A Funny Thing Happened in the Middle of a Rain Storm

Delilah is a Lab. A Lab mixed with something else, yes, but mostly Lab. She has webbed toes, short hair (that sheds a lot) and loves to go swimming -all typical Lab traits. Oddly enough though, Delilah hates the rain. Usually this means if she needs to go out, I'll open the door, she'll take a step out and then immediately run back inside. Sometimes, if she really has to go, she'll run outside, do her thing and then bolt back into the house. But today, tonight, something happened.

Let me give you a little background. This past weekend while I was tasting beers and cheering on the Hokies, Delilah was getting sick at home with Brad. When Brad and I got back from the airport on Sunday night, we found a mess in Delilah's crate. The next morning we woke up to another mess. When we took her to the vet, they gave her an anti-nausea shot and prescribed her some antibiotics that double as anti-diarrhea relief (a little TMI I know, I'm sorry!). Anyway, so now she's feeling better. She's not vomiting or making messes in the house or in her crate and her appetite has returned. However, because of the medicine, I've noticed she hasn't needed to go out as much after meals. Until tonight.

After eating about half of her dinner, which I had to coax her into doing by pouring in some olive oil, Delilah was sort of milling around the front door and looking at Brad and I, so I let her out. As she usually does when it rains, she walked out and walked right back in again. After a couple more rounds of this, I decided to grab the leash, thinking she'd get excited and maybe take care of business. The minute that leash was on, you would have thought it was a beautiful day. She ran down the front steps, down the driveway and then looked back at me as if to say, well c'mon! So here I am wearing black pants, a maroon jacket, walking a black dog in the middle of a rain storm in the dark of night and here's Delilah, happily trotting down the street. Even though it was dark, and she's not normally shy, she insisted on finding a dark, wooded spot to take care of business. After taking care of said business, Delilah once again trotted down the street, sniffing the grass as if was a beautiful fall evening. Brad was waiting for us with a towel when we returned and a few minutes later she was looking at the door again. But of course when I let her out, she pulled her usual stunt - she walked outside, looked around and came back inside. This went on a couple more times until I got fed up with her and made her lie down on her bed. Now she's asleep on the floor in front of Brad who is playing video games.

Ohhh Delilah.

A Whole Buncha Stuff

Richmond had another Heatpocalypse this weekend with temperatures reaching a record-setting 105 degrees both days. Up until this point the heat really hasn't bothered me but over the last few days the combination of high heat and humidity coupled with the ridiculously high pollen count has made breathing somewhat cumbersome. I can't breathe that well out of my nose because it's stuffy and I get winded when I breathe through my mouth. Thank you global warming, allergies and asthma.

On Saturday, the Turpins returned from their annual vacation at Holden Beach. I don't think I've talked about them much here yet but they are the couple we do everything with. Tailgate at football games, go to wine-tasting events with, go on vacation with, etc. However, things are changing a bit because Lindsay is pregnant with twin boys! She's six months along and looks absolutely incredible, especially considering she's carrying two babies. Anyway, we've been watching their fur-baby Layla for the past week. She's great and her and Delilah get along really well. Although I have to admit, even though I don't think Delilah minded having Layla around, I can tell she's really glad she doesn't have to compete for our attention anymore. One of our favorite things to do when the Turpins come into town is to go to 3 Monkeys. Not only do they have a fabulous drink menu, their food is delicious, particularly their three cheese grilled cheese. Yum! It comes with bacon and tomato and I always ask for no bacon and Lindsay always asks for no tomato. After dinner the boys wanted to run to the ABC store to get some Wild Turkey American Honey (nice name, eh?!). I really do not enjoy bourbon, whiskey and the like, but I actually didn't mind the taste of American Honey. At first it tastes like bourbon, YUCK, but the after taste is cinnamon and honey and absolutely delicious.

On Sunday I was crazy enough to go to the pool with the lovely Jenny Banner and it was surprisingly very relaxing. Of the 3 hours we spent there, I think we were in the pool about 2.5 hours, it was just too hot to really lay out and relax. Also, can I talk about the fratastic party that was started while we were there? It was like all of a sudden all of these fratty looking guys showed up with burgers, guacamole and drinks and basically took over the pool Apparently they're all employed by Vector home security systems for the summer and the company rented out a bunch of the apartments (oh ahem, excuse me, flats) at West Broad Village for them to live. This of course is all according to the lifeguard, Blair, who would prefer to have a real job at a bank but he just moved back into town from Chicago where he spent the past three years. Also, can I just say that I find it incredibly inappropriate to wear a thong/boy bottom-type bikini bottom to a public pool? I'm glad you think you look hot and maybe you like being stared at by creepy old men and frat boys but really, please keep that sexy bathing suit for when you're at home.

Anyway, in more exciting news, when Jenny and I got back from the pool we learned that our girl Cax, one of the hippies from Two Hippie Chic, is engaged! Her and her boyfriend, well I guess now fiance, went to Jackson Hole this weekend where he proposed at their campsite. Check out her blog post, it's really cute and he did a great job with the ring!

That's all for now. I have a busy work week ahead of me. My mantra for getting me through this week is "9 work days until vacation." I can't wait!

Thunderstorm

Delilah is afraid of thunderstorms and this is how she sometimes likes to hide. Other times she puts her head under Brad's night stand and her legs under the bed. Or, if she's really scared, she gets in the bathroom. If there was ever a tornado, she'd be the most prepared!