Just Another Night in the Park

Logan-the-Dog here. Skylark has been too preoccupied to blog so I'm filling in until he gets his shit together.

Here's what happened the other night at the park:

1. I ran in front of Skylark's girlfriend and tripped her. She fell and I was free!
2. Skylark went to the aid of GF and I ran to the duckpond. Nothing to eat there.
3. Skylark called me to come back so I came very close to him and then ran away again. Ha!
   
4. GF called me to come back so I did because she gives me treats sometimes.
5. Chased a porcupine up a tree but Skylark wouldn't let me get him because he knows the trouble that could cause.
6. Put a frog in my mouth but it tickled so I spit it out and barked at it. He went away.
7. Skylark and GF put me in the house and then they went to get ice cream. I sat by the bay window and barked at squirrels.
8. Skylark and GF came home. Skylark rubbed my belly and GF gave me TWO cookies.

The End

Logan & Mushrooms Don't Mix

Logan's been a bit under the weather recently. He may have scooped up a wild mushroom when I wasn't looking. Mushrooms upset the fragile balance in his well-tuned diet — a diet of Eukanuba Senior, Large-Breed, Dog Food ("premium food with Vitamin E and Beta-Carotene") supplemented with a smattering of dandelions, Kleenex, twigs, old coffee cups (preferably Starbucks), and crap from the ducks in the park. He just can't tolerate mushrooms.

What this means is that we have a few messy walks. I don't feed him for about 24 hours so he can dry out and then he gets to eat boiled hamburger meat and rice for a day or two until his tummy mends. It also means he's a bit lethargic and doesn't want to do much. I wanted to stay home to smoke cigars and play poker with him last night but I sensed he wasn't up to it. I went to the Fringe Festival instead.

Saving the bunnies

I was recently tagged by Zoom in a music meme. As a young new blogger, I'm not exactly sure what a meme is, except I know it has something to do with saving rabbits. Logan says I should participate because without rabbits he'd have to chase squirrels and perhaps big golden cats all day.

Zoom also knows, because I recently told her, that I love making music lists. In fact I may have been "bragging" a bit about all the lists and mixes I've made. Now I'm wondering if, similar to her most excellent challenge to Dan and Dwight, she is telling me to step up and do something for the betterment of bunnies. So, on Logan's encouragement, I accept the challenge.

Here are 7 tracks of musicians I'd like to see at the upcoming Ottawa Jazz Festival:

1. Madeleine Peyroux - Getting Some Fun Out of Life - 1996 (June 23)
2. Return to Forever - Light as a Feather - 1972 (June 26)
3. Herbie Hancock - Watermelon Man - 1973 (June 22)
4. Molly Johnson - Another Day - 2002 (July 1)
5. Buddy DeFranco - Rose Room - 1957 (June 21)
6. Brad Mehldau - Get Happy - 2004 (June 29)
7. Lee Konitz (w/Marshall Brown) - Struttin' With Some Barbeque - 1967 (June 24)

That wasn't so bad! But part II of this meme is a problem because I have to choose 7 other people to tag. Logan and I are new to the blogging community and don't know that many people well enough to tag just yet:

1. JuliaR - the Demystification Guru - is doing an excellent job blogging about her trip to France. Perhaps 7 songs that she sang while sitting at the bars cafes in Arles may be appropriate.

2. BikeRider - Views from the Saddle - photographer/artist extraordinaire - must be humming something under his breath as he works away in his studio.

I could tag Zoom again but that may start an endless loop that could cause the complete annihiliation of the bunny population. Therein lies the problem, I'm 5 tags short of a meme complete. What to do? Logan suggested that perhaps if HE choose 5 songs it would be enough for a bunny offset. I thought that was a good idea and I can only hope this would be acceptable to the blogging community.

Here's Logan's list:

1. Frank Zappa - Dog Breath - 1972
2. Rufus Thomas - Walkin' the Dog - 1964
3. Patti Page - How Much is that Doggie in the Window? - 1953
4. Bette Midler - Skylark - 1973 (I told him to choose that one)
5. he couldn't think of another one but promised to turn a blind eye the next time he spotted a rabbit on our walks… but only ONE free pass he insists.

Dinner is Served

What's for snack?


Beware the DandeLion King

Walking the dog

Now that winter's done, I think it's finally time to "break the ice". It's almost 4 years since I started thinking about blogging and made a test post.

Logan-the-Dog is now nine years old (63 dog years). Our walks are not as lengthy as they were 4 years ago and they are less frequent but we still get out 2 or 3 times a day. Some of our walks are pure "business" trips, like right after work. Some are social walks (early in the evening) when we walk with Casey and Riley, a few of Logan's buddies, although those walks are less frequent because Casey and Riley are out at 6:30 p.m. sharp and we can't always make it.

Here's Logan-the-Dog (centre) with his buddies Casey (left) and Riley (right).

Our best walks are the early morning ones. We have a few regular paths and unless the weather is inclement, I'll let Logan make some of the initial choices to determine our path. I use this walk to wake up and usually let my mind wander. Sometimes all I can think about are the projects I'm working on, or whose pissing me off lately!

Mostly I work at home but since December I've been on an on-site contract downtown. At first this was traumatic for me and Logan-the-Dog. For me because up until then my days had been very fairly unstructured and I could work in shorts and bare feet and although I liked to get started by 8:30 there was never any pressure to do so. Now I have to walk and feed Logan, shower, shave and dress and be out of the house at 6:44 to catch the bus downtown. And I'm not around to let Logan outside in the backyard every hour or so to chase squirrels or to toss him cookies.

Sitting in My Favourite Chair