Good Vacation
This has been a good vacation. Thursday and Friday functioned as pretty normal weekend days -- Galen and I met cjsmith for tea and pastries Thursday afternoon, and other than that I mostly slept in and did bits of housework and lazed about reading.
This morning I took Galen, brooksmoses, cobalt_00, and argh128 hiking. We went out to Arastradero, because it's close and they allow dogs. It was kind of warm, but we had a good tromp around one loop, decided it wasn't sufficient hiking and did another, similar, loop on the other side of the road. Poor Galen got totally wiped out -- just before we reached the road on our way back, he found a tiny patch of shade and lay down in his very-firmly-not-going-anywhere position (front legs crossed, one back leg sticking way out to the side). So we didn't go anywhere for a while.
Galen was really good about other dogs on the trail -- quite a few passed us, and while I made sure to get us off to the side in case he wanted to react, he pretty much ignored them all. He may have been too tired to take notice, but hey, if that works I'll take it! He also met a poodle while we were pondering the map in between loops, and was both fairly calm when the poodle approached and polite when greeting the other dog. (Apparently he got to meet another one while I was in the restroom afterwards. I didn't see how that went, so I can't tell you, but I didn't hear any barking so I assume fairly well!)
After the hike, I shared out bread pudding samples (no more bread pudding :( I will have to make more now; maybe with apricots instead of raisins, I like apricots) and got compliments :). Then andres_s_p_b, chinders, and I went to see Toy Story 3. It's good (but intense! -- Andres was surprised it didn't get a PG, as there's quite a lot of peril), although the 3d glasses gave me a headache.
Then we went to dog training. This was our last class for Obedience for Dog Sports, and it was pretty low-key, which is good because Galen was still really tired. We all showed off our various projects (one dog played blackjack -- so much better than poker!), then played a timed-course game with about a dozen little stations of things to do (stay while owner does jumping jacks, do a couple hand touches, switch from heeling on the left to heeling on the right, stuff like that). Galen tied for last on the course, but he did everything right and the spread was only about 30 seconds, so that is just fine. He ignored the next dog growling at him, yay! Also we found a tick I missed when I checked after hiking (boo) and a funny lump on his thigh, so come Monday we should call the vet.
Tomorrow will be another quiet day, and then Monday we will have a D&D game in the morning and chinders and I will go meet eeyore_grrl and company for a concert in the afternoon. Then Tuesday it's back to work. It feels a little odd to have the busy days be the ones around the holiday instead of the holiday proper, but it's a good mix of resting and doing fun things overall.
This morning I took Galen, brooksmoses, cobalt_00, and argh128 hiking. We went out to Arastradero, because it's close and they allow dogs. It was kind of warm, but we had a good tromp around one loop, decided it wasn't sufficient hiking and did another, similar, loop on the other side of the road. Poor Galen got totally wiped out -- just before we reached the road on our way back, he found a tiny patch of shade and lay down in his very-firmly-not-going-anywhere position (front legs crossed, one back leg sticking way out to the side). So we didn't go anywhere for a while.
Galen was really good about other dogs on the trail -- quite a few passed us, and while I made sure to get us off to the side in case he wanted to react, he pretty much ignored them all. He may have been too tired to take notice, but hey, if that works I'll take it! He also met a poodle while we were pondering the map in between loops, and was both fairly calm when the poodle approached and polite when greeting the other dog. (Apparently he got to meet another one while I was in the restroom afterwards. I didn't see how that went, so I can't tell you, but I didn't hear any barking so I assume fairly well!)
After the hike, I shared out bread pudding samples (no more bread pudding :( I will have to make more now; maybe with apricots instead of raisins, I like apricots) and got compliments :). Then andres_s_p_b, chinders, and I went to see Toy Story 3. It's good (but intense! -- Andres was surprised it didn't get a PG, as there's quite a lot of peril), although the 3d glasses gave me a headache.
Then we went to dog training. This was our last class for Obedience for Dog Sports, and it was pretty low-key, which is good because Galen was still really tired. We all showed off our various projects (one dog played blackjack -- so much better than poker!), then played a timed-course game with about a dozen little stations of things to do (stay while owner does jumping jacks, do a couple hand touches, switch from heeling on the left to heeling on the right, stuff like that). Galen tied for last on the course, but he did everything right and the spread was only about 30 seconds, so that is just fine. He ignored the next dog growling at him, yay! Also we found a tick I missed when I checked after hiking (boo) and a funny lump on his thigh, so come Monday we should call the vet.
Tomorrow will be another quiet day, and then Monday we will have a D&D game in the morning and chinders and I will go meet eeyore_grrl and company for a concert in the afternoon. Then Tuesday it's back to work. It feels a little odd to have the busy days be the ones around the holiday instead of the holiday proper, but it's a good mix of resting and doing fun things overall.