Posts Tagged ‘Lucy

22
Oct
08

Goobers

That is the word I use to describe Pete & I.  I can’t put Lucy in that category, ’cause let’s face it… if she were human, she’d be class valedictorian, prom queen, most likely to succeed, etc.  We would probably hate her…. That puppy has it going on!

In contrast, Pete and I are the dorky kids who were happy to have friends amongst the band members.  Okay, okay, I’m speaking for myself here.

Since we don’t have offspring of our own — who would most certainly be members of the next generation of “band geek” – we can only revel in the amazing and awesome-ness that IS our Lucy. 

How could we get so lucky?

Well, our pride & joy turned 3 on Sunday.  Pete was quick to point out that 3 dog years is equivalent to 21 in people years — boy was ready to pour margaritas in celebration of the occasion, but I had to put the kibbosh on those plans!

Here are some pictures of our celebratory hike… like I said, GOOBERS.

24
Sep
08

Change in the weather… change in peoples’ moods…

I am thinking that winter is imminent and it is affecting peoples’ moods.  Lately, Lucy & I have come across some serious “haters” on the trail during morning walkie.

This morning – no joke – we are plodding along, minding our own business when I see a woman fall flat on her face on the trail.  The way she fell did not concern me, clearly she was not hurt, but I asked if she was ok?

Her response?

“Did you see how my dog tripped me?”

Me: “um no, not really.”

Lady: “he’s so afraid of YOUR dog that he tripped me.”

Me: (suppressing laughter) “um, OKAY, sorry.”

Are you SERIOUS?!?!?!

I am never very good with the spontaneous, witty remark. 

Here is what I SHOULD have said:

#1: “I can recommend a good dog psychologist”

#2: “Really?  your 100 pound dog is afraid of my 20 pound dog?” (rolling eyes)

People crack me up.  Again as I have said over and over, I can only laugh to myself and feel sorry for people like this, as they surely lead unhappy lives.

25
Aug
08

How about an attempt to make up for my absence?

In case you didn’t notice, I took the day off on Friday.  Although I was working in the early am, I could not bring myself to write my usual Friday bullets!  Please forgive me, I’ll try to make up for it by entertaining you with fun pictures from the weekend.

What did I do on my day off you ask?  It was a perfect way to spend a free day.  After I finally logged off my computer, Lucy and I went for a walk around the Lafayette reservoir.  It wasn’t too hot at 10am (70 degrees or so) but poor little Lucy had a rough time.  This dog could run 10 miles non-stop in cool weather, and it wouldn’t faze her, but the second the sun & heat become a factor, she wilts very quickly.  I ended up carrying her the last 1/2 mile.  Then we picked up Ayelet and drove into the city for a fabulous lunch at Cafe Claude  with Jackie & Anna.  Cafe Claude?  “Oui Oui” is all I can say (I will write a Yelp review soon).  It was very nice in the city but Ayelet and I decided to head back to beautiful Danville.  After a quick stop to pick up a costume for Lucy to wear to Dog Days of Summer, we settled into our favorite hangout spot, Sideboard.   A couple of glasses of BR Cohn Chardonnay  and life is very very good. 

Poor Pete had a root canal on Friday so he wasn’t the most pleasant to be around this weekend.  Guess I gotta cut him some slack given he’s the big bday boy next weekend. 

Saturday was a LONG but fun day.  I had planned to go to Dog Days of Summer for months.   Had a few last-minute cancellations, but luckily my parents are troopers and I conned them into coming along.  We met up at the park and (gotta love ‘em) they had gotten there early enough to score a great spot in line.  I dressed Lucy up in her costume and we were ready for the parade.  My only complaint – although I do understand why they do this – is that they shuffled us along so quickly that I couldn’t get many good photos of Lucy strutting her stuff at the ballpark.  The second I stopped to take a photo, one of the attendants would scream at me, “keep moving!”, irritating.  Nevertheless, it was a really fun day.  Memorable moments: #1. Bud e. Luv sang the National anthem, #2.  Barbara stating very matter-of-factly, “Barry Zito has a nice ass”, #3.  Giants win!

