ears are, the more likely she'll get an infection. Once Pepper was settled in with Miss R. I rushed to my next appointment at the eye doctor. I got there late too. *sigh* I hate being late! The eye doctor had a cool new toy that takes a picture of the back of your eyeball. That was pretty cool! I have a scar on my retina. Isn't that interesting? The doctor said it was nothing to worry about unless I start seeing flashes of light.
It took a lot longer for the doctor to come see me than it usually does. Perhaps it's because I was late. But I was supposed to meet Peggy at my house at 10:30 because the HVAC guy was coming to put a new damper in for me. At 10:28 I hadn't even seen the doc yet. I texted Peggy the code to the garage and told her I'd be late. About the time I was checking out she said the HVAC guy was there. Great, I was late to another appointment. I rushed home. Peggy and I chatted and watched Cesar while the HVAC guy did his magic. Apparently when they built my house they put a damper in the main duct, but not in the branch that services the master suite. So the air in my bedroom came out like a wind-tunnel and I actually duct-taped the vents shut. The little one's room hardly got any air at all. So very not cool! But the nice gentleman got it all fixed up for the low cost of $230. Totally worth it though. He also suggested I sign up for their regular maintenance plan. I'm very proud of myself for not signing up right away!
At 1:30 we went to pick Pepper up from the groomer. She is SO freaking cute with her ears trimmed short! She looks like a puppy again.
It's kinda hard to get a picture of Pepper. Anyway, Peggy and I took her for a walk along the canal. Well, first we tried to get a picture of the three of us to put on the blog homepage. It is very hard to do a self-portrait of two people and a hyper dog. Here is what we ended up with:
Well, it was fun at least. We're goofy, but it's ok. After giving up on getting a decent picture, we went for a walk. Slathered in sunblock and wearing hats. It was hot, I wanted to stay home. Pepper was very good. On the way out a couple of horses passed us. I told Pepper to sit, and she did. Shortly after we turned around I let Pepper off her leash so she could go for a swim. She splashed right into the canal and swam around for a while. She is so cute!
The odd thing about these walk/swims is that Pepper jumps in the canal of her own volition the first time. She swims for a while, then gets out on the opposite side. She'll walk parallel to us for a while, then we call her back to our side. But, while she wants to come back to us when we call, she has a very hard time going back in the canal! We have to call, cajole, bribe and otherwise beg her to come back for quite some time while she puts a paw in and steps back over and over. It is the strangest thing. We also saw a duck. Pepper has at least three breeds of bird dog in her. She wanted that duck. Pepper also runs incredibly fast. She kept pace with the flying duck until both disappeared around a bend. I need to get a whistle to recall Pepper when she's out of shouting range. We caught up to her a while later, the duck nowhere to be found.
After we returned to the house I tried to get Pepper in the bathroom to rinse the canal water off. She wanted none of that! I finally ended up having to pick her up and carry her into the bathroom. She looked pathetic! With her big, brown, sad puppy-dog eyes and her scraggly wet fur. I gave her a bath anyway. And a nice big bone. After that Peggy and I flopped on the couch to watch Cesar until our next task of the day. We have undertaken helping Blonde Friend train her four-year-old purebred cocker spaniel, Brutus.
Brutus is a good dog. He is sweet and friendly and energetic. He just isn't trained. He tries to run out the door every time it's opened and takes Blonde Friend for a walk rather than the other way around. I love to mush his cute little face around when I go over to their house. Such a cute thing. Anyway, I bought some fun toys for him to play with and we headed over. Before going for our walk, we took him in the back yard to burn off some energy. He is still very much a puppy, running around the yard chasing toys and bugs, jumping and playing. Very cute to watch.
When it was time to go for our walk, I showed Blonde Friend how to assert her authority and now allow Brutus to go through a door first. It's a small thing, but important, ask Cesar. For the first part of the walk, I had the leash. I showed how if you walk too slow your dog will be all over the place and it isn't a Walk. Once I picked up the pace Brutus fell in quite well. I could hear Peggy explaining what I was doing, but I tuned it out. It was just me and Brutus. Whenever he got side-tracked, I stopped and waited for him to refocus. He learned very quickly that if he didn't stay with me, he didn't get to walk. After a while we passed the leash off to Blonde Friend. She learned just as quickly as Brutus. It was a beautiful thing. Since it was late and everyone was getting hot, it was a fairly short Walk. But a very good one. We left Blonde Friend with some "homework" and promises we'd walk again next week.
After that, my man and I went to the bar, had dinner, and passed out. Well I did talk to the neighbor lady who used to be a dog trainer. She told me where I can find the local Dock Dogs group, the kennel club, and suggested Pepper and I try agility. I've always thought Pepper would be good at agility, but I'm not sure I have enough time. I also don't think I can run fast enough to be her handler. Then I had a brilliant idea: the little one could be her handler! She can run and is much more agile than me, being a gymnast. It would be great exercise for both of them, and I think it would give the little one a big confidence boost. Now to get her into the idea...
Saturday morning was spent running around gathering specialty beer, cigars, steaks, and groceries. I then made custard for some triple-chocolate ice cream for Father's day. I also did some prep for the Miche party Blonde Friend and I were doing that evening. The afternoon passed in a haze of rather domestic happiness. My man made some steak quesadillas for dinner. Then it was off to the party. Got home around 9:30 and went to bed.
This morning my man woke me up asking if the ice cream was going to be ready for this afternoon. I think I told him I was trying to ride horsies. I'm not sure. I dragged myself out of bed and ran the custard through the ice cream maker and got it in the freezer to harden. Made myself some coffee, and here I am. Now it's time to bake. I'm making blueberry-lemon coffee cake to go with the chocolate ice cream for dessert. I'm also making banana bread and black current scones to make up for forgetting the goodies Thursday. Pepper is wandering around, the little one and her friend are still sleeping, and my man is out in the garden messing with sprinklers. I think I shall put on some cartoons and get my bake on.
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