It’s been a pretty quiet day today–a nice change from last Saturday. Mom and I ran some errands. We fed my car, bought an under-the-sink water filter at Home Depot for the kitchen, picked up a couple sweaters for Mom, paused for coffee at the mall, where I bought a couple shirts at Ann Taylor. (May I just say here that I think they have the best t-shirts around? Good shapes and colors, and they last forever, still looking good. They may be a little more money, but considering they frequently have them on sale . . . great tees.) Oh, and I also upgraded my cell phone. My new one not only has a camera (just in case I see something particularly blog-worthy without having my real camera with me), but also a speaker-phone, in case I need to talk in the car (which, of course, is illegal in NJ now).

  This afternoon, I gave Chappy a haircut and a bath. The haircut was planned–he’s been looking a little scruffy–but I decided mid-afternoon that he was smelling just a little too dog-like, because . . .

. . . Our lawn-guys came by–in the rain–to clean up our yard for Spring. (And, what fun that must have been for them, in that steady rain!) It was Chappy’s responsibility, of course, to keep an eye on them, and bark at them when necessary. The excitement made him the doggy equivalent of sweaty and rather . . . aromatic. This does happen from time to time, and the smell does go away once he calms down (and he had a bath last week, for heaven’s sake), but it’s the weekend, when he gets the privilege of sleeping at the foot of my bed, so . . . into the tub!

My dog, incidentally, has the most entertaining way of drying off after a bath. First, I try to rub him down with a towel, to get the worst of the drips out of the way. This I do while he’s still in the tub. Once he’s allowed out of the tub, we move to the “bull-fighter” method. I stand, holding the towel, and he runs back and forth, rubbing against the towel–or my leg, whichever is closest. (He’s never ridden through a car wash, but he would understand the principle right away.)

After trying to catch him with the towel, to make sure there’s no water dripping down his ears, and to make sure his feet are at least not soaking wet so he won’t slide too drastically on the floors, I open the bathroom door. This is where it gets fun! He runs down the stairs, and then basically “Blow Dries.” By which I mean, he runs fast enough around the house for the wind to dry his fur. Not only is this amusing and entertaining, it has the added excitement of rug-hopping. We have hard wood and laminate floors downstairs, with an assortment of area rugs and throw rugs as needed.

Chappy learned a long time ago that the floors are slipper and it’s easiest to come to a stop by jumping onto a rug. And so, when dashing about the house (which a friend calls “frapping”–Frequent Random Acts of Play), he runs from rug to rug to rug, with spins and pivots and slides thrown in to keep it interesting. In fact, he’s one of the easiest dogs to play with–you stand still, say, in the middle of the front hallway, and stamp your feet as if you’re about to give chase. He’ll charge from one end of the house to the other. You turn around (as he does also), so you’re facing each other, and stamp your feet again. Repeat as needed. Very easy on the person and fun for the dog–what could be better? We even sometimes play the variation where, he runs up to me with a toy, and I move my leg as if I’m going to get up to chase him . . . I don’t even have to leave my knitting.)

Speaking of knitting, I think my Brooks Farm shawl is almost done. (Hurray!) I held it out last night and, from the center point, it stretches to my fingertips, and down to my hips. Sounds like a shawl to me! Now I just need to find an edging pattern I like to finish it off. Can’t wait. As much as I’ve been enjoying the shawl knitting lately, I’m hankering for something with a little more structure. (Like, gosh, a “Nothing but a T,” maybe?)

Oh, and the noise of the title? First, the whirring of leaf blowers by the multitude of landscapers. (Okay, about 4 of them, but I didn’t actually count, and they made enough noise for a regiment.) It’s amazing how irritating an hour of non-stop, multiple [loud] leaf-blowing, right outside your house can be! And, right now, there is a bird somewhere out there cheeping. I know, that doesn’t sound like much. How loud can a cheep be? But I’ve been up here at my computer for almost an hour, and the bird has not stopped, and I can hear him loud and clear! How’s a girl supposed to sleep with this kind of noise??

And, congratulations to Greta for recognizing the source of yesterday’s post title. I think just about every curly-haired girl knows that rhyme . . . and it’s amazing how often it’s a propos!

I’ve gotten some interesting comments, too, from that “No Apologies” post–thanks! Keep ‘em coming!

• Tags: Chappy, Family, General • Permalink:Quiet Saturday . . . except for the noise! //