This post has gotten long.  Otherwise I’d tell you about long, fun day #2 (Sunday). 

Watch this space.

31
Jul
08

This cat could kick Lucy’s butt

At 44 pounds, this cat is more than twice the size of my Lucy… yikes!

http://tinyurl.com/5vnzpk

And here’s the breaking news update from SFGate:

Breaking enormous cat news! It turns out that the 44-pound feline found roaming Voorhees, N.J., and dubbed “Princess Chuck” is actually a he named Powder. His owner, who said her home was foreclosed, abandoned the portly pussy. An animal shelter has been flooded with calls from people wanting to adopt Powder.

Time for a diet!

18
Jul
08

Friday Bullets!

Yipee! It’s Friday. This has been a long week. A good week. A productive week. But LONG. When’s the next 3 – day weekend?

  • First off, “slacker intern” put in his two week notice. Hasta la vista! That’s what I say. As Kathy wrote so eloquently, “Don’t let the door bang you in the butt on your way out!” The scary part is I really don’t think my boss would have fired him. Upon bossman’s return from vacation, I proceeded to tattle on “slacker intern” about his slackerish behavior while the “cat” was away. I was shocked that bossman made excuses for slacker and he remained an employee. Guess that is a good thing for my own employment security…
  • We’re going to dinner tomorrow night. Wheeee! It has been an eternity since I’ve dressed up and gone to an actual restaurant for dinner. We are celebrating my wonderful friends Jackie & Mark’s birthdays. Happy Birthday Jackie & Mark! Will see some friends I haven’t seen in a while as well. Plus we are going to Le Colonial – the food is amazing and I have such great memories here.
  • I’m very sad that I am not at the BlogHer conference. http://www.blogher.com/ I made the decision not to attend since I’ve been a bit to lackadaisical with my spending lately, and I’m trying to cut back. I really wish I’d bit the bullet and signed up. I am being tormented all day long with tweets from happy women who are writing their updates while at the conference. Mostly the messages are cryptic cause I’m ON THE OUTSIDE! It’s like they have the secret “cool chick” language that is not revealed to the geeky girls. Next year for sure.
  • I am going to set up a twitter account for Lucy. She turns 3 in October and I think she’s mature enough now to be introduced to social networking. If you have any ideas for what her twitter name should be, please comment. I am leaning towards squirrel_patrol.

My “bullets” have gotten long… more like actual paragraphs, but hey, it’s my blog. I can do what I want!

17
Jul
08

Inspiration

Inspiration always hits me at unpredictable times.

I have been feeling a bit morose lately, like life is happening outside my window and all I can do is sit and watch. I know that this feeling is stemming from new plan to get healthy. A plan that means lots of rest, no alcohol and following a specific diet which is hard to get at restaurants. My lifestyle up until now has pretty much revolved around going to nice restaurants and drinking wine – of course, that was never the main focus. The focus has been getting together with great friends and sharing the experience.

So, as you can imagine that the transition has been a bit rough for me. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely feel “healthier” and I’m happy I’m doing this. Am I putting my life on hold OR is this simply a transition period? OR is this my “new life”?

This morning, on “walkie”, Lucy and I ran into one of her favorite people friends, a woman named Susan. Susan usually walks with two other women and I have always really admired them. I always felt like they are a trio who I’d really enjoy sharing a bottle of wine with (old life, of course!) I am guessing that they are in their late 50s or maybe early 60s and seem to have a really geniune friendship with each other. They walk every single day and they walk long & far… I didn’t know how far until today. Anyhoo, Susan was on her own today and happened to be turning around so we walked together for a good 1/2 mile. Our conversation was very much like conversations I have with my own fabulous girlfriends. We covered topics like how we each ended up living in the SF Bay area, family, life in general. She (of course) asked if I had kids and her response, “it will happen when it is meant to.” Love that!

