Here’s a pic from today’s greyhound hike up in Wawayanda State Park:
More to come . . .
From the land of squeezies
I’ve been off from work this week, and I thought that’d give me time to do some writing. Since we have guests coming over for Thanksgiving, cleaning up the house is my top priority. And since I haven’t cleaned the house in around a year, it’s taken some time.
This afternoon, I worked on the living room, which meant moving sofa, loveseat, coffee-table, chair, ottoman, and . . . Rufus’ bed and all his toys. He hasn’t been happy with all of my cleaning these last few days; since he’s compelled to get up and follow me from room to room, he hasn’t managed to take a good nap since Monday, when I went out for some errands.
He was really unhappy about having the entire living room turned upside down. In order to make him feel better (and to make room for sweeping), I decided to pile all his toys up on his bed (except for the ones that he carried off to his other bed). Then I realized it would make an awfully cute picture for you:
Have a happy Thanksgiving!
What It Is: 11/24/08
What I’m reading: Finished that Ring Lardner book last week, and have been un-booked for a few days.
What I’m listening to: Distant Hum
What I’m watching: Home for the Holidays, our annual Thanksgiving week tradition. And Rushmore, which I really should own a copy of.
What I’m drinking: G&T with Plymouth & Q Tonic. Drank too often during the conference last week, so I’ll take it easy this week. Funny thing about Q Tonic: I bought a 4-pack of it in Whole Foods for $6.49. Subsequently, I’ve found it in a pair of higher-end liquor stores for $7.75 and $7.99. This may be the first product that’s ever been priced cheaply at Whole Foods.
What Rufus is up to: Eating a chunk of his food-scoop’s plastic handle, because the idiotic dog-walker left it upstairs with him after feeding him while I was away. He was also up to vomiting up pieces of plastic for the next few days.
Where I’m going: I may head into the city or Princeton to visit friends at some point.
What I’m happy about: No biz-travel till March! No office till December! And meeting up with old friends during my trip last week! All happiness-inducing!
What I’m sad about: The biz with Rufus. People goof on me for being a micro-managing control freak, but in things are where they are for a reason. You move stuff out of place and things can go wrong. Leave something that smells like his food in reach of a dog who’s sitting around bored all day because his owner’s away, he’s gonna end up chewing on it. So I’m sad about the fact that I have to trust other human beings not to mess something up. But I’ve been sad about that for a few decades now. On the plus side, my associate editor is doing a great job of handling our Corporate Capabilities profiles for the big year-end issue.
What I’m pondering: Whether I’ll really get all of my to do list of house-stuff taken care of in the next few days.
What It Is: 11/10/08
What I’m reading: Finished The Spy in the Ointment
What I’m listening to: Ten Short Songs About Love
What I’m watching: Tried Sweeney Todd, but got bored.
What I’m drinking: Wet by Beefeater G&Ts, but I picked up some Plymouth this weekend. While I was at the liquor store, I noticed that an allegedly high-end gin — New Amsterdam — I was wary of when I first saw it a few months ago is now on sale for the rotgut price of $18.99 for 1.75 L. If you’re at the same price point as Gordon’s and Gilbey’s, you are officially a cheap-ass gin, regardless of your stylish packaging.
What Rufus is up to: Another greyhound hike in Wawayanda, with a post-hike feeding frenzy!
Where I’m going: Atlanta next week for the AAPS meeting. I’m hoping to meet up with some friends from grad school while I’m down there, but that’ll entail blowing off a biz-type dinner at some point.
What I’m happy about: My wife is still alive in the NFL Loser pool that I flunked out of in its first week. Oh, and greyhound racing got banned in Massachusetts!
What I’m sad about: That I haven’t taken care of my mammoth landscaping plans or gotten a fence put in the backyard yet.
What I’m pondering: Jesse Jackson – crocodile tears or just a moment without charlatanry? The question is moot!
Go, Lakers
The weather was really wonderful yesterday morning, so we decided to take Rufus on an extended walk around Skyline Lake. I don’t recall ever walking all the way around the lake when I was growing up here, but I enjoy meandering around with our boy and looking at the environs. I’m sure I won’t in wintertime, but I’ll cut down his food a little so he doesn’t pack on the pounds.
