A Birthday Treasure Hunt

This week was Gluten Free Girlfriend's 30th Birthday!!! She took it very well and there was nary a "I'm getting old" outburst to be found in the run up to, or the day of the birthday. The family unit (the two dogs and myself) took it upon ourselves to brainstorm and purchase some gifts worthy of such a milestone birthday. A couple of neat t-shirts, one that publicly proclaimed her love for pancakes, and a DVD were well received, but it was the big gift that necessitated a treasure hunt that was the highlight of the day.

There were a handful of clues, and I busted out my lyrical stylings to create a short rhyming poem for each clue that was uniquely tailored to each member of the family unit. Each member of the family unit plus a special guest (Frederick the Garden Gnome) "contributed" a clue that lead to another clue, that lead to another clue and so on a so forth, until the prize was finally found, neatly hidden in out television stand. The treasure hunt went pretty quickly, as she was keen on several clues and only got slightly sidetracked a couple of times. The prize was a new iPod Touch and was immediately tinkered with even though delicious mud pie ice cream cake was brought out. The iPod will hopefully last many years and always remind the Gluten Free Girlfriend of her 30th birthday and the fun treasure hunt she had to undertake in order to find it.

I also took it upon myself to sit down with a colored pencil and help Shaak Ti and Tito each compose a nice note to the Gluten Free Girlfriend wishing her a happy birthday and continued good fortune and success in the coming year. Shaak Ti was more gracious in her writing and had fun with the process, while Tito could barely be convinced to sign the card and write "Happy Birthday". But well, that's Tito. And to answer your question, yes, yes I've become one of those people who writes notes to their significant other on behalf of their dogs. Sad, but true.

Camp Katie

For the last few months I've actually been working a schedule that resembles a normal working person, gone for most of the day in an office somewhere, typing on a computer and manipulating papers in exchange for hard currency. And the gluten free girlfriend has also been busy and away for long stretches of the day doing her magical doctoral stuff. As such we opted to send Shaak Ti to doggie day care twice a week in order to make sure that she was getting the required amount of exercise, socialization, and play time. Mind you we still run her twice a week, take her to the beach once or twice a week, and she has two daily walks, but unless she's had an hour or so of run around or wrestle with other doggies time, trouble can ensue. It's not that she's bad, it's just simple math. Excess energy = mischievous shenanigans.

Luckily for us Katie (she fostered Shaak Ti and adopted her out to us) also runs a Doggie Day care operation and training facility www.collared-scholar.com and is a co-owner of a facility in downtown San Diego - Metropawliatn Dog - Website - http://www.metropawlitandog.com She charges us well below market rate since she knows Shaak Ti so well, and if we ever need to board her, she has free run of the the house with her other dogs since they're old pals. This may seem like a shameless plug, and indeed it is, we're just so grateful to have an awesome place to send Shaak Ti. So every Tuesday and Thursday we get our little girl all ready to go to "Camp Katie" for the day and our energetic bundle furry, wiggling goodness is miraculously transformed into a tired, sleepy dog when she returns in the afternoon. I don't think that I could ask for a better arrangement.

If you're in the San Diego area and are looking for a dog sitter, or doggie daycare, or even a person to train your pooch, I would highly recommend her. Katie also fosters and adopts out all sorts of dogs, but truly specializes in deaf ones. So if you happen to be looking to adopt a dog, or wouldn't mind if your dog is hearing impaired, please contact her via one of her websites.

Election Day

Today was primary day in San Diego and like a good citizen I exercised my right to vote. Too many people in the world don't have the basic right to have their voice heard and their ballot counted to take for granted the right to vote. Anyone who complains about their elected officials, local laws, or anything that is influenced by politics should vote. My first question to someone in a conversation of that nature is "Did you vote?", and if the answer is anything but an unqualified "sure" or "of course" their right to complain is instantly lost. Like it or not, it the only political process we have, and if you don't participate you forfeit your right to bitch about the results.

So the gluten free girlfriend and I leashed up the dogs and hiked up to our polling place, which is a nice little church not more than half a mile away. The dogs were a big hit at the polling station as the poll workers seemed desperately bored and looking for any excuse to get up and chat, pet a pooch, or otherwise stretch their legs. The dogs even each got an "I voted" sticker to wear, so if anyone asks, yes they participated in the electoral process. Surprisingly I'd trust my dogs to vote in a wiser fashion than 85% of the average folks here in town.

It wasn't until a few minutes ago as I went online that I realized that this was indeed a general election and if no one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, there's a run off election in November. Arrghhh!! I can't take another 5 months of incessant mailers and signs everywhere. The City Council seat in our district alone (District 7) was contested by two main candidates - Marty Emerald and April Boling, and caused literally four to five pieces of mail per day, every day for the last month. I can only imagine the number of trees that will need to be sacrificed in order to contiunue to pepper us with propaganda. Uggh.

