Happy Dogs and a Happy Birthday

There's something about dogs and water that makes people smile. We went along to Spring Lake this morning for the "Water Bark" event. After the swimming lagoon is closed to the public for swimming, it is open to dogs for a few weekends. Lifeguards and rangers are there with buckets of tennis balls and piles of frisbees. Ozzie brings his own sticks. The majority of the dogs there this morning were retrievers, swimming madly after balls, and playing tug-of-war with each other with the frisbees. Rudy doesn't go in over his head, (which isn't very far), so he prefers to stand in the inch deep water and bark at Ozzie when he returns with his "catch".

Today, OilMan's battle is with "varmints" who have tunneled under every single one of the new plants we planted by the street, killing several of them. His weapon of choice is smoke bombs, which he pokes into the tunnels with a stick, sealing the hole with a rock or a piece of cardboard. I think he loves them, and he captured the interest of several of the male neighbors driving past. It's a guy thing…

We celebrated Dana's birthday with her family in Healdsburg at Cafe Lucia. We had a splendid meal of Portuguese dishes, including Feijoada. OilMan and I had lunch at this charming restaurant a few weeks ago, and it was a great place to have delicious food, good service, in an atmosphere that allowed us to have a conversation without yelling at each other. The desserts were wrks of art.