Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day offers two opportunities: Opportunity 1 is to get out of the dog house. You can guess Opportunity 2 easily as it is the obverse: getting into the dog house. Hopefully my male readers have availed themselves of all means to embrace Opportunity 1.

Yes, I realize that saying that is a wee-bit on the gender biased side of the scales. There does seem to be more obligations for our men on this day than for women. But in men are the wooers still no matter how far women have come in trampling over some of the evolutionary roots of human courtship.

I had a dog run today. It ended up being a longer day than planned. When I arrived on the lot to get the Ford Freestyle, it was blocked in the back by a pickup truck and trailer. In front it was blocked by a trailer. I managed to pick up the trailer an move it out of the way to pull frontwards. To say that my body still has a vivid memory of that event is an understatement.

But, I accomplished my mission and had 8 puppies (in a large crate), 3 cat crates 3 lab girls sisters and a hound dog. The lab girls were NOT cat friendly, and I had to cover their crates, though they wanted to play tug of war with the sheet. Thankfully they settled down, and we had a quiet drive.

A New Leash on Life: A reader, RW, was most kind to suggest that I find a Chinese supplier. He provided a link. And.....it does look very promising. I'm doing some exploratories with different contacts to see if this looks like something to pursue. A dog's lead is very symbolic of their deep connection with us and us with them. I did a trial pitch to one of my former colleagues who was VP of Sales and Marketing. (I always want to abbreviate that to S&M, but it just never looks right, though I would say that there are likely many shared characteristics with the darker suggestion).

I showed him my leash, and he was amazed that I had made it. I'm not sure that it said so much for the leash as much as it may have said about his surprise at my skills to produce one. Anyway, it was good conversation over a martini!

I asked the bartender how business was. He said weekends were just as busy, but weekday traffic has lessened.

As I write this, my husband has come in (from making a dog 3-board dog fence extension) to tell me that he has not done too well. Apparently he has charged by daughter with procuring a box of chocolates. She, unilaterally, decided that spending $30 on a box of Godiva chocolates was more than I deserved. She did not bother to tell my husband this until it was too late.

Now, my husband's confession is a bit of paradoxical. Here is a man who has spent the better part of his day (and another day) to dig post holes and cut and nail boards to keep our dogs safely contained. This particular extension is to keep Chumbalina (a/k/a Macy and Fat Monkey) from terrorizing the mail person, the UPS man and any of my neighbor's other guests when they have to drive into HIS driveway. That Macy sees it as her duty to do this is unacceptable. As my husband and Tim are such good friends, a considerable amount of thought went into the gate latch.

We want an enclosure to keep our dogs from chasing vehicles that can hurt them. We do not want an enclosure to keep our friends from visiting. I find that value to be enormously more than a box of chocolates. For my own part, I'm grilling lamb chops. Simple dinner of grilled lamb chops, salad and baked potato and good bread. Accompanied by some Greg Norman Shiraz. I'm having a $120 (including tip) restaurant dinner for about $25. And there's not much effort involved. I normally have crab cakes with spicy avocado sauce, but that's more effort than the energy I have available.

I hope that you enjoyed your time with your special someone.

The market?.........ahh....love is more important than money. We'll save that conversation for another day.