DOWNTOWN

As if the underground train-riding wasn't enough of an adventure, above ground was like a totally different planet. Downtown San Francisco has about a million more smells and sounds and feet than my neighborhood.

There were lots and LOTS of feet.

My human was a little worried about me getting stepped on, but I'd rather get stepped on than be carried in public. We only had to walk a few blocks from the train to Ellen + her friends, so I took my chances. The risk paid off big time when I got to make an entire flock of pigeons fly away.

Me + new friend Ellen.

Anyway. We made it to Union Square and found Ellen + her friends, no problem. Even though we'd never met, I knew who they were right away. Pugs can always pick out pug people - it's like our eighth sense. Ellen also happened to be packing an edible surprise that totally set off my snack radar.

Ellen + her friends were all extrasupernice. They gave me loads of love and I got to show off for them. I did the Yeti. And the Jimmy. And posed on a few random objects, supermodel style. There was awwwing. And cookies. It was awesome.

THE COOKIES.

I want to pause and talk about the cookies for a minute. They're called Charlee Bear and each niblet has only 3 calories so you can eat a whole bunch of them without getting tubey. And they're supertasty. I immediately stuck my head in the bag and sucked down as many as I could. That didn't work a second time, so I tried to eat a hole in the bag to get more. I have no idea why my human has never bought these things for me. Major thanks, Ellen!

Sassy, snack invader.

Oh yeah. I was not the only fan of the Charlee Bear. A little dog named Sassy wandered over and used the cone of shame to score some sympathy snacks. The humans totally fell for it. Sassy just had her parts removed (and a whole bunch of people were watching) so I didn't chase her away from the camera. But I wanted to.

LITTLE PUG, BIG CITY (part one)

So, last week my human got a call from a nice lady named Ellen. She's been reading about my adventures since, like, day one and just so happened to be visiting San Francisco with some friends. And wanted to meet me.

Anyone who knows me at all knows I love people, so of course I was superexcited to meet Ellen and her friends. My human says I'm a love sponge and I've heard her tell people there's not enough love in the world for me. Which I guess is kinda true, but I don't think that's a bad thing. Right?

Anyway. Things got even more exciting when my human said we'd be meeting Ellen + her friends in downtown San Francisco. According to Google, we live exactly 3 miles from downtown - but somehow, I've never been there. Dutch has (a whole bunch of times, apparently) but not me. Not once. Ever.

I like adventures almost as much as I love love, so going new places is also superexciting. Especially when the going involves getting to ride a train. Uh huh. A train. And not just any train -- an underground train (technical term: subway).

Riding the L train.

San Francisco loves dogs so much, we're allowed to ride on public transportation. There's a catch though: non-service dogs (like me) have to wear a muzzle to ride the train. Uhhhh... pugs (like me) have no snout. How can you muzzle a dog with no muzzle?

My human was kinda worried about having to argue with the train police over the snout/muzzle technicality. But after trying to stuff me into a messenger bag and two totes (and failing), she decided to take a chance. I was instructed to look as cute and snoutless as possible at all times, then we headed to the train station.

Train-riding non-service dogs (like me) are supposed have to buy a train ticket just like everyone else, so we stopped and got change from a nice man in a giant glass box who said I was the cutest dog he's ever seen. He did not comment on my lack of muzzle.

I guess the trains were running late or something because a million people were just standing around. They were kinda grumpy about waiting, but still superfriendly and happy to see me. I got loads of love and attention and a bunch of people took my picture as I supermodelled by the train map.

There was a ridiculous amount of Awwwwing. And we hadn't even left the station...

FFF: Eeeeeeew! / tasty thing

I can't remember the last time I did a real Freeze Frame Friday, so get ready for a whole bunch of, uh, frozen-ness (click on the pictures, to biggify).

The Story
So, we were at the beach. And Dutch, who has both a skinnier neck *and* much better nose than me, found this, uh, stuff tangled up in the seaweed. He went nuts over it, and my human screeched 'EEEEEEW' so I knew whatever he found had to be good. And probably tasty.

But I want it now!

There was a bunch of debate between the humans over what the EEEEEW/tasty thing was. And whether or not it should be edible. Uh, hello! Everything is edible. Don't they get that?

Anyway. My human decided it was OK for me to eat the EEEEEW/tasty thing (which she also decided was the skin of some sea creature named squid) but only if she could freeze-frame me doing it.

Good Lord.

Hmmmm. Tasty.