That 1/2 walk disappeared quickly and I wished I could blow off work and continue walking with her.

At one point I asked her how long she walks and she said, “I walk for 4 1/2 hours” !!?!?! Wow. She’s in fantastic shape, but I would have guessed that she and her friends walk more in the range of 4 1/2 miles. Lucy and I are slackers in comparison!

I am truly inspired… and a bit humbled.

02
Jul
08

Haters…

Sure enough we ran into the ugly, mean lady with her husband & dog again this morning. I completely ignored her but if looks could kill, I wouldn’t be here to document the experience. If I have to see her every day, I may need to change our route.

THEN, as we’re walking along the Iron Horse Trail minding our own business, a nasty man on a bicycle bellowed, “LEASH your dog, NOW!” He was so loud that I actually jumped. I yelled out, “Jackass!” which made me feel better but the whole experience just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Morning “walkies” with Lucy are my daily spiritual time. I cherish those moments like you would not believe. So when someone or something ruins this for me, I get really angry.

30
Jun
08

Dog Days of Summer

What a day… it’s the last day of the month and the last day of the quarter which has implications that only a salesperson can relate to.

It all started on morning walkie with Lucy.

I had a big goofy smile plastered on my face from the moment I woke up. After a relaxing, fun weekend with wonderful girlfriends, I was in great spirits.

Lucy and I set out on walkie. Lucy happily chased squirrels, and unearthed old tennis balls while I listened to my boys on KNBR, feeling good that the Giants managed to take 2 out of 3 games from the A’s… not at all concerned that today is a Monday.

I should have known the moment I spotted this threesome down the trail. The gray haired skinny woman with a sour look on her face, her husband who meekly walked a step behind her and a small, tawny collie type dog who looked like it wanted nothing more than to get away from them.

As Lucy and I passed by, the collie dog excitedly pulled on the leash trying to jump toward Lucy. Meanwhile Lucy calmly walked past with zero interest in any of them. As I walked by, the lady said to me, “you need to put your dog on a leash. It IS the law after all” – I’m sure you can imagine the sneering voice. Any other day, I would have wanted to smack this lady but today nothing could ruin my great mood. So I pretended I didn’t hear her.

Classic. Clearly she was mad /jealous ’cause her dog was so unruly ON the leash, while Lucy was so well-behaved OFF her leash.

Haters, I tell you. I can only feel sorry for people like this cause clearly she leads a miserable, unhappy life.

18
Jun
08

The Best Auntie ever…

Ayelet is just wonderful. While I was away missing Lucy like crazy, she sent a bunch of pictures and a link to her blog entry. You can read her entry below.

My Lucy Adventures

I have a house guest this week and it’s a very different guest than I’ve ever had. I am sleeping with this guest and it’s so strange. Her name is Lucy and she is the cutest Boston Terrier around. Sheila and Pete are on a cruise and I’ve adopted Lucy while they are away. I was only supposed to have her for the weekend but after talking to the dog walker on Monday, I decided (with Sheila’s consent) that it would be best to keep her here until Pete returns on Thursday.
When I went to the school performance on Thursday night with Amy, I saw that I had a text message and it was from Sheila. She asked if I could stop by and see Lucy on my way home after the show. So I did. Lucy was so excited to see me. I think she was just sad and so I took her on a short walk and spent some time with her.

On Friday night, I went to see Sex and the City in the city and got home after midnight. It was a really fun evening. The next morning I went to get my haircut in Emeryville and met Jackie. We picked Lucy on the way back and she went wild. We managed to get her in the car and to my house. It was a beautiful day so we went to sit in the backyard and watched Lucy explore. I thought it would be great to send Sheila and Pete some photos so I went to get my camera. I heard Jackie saying: “Oh my, Lucy just went through a hole in the fence.” I rushed out and we both ran up the hill and there she was on the other side.

