Black magic

Yeah, it's been a long time, I know.

We went to Chicago last weekend to find an apartment to live in while I go to Kellogg. If you want to see pics of the trip, check this album out. As for the apartment, you'll have to email me. It's pretty awesome, though. And the really cool part is that it's 3 blocks from the lake, perfect for walking dogs - something that's going to be a frequent thing with no backyard. I'm actually a little worried about the dogs in the winter... What happens when it gets to sub-zero temperatures? Does their urine freeze on the way out? I hope they tolerate it, else it will be a pair of very tough winters.

Anyway, while we were gone this weekend, Chili stayed with some friends. He was his normal self, eating everything, but all in all very behaved. He did pick up a new nickname, though. "Black Magic". Apparently, there was a piece of cake on a coffee table, and he walked by and ate it without breaking stride. The quickness gave him the name, but the quote of the weekend had nothing to do with cake. Chili inherited my bladder - he can hold it comfortably all day without discomfort. He went outside over the weekend, and our friend's dad exclaimed, "Black Magic can pee for over a minute!" That's my boy!

Now both dogs are slugged out, as usual. It's tough being a dog.

Update

Does this belly make me look fat?

I'm very concerned...

Life as normal

It's been too long since I've posted, and I have no excuse besides it being the most stressful week I've had in a long time. I didn't get admitted to UNC and am on the waitlist for UVA. Home for lunch right now, I got a nice reminder from the dogs that the world has not ended and life will continue on as normal, no matter what I do.

I was walking aimlessly in the house, partly because I have a (nother) cold and partly because I'm tired from getting up early to do P90X, when I caught a flash of black and brown in the backyard. When I snuck to the window to spy, I was greeted with a sight that made me smile. They were playing, as they always do. Chili was taunting Cozby with a stick, or sometimes a toy, as if Cozby wanted it, then they would come together in a clash of kangaroo fighting. Upon separation, Chili would do a couple of sprint laps around the yard, each time coming just close enough to Cozby to make him think there was going to be another encounter, but far enough away that he could continue his laps. Then, another clash of kangaroo fighting. Rinse, dry, repeat.

Sometimes I envy the dogs, and this is one of those times. Their only real stress is when we don't feed them until late, and their only responsibility is to do nothing. Of course, there could be squirrells in the backyard. That would be a disaster.

Alarm clock

Britten got home last night, and we were going to sleep in this morning before going to the gym together. It was an excellent plan, but we hadn't had a normal weekend in so long that we didn't remember that our the dogs get up at the same time, no matter what. I've decided that alarm clocks, no matter how furry, are not cool.

So, we let them outside briefly, then put them in their crates and went back to sleep. No gym, we slept in too late.

Later in the day, we took naps (all four of us). I don't know why, but I can't believe that the dogs are slugged out, after all that sleeping. But that's what they're doing.

The Great Kong Experiment

"The Great Kong Experiment" is much better than "The King Kong Experiment".

I think that getting the Kongs was the best idea I've ever had. Shall I list the reasons why? Definitely.

1. Peanut butter is much cheaper than rawhide chips.
2. The dogs attacked the Kongs with a crazy amount of energy. All that could be heard from that side of the room for a solid 15 minutes was tongue trying to get peanut butter. Gross, but exponentially better than Chili regurgitating rawhide for an hour.
   
3. Even Cozby wanted to get every last molecule of peanut butter out.
4. Cozby's tongue is apparently more dexterous than Chili's, so Chili was done after Cozby. I never thought I'd be discussing the dexterity of a dog's tongue. I feel all growed up!
5. The Kong is shaped such that Chili can neither pick it up nor tear it into little bits. That means that the Kong will last, and Chili can't steal it from Cozby. Although even if he could, there wouldn't be any peanut butter to get (see #3).

With all the exertion of extracting peanut butter, they're both comatose now. I hope they don't get the runs, that would be most unfortunate.

Victims of Syracuse

Last night, Syracuse played UConn in the Big East basketball tournament. The game went to six overtimes. Only two other games have gone to six overtimes and one to seven overtimes in the history of NCAA basketball. What does this have to do with our dogs? Not much, except that I stayed up to watch the whole game, so I was exhausted all day today.

Even with tiredness, I knew that I needed to have a workout. It was one of those workouts where you just survive, and I was even more exhausted afterward. I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and something caught my eye.

Kongs. What a treat they would be for the mutts! Didn't happen. I was so exhausted that I did my own slug impression on the couch watching basketball again. (Did I mention that I love this time of year?) I'm reminded of a quote from "The Ghost and the Darkness" ... "In point of fact, it didn't [work]. But I'm convinced the theory is sound." They'll have their Kongs tomorrow. And it will be great.

And to bring the whole thing full circle, Syracuse just beat West Virginia. In overtime. (Only one this time...)