Glamour Shots

Constantly seeing photos in the paper or Foster & Smith's catalogs with pictures that aren't nearly as cute as our dog, I set out the other day to take some pictures that were worthy of entering into a photo contest. Still stinging from our 20th place finish in the Del Mar Kiwanis "Most Beautiful Dog" contest, I sought to rectify the wrongs that had been inflicted upon our family unit and bring us some manner of dog contest victory. I needed concrete evidence to show people how cute our dog is dammit, and I needed it now.

Taking pictures of a dog is easy enough, especially with a digital camera. Getting a good picture requires enough patience to snap hundreds of photos and a little luck that at least one of them will turn out decent. Shaak Ti tends to be on the squirmy wormy end of the spectrum of dogs. She'd rather aggressively try to clean the ear wax out of your ears with her tongue or chase sparrows around the yard than sit still for a photo opportunity, but we ended up getting a couple of good shots.

The end result of pictures turned out pretty damn good, they are the two photos in the entry. Yeah, our dog is pretty, that's about all I wanted to say. Sure most people will try to tell you that their dog is the prettiest, etc, but now I have the photo evidence to back it all up. Who's the good puppy????

Alaskan Adventure - A trip to Seward

With a little less than 24 hours notice I was summoned by my company (I consult, nay I consult with the best of them) to Anchorage, Alaska. A previous consultant had been on the job but had taken quite ill and they needed a replacement, stat. So I packed up a few things, including not the best pair of shoes for city ice conditions, and hopped on a plane for Alaska.

I arrived on Thursday night, worked on Friday, and expected to work the weekend, but was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was not as busy as expected and I had the weekend off. Sweet!! I chatted with a few locals and decided to take a drive to Seward, a 2.5 hour drive southwest down the Kenai Peninsula. My rental car was a Jeep Liberty, which despite it huge exterior size, was surprisingly cramped, but what the hell it was a rental right? Plus it had four wheel drive, which was nice.

Making my way south out of Anchorage the freeway only remained as the two lane blacktop for about 15 minutes before it turned into one lane in either direction. The weather was alternating light rain and snow showers, a tad blustery, but overall not a bad weather day by Alaska standards. The wind picked up as I drove along the Turnagain Arm, the shallow inlet along Anchorage. The radio still baffled me and even after several searches, I hadn't gotten anything better than top 40 (ummm no), country (really no), and some kind of psudeo rock (they were playing Creed, 'nuff said) music. I settled on Prince "When Doves Cry" which didn't seem appropriate for a solo drive along windswept rocks and majestic, snow covered peaks in the distance, but what the hell it's better than Creed right? Yes, yes indeed.

The drive to Seward was indeed picturesque and quite lovely. There weren't too many folks on the road and I was glad that, though a city slicker, I had brought a winter kit of provisions, water, and warm clothes just in case a Hoth style ice monster decided to attack my car, leaving me stranded along a lonely road.

Seward was a beautiful fishing town, but unfortunately since it was March and all, just about everything was closed for the season. The Kenai National Park (which is alleged to have a really cool glacier) was not technically closed, but you could only get there with sled dog or snowmobile, of which I had neither. Feeling a bit bummed out that I couldn't see a glacier I sought refuge in a reputable house of pancakes. I toured around town, found a diner with good pancakes and enjoyed a late breakfast while staring outside at the snowflakes gently meandering down from the sky.

If nothing else, the trip convinced me to return to Alaska during the summer months when the weather was warmer and more establishments were open and able to be proprieted.

Every Rose Has A Lot of Friggin' Thorns

While on our evening dog walk, on a pleasantly warm spring evening, our wonderful Shaak Ti displayed her newest manifestation of what I can only assume is some kind deathwish. I don't understand her mental processes, nor do I think I want to, but often times the result is her hitting her head, falling down, or otherwise hurting herself, which though it does not faze her, leads me to believe that eventually her high risk behavior is going to catch up with her. She will inevitably decide that indeed an ostrich is not too big of a bird to chase, or one day eat another pound of fudge. Despite this seeming urge to end her own life prematurely she lives every day to its puppy fullness.

Now normally when we're walking, she loves to jump up, onto retaining walls or ledges, or any structure that runs along the sidewalk where she can explore and be higher up than if she walked like other normal dogs, i.e. at ground level. Having witnessed this behavior over several months, I've gotten used to it. Every once in a while she'll try to run ahead and jump up on a wall, misjudge how much leash she has available, and get yanked back to earth mid-jump. This doesn't seem to faze her a bit and she continues along her merry way.

On this particular we approached a house with a 2.5 to 3 foot wall out front. This house typically has a few cats running around and since Shaak Ti tends to get a bit ramped up as we approach, I was prepared for her to pull a bit on the leash, maybe even whine a tad. I wasn't prepared for her to suddenly stop, turn left and jump completely over the wall.

Now the other side of this wall was a good foot below the sidewalk level and there wasn't a soft cushy lawn for her to land on, but a series of rose bushes. And not just rose bushes, but the stumps of the rose bushes that had been trimmed back for the winter. As soon as she jumped I ran to the wall to find that she had impaled her back left leg and butt onto a big thorny rose bush stump. She was impaled so deeply that she was stuck in the bush and couldn't move. I had to gently lift her out and then spend the next several minutes pulling a dozen huge thorns out of her leg and paw. She wound up bleeding in a couple places where the thorns had penetrated deeply enough, but aside from shaking for a minute, was pretty much good to go.

