Poor Bruce walked up to the clubhouse for a happy hour the other day and got caught in a horrendous hailstorm. We have had the most bizarre weather all summer long with daily late-afternoon thunderstorms and temperature swings of 30+ degrees from one minute to the next. Most of the hail melted right away and Bruce got a ride home with one of the other party-goers, but the next morning there were still large lumps of ice in the shady parts of the yard.
I went into the city on Sunday morning to do some sketching. All those daily rainstorms have made the plants explode in growth. These sunflowers were taller than me and thick as can be (this was someone's front yard!). I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz walking through the YellowBrick Road, only it was the Yellow Sunflower Sidewalk.
Our Bike Club president is entertaining out-of-town guests this week, so I rode up to the Fika Coffee House with the Biker Babes (the female members of our group). It was nice to ride with just a group of girls for a change; the pace was significantly slower, plus we didn't have to gulp our drinks and hop back on our bikes.
In dog news, Charlie is settling into his new home, but we seem to be having constant battles on who is the "alpha" in our family (he seems to think it's him). Bruce got him one of those fluffy dog beds to lay on when he's in Bruce's office, but Charlie spends more time dragging it across the floor than sleeping in it. Bruce says Charlie likes to rearrange the furniture.
He's certainly learning to climb on it. When I sit down to read my Kindle, Charlie has learned to pull himself up onto the ottoman.
But he's so cute when he gets to the top that I can't bring myself to kick him off.
He's a really smart dog. We got him some dog puzzles that he's already figured out (sounds a lot like Brian). We hide his dog food in those little depressions, and he has to figure out how to slide the doors open to access the food. Since he's incredibly food-motivated, it only took him about 5 minutes. The advertisement on the box said it would "occupy your puppy for hours." We need to find a harder puzzle.
But like most kids, his favorite toy seems to be a plain old cardboard box. I taped a couple together to make him a tunnel. It saved me $80 from buying a play tunnel off Amazon.
