The days just seem to be passing by. Funny how that happens in LA. In NYC we used to count the days until summer and really value it’s length. Here, it’s pretty much been summer for the entire six months we’ve lived here. I’m not complaining, but when each day looks like the last, it gets difficult to notice days passing by. Not working doesn’t help. How do you count down to the weekend when Wednesday’s schedule is pretty much the same as Sunday’s?

I spend a lot of time at my little folding/card-table “desk” Charlie spends a lot of time sleeping on his bed next to me or wandering around the house looking for someplace else to nap. He loves sitting on my lap while I work. I don’t mind it so much either.

We’re at the dog park most days and take walks around the neighborhood. A lot of days Charlie runs errands with me; he loves getting in the car – I think he loves it enough that the ride is worth it even when he has to wait in the hot car for me to go into a “no dogs allowed” store. On my days at home, he keeps me damn good company. This has certainly been the summer of fun for the two of us.

It wasn’t always like this and won’t always be. At some point I’ll have to get a job. I guess.

We didn’t have a lot going on this week, so we invited Desty to stay for a few nights. She’s cute and we loved having her and she and Charlie had fun together, but like I usually feel after a few nights with just about any houseguest, by the time she was ready to leave, Charlie was hiding in a “safe” spot and probably wasn’t too sad to see her go!

We spent most of this week just getting by. Unlike last week, I didn’t have much work, we didn’t have any pressing errands and even my training is slowing down. The dogs were good company this week.

This week was a busy one for both me and Charlie. And Elizabeth too, actually. Elizabeth’s busy with her usual stuff – planning exciting events all over the country. Things might be slow in the event world in general, but no one’s told Elizabeth that just yet!

For Charlie, he’s in the middle of his third play date with Dusty this week. Actually, I think he might be over her for right now. He was excited to see her at first, but is currently curled up pretty tightly in a ball, mostly ignoring her.

For me, I’ve been in the busiest part of my Ironman training for the last 10 days. Training every day, averaging over 2 hours a day. During the week, it’s more like 1.5 hours a day, with the remainder on weekends, but still, between getting to training, actually training, getting home, showering and recovering and eating (!), it takes up a ton of time. In addition to that, I’ve been doing some real, honest-to-goodness work. I’ve been doing consulting work off-on-and for a couple clients and one of them has been keeping me really busy for the last couple of weeks. (That’s a good thing! Making a little scratch always is.) Also, I picked up another semi-client and have been enjoying working with him.

Busy week, yes. Fun week too.

Charlie had a playdate today.

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

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!