I guess the freeze-framing only took a few seconds, but a split second is like an eternity when someone is dangling squid skin over your head.

PUG-CENTRIC

Gidget + Dutch's butt

My human says I have a very pug-centric view of the world. Which I think means I sometimes forget that the world doesn't revolve around me. Or even pugs in general.

I mean, it usually does - but not always. And after looking through the Virtual Pug (and other dog and cat) Sunday galleries, I realized just how many cool non-pug friends I have. Including some kitties.

Dutch + Kumquat + Ben the Panda

Have to admit - kitties are alien territory to me. I've never met one and don't even know what their butts smell like. Dutch, however, is practically a kitty expert. Before I came along, Dutch shared what's now our bed with 3 foster kitties: Gidget, Julio and Kumquat.

Dutch + Gidget + Julio + Kumquat

My human says the kitties were 4 weeks old and supertiny when they came and were adopted about a month later. She also says Dutch was kind of afraid of them at first, even though they were about the size of a hamster? But Gidget fell in love with Dutch and followed him around everywhere. Eventually, he gave in. And when the kitties left, he was very sad.

Dutch + surrogate kitty

My human is kinda irked at the moment because she can't find all the cute Dutch + kitty pictures. But it was like a billion years, 2 cameras and 3 computers ago - and before ME - so what does she expect??

Anyway. Keep filling the gallery with cuteness. I'll be back tomorrow and things will be all about me again.

(read yesterday's post if you have no idea what the gallery is).

THE HAT

Booger + The Hat

Superthanks for all the awesome ideas about a new collar for Dutch. And since a lot of us will never get to sniff butts, it's always very cool to get to know more about everyone. What I learned yesterday:

• Most pugs are more fashion-forward than me, Dutch & my human. Combined.

• Dutch isn't weird (about collars, anyway) he's just "European"
  

• There's a store in San Franciso called Chengoo that I've never been to.

• For some reason I really like the word Chengoo; it makes me happy.

Since we're on the subject of fashion accessories... my human says I should tell you about the, uhm, hat in today's picture (modeled by Booger). It's made from soft mesh and specially designed to keep pugs (and other dogs) from eating stuff they shouldn't. Stuff like poop. And rocks. And woodchips.

I'd heard about The Hat before - when woodchip #2 got stuck. But yesterday was the first time I saw one in action. According to Booger, The Hat is comfortable and sadly effective. He hasn't gotten to eat poop in like years. I saw another dog wearing one, a non-pug, and he could fetch a ball and everything.

The Hat is the genius idea/evil plot of a supernice local dog-walker lady named Ruth. If you have problems just-saying-no to things you shouldn't eat, maybe this is the accessory for you.

(sorry)

For more info about The Hat (aka the Doo-Doo Deflector) contact Ruth: redruthful (@) juno.com

* * * NEWS FLASH * * *

If you haven't checked out the Virtual Pug (and other dog and cat) Sunday gallery, it's gotten VERY cute. So cute that it's reached maximum cuteness capacity (there's a 100 cute limit).

We just added a second gallery to accommodate all this cuteness. So if you haven't sent in a picture of your cute virtual self, hurry up already!

Email your cute virtual self to: dailypuglet2@dphoto.com

Links to both galleries:

GALLERY #1: dailypuglet.dphoto.com
GALLERY #2: dailypuglet2.dphoto.com

If you have no idea what on earth I'm talking about, read this:

http://dailypuglet.blogspot.com/2010/08/virtual-pug-and-other-dog-sunday.html

There's still some unidentified cuteness happening in Gallery #1, so if anyone knows the names of the mystery pugs, please make some noise.

WHAT'S YOUR STYLE?

I forget who recently confessed to walking around with a christmas-y collar in July because their human thought the xmas lights were chili peppers, but the confession got me thinking...

What does my collar say about me?

Unlike Dutch, who has a neckwear collection the size of China, I only have 1 collar and 2 harnesses. My human says it's because I have a fat neck and it's hard to find collars that fit me right. But the collar I do have is cammo and I guess that kinda fits me.

My favorite harness has skull+crossbones. Someone gave it to me after I defied death during my boy-part-removal-heart-attack. I also have a faux Puppia (apparently, the faux version fits the fat neck better) but I hardly ever wear it. Not sure why because it's super-sporty looking.

The skinny neck collection.