Dude, that's gross

Britten is gone to her coaching class again, so it's me and the boys hanging at home. Thankfully, there's lots of college basketball on, seeing as it's tournament time. I'm still crossing my fingers that Davidson makes it into the big dance after losing in their conference tournament. That, and I think that Curry should come back for his senior year since the rest of the team is going to be awesome next year. Plus, it's nice to see the Wildcats dominate (ish).

Digression aside, the dogs and I fell into our normal solitary routine - they're slugs and I do whatever. Two highlights have come out of the night. First, something normal, but something that never ceases to make me chuckle. After I feed the dogs, Cozby always comes over to wherever I am - I think it's to thank me for giving him food (it's such a surprise for him, since he thinks I'm more likely to kill him). The thing is, he always comes over just long enough to work up a good and smelly burp. Really. It always seems to be, "Oh Daddy, thanks so much for the food (and not killing me)," but then after about 15 or 20 seconds he burps and walks away. I'm starting to think it's some kind of dominance act for him. Either that, or he's so freaked out that his stomach feels weird that he's coming to me for comfort, but when he burps the feeling goes away and so does he. Either way, the dude has got some smelly burps.

The other highlight from the night was when I got out the dog blanket. A little history here... Before Britten and I started dating, Chili had his spot on the couch and I had mine. He deposited lots of hair in his spot, so once Britten came into the picture (and we got rid of the old hairy couch), he was banned from the couch except when I put a blanket on first. It's a hassle, so as time has progressed, I've put the blanket on less and less. In fact, since the last time I did it, Britten and I have switched spots on the couch (yes, I know, it's strange that her spot was the spot orginially held by the stupidest animal on the planet). So, now I sit in the spot Chili used to occupy. History lesson over. Tonight, I put out the blanket and Chili waited by his (my) spot for me to let him up. This time, though, I sat in the spot and told him to get up on the other side. He did, but was completely dumbfounded (ha!) on what to do once he got up. He looked around and then finally settled on trying to occupy the two thirds of the couch that I wasn't occupying. Funny thing, it felt strange to me too. So, after about ten minutes, I told him to get back in his bed and put the blanket away. It's a milestone for us, perhaps the end of the dog on the couch. At least until I sit on the other side...

The mystery log

The weather has made another temporary turn for the warm today, so we were able to go for a walk with the pooches tonight. (Get it while it lasts, forecast is for snow on Friday). It was a great walk, but Cozby was in rare form. Well, that's not exactly true. He was just being a turd, barking at everything that even thought about moving. I guess the heat makes everyone a little crazy.

The highlight (er?) of the walk was definitely one of the times he got a little spooked. We were going along, close to the end of our loop, when he started thrashing about, trying to get at something we'd passed. At first glance, in the dark, it looked like an animal. Alas, on closer inspection, we found that it was a very menacing piece of wood. Whether or not that was what spooked him doesn't really matter, he's still got a bit of crazy in him. But that's why we love him.

On a completely separate note, I'm pretty sure that Chili has done this before, but he wasn't asleep.

Caught!

This morning, as usual, the dogs went outside while we got ready for work. Most of the time, after making sure that the yard hasn't left in the middle of the night, they actually do something creepy. They sit up on the hill and stare at the house. It's more disturbing than it sounds. Imagine looking out your window and seeing two dogs staring at you, unmoving.

Today, thankfully, things got a little more interesting. Of course, the first few times I looked out, they were doing their best stalker impression (or maybe that was what I was doing). But when I went into the mud room to let them in, things had changed. By now, if you've been reading this blog, you should know that one of the great things about our dogs is their ability to romp like fighting kangaroos in the backyard. That's exactly what they were doing - there was slobber flying and lots of happy growling. All of a sudden, I was spotted. Mid fight, with Cozby literally hanging onto his neck, Chili saw me. And sat down. And stared. Then, so did Cozby. Creepy.

Luckily, I was able to break their trance by opening the door...they know that they get mental breakfast in the morning, so they're quite willing to come inside. Nothing like a bribe to get an animal driven by its stomach to do what you want.

Home from Chi-town

After many more hours in O'Hare airport than I intended, I made it home late last night. The interview went really well and the school was great. On top of that, it was really cool to hang out with family and friends.

The dogs were completely unaware of any of this. In fact, since they have a three second memory, this is about the reception I received.



(Every time I see this, I think of you, Trey.)

It's beautiful out, and we went for a walk with the boys this afternoon. As usual, Cozby licked the pavement unintentionally. Chili pranced. Life has once again returned to normal.

Throw me a bone

OH NO! We're out of bones! While this might seem like a trivial thing, it's a big deal if you're a dog. And if you're the owners of two specific dogs, it's cause for panic. It's a break to the routine that can't be accounted for.

Cozby, not surprisingly, didn't miss a beat. He hung out on his bed pretty much the whole night. Chili, on the other hand, was beside himself. Everywhere Britten and I went, he followed us. Kitchen, he's there. Bathroom, he's there. Bedroom, he's there briefly before going back to the kitchen. We both probably ran into him at least five times. He simply didn't know what to do without the bones. I think we might have to wean him off them. But it might kill us.

