Tuesday, February 9th

This afternoon I was invited to go to a wonderful place in Seattle that I discovered a few years ago... Second Use.

I could spend days in stores like these. Aisles of wood trim, old windows, lighting fixtures, cabinets, out side is granite, concrete details, and on and on it goes. I just love it there. Anyway, the girls gave us three gates to cordon off the dogs to specific areas of the house, but one gate's hardware was missing a piece and I couldn't install it. The trip proved fruitful as I found two matching brass hinges for 25¢ each. Now I'll get that gate up. The drive was very pleasant and not without several laughs.

I had to tell a story on myself. I had taken Rusty (our Dhoki Apso) and HannaH (our Havanese) to Shampooch (self washing service where you can wash and groom your pet with all the right accessories). I had just given HannaH her first wash (we got her in Nov) and I've meant to wash her sooner, but other things came up...

Anyway, I lift HannaH from the tub, bundle her in towels and begin to walk toward the grooming table, when suddenly I trip on the steps that lead up to the tub... I stumble with HannaH in my arms; I start to go down, I grapple for footing, reaching out to brace for the floor and to protect HannaH. Thud! We hit the floor. Not really hard, but enough action to scare HannaH! When we get up there's a big pile of poop on the floor.

I know many wouldn't tell this story on themselves, but in our family it is rather standard fare to share the good and the bad. So, tell them, we do. And we laughed for several miles.

Oh, and I rewashed HannaH. She was after all scared "shitless", but otherwise not hurt in the least.

PS

I spell HannaH with two capital H's, so her name is a palindrome... very literally, with the capital H at either end.