I wonder...

Summer is my favorite season. I wish it could be summer all the time! Ok, I know I need the other seasons in order to appreciate summer, but still. I wouldn't complain if summer was a little bit longer.

But that got me to wondering - why do I like summer so much? Is it because everything is green and full of life and growing beautifully? Is it the wonderfully hot weather? Is it being able to walk around barefoot in shorts and a tank top - my favorite outfit in the whole entire world? Is it because I can take the kids for a walk and not freeze my ass off? I *hate* being cold!

Or is it because my life becomes a flurry of activity and I'm addicted to it?

My scheduling skills, while not even remotely close to Nancy's (), are pretty active and not too shabby in the summer. I have 3 calendars that I update regularly - work, google, and myspace so people know where I am and what I'm doing.

I don't know, but I think I'll have to figure it before I burn myself out.

Speaking of burn out, that's probably the stage I'll be hitting come Monday! Tomorrow I'm leaving work early so I can take Millie to her chiropractor appointment. Yes, there are chiropractors for animals. Remember a while back I told you they had massages for dogs at tournaments? Health care is finally catching up for our animals. Now we just need a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan for them.

This morning, something really weird happened with her, which prompted me to make the appt. Millie was getting off the couch and she yelped. She seemed fine, was moving fine, but something was just a little off. I looked her over, moved her limbs, neck, etc. trying to see what was wrong. I found out when I asked her to give me a kiss...she lost control of her tongue.

Huh? Yup, that's right. She couldn't control her tongue. It was doing this really weird "S" shaped movement in her mouth and she couldn't straighten it out.

Can you say panic?!

I wanted to see if she could eat so I gave her a couple of small pieces of cheese. On the last piece, she was finally able to stick her tongue out. *Big* sigh of relief! But, this is like bizarre-o thing number 10 that's happened to her in the past 3 years and I think it's due to her pinching a nerve or throwing a disk out of whack. That's why there are doggie chiropractors.

Back to the schedule, I have that tomorrow and then have to pack for the rest of the week. Thursday and Friday I'll be at a conference in CT with Freddie & Tweak. Friday afternoon we're off to the flyball tourney in PA. BTW, if anyone is in the Broomall, PA area and wants to come watch flyball, we'll be at the Marple Sports arena.

In the Oh-my-god-I-did-it-again category, I had another interaction with nature this afternoon. I was out in the yard picking up dog poop (an unpleasant but necessary chore when you have dogs) when I went to pick something up and it moved. Poop doesn't move.

It was a toad. A brown toad that seemed less than pleased with my attempt at shoving it into the pooper scooper. He started hopping away from me, which would normally be cool. The one time it isn't cool is when you have 4 prey driven dogs out in the yard with you.

The situation quickly became a 3 Stooges scene when I started trying, again, to shove him in the pooper scooper to get the little guy away from Freddie, who was full out screaming across the yard to get the moving thing. Freddie streaking across the yard brought the full attention of the other dogs. Did I mention Tweak was faster than Freddie these days? Did I also mention this took place in about .5 milliseconds?

Let's re-cap, shall we? I have a pooper scooper full of poop, trying to shove an unhappy toad into it so I can get the poor thing away from the dogs who are full tilt on their way over to me. The more I try and grab him, the quicker he moves, the faster the dogs run. Heh.

It wasn't looking good for Mr. Toad until, by sheer luck, I caught him mid-jump in the pooper scooper. I quickly clamp the rake over the scooper so he won't jump out of it and start walking around in a move-along-there's-nothing-to-see-here kind of manner.

The toad was saved, the dogs finally gave up, and all was well until a mosquito bit me. That little bastard died.

Ahhhh nature!

D