August Update

What have we been up to the past few weeks, you ask? Well, let's take a look!

We got to go to a preseason football game in San Francisco - Niners vs. Kate's Broncos - thanks to our friend Karen. It turned out to be quite an exciting game, with the Broncos scoring a touchdown down by 7 with a minute left, then failing on the 2-pt conversion to lose the game. It was entertaining to watch Kate go through the full spectrum of sports emotions within a 30 second timeframe.

Here's a shot of the action. I kinda like the blurry-ness, you can see how fast the wideouts are moving relative to the linemen.

And here we are (Cara, Dustin, Kate, with Karen hidden behind Kate) bundled up against the chilly SF August evening.

And as you know, Kate is now teaching kids that Physics is fun. Most recently/currently she's doing a project involving bottle-rockets:

3... 2... 1...

Just this weekend went to one of our favorite summer activities - Shady Shakespeare in Sanborn park near Saratoga. This year our friend Mikey was in it, playing Touchstone in "As You Like It." Here's a few shots from our picnic cookout beforehand and the performance.

Kate happily stocking up on the ever-important pickles.

The Adams manning the grill

Other friends - Dustin, Kate, Ashley, (another) Adam, Cara, Katie (hidden)

Blurry Mikey in one of several compromising positions his role required.

Touchstone and Celia peeking through the curtain.

Bravo!

And of course Banjo is being cute as always. Somehow he always manages to turn would-be distinguished poses into something silly just in time for the shutter, but the results are usually pretty amusing. Not quite the surprise squirrel picture, but still pretty good.

If teaching doesn't work out for me...

I think I might have a promising career as a lunchlady.

One of my goals for the end of summer was to stock our freezer with healthy breakfasts and lunches that I can grab on the go on days I'm too busy to make something. Breakfasts are particularly challenging because my new teacher schedule has me waking up at 5:30 or 6:00 am (class starts at 7:27) and I just can't force myself to eat that early in the morning.

So, in the last couple of weeks I have made the following:

~12 Gorgonzola Burgers (top left)
~80 muffins (top right), both apple-walnut and pumpkin-cherry. I did make them healthier, substituting some apple sauce for oil, halving the sugar, and using whole-wheat flour.
~27 burritos (middle / left), both beef and chicken
~20 baked potatoes (bottom left), with vegetarian chili, broccoli, onions, mushrooms, and cheese
~5 batches of pesto (bottom right)

Tom has contributed, too, with double batches of pecan bars and lemon bars, SOME of which found their way into the freezer. Suspiciously, I couldn't find them to photograph when I was making this post, though. Do you have anything to tell me, Tom?

So, the freezer is packed and I am getting ready for my first day of school (tomorrow!). Hopefully this will last us a couple months, at least, and it will be nice not to have to eat the dreaded school sloppy joes on mornings that we couldn't quite stretch the leftovers.

Banjo and Rufus say: "We can has cheezburger?"

Banjo and the Basenjis

Last weekend we got to dog sit for a couple of Basenjis. They're an interesting breed - they're African and are pretty far from the genetic tree of most dogs. They're notable for their thin, bristly fur, "aloofness", and their yodel (they can't bark!). Contrary to popular belief, being barkless doesn't mean being quiet. We found that out this weekend, for sure.

Banjo wasn't sure what to think about these intruders, so he put on a bit of an attitude. What a tough guy!


















But soon he discovered that the basenjis could do things that he couldn't, like get the stuffy toys down from their high shelf, get into the trashcan, and snitch things from tables. So they decided to form a posse, Banjo and the Basenjis. And they all lived happily ever after, the end.

Proposition 8

Banjo can't vote, so he has to express his position on Prop 8 in other ways.

(Note - questionably humorous/disrespectful stunt orchestrated by Tom, not Kate. So don't think less of her for it.)

Why mutts rock

Couple dog-related items that I thought I would share with y'all. The first is an online TIME article called "A Terrible Beauty" that is about the major problems inbreeding is causing purebred dogs, and how the AKC is contributing to it. I'm sure you all know my opinion about rescuing wonderful mutty dogs already, but it is interesting reading nonetheless. One particularly pointed quote: "The best use of pedigree papers is for housebreaking your dog. They don't mean a damn thing. You can have an immune- deficient puppy that is about to go blind and has epilepsy, hip dysplasia, hemophilia and one testicle, and the AKC will register it."

On the off chance anyone reading this is actually thinking about adopting or rescuing a dog, I'd like to point you to petfinder.org, where you can find the dog of your dreams. They've got lots of puppies, too!

Second item is a book that I just finished reading for my book group, Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog, by Ted Kerasote. I found it wonderful and moving - and I particularly loved the amount of scientific analysis of how a dog's wolf ancestry has contributed to the way they act today. There is an awful lot of anthropomorphizing of Merle in the book, but as a dog owner who has often wondered what my pup is thinking, I found it plausible.

Banjo says hi!

A most unique camping experience

Last weekend for Memorial Day, Tom and I decided to get out our backpacking gear and head up to the Emigrant Wilderness for a couple of days. We had been wanting to go backpacking for a while (since Tom got a new frame pack for his birthday last year) but hadn't gotten out on a major trip since then.