Mr Skinny Neck Dutch has a ton of collars. For some reason, he wears a lot of pink. Including a totally embarrassing Princess collar he got as a gift after faking a limp and ruining a camping trip. He says his favorite piece of neckwear is a gross blue sparkly collar. My human keeps threatening to throw it out, but PetSmart doesn't sell them anymore so Dutch insists on keeping it.

Most of his collars are pretty manky, now that I think about it. His 7th birthday is in like 2 weeks, do you think I should get him some new neck wear??

Anyway. Do you have a favorite collar or harness? What does it say about you?

* * * UPDATE * * *

If you haven't checked out the Virtual Pug (and other dog and cat) Sunday gallery, it's gotten VERY cute. So cute that it's reached maximum cuteness capacity (100 cute limit).

We just added a second gallery to accommodate all this cuteness. So if you haven't sent in a picture of your cute virtual self, hurry up already!

Email your cute virtual self to: dailypuglet2@dphoto.com

Links to both galleries:

GALLERY #1: dailypuglet.dphoto.com
GALLERY #2: dailypuglet2.dphoto.com

If you have no idea what on earth I'm talking about, read this:

http://dailypuglet.blogspot.com/2010/08/virtual-pug-and-other-dog-sunday.html

There's also some unidentified cuteness happening in Gallery #1, so if anyone knows the names of the mystery pugs, please make some noise.

FRIENDS + NUGGETS

I know everyone on the planet wanted to come to Stubby's World Tour / Bay Area Nugget Fest. So here's a play by play for everyone who couldn't make it there in the fur.

Stubby arrived in style, riding in his green pug buggy. Stubby's mom says he hates the buggy, but I think it's pretty cool. A lot of other dogs gave the buggy high marks too -- with their pee.

I might be smiling, but I don't like this thing.

We all played on the beach to burn calories and make room for Nuggets. A few new friends joined in and that was superexciting. Like Miss Danielle, the genius/pugless human responsible for telling my human to drive south for sunlight a few weeks ago. And a pug named Petey + his big brother Brodie who came across the big orange bridge to meet Stubby.

Petey workin' it for the camera

My human says I have some serious competition with Petey the aspiring supermodel. Great. But Petey is a sports edition like me (he swims!) and is totally someone I'd hang out with, so I guess I'll overlook the whole supermodelling thing. Besides, I really want to know how he gets his ears to stand up like that.

Brodie, too cool for the camera

Petey's bro Brodie is just cool. He swam in the bay and didn't get cold. Dutch was shivering so bad, we had to put him in the car to warm up. What a wuss, right? I think my hussy of a human has a little bit of a crush on Petey + Brodie.

Spencer B!

From the other side of the grey bridge came Zoey, Phoebe, Spencer and Bellatrix. Phoebe patrolled the area for invading non-pugs and Zoey was in her usual stealth mode. Spencer B + his people brought Bellatrix because her humans had to work. How cool is that? They play hard like me and Frank, but are a waaaay cuter couple.

Bella says: I've burned off enough room for 16 Nuggets

After some serious playing, the Nuggets were served. Petey's awesome mom took this picture of the Nuggest fest. Hmmmm. Kind funny how all the bad, begging dogs are eating Nuggets, while all the good dogs sit politely and starve to death.

Nuggets for all!

Of course the Nuggets didn't last very long, but everyone got to enjoy them. My human even dissected one so Bellatrix could taste the inner Nugget, without ruining her diet. I licked it clean, just to be sure. Stubby got to lick the bowl clean when it was all over. And Dutch licked it clean again, just to be sure.

FFF: Wild Kingdom edition

SO, my human has been crazy busy all week. And her brain is pret-ty gimpy right about now. Yesterday she was too busy cheating on me with some little spotted dog to take any pictures of MY cute face, so I was worried we wouldn't have anything for Freeze Frame Friday.

Again.

But when we went out for our walk this morning, nature provided what my human did not: a photo op. Except it was more like a video-op because my human only had her phone and the camera on it drives her nuts.

So here's today's FFF, wild kingdom edition. My human apologizes for calling the creature in the video dumb. Turns out he was kinda hurt or something. And maybe blind because he ran into Dutch's leg. And then my human's foot.



No one - including the creature - was injured during the making of today's FFF. After it was filmed, my human carried the creature off to a safe place.

STUBBY!

So, this is my man Stubby from Illinois (and his cool mom, Michele). We've had this long-distance bromance thing going ever since he helped me with the Green Pug video (Stubby is the Greenest pug on the planet) and yesterday we *finally got to meet. Like, in the fur.