On a separate note, I'm getting ready to go to up to Chicago, so packing is the order of the night. But I'm doing a terrible job of it (as Britten has just reminded me).

Rough life

Apparently, all the snow playing yesterday was the most tiring thing in the world. Either that, or life is just REALLY tough as a dog. Basically, whereas on a normal night the dogs might be walking around or looking for food, or something at all, tonight they're totally slugged out. I don't think they've moved all night. What's even stranger is that Cozby isn't even following me with his eyes, because they're closed. Chili isn't wandering, looking for food, he's just sleeping.

That's all I've got. What a day. Week. Month. Year.

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!

We had a snow day today. It rocked. Chili came home and they had an awesome time playing in the snow...







There's not much more to say, except they managed to help us make our snowman (snow midget). Gotta love how helpful they can be, despite having no thumbs.

Back home, still minus a dog

We got back from our trip to Davidson tonight, amid the most snow Richmond has seen in several years. Davidson was great. Steph Curry rained down 34 points, breaking the school record for career points (and he's only a junior), and didn't play for the last 10 minutes of the game. On the other hand, it was cold and nasty the whole time, so Britten didn't really get to experience the true beauty that is Davidson. Same thing happened when we went up to JMU around Thanksgiving. Oh well, we'll just have to go back.

As I said, we got and are getting a bunch of snow. The cool part about that is that it's really pretty and I don't think we'll have to go to work tomorrow. The bad part is that the Pet Nanny can't get to our house to drop Chili off, so we're here with only half our dogs. He got to make the first tracks in the snow, which is one of the cooler things to see...




A side benefit of having Cozby to ourselves is that his personality changes when Chili isn't around. He's a bit more rambunctious, a bit more frisky...





I love them both, but I can't wait to have them both back so we can play in the snow as a family.

Bye Bye Black Dog

We're going to Davidson tomorrow to watch some basketball and see some friends. Britten's never seen my alma mater, so I'm pretty pumped to show it to her. Too bad it's supposed to be raining.

Something I never had to deal with before Chili came into my life (and subsequently Britten and Cozby) was figuring out what to do with a dog when I went out of town. I would just leave when I wanted to and get back when I wanted to. I can understand that this is a good "easing in" to the responsibilities of parenting (minus the diapers, but plus lots of shedding hair and slobber).

A while ago, we were very blessed to find the Pet Nanny of Richmond. She absolutely rocks! Very affordable, she'll come let dogs out or board them if she's got room. Since Cozby is a bit of a high maintenance dog, our preference in these scenarios is to have Cozby stay with his grandparents and Chili go board with the Pet Nanny. They both love it, and come back played out.

So tonight, as part of the preparations, I had to go drop Chili off at her house. I put Cozby in his crate and got the leash out for Chili. Boy, was Cozby upset that he wasn't getting the leash treatment - he howled and barked as I put the leash on Black Dog. We got in the car, and of course Chili whined the whole way over. Thankfully, there was no vomit involved.

Upon our arrival, Chili ran around for a second, then promptly marked the dining room chair. Sweet. Nice houseguest. You can dress him up (and he tries to eat the outfit), but you can't take him anywhere. Once we got that out of the way, and I'd apologized profusely, he went in the backyard with the Nanny's dog and another one that was there, and he proceeded to get humped headfirst by the other dog. He's going to have a great weekend.

Now it's just me and Cozby here, waiting for Britten to get home from work - she's working late to get something done for Monday. He's a little more relazed than normal, probably because he doesn't have to worry about Chili nerding him.

It's going to be such a fun weekend for all four of us, I can't wait!

Daddy is a tease

Tonight, we went to get started with our wedding album. We figured that it's been a year and half, probably about time. After our appointment, Britten went to meet some friends for a drink (Diet Coke), and then came home so that we could get a late workout in at the gym. She was coming by to pick me up, so I had to be ready.

Here's the problem. Our dogs, while VERY not smart, recognize the clothes that we wear when we take them for a walk. Not surprisingly, these are the same clothes that I wear to the gym. So as I was getting ready, I developed a bad case of circling sharks. They were super excited to go for a walk, but they were about to be sorely disappointed. When I told them to get in their crates, they were as confused as a pair of not smart animals can get. Poor guys, I'm such a walk tease.

Nothing going on

I figured that since nothing is going on in the dog world these days, everyone might enjoy pics of New Years. Cozby, surprisingly, loves a party. Chili, not surprisingly, loves everywhere there's food, so naturally he also loves parties.


Hope everyone is having a party of a day!

Frisky

Tonight was bath night for the dogs. Tomorrow, our house is getting cleaned, so it makes sense to get as much dog hair scattered as we can. Plus, this weekend, Cozby will be going to Lia and Big D's house and Chili will be staying with the pet nanny, so it would be rude to send dirty dogs out to stay with other folks.

I love bath time. Cozby loves bath time. He gets very frisky and prances all around, marveling at his cleanliness. Chili doesn't love bath time, but he does love the post bath. That's the time (as I've said before) that he tries to eat the towels.