My property is adjacent to 4 others, which means that I have 4 different fences. And what I discovered on this Saturday was that there were some major gaps that Lucy can escape through. Jackie is an angel. We started to evaluate the situation and I headed to the garage where I found some miscellaneous items that we could use to keep Lucy on my side of the fence. The first gap was easy. I had an old fireplace screen that was gathering dust in the garage. It fit perfectly and we wedged in a way that it was very secure.

The second gap was much more difficult as the ground was uneven. We started carrying large rocks up the hill. It was hard work and these rocks were heavy. I found 2 boards in the garage and the second gap was now gone but it was more of a make shift solution. And then, when we sat down and were so proud of our handy work, Miss Lucy jumped through another fence. It’s funny now but frustrating when it happened. We were lucky to find some chicken coop fence that we can secure. I also found some rope in the garage and so we were making some funny designs.

We sat down again feeling good that our Lucy would now be safe. But we were so wrong. We missed one area and in seconds, she was in the neighbor’s yard. So we got up again and managed to secure the fence. What was funny was that she has been to my place many times and never “escaped.” Even though we didn’t end up on a walk, we both felt we had a good work out especially after playing with Lucy for a while. She got under our skin and made us laugh. I was so grateful Jackie was there to help me and spend time together.

Mark showed up and we headed out to dinner. Lucy was at the door looking at us with her big, brown eyes and both J and I felt unbelievably guilty. Mark shook his head and said: “she’s a dog. She’ll be ok.” But when we looked back, she was leaning on the door giving us a sad look.
She is a dog and everything was ok when we got back home. We hung out and watched a movie. Lucy was a fun date but I don’t think she could read the subtitles. Sleeping was not easy. She snores! And she decided that I should get up at 5 am, which I didn’t. I let her out in the backyard when I got up. And that is when I was grateful that we fixed the fence. Lucy rushed up the hill and started barking. I wasn’t sure what she was barking about. And then, I saw it: a huge deer. If we didn’t know there was a gap, Lucy and the deer would have been together. It’s nice when life comes together!

We went on a fabulous walk on Sunday morning to the reservoir and then had breakfast outside. We were both exhausted.

I am now waiting for the dog walker to show up and take her on a walk.

28
May
08

The Big Scare

I am feeling much better, by the way… Phew! sickness aborted.

Anyhoo… thought I’d mention my big scare over the weekend. I almost lost my beloved Lucy.

I cannot bear to think about life without her… not to mention my husband would probably divorce me.

I typically let her walk with me off-leash, much to the chagrin of other dogwalkers who are obedient unlike me. She’s usually pretty good at following me or at least catching up to me if I get too far up the trail. She does have lots of distractions – the 1/2 eaten bagel near the HS, uncovering lost tennis balls, other doggie smells, and of course chasing her nemeses: squirrels! … And yes, I double-checked, nemeses IS the plural of nemesis.

On Sunday I wanted to experiment by doing a bit of run/walking. We were at one section of the trail and I started running. I looked back and saw her about 100 yards back darting out of some bushes. It looked like she was running out to catch up with me, so I kept running. A few paces later, I looked back and she was nowhere in sight. So, I backtracked, calling her, then angrily screaming her name (“that dog!” I muttered to myself). After a few minutes I started to get worried. I walked back and forth in that stretch of the trail several times and my mind started to race. Panicked I thought that perhaps she had shimmied under a fence and someone decided to take her inside. But, how could that happen so quickly? I started asking everyone who passed me if they had seen a black and white dog. Finally, two of the ladies I had asked called out to me and I saw that they were leading my little Lucy back. Thank GOODNESS I had reached out to them. Apparently Lucy ran out of the bushes, didn’t see me so she backtracked and was in a completely different section of the trail.

Tears of joy as Lucy raced toward me and into my arms. She ain’t a real baby but she’s my baby.