Your Basic Evening at Home

Wow, I guess the kiddo and I were more exhausted than I thought. We took Suzy to the dog park in the late afternoon/early evening, and she had a lovely time finding laps to sit on. Really, it was so funny to me to look over and see her being cuddled by one after another of the many regulars who sit in the resin chairs while their dogs run in a little pack around the park. Good for Suzy. I know she just loved all that love. As for the kiddo, he immediately took to playing "soccer" with a dog that dropped his ball at our feet. The dog's owner was a nice-looking, 40-ish man wearing a ball hat, so I told the kiddo to ask what team was on his hat. Naturally the kiddo already knew it was a Boston Red Sox hat, and it turned out the dog's name was Fenway. Cute! The kiddo played with Fenway nonstop while I chatted with the owner. Suzy did spend a little time wandering around and sniffing, but I think she was a tiny bit overwhelmed, because when I bent down to pick her up at one point, I caught her off guard and she snipped at me. As soon as she recognized that it was me, she immediately licked me as if to apologize. Good thing she eventually found her way to the cuddlers so she could relax for a while. They enjoyed her, too, and said goodbye to her by name as they left the park at dusk. (They'd read her tag.) With the rare exception, dog people are so darned nice. :-)

Anyway, we all came home around 5:15 p.m. and generally hung around the house, playing video games, surfing the Net and such. There was a little blip when the kiddo's dad called and the kiddo was whiny and disrespectful to him. Afterward, I told the kiddo he would be respectful the next time Daddy called, and he tearfully told me he wanted to call back to apologize. The two of them then spent a long time on the phone, watching the football game on both ends of the line. At one point, our next-door neighbor (not the one who called about the dog!) came over to give us an extra sweet potato pie left over from Thanksgiving. The kiddo is allergic to eggs, so that pie is mine -- all mine! Before bedtime, the kiddo and I watched Elf for a few minutes, and he fell asleep on his sleeping bag in the living room. I crashed on the couch, waking up around 12:30 and remembering I hadn't taken Suzy out for the night. Oops. No accidents, but I felt a little guilty awaking to the sight of a little doggie basically doing the potty dance. I took her out and she almost refused to pee where I asked her to, but I waited her out and all was well. When we came back in, the kiddo woke up and climbed upstairs to his bed. Ah...peace again.

I suppose I should get back to sleep myself. A to-do list awaits me tomorrow morning, and the kiddo will be going back to school unless his evening headache, alleviated with ibuprofen, proves to be the start of a cold. I'm hoping it was just due to the crying he did after I gave him the respect talk. He's already had two colds this season and it would be nice if he could stay well until at least New Year's.

And speaking of wellness, I'm really off to sleep now!