I'd write more, but I'm watching the Prez speak to a joint session of Congress. Lots of clapping and shouting, I think our Congress members think of this as a big party.

Where in tarnation have you been?

Well, the UNC interview went really well. Britten was the only spouse that tagged along, but we had a great time going on the tour and lunching it up. All in all, a good day.

For the pooches, not necessarily the greatest day/night they've ever had. Big D let them out last night, this morning, and this afternoon, for which we're very grateful. Funny thing, we came back and they both decided that they'd never had anything to drink before. They downed the 2 liter bottle (our makeshift automatic waterbowl since ours broke) very quickly and are pacing around looking for more. I think I need to get up and refill the bottle before Chili starts drinking out of the toilet. Or licking the wall. Cozby doesn't seem that desperate, but I think he's just happt that his mommy is home.

Off to fill the 2 liter. 1 interview down. Where are we going to end up? Hopefully, it will be somewhere with water.

Abandonment

So, we're going to visit a school tomorrow and are leaving the dogs here tonight while we stay at the lake. I don't think they have any idea what's coming. Except Cozby. He's got a sixth or seventh sense like that.

They'll be well cared for. Big D is going to let them out tonight and tomorrow morning. Let's all hope that Chili doesn't do what he did the first time Big D came over - he jumped up and head butted Big D in the crotch. As I've said many times before, Chili has the IQ of a potato.

Wish me luck tomorrow!

Epic struggle

We did indeed go for a walk today, it was awesome. I know I worked up a sweat, and Cozby's tongue was definitely dragging. Unfortunately, the walk was preceded by watching Davidson lose to Butler in basketball and was followed by watching UNC lose to Maryland (who was sporting yellow jerseys - fear the yellow turtle?). I was able to have a good run this morning, so I'd say that the day is still ahead on points.

Britten is working (at her third job...) right now, so it's me and the dogs once again. A little while ago, I gave them both rawhides. Chili devoured his, of course. Cozby didn't touch his, of course. But he is being very strategic and lying with his head on the bones. In this manner, he's preventing Chili from stealing them. Black Dog has made a few laps around the house, pondering how to get the bones from Cozby. Every time he even looks in Cozby's direction, Cozby growls. It's a chess match. Seeing as the combined IQ of the dogs is probably less than that of an inanimate chess piece, I don't see the game ending anytime soon.

I'm half tempted to get up and take the bones and give them to Chili, because with nothing to chew on, he's opted to lick his genitals. Very noisily. There are grunts involved. I wish I was kidding.

Taken

We went to see "Taken" tonight. It was awesome. Liam Neeson is great. But not much happened with the dogs today, so I'm going to have to go to a fallback plan. Here's what it looks like when you really meet Chili.



He's crazy. But tomorrow, they're getting walks and baths, so that's awesome!

EDIT - I just realized that I'd already posted that video. Shame on me. That cold must have really kicked my butt, because I don't remember that post at all. I apologize to you, blogosphere.

Motivated

We had only a little time between work and going out to dinner with our friends tonight. The dogs were outside for a bit, and we were going to put them straight into their crates, but I elected to let them in for a quick second.

Their reactions showed their true motivations in life. Cozby ran in and attached himself to Britten. Chili ran in and sprinted to Britten until he realized that she had no food, then he sprinted back to me (I was near the food). I swear, they're nothing if not predictable and idiotic. Except Cozby, he's smart enough to want to stay with Britten.

And by the by, Virginia and Millie are super cute!

Thiever!

Normally, when we give the dogs their rawhides, there's a 50% chance that Chili will take one of Cozby's, even though he has 2 for himself. He'll usually do it while Cozby is eating his first bone, and Cozby looks around for a second like...well, like someone stole his bone. Of course, he quickly resumes chomping away and things wind up fine. Sometimes we'll take a bone back From Chili and give it to Cozby.

Tonight, things got kicked up a notch. Chili stole the bone out of Cozby's mouth. The audacity, it's amazing. Plus, Cozby is a bit of a wimp. He did growl, but after he lost the bone, he gave the same old look. We gave it back to him, and the world returned to normal.

Patient

I think we'll call this the great cold of 2009. I thought I was well enough to go to work today, but found found that I had to come home around 10:00. Bummer, I was planning on getting back on the exercise kick again today, I guess it will have to wait until tomorrow.

So here we are again, with me having been hanging with the dogs all day, and they've been slugging it out on their beds. Of course, now Chili is patiently waiting by the front door (he might even know that Britten is coming home). Cozby is giving me the normal, "What did you do with my mommy?" stare, although he knows that she's on her way home. He's got that sixth sense, you know.

Lovely thunder

My cold did not get better overnight. If anything, it got worse. As such, no work for me today. That meant the dogs were hanging out all day. Since it was very cold (or at least cold for Richmond), I didn't feel like I could leave them outside for hours at a time, so for the most part they were inside while I was semi-comatose on the couch. Thankfully for me, there was a How It's Made marathon on TV. Unfortunately, the dogs aren't very interested in how things are put together, so they were restless all day.

