Co-Conspirators

When I take the dogs for their daily walk thru the 'hood, I have them on one retractable leash with a "Y" splitter at the end.  They both have harnesses on and we go about a mile every evening.  The other night Britni the beagle stopped in the middle of the walk and pooped.  No problem - I have a poop bag holder attached to the leash so I pulled out a bag and started to pick it up.  Mocha must have thought it was a good idea so she decides to poop too.  Since I already had a bag out, I thought I would grab up her poop as well.  But the bags are only so big so it was a little tricky getting it all in one bag.  While I am focused on that task, Britni managed to wriggle free from her harness and bolt off down the road.  Mocha started off after her and she just about pulled me off my feet when she hit the end of the leash.  I finished grabbing up the poop and knotted the bag and we took off after Britni.  She darted into someone's open roll up garage door and started rummaging around.  The homeowners had a screen door from the garage into the house so I started yelling, "hello, hello" into the garage.  The homeowner comes out WITH his yellow lab.  And it was on.  Britni was zipping around, his dog was jumping around, I was trying to keep Mocha under control and not lose the over-stuffed poop bag.  Finally I managed to stuff the beagle back into her harness, offered up my apologies, and down the road we went.  The guy was really cool - fortunately.

Work had a few challenges the past couple of weeks.  Sometimes when it rains it pours and everything goes wrong at once. But I got through it.  And I still say my worst day here is better than my best day at my old job...

Lucie's long lost half-sister and her husband spent the night with us last night.  They are originally from Colombia like Lucie, but they now live in New Zealand.  He is a PhD and they both work in social marketing.  They are on sabbatical for a few months so they went took a trip through Europe and now they are on their way to Lucie's brother in Phoenix, then a sister in Seattle.  Pretty interesting people.  Lots of Spanish with a few "Shawn's" mixed in (they did speak very good English).  We had a fun time with them and they went for a walk with us and the dogs at the pond.  Mocha actually saw an animal bigger than her today - we ran into a bunch of people on horseback.

Started the pool close down today and will finish next week.  I am off to Dallas the week of the 11th and I want it all done before then.