Alan Cumming at the Castro Theater

What a wonderful performance by Alan Cumming Singing Sappy Songs..

A lot of sixes

Just updated my Fitbit for the day as I'm getting ready for bed. That's a lot of sixes!

Wallace Graduates from his first class!!

Wallace graduated from his first training class tonight! We've been taking the Just the Small Basics" class at the San Francisco SPCA for the last four weeks. (we had one additional class just for humans to start with.) It's a one-hour class in once a week.

Wallace did really well!! We've all learned so many things. The basic commands we learned were: sit, down, stay, come, leave it, drop it and walking on a leash. We also learned a lot about dog behavior and social skills. It was really great.

We all enjoyed the class very much, and look forward to signing up for more in the future.
The SFSPCA offers so many classes that we think Wallace (and Dick and I) will enjoy.

Yay, Wallace! We're so proud :)

72 Jars of Plum Jam

2016 Plumpacalypse Total:

Seventy-two 12-oz Jars of Plum Jam

120 cups of raw fruit
40 cups of sugar
61.25 oz of pectin

Five batches made over seven days.

Drum Corps Friends

A night of Drum Corps with good friends is good for my soul.

A Day in Brentwood with the Family

We took Wallace on his first short road trip today!

My parents came back from their 3.5-week vacation to Africa, so we went to their home in Brentwood today to visit with them, my sister and brother-in-law.

On the whole, Wallace did really well. It's about an hour and fifteen minute drive. We've only driven in San Francisco with him before, so this was our first trip on the freeway. Unfortunately, he got threw-up a little bit both on the journey there, as well as on the way back. We're not sure if he was a little car sick, or just excited? Actually, he was laying down the whole time (in the backseat) resting, so I don't think it was the excitement. I have a friend who told me that her dog used to get car sick easily, so she bought him a booster seat so the dog could see out the window, and it helped with the car-sickness. May have to look into one for long drives.

We had a really nice day with my family. Wallace really enjoyed hanging out at my parent's new home, and especially hanging out with the family. He took a long nap under the dining table as we ate lunch, and especially enjoyed playing with Auntie Tiffie.

My sister brought some proto-type VR Glasses from work for us to play with. They were very cool!

My parents grilled some hot dogs which we had with baked beans and fresh fruit. So yummy!

Thanks to my family for a really nice day. We had a great time, and are looking forward to another visit!

Gina and Stonewall!!

Today was a good day. Gina flew down from Seattle to the Bay Area to meet and pick up her new puppy!! It made my heart happy to spend the day with her and her sister and to be able to be with Gina as she met Stonewall ("Stoney") for the first time!!

Noe

My heart is shattered.

Today we had to make the impossible decision to say goodbye to our beloved Noe.
Our little kitty. Our baby, who we raised from the day we found her at roughly five days old. We had her for nearly 16 years, and we are grateful for every single one of those days and for all the memories and love that she gave us.

Noe hadn't been feeling well for the last few days. She stopped eating yesterday. We spoke to our vet today and her symptoms fell in line with the late stages of kidney failure, which she had been diagnosed with (in the early stages) over four years ago. We just couldn't let her suffer any longer.

I'll write a proper blog post in her memory in time. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, maybe later next week.
Right now, I'm having a hard time coming to terms with our life without our little girl.

Dolores Park

We spent part of a beautiful day enjoying Dolores Park.

Doggie Play Date with Oscar & Woofles

Mr. Wallace sure is keeping our social calendar busy!!

This afternoon, we went back to the Upper Douglass Dog Park and met Amy and John and their dogs, Oscar and Woofles!! Side note: I learned today that Woofles is a rescue dog that John adopted when he lived in Hong Kong. He can follow basic commands like "sit" in Cantonese!

I was surprised that the dog park was quieter today (Saturday) than yesterday when we first went. I guess it makes sense that there were more dog walkers with large packs yesterday, and today was mostly individual owners with their dogs.

We had a fun time at the park, although, truthfully, Wallace, Oscar and Woofles didn't really play much together. Wallace was too busy meeting other friends, Oscar was busy sprinting around the large grassy field, and Woofles (who is 12 years old) wanted to keep to himself more. :)

After a solid hour at the park, we went down to 24th Street and Douglass in Noe Valley to the Philz Coffee shop, got some drinks, and brought the dogs with us to sit in the park across the street. We had a really nice time there, just sitting with the dogs and catching up.

Thanks, John, Amy, Woofles and Oscar for a really enjoyable doggie date! Hope we can do it again soon!!

First Training Walk of the season

today's route

Time to kick off the 2016 Immediate Impact Walk Season!!

The first training walk of the season was last weekend, but I missed it because I was in North Carolina. I was happy to be back in town to join my friends for a gorgeous 10-mile walk this morning.

It was a surprisingly gorgeous and clear day today. Yesterday was overcast all day, so I wasn't expecting such a beautiful morning walk.

We walked through the Presidio to the Batteries to Bluffs trail (one of my favorites!). From there, we walked out to China Beach, then through the Richmond and Sunset Districts and crossed through Golden Gate Park. We had our break at Andronico's Grocery store, then circled back through the park and the Sunset and Richmond districts, and back to the Presidio. We finished right at Noon, so we made pretty good time (we met at 7:30am). Apparently, it was a perfect kite flying day. We saw several people flying enormous kites in the Presidio when we returned.

I still need to register for this year's Immediate Impact Walk, then will send out my first fundraising letter. I'll try to do that within the next couple of days.

Our return visit to the SPCA

We took a field trip to the SF SPCA this afternoon. It has been almost five weeks since we adopted Wallace, and we thought it would be nice to bring Wallace to visit some of the people who helped us adopt him.

Lucky for us, two of the women who helped us were working today, and they were absolutely delighted to see Wallace again! They were so happy to see how well he looks, that he has gained weight, and that he is so happy with us.

Several of other workers/volunteers came by to say hi to Wallace, and even people who were there to look at the available adoptable dogs were charmed by him.

Wallace had a great time visiting his friends at the SPCA, and is hoping we can visit again soon. :)

Fun at the Dog Park!!

We took Wallace to our first dog park this morning! We have heard of a very nice (and large) dog park about a mile (up hill) away from us called the Upper Douglass Dog Park. It's a HUGE park with a fenced in, grassy field.

We were very impressed. It's the first time that we've been able to let Wallace off leash to run, besides our own backyard.

There were lots and lots of other dogs there. We fell into a very nice circle of dogs of many sizes, but with several Wallace's size. They (the people and the dogs) were all very friendly and played well together.

Wallace had a blast! He was so happy being able to run and play with so many dogs at once. He didn't shy away from any of the people or dogs.

We stayed for about 45 minutes when he realized that he was looking tuckered out. Plus, we still had a mile to walk back home.

Dick and I are learning so much every day about being dog owners. Lucky for us, we met with some really nice people at the park today who helped us feel welcome and comfortable.

We're looking forward to going once or twice a week!!

PS: we met a cute little dog named Noe today. :)