We got to Stubby's hotel about 10 minutes after he did and immediately dragged him to the beach. And by dragged, I mean his mom carried him. Stubby's an older dude and has been having some back problems lately, so he doesn't exactly cruise around like a 2 year old. But he's super feisty and gets around just fine if you're not hiking half a mile to the beach.

As always, the beach was superfun. Stubby's mom threw a tennis ball for me, Dutch ate some dead fish and Stubby chillaxed in the warm sun. Yes, I said sun. After I-don't-know-how-long, it finally came out. Unless Stubby brought it with him from Illinois?

Not sure.

Our spotted friends Boka + Miley met us on the beach and we all played for awhile. The humans talked, Dutch hung out with Stubby, I chased Miley, and Boka got in trouble for peeing on some angry dude's fish. There was some yelling, so we called it quits and headed for food.

Not just any food. Stubby food.

Hmmmmm. Popeyes.

If you don't know Stubby, he has a thing for Popeyes fried chicken. Amazingly enough, Half Moon Bay (where Stubby is staying), town of 10,000 people has a Popeyes! I was superexcited to take Stubby there. And really superexcited to eat some chicken.

When we got to Popeyes, Stubby was going to wait in the car with his mom while the other human's went inside to get food. But my human said, "No way, you are the famous Stubby. This is California. You're coming into Popeyes."

So, Stubby went into Popeyes (we got stuck in the car) and they all came out with a big bag of Nuggets. Lots and lots of Nuggets. We went to a nearby park for a Popeys Picnic and I tried my best to be a good host. I didn't attack Stubby for getting too close to the Nuggets and offered his human a Nugget-scented napkin.

Our picnic lasted all of about a minute. When you have 2 pugs and 3 Dalmatians, lots and lots of Nuggets don't go very far. But it was cool to hang with Stubby and we all got a bunch to eat. Even Boka the-drooling-vegetarian got to eat Nuggets.

Nugggggets

It was superfun to finally meet and hang out with Stubby and his mom. I don't think Stubby's ever had to share his Popeye's with so many empty stomachs, but I think he had fun too.

What happened to my Popeyes?

We're getting together again this Saturday and want to invite everyone to come too. Nuggets will be served!

STUBBY'S WORLD TOUR MEETUP

WHEN: This Saturday!
WHERE: Crissy Field (meet at East Beach parking lot, near the small building with the windsock)
TIME: 11am

RSVP for more all the details / dailypuglet-at-gmail.com

MAP (click to make big)

* * *

PS: Awesomeness happening in the Virtual Pug (and other dogs and cat) Sunday gallery. Keep it coming! See yesterday's Daily Puglet if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

VIRTUAL PUG (AND OTHER DOG) SUNDAY

So, my man Stubby from Illinois (and his people) just drove all the way across Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah and probably some other places too so they could visit California. They'll be here later today and I'm suuuper excited.

Sooo excited I'm even excited about wearing the dorky stripey sweater.

Meeting up with Stubby got me thinking about how cool it would be if we all lived in the same place. I know we're not driving across country or moving any time soon, and you probably aren't either - so I came up with this semi-genius way we can all be in the same place at the same time.

VIRTUAL PUG (AND OTHER DOG) SUNDAY!

HOW TO ATTEND
Email a picture of yourself to dailypuglet2@dphoto.com. Your picture will automatically be added to the Virtual Pug (and other dog) Sunday gallery for all to see. It takes a few minutes for your cute virtual self to show up in the gallery, but don't worry. It will.

You can visit the Virtual Pug (and other dog) Sunday galleries at:

http://dailypuglet.dphoto.com

*and*

http://dailypuglet2.dphoto.com

I haven't figured out a way for there to be cookies yet, so don't come hungry. But unlike the real Pug Sunday, the virtual one will last a whole entire month.

At the end of VP (AOD) SUNDAY, I'll pick one random name from the gallery to win a special pug-sized Henriettta Rubber Chicken (unless a non-pug wins, then it'll be a regular Dutch-sized one). Dutch says Pug Sunday wouldn't be the same without Henrietta and I don't want him to feel left out.

* * * PLEASE READ BEFORE SENDING YOUR PICTURE * * *

NAMING YOUR VIRTUAL SELF
The file name of the picture you send will appear in the gallery, so if you want us to know who you are, make sure the file name is your name.