Finally, after the entire day (and after the marathon ended and began to repeat), things picked up. I had put the dogs outside before dinner, and was settling back into the couch when I heard the sound of thunder. Not thunder as in rain, but thunder as in pounding paws on the deck. The dogs were finally getting out some energy. About time.

Restless

I've got a cold. It's been coming on for a couple of days, but today it was in full swing. As such, I didn't go over to Britten's parents' house to celebrate her dad's birthday. Instead, I buried myself under some blankets and just felt terrible in between taking doses of stuff. It's been an awesome day.

Britten took Cozby with her, so it was just me and Chili here. Without Cozby here, Chili is a bit of a restless freak. He wanders around, lost, looking for something. It's kinda cute, Cozby is Chili's grounding agent - without Cozby, Chili is lost.

I really wish he'd settle down though.

Ugh

I've got a cold. It's not fun. It really didn't make the second day of the wrestling tournament very much fun.

I'm sure it wasn't a great day for the dogs either, as they were in their crates all day again. But on a good note, tonight, Britten finally came home just in time to briefly celebrate Valentine's Day. Hooray!!!

All that leads up to there not being any dog stories again today. I'm wiped (and apparently so are they, as they're flopped on their beds). For now, enjoy what it feels like to be greeted by Chili.

State tourney, day 1

Today, I was at the state wrestling tournament all day, so I didn't get to hang with my boys at all. Actually, that's not entirely true. I didn't need to leave until just before noon, so we went for a walk in the morning, which was awesome, but devoid of stories.

Since there was a lack of stuff to tell, I thought it would be good to show everyone just how much I love to torment Chili. Last night, after I had posted here and done everything else I needed to do, I just happened to have a hankering for watching the video of Chili howling at the cell phone. When I did so, even though he was mostly asleep, Chili reacted. Poor guy, he doesn't deserve the harassment I put him through. Or maybe he does, because it's funny.

Toga! Toga! Toga!

Britten is out of town for a couple of days at her coaching thing, so it's just us three bachelors hanging out here at the house. I figured there's no better way to take advantage of her absence than having a party worthy of being in Animal House. Toga!!!

Back here in reality, things are much more mellow when Britten is gone. The dogs and I all feel a bit empty when she's not around, so there's not much romping going on.

Since there isn't much action, I thought it might be time to tell about when we built our deck. The actual deck-building part was difficult and fun and involved lots of help from our families and friends, but that's not the story. The real story is the night that we let the dogs out onto the half finished deck for the first time. They had been inside watching the construction all day and were more than ready to rumble. This is one of those moments that I think really shows them at their finest. Well, either this or every night when Chili regurgitates his bone and Cozby gnaws his in pure joy. Maybe it's a close second.

Big news

This morning, we had some big happenings at our household. I let the dogs out as usual before getting in the shower. When I emerged and was getting dressed, a huge commotion erupted from the backyard. There's always some barking from back there - Chili letting the darkness know that he's got solidarity with it, or Cozby noticing that there's other things in the world making noise - but this was different, so I was compelled to take a look.

I stepped out on the deck half dressed and saw the dogs in the back corner of the yard barking at something. Figuring it was just someone in an adjacent yard, I called to them and in their agitated state, they came racing back to the sliding glass door. Because I'm a punk and like to mess with their minds, I closed the door and didn't let them in. They gave me a confused look, then tore off to the back corner again and resumed their barking. I repeated the process 3 more times, with the exact same results, before Britten intervened and I really went out to take a look.

It was not someone in an adjacent yard. It was a raccoon on a telephone pole. What's more, the raccoon probably challenged both our mutts in the weight department - I'd guess it was at least 30 pounds. After seeing that, and recalling vividly our experience with mandatory rabies vaccinations this summer, I quickly herded the dogs inside. Sadly, no pictures, but maybe the varmint will be back tomorrrow.

Average night

So, tonight was just another typical night at our house. Britten got her nails done, so I was home alone for a little bit. While the wait wasn't very interesting from a dog perspective, it did afford me the opportunity to take a video of what happens when Britten comes home. It wasn't the most active they've been, they're probably still tired from the hike the other day, but it was pretty exemplary of what happens every time.



After dinner, there were some other usual nightly activities. Britten's computer bag fell over and scared the crap out of Cozby. Not literally, thankfully, though sometimes when he gets scared his anal glands express and it smells like fish everywhere around him. It didn't seem to have any long lasting effects, though, as he's now slugged out.

And of course, it wouldn't be an average night without Chili regurgitating a bone. Sorry, no video of that, I'll save that for some other time when I haven't talked about anal glands and need some material to gross you out. Funny thing about this time was that he had finished his bone about 15 minutes before regurgitating and didn't show any of the normal signs of needing to get anything up. Nothing. One minute, he's sitting on his bed and the next, up comes a bone. Happy Tuesday.

