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Playdate

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Charlie had a playdate today.

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Her name is Dusty and she’s a Japanese Chin. They guarded the house together by barking at the FedEx delivery guy.

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In New York, between regular visits to the Washington Square and Union Square dog parks and his days at Wet Nose for daycare, Charlie spent a lot of time with other dogs. Here, partly because I’m around so much and partly because the dog parks here aren’t as good as the ones in NYC, he doesn’t spend as much time with other dogs. And, giving him human emotions, I think he’s lonely. Despite the fact that he had a busy weekend, full of guests around the house and time with me and Elizabeth, he was pretty playful today with Dusty.

They also look pretty good together!

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Monday, July 27th, 2009

In general my days of unemployment have been pretty good. I keep busy hanging out with Charlie, running errands and taking care of things around the house, working out, doing some consulting work for a couple of small “clients” and, of course, my job search. Often, those days go by too quickly to get everything done. It’s strange that unemployment would make me too busy, right? (As a side note, I remember this happening with my dad when he retired. There were days when he was too busy to get to all his tasks, tasks that would have been squeezed around a full day of work before he retired! It just happens, I guess.)

Then there are days like today when everything seems a little slower and the day could last forever. Both Charlie and I felt the ennui today.

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Charlie’s too tired to move much, I don’t have any strongly pressing responsibilities which starts me getting frustrated and bored. After a few minutes sitting here and a few there and a couple of errands, we finally settled in the shade of our backyard. Not that I’m complaining…

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Shorn

Friday, July 24th, 2009

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When we lived in NYC, we called it a “summer cut”, but now that we’re in LA (where every season is summer), I guess it’s just a run-of-the-mill haircut. It suits him well though!

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It’s been a busy but mostly uneventful week since I got back from my trip to Death Valley. Elizabeth’s been away on work, so it was supposed to just be me and the pup. We ended up having a house guest for part of the week. He was nice company for both us of us.

I actually had a job interview last Friday. It went pretty well and I’m well qualified and well suited for the position. I should hear more soon, but you never know.

Gonna miss my guy! (and my girl)

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

I’m headed out of town for 5 days! I’m sure gonna miss my family!

More fun writing to come after I get home!

Dirty Dog, Clean Dog

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Charlie decided to roll around in the mud at the dog park today. He got himself filthy.
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He wasn’t that clean to begin with, so it was the perfect time for a bath. He doesn’t love the bath, but he doesn’t hate it either – maybe we don’t wash him enough for him to remember to run when he hears the water start running! We take him to get professionally groomed every six-or-so weeks, but getting the mud off him today was an emergency situation, one I would handle myself. Being unemployed, I don’t really have any excuse for not bathing him. It’s not like he can make it that difficult for me! (As I was washing him I started thinking that maybe I could become a dog washer/groomer. Then I realized there’s no way I have the patience to do this with anyone else’s dog.)

All lathered up, futilely plotting his escape from the tub:
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Mostly rinsed off:
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Getting dried off by mom:
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Every time he gets a bath, once we’ve gotten him mostly towel dry, he does this thing where he shakes, runs around in circles and rolls around on something familiar – at our old place it used to be this ugly brown loveseat, today it was his devil pillow-bed. He does it frantically, and we always get a kick out of it:

Fluffy, clean dog enjoying a post bath special treat:
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and now he’s fast asleep!

Is it

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

depression or boredom or exhaustion? Little guy’s been moving pretty slow ever since we got home from vacation. Elizabeth thinks he’s lonely and needs a friend. I’m not sure what I think yet, but tomorrow we’re gonna have a fun day together and get him out of his funk!

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If only…

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Charlie was as big as his shadow.

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Sometimes he sure thinks he is.

Another wonderful travel day

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Vacation was fun, especially since we did get a couple days of sun out there, but it was finally time to come home. Since we were coming from the eastern end of Long Island, our travel day started early, early early. I mean leaving the house at 5:30am early. It was a car ride to JFK, then the AirTrain to the terminal:

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Dogs are absolutely not allowed out of their cases while on the airplane. No way. Most of the time, the flight attendants don’t even like the case to come out from under the seat. This morning though, Charlie got lucky and spent a good chunk of the flight asleep on my lap, hiding underneath my sweatshirt. If the flight attendants saw, they pretended not to! (Big props to the Virgin America crew from this morning’s flight – they were an awesome group. The pilots actually let us take a picture in the cockpit before take off! And the flight attendants were super cool.) Charlie was a good traveler today and quietly slept nearly the entire time. The photo’s dark, but if you look closely, you can see a little black nose poking out:

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Because we don’t travel so lightly – luggage, laptops, snacks, a bike, Charlie – Charlie got to ride on the luggage cart once we got to LAX:

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And now we’re back home! Phew. It was a great trip, but we’re all exhausted. When we got home, Charlie took me on a good walk around the neighborhood and now it’s time for him to take another nap. Me, well, I’m back at it – “it” being reality. My job search beckons.

Finally

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

After days of gray skies and rain, today was a day for sitting outside by the pool and a trip to the beach!

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We learned last summer that while Charlie loves sitting by the pool and that he can swim, he’s not such a fan of being in the pool! Here he is getting the f out of the water as quickly as possible:

Bi-coastal living

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

Talk about a sweet life. Living in LA, summering in the Hamptons.

Charlie, Elizabeth and I flew back east this morning for about 10 days vacation in East Hampton. (I know, it’s funny that unemployed people get “vacations”…)

Thankfully Charlie made it through security without a hitch.

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He was a great traveler today. He slept nearly the whole way in his house underneath the seat in front of Elizabeth. Barely made a peep. Thankfully the flight was quick and easy. Someday maybe I’ll post the story about one of the last times we flew cross country, and Charlie’s “accident” all over my lap.