The dog owner concept is pretty new to me, so this was my first time seeing my dog bleeding. I was somewhere between frightened and angry. Frightened because I care about my dog and didn't like to see my dog bleeding, and angry because who the hell jumps over a wall when they have no idea what's on the other side? Seriously, who does that?

After treating Shaak Ti with some doggie first aid spray, I continued to be mad at her for the ordeal and her lack of judgment. She was soon forgiven and I realized that the decision making and rational thought processing areas of her brain may be underdeveloped, but that makes her even more endearing and lovable.

A Day at the Beach

There has been some rain in San Diego over the past week or two, which closes the regular dog park that we usually take Shaak Ti to visit. Shaak Ti needs to play with other dogs on a regular basis, period. She needs to run, wrestle, chew on other dogs, and have other dogs knock her over. It's a fact of life as certain as poop and blue skies. Our normal regimen of two walks a day, play time, and the every other day three-mile run aren't quite enough for her. She needs to run, wrestle with other dogs, and completely tire herself out, at least three to four times a week. Since the dog park has been closed, I started taking her to the beach. Coronado has a terrific dog beach, fenced on two sides, with the ocean on the third side.

When Shaak Ti gets to the beach the first priority is of course, taking a nice long whizz, don't want all that extra water weight slowing you down now do ya'? Sometimes there is the accompanying bowel movement, and then she's good. Once the systems are all purged and she has introduced herself to all the dogs in the immediate vicinity, she sets out on her task of clearing the beach of all birds. This is done by chasing them until they fly away. No gimmicks here. Most days this is simple enough, a sandpiper or two, maybe a pelican out along the surfline that needs to be escorted away, but for the most part not a difficult task, then she can get to the dog playing that she so dearly loves. I'd like to think that she has a complex motto like "A beach full of birds is no beach for me", but more than likely the thought process is "unnhhhh birds chase" or something that effect.

But after a good storm and the surf has kicked up, there are many interesting (and I assume tasty) things for birds to investigate and peck at on the beach, and as such there can be dozens of them all along the length of the shoreline. Such was the case the other day. Shaak Ti took her job so seriously that she tore around, full speed for almost twenty minutes until every bird was gone from the dog beach. She had the look of a crazed dog, tearing around at full speed, hell bent on catching her avian adversary, but alas, it was not to be. Once the dog beach was cleared, she turned her attention to the rest of the vast coastline full of birds (but forbidden for dogs) and took off at full speed.

Now being deaf, unless we have eye contact, and (and this is the important part) she is willing to come back, I have to rely on the faith that she will be a good dog and eventually come back. So far this has worked, but today I wasn't too sure. This seemed in doubt as she ran further and further down the beach, sprinting in wide circles to scare every bird to take flight until she was a good half a mile down the beach and still running in in the opposite direction.


To make a long story short, she eventually came back, sort of willingly. After jogging to get her, she ran by me and I grabbed her, so I guess that counts. Rarely does she become afflicted with the crazy crazy, but this was such a day. The good news is that she was really tired and a complaint and well behaved pooch for the remainder of the day. Until tomorrow....

A Mammoth Mammoth

OK, so I didn't really see a Mammoth, or even a mammoth mammoth, though I suppose that all mammoths are in fact mammoth. I'm also not sure what the record for the number of times that the word mammoth was used in a sentence, but I think that last one should be close. Back to the issue at hand though, if anyone has seen a non-mammoth mammoth (that isn't a baby mammoth), well then I'll buy you a nice big frosty YooHoo.

Last Wednesday we packed up my sisters ginormous Ford Excursion Diesel 67000 and trucked up to Mammoth Mountain with four people, three dogs, three snowboards, several sacks of snacks, and hopefully millions of happy little cilia that are resprouting in Super Gluten Free Gal's duodenum. Alliteration ahoy hoy. The journey was surprisingly quick as we had a CHP officer as a chauffer and we were on the mountain in a mere six hours. With the exception of a car sick, vomiting Chihuahua/miniature pinscher (Mocha, my sister's dog), the journey was relatively un remarkable.

Conditions on the mountain were ideal. It hadn't snowed in four or five days so there was packed powder everywhere, but it didn't get cold enough at night to significantly ice things over or create a hard pack. The temps were in the high 30s and low 40's, warm enough to soften the snow without making it slushy. The weather held for the four day trip and we enjoyed sunny skies, light winds and a wonderful time on the slopes.

Gluten free meals were prepared ahead of time by Super Gluten Free Gal and Soggy Rice Pasta Boy and the first night we chowed down on homemade chili (very tasty) and the next night gluten free pasta and veggie casserole (good for the two of us, not so warmly embraced by sister and her hubby). Oh well, you can't win them all, and hell, I'm not here to try and convert anyone, so it's no big deal if we don't wow everyone.