Upside down snuggler

I think the dogs are still tired tonight from the walk yesterday. I can relate, my legs are a bit sore as well.

So, rather than regale you with no real story about how they are slugged out and haven't really moved all night, I think it's time to show you all what a dog's impression of a crocodile looks like.






As I said, I'm in need of some gym time, but if you could read the shirt, you could see that I'm quite smart.

70 degrees in February

The weather was amazingly awesome today. (In case you didn't already know this, it should be evident from the last sentence that I didn't major in creative writing). 70 degrees and sunny, just the recipe for going to the parks in downtown Richmond and taking the bozos for a nice long walk. In trying to figure out a place to walk, we remembered a 10K that we ran back in October. The course was nice, and was well suited for a good dog adventure.

We were not the only ones who had this bright idea, so the route was a tad bit crowded. As a side note, if you're walking in a public place, please keep your dog on a leash. Not only is it a law in Virginia to leash all dogs, but to not do so is a pain to everyone around you. Regardless, the walk was awesome. Pics:











Starting off on Brown's Island, we crossed the Mayo Bridge (lots of glass here, the dogs wished they had shoes so we didn't have to take crazy detours). Then up along the western portion of the floodwall walk, past one of our favorite places, Legend Brewery,who was unfortunately having their anniversary party, so it was going to be too crowded for us to go tonight. Then up past the Manchester Wall, where I spent many an afternoon climbing. Down some stairs, and it was across to Belle Isle (more on that later). After dodging the leashless dogs, groups of uncomfortable looking emo folks, groups of visibly high folks, and crossing the swaying Lee Bridge, we were back where we started, and ready to go home.

As for Belle Isle, we did have an added adventure when we found out the a bridge that we needed to cross was closed, so we found ourselves in need of crossing the river via the rocks. This isn't really a problem when it's just us humans, but there were several points where the dogs forced us to take alternate routes. Still, we came away with a much greater appreciation for their athletic abilities. At one point, however, no amount of athleticism would suffice - there was a five foot high old concrete slab to scale (humans accomplished this via a ladder). Britten climbed up and I had to lift the disgraced dogs up onto the slab to her. I think they were taken down a notch...don't want their egos getting too big.

By far, the highlight of the day, though was Chili tring to mark his territory. Isn't not that funny of a thing in itself, but he managed to make it interesting. First, when we stopped for water (see photo above), he peed on the bench right where Britten was sitting. The next time we stopped for water, he tried to pee on the backpack. Crazy mutt.

Now we're in the backyard, enjoying the last minutes of nice weather (and the nice wireless that allows me to write this from the backyard). Happy times, this will be a good day to remember.

Weekend walks and mental breakfast

Today was indeed a big day, lots of activity. We worked out, had wrestling practice, a birthday party, walk at Lia & Big D's house, etc. What that meant for the dogs is that they were in and out of their crates a lot. Not too bad for them, because they wound up getting mental breakfast about four times. Mental breakfast is something we instituted as a compromise. First, we thought that they needed to have breakfast, so we were feeding them the same amount as their dinner, only in the morning. There were two effects from this, one positive and one negative. On the one hand, the mutts were much more eager to get in their crates in the morning, particularly Chili. On the other hand, they really started packing on the pounds. We wouldn't be good owners if we knowingly fattened our dogs up, but we wanted them to enjoy getting in their crates, so we decided on mental breakfast. This is about five kernels of dog food in their crates, just enough to keep them interested in getting in the crates. It's perfect. On days like today, though, they've had enough mental breakfast to add up to a meal.

We also went for a quick walk today, which was also great. They do love a weekend, because that's when we really have time to get out and pound the pavement with them. No matter how long or short the walk is, they still come back exercised and happy (probably because of that whole three second memory thing). I think tomorrow we're going to go downtown to some of the state parks and get a nice long walk. Very exciting, and the perfect way to spend time with our 12 legged family.

Jerks

Tomorrow is Clarke's 5th birthday party, so we spent most of the night at Lia & Big D's house preparing for the festivities. I am quite certain that our "Bowling for Pygmies" activity will be a big hit, even though it doesn't have a ton to do with the Indiana Jones theme. The pygmies are all quite stylized, so they should provide enjoyable targets for the youngsters.

What that means is that we got home late and the dogs had been in their crates for a long time. While we might have been ready for bed, they were not at all. Tough, we have lots to do tomorrow. Sorry guys, we're jerks.

Worried

Today, I'm worrying about one of my wrestlers. He's been around for the entire time that I've been a coach - he's the younger brother of one of the guys on the wrestling team when I started coaching eight years ago. He's had a few concussions (I've had 13, unfortunately), and in his senior year he's had his 4th one a few weeks before the state tournament. He's got a difficult decision to make tonight about what he's going to do next week. I'm praying for him as he tries to figure it out.

There's not much to talk about regarding the dogs tonight, but I thought I'd show you all what they look like when they're slugged out. This is from a couple of nights ago, but it's exactly what they look like right now.