Anyway, in the last third of our walk, we stopped for a few moments at the lakeside and I busted out the iPhone to take some pix. Here’s the best one:
After, we went down to our weekly farmers’ market. It’s the last one till next May, so Rufus made sure to stop by all his regular booths and get lots of affection. In our conversations with other shoppers, we found four different families that have owned greyhounds in the past. Which is freaky, is all.
Anyway, no Wawayanda hike today, as we’ve got tickets for the Cowboys/Giants game, so here’s your cute pic of the week of Rufus Noir, Ace Dogtective:
Low turnout
We didn’t get as many trick-or-treaters as we did last year, so Rufus had an easier evening than I’d anticipated. He barked like a maniac everytime the doorbell rang, of course. I’d put his leash on him and open the door, at which point he’d invariably wag his tail and try to get all the kids to pet him or put their faces close enough for a good lick.
All in all, he had a better day than Jill Rappaport’s dog:
Fatty elbow and the end of dog-days
I had a sad experience on Monday night. Rufus has a hygroma or fatty tumor on the “elbow” of his left foreleg. Never having finished (or, in fact, started) veterinary school, I decided to take him down to the vet to get it checked out. Also, I wanted to get him weighed, because I think he’s put on a bit of weight, but I can’t really tell. (To cut to the chase: the vet thinks the “elbow bump” is nothing serious, Roo is 81.4 lbs., up 3 from May, and the assistant found a tick behind his ear.)
So we drove down for our 7:45 appointment. Rufus got to meet a couple of dogs in the lobby, and also got to sniff at the cardboard Pet Taxi box that was holding a foul-tempered 13-lb. cat. When the cat hissed and jumped inside the box, Roo almost had a heart attack. The rest of us laughed.
The offices were pretty warm so, since we had to wait for a while, I took Rufus out to parking lot to walk around. He was happy that they had a fake fire hydrant in their doggie-area. Back in the lobby, he was pretty well-behaved, although I think he wants to get a day job in reception, since he kept trying to get behind the desk.
[You may find the rest of this post pretty sad or depressing, so feel free to punt on it. If you want to read on, just click “more”.] Continue reading “Fatty elbow and the end of dog-days”
Way-way-yonda
Hut-hut-HIKE!
For weeks now, we’ve been meaning to join the Hiking Greyhounds group at Wawayanda State Park. These grey owners hike every Sunday at 9 a.m., but we’ve had various reasons (read: made various excuses) not to join them. This weekend, we figured, was likely the last one for great foliage, and wouldn’t be so cold that we’d be dissuaded from rejoining the group again.
So at 8:30 this morning, we drove out to the park, joined our fellow grey owners (many of whom we’d met before), put Rufus’ coat on, and got walking! I forgot to keep track of which trails we walked (Hoeferlin and Black Eagle, and maybe part of the Appalachian Trail), but I’m pretty sure we covered about 2.5 miles over 80 minutes. I’d never taken Rufus on an hour-plus trek before, but he never flagged, which means I’m just an overcautious ninny.
Since we got him, we wondered why Rufus only ran 8 races in his career before he was cashiered and kicked onto the rescue circuit. A common note from several of his races was “collision on first turn.” During the walk today, we realized that this wasn’t limited to the racecourse; Rufus spent so much of his time bumping into the other dogs, we nicknamed him the Supercollider.
Why don’t you check out the slide show?
What It Is: 10/13/08
What I’m reading: Samaritan
What I’m listening to: Body of Song
What I’m watching: 30 Rock, season 1
What I’m drinking: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I’m still on my one-drink-a-week routine, weirdly enough. Which means I haven’t had a G&T in more than 2 weeks.
What Rufus is up to: Attempted rape at the paws of a savoy down at the local farmers’ market on Saturday. Oh, the shame! He also got to take a short hike to Ramapo Lake, and stopped in at the Garden State Barkway to get his nails clipped, so on balance it was an okay weekend for him.
Where I’m going: Nowhere this week. I really oughtta get into NYC sometime.
What I’m happy about: My mom’s busted wrist healed well enough for her to go on her hiking trip to Utah this week. And that official VM pal Paul Di Filippo had his new book launch with comics legend Jim Woodring out in Seattle!
What I’m sad about: Only three weeks left in the presidential campaign! No!
What I’m pondering: Why this