Long Days of Great Import

Hoooo! What a day! Long, steady, and enjoyable, though there were no really big-ticket items in it. Here's the rundown, as written in an email to Janneke about ten minutes ago:

"Up at the crack of 8:00, out the door around 10:00 to Stop & Shop; from there, here, to put away the refrigeratables, and thence to Caretaker, where we arrived just in time for closing. But we grabbed a few things. Back out the door to Wild Oats and to the vet's, where I bought a bag of Science Diet Puppy Food! Tomorrow we may go to P-field to buy a doggie bed, a little choke collar, etc. We'll see.

"Then back home for lunch, which was eaten heartily; a run to the dump and to buy another 20-gallon garbage can, for the dog food, which is now installed. Around 3:00, Mike from Good Dog Rescue called, and we switched over to the Mungaboo email address. He received the photos, which serve in lieu of a home visit, and we talked about the interview I had done with the foster mom. And he said now he just has to check references, and if all that gets done, then next Saturday we'll be picking her up!

"House cleaning until Kate came, and continuing after her arrival; I started making dinner around 5:30, and we at at around 6:30. Lettuce and shredded carrot salad with a dressing that Q and I liked, but T didn't; cake and chocolates for dessert. We all watched the religion episode of the Simpsons, then went outside for a bike ride that was long & fun. (T fell twice, but she was OK.) Inside, where we watched "Nature" ("The Andes") and ate popcorn; then they brushed teeth and hit the hay. It's now 9:46 PM, and soon I'll go in and tell them it's lights out. (They're in T's room playing "UNo".) I was emptying the dishwasher in order to be able to put all the dirties from tonight into it when I decided I needed a break. So I wrote you this.

"Hoooo! What a day! I'll check the weather tomorrow - if it's hot, we're hittin' the pool. Me cago en Dios y todos los santos.

"Names the kids were brainstorming at dinner (despite being told that we adults (I) would be naming the dog):

"Sunshine
"Biscuits
"Pumpkin

"I have to say, I like them all.

"OK, off to be Mr Responsible. Hope all's well -

"Joe"

So there you have it. Kate is here for a sleepover, and that's going well. They claimed just a little while ago that they couldn't sleep, but I've heard nothing but snoring since. T was upset yesterday because she hadn't fully realized that Janneke was going to be away for a couple of weeks now, and said that she needed to sleep with someone. Q said the same thing. So we all three crowded into the master suite and made a go of it. I slept elsewhere from about 12:00 to 5:00, since I had gotten so many elbows and knees in various tender bits of me and hadn't been able to doze off. But around 5:00 I went back in and lay ON TOP of the covers, with the elbows and knees pinned beneath on either side of me. And slept well 'til morning. That's a good trick - put that one in your back pocket.

Mike, the guy from Good Dog Rescue, did indeed call me today, and it looks like it's all over bar the shouting. They'll call Ronadh and Mark and/or Brad and Betsy, all of whom have been paid off, and then the vet, who has no idea what really goes on here. And then it should be next Saturday! Here's a link to their website - you can see the dogs there that are available for adoption. (I won't tell you which one is the one we're after, but I will tell you that Mike told me that many people - I believe the number 10 was thrown out - have posted a claim on her, but that we're the ones he'd been waiting for for this particular dog, because we have kids.) If all goes according to plan, as I said in the email, come this time next week we'll be cuddlin' a pup! We'll have to drive to Connecticut to pick her up off the doggie Underground Railroad - check out the transportation page, which is cool - probably at the Glastonbury stop, which is the closest to us, I think. (Funny they don't stop in MA. Must be some kind of law agin' it here.) I hauled up the baby gate for the stairs from the basement today, and will probably go get Hobie's old carrying crate when I'm done with this. It's all very exciting.

On the deck front, I will never, ever be able to repay our good friend Matt for the entire workday - The Entire! Day! - that he spent here, basically saving our house from rot and erecting the skeleton of our deck. I helped, but he was confidently in charge the whole time, and gave us any number of things from his house - plywood, insulation, flashing - that he just had laying around. As he was about to leave, I said, "Now, I'll be expecting a bill, Matt." And he said, "Well, don't look for it TOO soon." I'd bet you just about anything he's never going to bill us. But that's OK - I have a counterattack planned. Because I had already invited him and his son Alex to accompany me and Q to the Patriots-Packers game in December. And when we go, and he says, "What do we owe you for these tickets?", I'll say, "I'll send you a bill. Don't look for it TOO soon, though." Which will echo in the halls of human history as the most symmetrical and touching buddy-buddy moment ever. We may just have to clink beer bottle necks as I say it.

Man, I'm beat. I'm off to accomplish a few things and then hit the hay. Take care, brush your hair...