Robert, Chili is thinking of you. With all 3 of his brain cells.

I ain't got the words

There's really not much to say about this. I got home from my parents' house, where we got a plane ticket for me to go up to Chicago for my Kellogg interview, then this happened. He does this every once in a while, I think the last time was at my bachelor party - excellent timing. No idea what causes it, but he'll stop doing it by tomorrow.



I need to go wash myself. Twice.

Biggest loser

I'm trying to be discreet in writing this because we're watching the Biggest Loser right now, and Britten can't help but look at what I'm writing. Funny, because a little while ago, I asked if she'd read the blog, but she hadn't in a while. No biggie. However, I decided that her punishment should be to watch/hear the videos of Chili howling from this post.

What's great is that hearing the video freaked Chili out. It wasn't the first time he'd had a reaction to the video...



Today, a coworker gave me a hard time about this blog because I badmouth Chili so much. I don't think that's accurate, I just tell the funny stories about how loony both of our dogs are. And loony they are.

It reminds me of my heritage

We're having taco salad for dinner (cue the "Real Men of Genius" commercial). Upon hearing this, I told Britten that Cozby liked taco salad because it reminded him of his heritage. I don't think he actually has any kind of Latin heritage, not even the chihuahua bloodline that I used for explanation of my comment, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't turn away from some taco salad.

We also realized that it appears that Cozby has a reverse mowhawk running down the middle of his back right now. If we went by the taco paradigm, I'd be prone to claiming that he has Rhodesian ridgeback in his ancestry perhaps. Not so, though. We unfortunately know that it's because he's carrying a bit of extra weight and his back is wider than normal. In fact, all the males in the household are carrying a bit of extra weight, so we're going to have to get back on the exercise wagon. No more slugs. And probably less taco salad. Poor Cozby, it will be like turning away his ancestry.

I should write a book

We made it down and back to Williamsburg with no car vomit, so that's a victory in itself. Chili made a name for himself (or really just lived up to one that he fully deserves) of being a good dog to have around to get up crumbs.

When we got back, we decided to avoid the folks that were in our neighborhood going door-to-door, and go for a walk. Hey, it's not often that it's over 60 degrees in the beginning of February in Richmond.

We have an awesome place to go walk, though it's not our neighborhood - it's the one we'd like to live in. We passed a pre-Super Bowl game of flag football in someone's yard (of course, the dogs were quite interested in this). It's just the kind of neighborhood where there's a good sense of community and fun, so it's a great place to go for a hard walk with our bunnies.

As we were going along, we had the sun at our backs at one point and the dogs shadows came out. Chili prances, so his ears flop up and down. Cozby waddles (and by this point was tired), so his tongue hangs almost to the ground. Britten said, "Look at those shadows! I should write a book about dog shadows." It's so true, they really show the dogs' personalities well.

On a side note, another aspect of Cozby being tired is his mouth froths. He managed to get a glob of spit on Chili, then really slime Britten's leg and jacket. He couldn't leave me out of the equation, so when we got back to the house, he shook his head and threw flecks of slobber everywhere. We had to towel both dogs off to save our new rug. Nice.

Happy Brthday Mommom!

We're going down to Williamsburg today for Britten's grandmother's 88th birthday. It's a big family event for a big family, and always lots of fun. I'm lucky that I can make it this year, since sometimes I have a wrestling tournament around this time.

Fortunately, we get to bring the dogs with us, though they spend a good amount of time upstairs in a single crate...


Regardless, we don't want our shedding monsters to deposit huge amounts of hair in Mommom's house, so whenever we go down there, it's bathtime for the four legged freaks. Bathtime is always an interesting time around here - Chili doesn't enjoy baths that much (a lab not enjoying water, it's heresy), and there always seems to be an amazing amount of dirt that comes off them. This time, Britten and I worked out a system. I would get in the shower and bring Chili in with me while she brushed Cozby. After I washed Chili and gave him his first drying, we'd switch dogs.

Chili did his best impression of a bad escape artist the whole time, but we managed to get everything cleaned up. His favorite part, of course, was the drying off portion, when he attempted to eat not one, but two towels.

This was my first time washing Cozby, so I didn't know what to expect. I was a bit taken aback that he jumped right in the shower without any coaxing, then just sat there as I did the whole shampoo, rinse thing. No motion again as I dried him off. Very strange... I'm going to take it as a sign that he liked it.

Now they are all dry and their fur is pointing straight out, it looks like they both stuck their paws in an electric socket. Time to get in the car and go to Mommom's. Hopefully Chili won't throw up in the car, as he is prone to do.

Lying bastards

...and I can call them that because I'm quite positive that neither of their parents were married.

Britten and I have to communicate about whether or not the dogs have been fed. If one person feeds them, they will do their best to convince the other person that they have not eaten yet.

For example, tonight, I got home from the Prep League tournament knowing that Britten had already fed the dogs. When I let them in from the backyard, however, they were utterly convinced that they had never eaten before, probably never even seen food. Lying bastards. Or they just have a three second memory. Or they both just really like food. Maybe they're just dogs. Nah.

