Thursday, November 02, 2006

Wherein I give in to peer pressure.

I thought about doing it earlier, but shrugged it off. Now, I've decided to do it, cause while I really couldn't care too much about peer pressure when I was a kid (I watched Street Legal anyway). Apparently at the ripe age of 28 it matters to me. Leslie's doing it, Sara and Scott are doing it, so I guess I'll do it too.

NaBloPoMo here I come! (Late as always!) (National Blog Posting Month - where you must post to your blog daily for a month. Not the foggiest idea how I'll manage it, but if you're a friend send me topics, otherwise I'll post embarrassing stories about you. Yes, you.)

I was lucky enough to have a short day at work today, so I spent a good part of the afternoon at the dog park. I felt bad only being able to take the dogs to the small park the other night, so I figured I owed them some good time at Harmony Valley Conservation Area.

Leaving for the park always seems to involve a chaos of details. Do I have enough bags? Cell phone? Debit card and license? Keys? Leaches (where the hell are the freaking leashes?!)? Shoes, and, if I'm feeling generous, dog cookies. As soon as I ask "who wants to go to the park" our two big dogs whip themselves into a frenzy. I'm sure sharks who have been starved for days aren't this excited about a bucket of fish guts being dumped into the ocean as our dogs when we say "park!"Publish

As always, I am a major contributor to that frenzy, and ask the same question involving those four magic letters over and over again. I'm usually punished by getting licks to the face (ew!) or a drippy nose. I'm quite convinced their heads are in fact made of cement - it sure feels like it when their head collides with mine as I'm trying to do up my shoes.

Tonight felt especially chaotic because they didn't get a full walk in after their run yesterday. I said the p-word too early in the game, before having found a blanket for the back seat of my car. We usually take Dave's car to the park which conveniently is a shaggin' wagon with plastic in the back, so it doesn't matter if it gets dirty. But since he's away, my sedan was our only driving option.

I spent a while Saturday cleaning out that car, vacuuming it until it gleamed, and there was no garbage all over the place, no pop cans on the floor. It's actually the cleanest it's been since a few weeks after I bought it.

When I couldn't find the blanket we usually use, I just said "ah it'll be fine" and locked the door and loaded up the dogs.

Mistake.

The whole trail toward the big field was just one sucking pile of mud. Mud so viscose it was slippery. Mud in the forest as well. Mud, mud mud mud mud. Black mud and sandy mud, on our white dogs. Needless to say all car cleaning progress was lost in the back seat.

Our dogs (borzoi) need one really good run every day - after about 20 minutes of sprinting and running at each other like rams they settle down and walk most of the rest of the way.

On the way home I decided to pick up a few things at the grocery store (including milk bones) and when I got back Daedalus was stretched across the length of the back seat, and Prometheus was sitting in the passenger seat, looking at me like "hey where are we going next!"

I shooed him into the back seat, much to the disappointed yelp of his brother, and looked at the now muddy prints on the passenger seat. Crap. So much for a clean car.

So now, I'm going to busy myself and forget I'm all lonely by becoming the whirling dervish of house cleaning and maybe even get some furniture re-positioned if I get a chance!

8 comments:

teahouse said...

I love your dog names!!

Does Daedalus have a son named Icarus?

I don't think I could post on my blog every single day...

Anonymous said...

teahouse: Thanks! My husband gets credit for naming them (I think they're WAY too long, and Russian dogs should have Russian names... they're most often called wanderpants and spazo around here). Daedalus is neutered, so no chance of offspring.

~ said...

Dude, all we have to do now is get you to jump off a bridge.

This will be fun. I already have an idea for all of us should we ever find ourselves dry on content.

The weekends will be the hardest. Will you be my weekend blog sponsor? Will you respond to my instant messages when I'm low on content and feel I may not post one day? Will I be able to call you when I finally succumb to mold poisoning and need you to update by proxy?

Why does this suddenly feel like a relationship akin to Team Strikeforce, the Impossibles or the SuperFriends minus the purpose or any pretense of a virtuious objective.

Anonymous said...

I just can't do it. Originally, I thought I'd be able to blog every day, but now I'm grateful for the deadness of the weekend blogosphere. Maybe I'm burning out.

Anonymous said...

The Waghorns: Hah I'm pretty sure it won't go that far (though I love jumping off old train bridges into the water!). I'm hoping it'll be fun, and hoping my brother-in-law will let me borrow his computer this weekend, otherwise I'm sunk! I'll be happy to help you wherever needed, and will likely call on you desperate for topic ideas. We don't need no virtuous objectives.

wordgirl: That was my original sentiment, and it may still be true of me. Oh well, hopefully it'll be fun trying!

Teena in Toronto said...

I'm with ya! We have a blanket on the back seat of our car so when we take our dog to the park, she can get as wet as she wants and the seat doesn't get dirty.

Chicky Chicky Baby said...

Ick, mud. And that is why I have a gas guzzling, bad for the environment SUV. Throw the muddy dogs and towels in the back and we're good to go.

And you have no idea how jealous I am of your dog park. Sooo jealous.

Anonymous said...

Teena: our usual blanket was nowhere to be found...

Mrs. Chicky: might I suggest a more environmentally friendly shaggin' wagon for your tours? It'll be better in the long run!