Example:

RIGHT: puglet.jpeg
NOT RIGHT: DSC_3489.jpeg

SIZE OF VIRTUAL SELF
The gallery will be slow to show off our collective cuteness if it has to deal with ginormous images. Please resize giant images before emailing them. Pictures 2MB or less are a-ok.

Also, we won't be able to see your cuteness in all its, uh, cuteness, if you send a tiny picture. A small picture is better than no picture, but aim for no less than 600px on the longest side.

NUMBER OF VIRTUAL SELFS
Gallery space is limited, so please send only (1) picture of your cute self. If you share a house with other cute selfs, it's totally OK for everyone to be in the gallery!

If you have any questions or problems, post a comment or email my human dailypuglet-at-gmail.com. Can't wait to almost-meet everyone :)

THE BAD CHIP

I know sometimes I act like it's all about me (I mean, this is The Daily Puglet). And as much as I wish this was true, I know it isn't. And to prove it, today I'm going to write about something not about me at all.

Dutch's bad microchip, to be exact.

It's kind of a long story that happened before I came along, but from what I understand, Dutch had two microchip thingys and one of them kinda malfunctioned. Not like blew up or anything - more like moved, got stuck next to a nerve in his shoulder, and drove him nuts whenever he walked.

For months, Dutch scratched and scratched and scratched at his left shoulder. He saw three different vets, but none of them could find anything wrong with it. They just thought he was being weird. Like, OCD weird.

Dutch saw a whole bunch of special vets - skin vets and bone vets and nerve vets - but none of them could find anything wrong. My human came up with some crazy microchip theory, because Dutch always scratched in the same place and the place he scratched was kinda where a microchip goes. But the special vets thought she was just being weird too.

The scratching went on for like 6 months. When it got really bad, and there were no more special vets to see, my human took him to a vet friend of hers in Tahoe. He listened to her crazy microchip theory and thought it sounded "logical" or whatever. They took xrays and found out the chips in Dutch's shoulder were exactly where he scratched.

Dutch vs. The Bad Chip, round 1

The story gets longer (if you can believe that) but Dutch ended up having surgery to get rid of the evil chip(s). He had two of them (another long story), but the doctor could only find one (and that took hours or digging). So everyone crossed their fingers and hoped they removed the right evil chip.

Blah blah blah, Dutch healed and things were better without the bad chip. Until a few weeks ago when Dutch started scratching at the bad chip shoulder. Now he's walking kinda funny on that side, like he's trying not to bend his leg. My human's been waiting/hoping it would just go away. But it hasn't and now she's all worried.

Dutch on ice after bad chip removal in 2008

The good news is, we might take a trip to Tahoe to see the vet who removed chip #1. The bad news is, my human is afraid Dutch might need surgery to get rid of scar tissue. Or chip #2. Or something.

I'm not sure positive thinking can fix bad chips, but I figure it can't hurt. If all of us think positive at the same time, maybe Dutch will be OK. I kinda really want to go to Tahoe though, so don't start thinking yet. I'll say when.

EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL

So, last night when we sat down to do today's Daily Puglet, my human asked if we could make today's post about some stupid Frolic thing. And of course I wanted to say no, but I didn't really have a good reason to say no.

So I made one up.

ME: Uhm, we can't. I promised Stubby we'd write about his world tour.
MY HUMAN: Well, there's no reason we can't write about both.

And then I lied.

ME: Yeah. Except Stubby thinks your Frolic stuff is lame. And he'd be insulted if you lumped his world tour in with your Frolic thing.

And lied some more. Big time.

ME: Besides, a few Daily Puglet readers have told me they wish you'd keep your stupid Frolic stuff off my blog.
MY HUMAN: Really?
ME: Yeah.

And that's when she got kinda sad and told me all about the stupid Frolic thing, and some dog named Miss Selma who needs a home and how the Frolic thing could maybe help her and... ugh. Did I feel like a great big jerk or what?

So, here's the latest stupid Frolic news. Starting today (like right this minute) Frolic has a new, new blog. And it's called - ready for this? - The freaking Daily Frolic (minus the freaking part). My human said she loves how much people enjoy the Daily Puglet, she got all inspired to do a daily for Frolic too.

Great.

She promised me that The Daily Frolic won't be anything like my blog (except for the Daily part) and won't get in the way of my blogging. It won't be as funny or as cute as The Daily Puglet and there will be no cool adventures. Instead, it will mostly just be pictures of stranger dogs she shoots while walking around in the city. Without me.

But wait. There's more.

