weekend accomplishments

My (Catherine's) mom came down to visit from Washington for a week starting Saturday after Wagapalooza. During that week, she did more work on the house than Court and I have done in the year that we've lived here: she painted the bathroom, planted plants in the side yard, fixed the screen door, locked herself out :) and watched our puppy. Whew! She also brought her new puppy, Daisy, to visit and play (noisily) with Pumpkin. We had been contemplating rescuing another dog for quite some time so Pumpkin would have a friend and playmate. After the week with Daisy and Pumpkin - she may just be in for many years as an only child.
As a reward for all that hard work, we went hiking on Saturday at Mount Tamalpias near San Francisco. It looked like it was going to be an outcast and dreary day until we climbed high enough to burst above the clouds and into sunshine. The hike around the east peak was nice - we saw birds flying hundreds of feet below us, and a view of blue lakes, green trees and Mount Diablo (coming soon to a future post - we are going to visit there next). The dogs had fun chasing small and giant lizards - Daisy bays at them while Pumpkin tries to figure out if something moved. I'd like to say we climbed the 2751 feet to the top, but alas, we took the car.


We spent some more time hiking the Cataract Trail in the Marin County Municipal Water District. There we saw beautiful meadows and wildflowers, deer, tiny waterfalls and some pretty funny swimming from Pumpkin. She is not a fan yet. However, you can see how much she liked hiking with Daisy and my mom by her huge smile in the picture above. After hiking the Cataract Trail, we went to Dillon Beach on Bodega Bay. It's one of the only beaches where dogs can go off leash. Pumpkin liked chasing seaweed. Daisy only had eyes for the birds. We made the mistake of letting her off leash and she took off down the beach after the birds, making her Beagle noises the whole way. My mom, Court, Pumpkin and I chased her for over a quarter mile. Thank goodness the birds turned around. During the chase, Mom managed to fall flat on her face in the sand. The entire situation was so funny!
However, too much playing led to ...

one hurt puppy. She somehow lodged a stick or something in her foot and it got infected. She had to be sedated by the vet, so he could slice her foot open to make it better. She has a cool green bandage and a satellite collar until further notice. She has puppy class tomorrow and I'm sure the other puppies will make fun of her. I feel her pain - nothing like class in a neck brace!

Not to be outdone by Mom's hard work - Court and I bought some planters, dirt and plants and created a garden in the backyard. We had no idea what we were doing, but we knew we couldn't put the plants in the ground because Pumpkin would either run straight through them, eat them or dig them up. Thus, wine barrel planters - perfect for CA!

Many new flowers!

We also cleaned the hot tub so it is open for business again. COME VISIT!

To finish up a great weekend, we had some of my coworkers over for a Memorial Day BBQ. It was laid back and nice to relax in our backyard. Court made some good food and we played a couple rounds of Mafia. Court, Andy and Josh managed to pull off Mafia victories leaving wakes of bodies - I think I was killed every time. They said I talked too much - figures!