Two steps forward, two steps back

After almost two months off for me, I'm getting back on the workout kick, with help from Britten. We're motivating each other to get working out - it's really helping with my overwhelming anxiety these days. Before we left for the gym tonight, Britten was in the kitchen doing some pre-work for dinner, and Cozby and I had a breakthrough. He came into the other room to get lovin' from me. That's pretty awesome.

On the other hand, when we got back from the gym, I let him out of his crate and started him towards the door, but he backed away and ran to his mommy then wouldn't come back in until she pulled him in. Silly dude.

Oh, and Chili just regurgitated the same bone for the 8th time. On a scale of one to ten, that is gross.

Cleaning day

Today is the "every other Wednesday" when our cleaning person comes to make our house beautiful. She thinks the dogs hate her because Cozby barks at her the whole time from his crate. She doesn't realize that he's much more scared of her than she ever could be of him. Ha!

We had boys night and girls night tonight. Unfortunately for the boys, that means that they were in their crates for a good portion of the day and the night. Our night was great, their night was apparently exhausting. I don't see how sitting in crates can be so tiring, but they are all slugged out.

Paw prints

We had some winter weather today, for the first time this year, or really any year in recent memory. The Richmond Weather Bubble has held up for so long, it was nice to see it burst, even if it only meant that we got a bit of sleet and frozen stuff on the ground. The cool thing about that is that when to dogs ran out at lunchtime (the frozen stuff had turned to melted stuff by the evening), they made paw prints in the slush.

When the guys come in after being out in the inclement weather, they always need to be dried off. Chili comes in first, because he's pushy. He REALLY likes to get dried off, because it gives him a good opportunity to try to eat the towel. All the wriggling makes it an interesting chore. Cozby is a bit easier. He likes to get dried off as well, as long as you talk sweet to him and go gentle on his feet. No wriggling at all. They're funny, and now they're apparently really hungry.

Ouch!

I went up to visit Darden today and sit in on a couple of classes. It was pretty awesome, but that's beside the point. When I got home, I had an experience that pretty much defines Chili as the dumbest multicellular organism on the planet.

I let the dogs out of their crates, as I always do. Cozby came out and waited patiently. Chili came out as usual, but that's where the normal things ended. He sat down, looked up at me, then ran headfirst into the sliding glass door. I was torn between being surprised that he didn't knock himself out and being surprised that he didn't break the glass. Luckily, neither thing occurred, he sat down and waited for me to actually open the door.

If I were quite sure that it wasn't possible, I would swear that his IQ went down.

Darden was sweet. Can't wait to see the other schools.

Easy to instigate

Tonight, Britten and I decided that it was best for the dogs and for us if we committed to doing 10 minutes of exercise (preferably with them) every day. Get back to our old selves, as it were. Before we'd actually talked about this pact, she was putting it into action in the backyard. First was the jump rope. Dogs weren't involved in that one, because quite frankly both dogs wouldn't be able to stay away.

However, the second phase was very dog-involved. She ran sprints from one side of the yard to the other, and the dogs followed her. That was all it took to instigate a round of kangaroo fighting. All I heard from inside was what sounded like a dogfight. For experience, I knew it was two dogs playing like crazy. Chili was following Britten, and Cozby was taking the opportunity to attack. A moment of weakness, and he strikes! I can see why he doesn't trust me, he thinks that I'm just waiting for my chance...

If you can't beat 'em...

I got home from a wrestling tournament tonight and was in serious need of some shut eye. The day did not go well for our team, and I was whupped. Since Britten was coming home shortly, I opened the door, then plopped myself on the couch, hoping for a power nap.

Unfortunately for me, Chili's door-open routine isn't very conducive to me sleeping, since he paces in circles and whines at the outside world. After 10 minutes, I knew I faced a choice. On one hand, I could not sleep - not an acceptable option in my mind. An another, I could close the door - then Britten wouldn't have two wagging tails greeting her. The third option was to cave in. I moved Chili's bed right in front of the door and told him to lie down.

Worked like a charm. He could sit on something soft and not whine, and I could sleep. Right up until the time Britten pulled in the driveway, when a chorus of barking started. That was a new twist, hopefully not a result of my new tactic.

Spoon!

One of my favorite things to do with the dogs is lie down on the floor and have them lie on me or next to me. Sometimes it's just one, sometimes it's both of them.

This week, apparently, I've been home a bit while Britten has been out. Today was no different. She went for a run and I stayed at home like a bum. Being a bum has its advantages, though. I got to lie on the floor and hang with my boys.

Chili wasn't too keen on sitting still - the double whammy of approaching dinnertime and an open front door distracted him. Cozby, however, was ready to come lie down. We spooned. There, I said it. Good bonding time is...well...good. Of course, when Britten walked in the front door, he jumped up and gave us both the terrified look of someone who'd been caught cheating. I guess it's kinda true since he spooned with Britten last night.