Creepy

Walking into my building this morning, two people were milling around the front door. Seems there was a break-in at the techie store on our lower level. Eight computers were taken and then they got into the rest of the building where the condos are. Several units had been attempted, but none were actually entered. Apparently this happened early Sunday morning.

This is especially frightening to me because Gazza went to the door and started barking out of a dead sleep about three in the morning. I figured she had had a dream or heard something that set her off- I didn't imagine it was an actual break-in. Gazza is a big dog and I don't doubt she would attack if she saw me in danger (as evidenced by the moth episode), so in that I'm somewhat less scared. It's just that the fact she reacted at all makes the whole thing more real.

When I think of robberies, I think of men in black with stocking caps, face masks, and guns- like the kind on Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (hi Munoz!). The reality is that they're like anybody you'd see on the street. Anybody your dog might bark at.

Gymnastics tryouts are next month

We jumped from late summer to early winter here with little to show for the interim except for a brief explosion of color. And while that was indeed quite a show, I'm not sure it was worth it. Ask me in the spring.

The strip of grass that The Beast frequents is now plastered with wet leaves. They are actually pretty slick. So when Gazza squatted to do her business, her back legs slipped out from under her and she ended up doing the splits, help up only by her front legs. I couldn't help laughing out loud. She briefly struggled to get back into position, but in the end she just peed there doing the splits.

I'm sure the cars passing by thought I was unstable standing there laughing at my dog in the rain, but you would have too!

Just call her "Grace"

I swear to you as I was laying* here in bed, I watched the dog curl up into a ball and poke herself in the eye with her back paw. She turned to look if I had seen, sort of licked her lips, and put her head back down. Who am I to judge, anyway?

*Again with my geek crush. Go learn something!

Before the 55 pound beast crawls onto my lap for the evening

The Beast does reasonably well during the strings of days when I work (of course, today was my last day until mid January, but whatever). I feel a little bad* because by day three, she obviously has accumulated energy that even Bob can't run off in two or three hours. Plus she gets all attention-needy. 

She has started doing this thing now when I get home and take her out to do business. She hobbyhorses down the hallway, doubling back to me, front paws in the air as she dances on her hind legs. And then when we walk out, she hops and pounces her way to the grass. The thing is, though, she holds her head up high, sniffing the air and everything she passes by. She's so giddy that it makes me feel like I'm taking a prisoner who has been in isolation for a month outside for the first time! She lollygags the whole way back inside and then tears and leaps back to our door. I laugh every time, but a little part of me feels guilty. 

And then I think about how I only work three days a week and that she goes to the dog park for several hours every day. At least. Dog? You and me, we're ok.

*bad vs badly? May I direct you here? I love, love, love this woman- I give you permission to geek out and read her other stuff.

What's "combover" in Italian?

Gazza's fauxhawk is getting really long. In fact, it won't stand up straight unless she's really dirty and the mud that's caked in provides structural support. So when I came home tonight from work I had to laugh. She'd gone out in the pouring rain today with Bob (dogwalker extraordinaire) and then obviously been cleaned off with a hose. Her poor little fauxhawk now looks like a bad combover as it lies on one side of her head.

The fashionistas of Seattle, that's us!