Day 948

Today was full of odd little surprises. When I went out to the street this morning to retrieve the garbage cans after the trash truck arrived, I came back to find a small bushel of fresh tomatoes on my doorstep. I was only gone for a minute or two, but I didn't see any sign of who had left the tomatoes. They just appeared, and I still don't know who to thank.

Later, when I went to the empty restaurant for breakfast, it wasn't empty. There was already another couple eating breakfast. I was kind of disappointed, because when the place is empty, I get to choose the music. The food was still good though. I can't for the life of me think of a single good reason why this isn't the most popular restaurant in the neighborhood.

There were scattered storms in the afternoon and the dogs didn't want to go outside.  I finally found a little break in the weather on the iPad radar and took the dogs outside. Things were going well until Dot heard thunder off in the distance. I told Dash that if he would poop right where we were, we could all go home immediately. Amazingly he did. It was the first time he's ever pooped on command. I was very proud.

I took my video camera to the dealer this afternoon to get the firmware upgraded. I'd been dreading doing this myself for months, because the instructions from Panasonic were so incomprehensible that I was certain I was going to screw things up and turn the camera into an expensive doorstop. When I was at the Panasonic seminar yesterday, I ran into my sales rep and he told me that they'd do the firmware upgrade for me. What a relief. The camera still works fine and has even more capabilities than it did yesterday.

It looks like it's going to be a dog filled weekend.  We've got new Dalmatians to photograph at the Velvet Snout tomorrow and I think we're going to take Dot and Dash to a Dalmatian Rescue meet and greet at a pet store on Sunday. It sounds good to me. Spending time with the dogs definitely beats mowing the grass.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 936

I wonder how Sunday got to be chore day? It's been chore day for so long now that I can't even remember how the tradition started. In fairness, we do go to the dog park on Sundays, and that certainly isn't a chore. Today we met some other Dalmatian owners at the park and the dogs all had a great time. The dogs went to sleep when we got home, but I went to work.

I got one of those long poles with a saw at the end and trimmed dead branches off the big Oak trees in the back yard. You'd think it would be hard to even reach the branches, but actually it was quite easy. I took the pole saw up on the roof and this additional height allowed me to reach quite a few dead branches. Having a flat roof can actually be useful at times, by providing a platform for all sorts of other activities.

I was hot and tired by the time I got the tree trimming finished, so I spent the rest of the afternoon inside, updating an animal rescue website. I don't think I'm as familiar with these animals as the volunteers who send me the pictures. After I made brand new pages for several of the animals, I discovered that many of them already had an active page on the website. Oops. Duplication wasn't what I was aiming for. I did make progress though. Maybe in a week or so, I'll have the site current again.

A friend of Janet's gave her some tomatoes she'd grown in her garden the other day, so Janet made a tomato casserole tonight. I'm typically a big meat eater, but this casserole was so delicious that it made becoming a vegetarian sound tempting. I think the only ingredients were tomatoes, celery, onions, toasted croutons, and some spices. There's nothing like fresh tomatoes. Delicious! They are so much better than the grocery store variety. We try to grow tomatoes ourselves periodically, but they never reach maturity. The squirrels always eat them before we get a chance.

Trevor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day