We left on Friday after work (with the puppa) and drove to an area near Pinecrest lake. Tom had arranged for our backcountry permit to be left at the ranger station there and we picked it up and headed off to find a site at one of the campgrounds nearby. We rolled into the first campground at 11:00 pm and searched in vain for an unoccupied spot. We moved up the road to the next option, only to find it full, as well. We were feeling a little panicked (and exhaused) by then, but fortunately we found a nice spot at the third campground. We pitched tent under a tree in our campsite, which turned out to be a very prescient move.

It started to rain at around 1:00 am, so the three of us nestled together in our sleeping bags in the middle of the tent to stay dry and warm. It was very cozy. At about 6:00, Banjo and I decided to make a run for the restrooms and found the very quiet campground looking like this:SNOW! Some of us (obviously) liked it a little better than others of us.

Anyway, the ground was wet and it continued to sleet almost all day. Banjo displayed unusual (for him) amounts of wimpiness - apparantly freezing cold gravel bits hurt his little paw pads. So we bailed on the original backpacking plan and decided to drive back to Pinecrest lake to see what could be seen there. We ended up playing some boardgames in our car during lunch, and then taking a 4 mile jaunt around the lake. It was a beautiful area and we enjoyed scooting up and down the rocky coastline and watching the fishermen who were out for Memorial Day. After our nice (albeit still sleety) afternoon, we stopped by the ranger station for a weather update (continued sleet and snow through the weekend) and decided to pack up and head back. We stopped at "columns of the gods" viewpoint on the way back, which was a cool columnar basalt outcrop that Tom hiked to and took these pictures. Sadly, this minor pit stop ended up being quite costly as his favorite hiking boots were apparently left as a sacrifice to the geology gods. We still have some hope they'll turn up, but it isn't looking all that likely.
The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful - hanging out, doing a little grilling and catching up with some stuff around the house. Hope you all had a nice Memorial day, too!

Super dog tricks

Following up on an earlier post, here is installment #2 of silly tricks that Banjo can do. He takes requests!

The other man in my life

One of the biggest perks of being a dog owner is good morning kisses...

Poll: What's he thinking?

a) Woe is me. It hath been 12 minutes since I was last fed.
b) I love my pappy.
c) How about a walk, humans?
d) Excuuuse you.
e) Mmmmm, toe jam!
f) (your entry here)

It's been a while...

Maybe we'll get out the video and show a few of Banjo's new tricks in the next week or so. Or some good pictures of him romping in the snow in Tahoe this weekend. Meanwhile, hi!

Banjo Nichols, CGC, TDI

Banjo officially has the most graduate degrees in the family!

Over the past few months, I've been thinking that Banjo would make a really nice therapy dog. He's amazingly mellow (especially for a two-year-old male), likes to be petted by anyone, and doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body. I think volunteering at a hospice or assisted-living home would be great fun for both of us - good for him to meet new people and see the world, and fun for me to interact with a cross-section of society (elderly people) I don't get to talk to very often.

So today I took the little fellow to a dog show in Pleasanton, where a Mastiff breeder was administering CGC (Canine Good Citizen) and TDI (Therapy Dog International) tests in between her stints in the show ring. I wasn't entirely sure Banjo would pass, since there are actually entire 6-week classes designed to help dogs pass the CGC test, which Banjo hasn't taken. But I had read up on the "elements" which included items like: dog must not startle when medical equipment is used nearby, dog must successfully "leave" a food or treat on the ground, dog must stay, sit, lay, and come, dog must tolerate "rough petting", dog must not react to other dogs, etc. and it sounded like they were all items he could handle. And he did! He kept his cool, even when the judge accidentally whacked him in the face with a pill bottle that she was trying to throw in front of him.

We celebrated by sharing a teriyaki chicken sandwich and snickering at all the pooches who were dolled-up for the dog show. Pictured below are some Salukis and a whole lineup of Bulldogs. They didn't have a "best mutt" category, so Banjo will just have to be happy with his CGC.

Happiness Is...

A fresh chicken-pot-pie, a last minute Broncos victory, and my favorite guys snoozing together on the couch...

Whew.

So I work for a small office (30) of a huge company (20,000). And we're probably not technically supposed to bring our dogs to work. But I do sometimes, because everyone knows and loves Banjo, and he's quiet, and sits under my desk and gives me licks when I need them. No problem, right?

Anyway, around 2:30 today, a frantic looking AA comes into my cube and informs me that the Chief Operating Officer (#2 in command) of the entire company is here at our office for the first time in history and he wants to meet everyone. And he's only two cubes away. She advises me to tell him that we're just "stopping by for a few minutes", but it is pretty obvious upon looking around that I'm set up for the day. Holy crap.

I start to sweat, shove Banjo under my desk and tell him to "stay". He does, like the good little guy he is. Moments later, COO arrives and starts chatting. More sweating, praying that dog will stay under the desk. I keep hoping he'll leave but he seems really intent on getting to know me. After about 5 minutes, Banjo decides enough is enough and that he wants to smell the fancy person yapping in my cubicle. Holy Crap.

Before I know it the fancy COO is rolling on the ground, playing with my dog and telling me about his beloved six pound maltese at home. Banjo is happily licking him. COO is a good person! Disaster averted! I still have a job! Huzzah!!

Movie Star

Partially because Kate has been teaching him some new tricks, and partially to test out the new video-posting feature that Blogger has added, here is Banjo doing some of his favorites. Enjoy!

Banjo Weaves

Banjo Hi-Fives