Sunday, June 15, 2008

A Few Things

My son dreams about baseball. More than once he's awakened and told me about a particularly high-scoring game about which he dreamt. The scores are usually extremely lopsided, like 50-2. I just have to love this. Of course, he also woke up crying one night because he had "a terrible dream, the most terrible dream ever -- you won a medal at a dog show and you wouldn't let me touch it!" That was memorable, too. ;^)

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I kinda hate to admit this, but I miss Little League season a bit. The games were long and excruciating at times, but they were fun overall and the kiddo loves to play. I think we're heading toward fall ball. The kiddo and his dad spent Father's Day watching a minor league game an hour away. We celebrated F-Day with my dad the day before, and my dad gave the kiddo a bike. Such a fun weekend.

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It sucks so much that Tim Russert died. That's all I can say about that.

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We're getting a dog. A real dog. What's that you say? We already have a dog? Well, Suzy isn't a real dog; she's a dog imposter. Recently, though, she's started learning how to take food off the table when we're not looking, so there's hope for her yet. ;^)

Anyway, I've long thought Suzy needs a dog buddy -- one that's secure and confident, to keep her company during the day and maybe have a positive effect on her. The kiddo and I have visited the animal shelter and Humane Society for the past couple of years, and finally I felt like it was time to adopt. The dog we're picking up this week isn't the dog we set out to get, though. On Thursday I fell in love with a six-year-old male Labrador Retriever. I spent all day Friday just thinking of great names for him, and when we returned on Friday, his card said "Claimed." Good for him; bad for us. He would've been awesome for us and Suzy. The kiddo had fallen in love with a couple of black Chihuahua mixes; one had been adopted when we returned, so we met the female in the interation yard. She was extremely eager to please, but really nervous; I figured we already have an insecure dog and I don't want another one.

After more passes through the shelter, we met a Jack Russell mix that was also nervous: nope. Then we met a blonde spaniel that couldn't have cared less about our existence: too far on the other end of the spectrum. Last, we met a terripoo (terrier-poodle mix, which I've been told I should call a poorier just for fun) and he seemed like a good mix of confidence and friendliness. After sniffing around the yard for a bit, he came over to us for a few scratches and pats, then resumed sniffing the yard, then came back to us, and so on. He's extremely skinny and his hip bones are protruding, so it's obvious the little guy was on his own for a while. No problem; we'll help him gain a few pounds. His coat is cream/apricot-edged and curly-wavy, with a little poof on top of his head that suggests Bedlington Terrier, although I think it's just the way he was groomed. He's three years old, so five years younger than Suzy, and seems to have a good amount of energy that'll make him a good walking partner for me. Although he's not exactly a dude magnet, he seems like he'd enjoy trips to the dog park, whereas Suzy takes one look at the dog park and settles down next to me.

This is going to be fun.

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Speaking of fun, my sister recently celebrated a milestone birthday by...SKYDIVING! It was her first time, and she went with our other sister and her girlfriend. Holy cow. She went hot-air ballooning about five or six years ago, and I thought that was kind of daring, but she was pretty blase about the skydiving trip -- she said she was pretty calm during the dive (which she made with with an experienced diver fastened behind her) and she landed on her feet. Yowza. Now I'm waiting for the tattoos and piercings. ;^)

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Hmm. Suzy was dozing next to my desk and suddenly bolted out of sound sleep to run a few feet, then returned to her sleep spot and curled up again. Maybe she was dreaming about baseball. Gotta catch those pop flies.

Time for me to head off to dreamland, too.