Every Monday will be "Adoptable Day" and will feature a local rescue dog in need of a home. That's where Miss Selma comes in - I guess my human took her picture yesterday when I was busy taking a nap. I think I can live with that.

OH. And in addition to Monday's 'Adoptable Day', there will be another special day. On Sunday. Anyone want to guess what Sunday will be?? Oh yeah. In honor of pugs everywhere, every Sunday on The Daily Frolic will be freaking PUG SUNDAY. And will feature a picture of a pug. A pug that is not me. Which I guess is OK if it's one of you guys, but if it's not?

Ugh again.

Anyway. That's the news. And since I doubt anyone is still reading, I'll save the stuff about Stubby's world tour for tomorrow.

BISON ANKLES

So, my human says I probably shouldn't repeat the bad things she says about Steve Jobs and her ipad (she named it Tofu). "Them's fightin' words for some people", she said. So I won't go into detail about how Steve Jobs and Tofu messed with my mail for two days in a row. I'll just say I was VERY happy to finally liberate the contents of my package.

SO happy that today's FFFriday has been postponed (have a problem with this? Yeah. You know who to thank).

Anyway. My secret admirer turned out to be my friend Bellatrix (she's a pug). And my secret present turned out to be a part of an animal I'd never heard of from an animal I didn't even know existed.

Bison ankles!?!

Unlike my superboring human, Bellatrix's mom likes to shop. So she always goes to all the cool stores and gets all the cool stuff. Stuff like Himalyan Yak milk chews and... bison ankles?

There was a note from Bellatrix along with the eatables. I think it could be the sweetest, but saddest, note a pug has even written:

'I only ate the one'

I only ate the one??? Doesn't that just hurt your heart? Poor Bellatrix. And she had an unset stomach from it too :(

Thanks Bella-T for the tasty bison ankles. They didn't upset my stomach (or even Dutch's) so if anyone has any unwanted buffalo parts they can't eat, send them our way :)

PS:
I feel kinda bad that FFF has been canceled two weeks in a row now. So here's a peek at what it will be when it happens. It's from a photoshoot we did yesterday because people keep telling my human she needs to put a picture of herself on the Frolic Photography website.

DO NOT tell my human I showed you this picture because she likes to be invisible or whatever. I swear she hates cameras as much as Dutch does. Maybe even more.

THANKS STEVE JOBS

Thanks to some dude named Steve Jobs, today is going to be a two-part post.

Y'see I got this card thing in the mail the other day. It said I have a package waiting for me at the post office. It didn't say who it was from, so my human says that means I must have a secret admirer. Superexcited because I love getting mail and I really love having admirers.

Thing is, whenever we get one of these card things from the postal people, it means our package will be held hostage until after 11am the next day. Totally sucks, but I waited. Tried to be patient. All that. And then yesterday, just before 11am, my human had some sort of iPad crisis.

A crisis so major, the geeks at our local Planet Best Buy couldn't fix it. SO big that it took not one, but TWO trips to the Apple store to only kinda sorta but not really fix it.

Of course by the time my human was finished swearing at the iPad, her gimpy brain was about to implode. And the post office was closed. So, the package is still being held hostage and my secret admirer is still a secret. When I kinda whined about it, my human snapped and said it's Steve Jobs fault, I should go whine to him.

(she was a lit-tle bit grumpy after all the iPad drama)

I don't know who this Steve Jobs guy is or why he's messing with my mail, but my human promised not to touch any new technology until *after* we go to the post office today. I'll keep you, uh, posted...

** UPDATE! **

6:29pm. I waited allllllllll day and we just got back from the PO office. My secret admirer is awesome! And is named Bellatrix (hi Bellatrix!). I'm too busy eating my package right now to get into all the tasty details. Full story tomorrow.

SUNNY WITH A CHANCE OF SNAKES AND LIONS

So, part of my human's brain gimpiness is forgetting that she knows stuff. But thanks to DMBY's comment yesterday, my human remembered-that-she-forgot we don't have to go all the way to Florida to escape the fog (which, apparently, we wouldn't want to do until at least October anyway). We just have to drive a few minutes south of the San Francisco airport.

Because of this good news, yesterday we headed south in search of the sun. And found it! We ended up in Belmont, at a place called Water Dog Lake Park because it's the closest south-of-SFO/off-leash place my human could think of (note: Water Dog Park is not really an off-leash place, but nobody wears leashes there).

We'd been to Water Dog Lake Park with The Man once before, but my human thought the park was "lame" and the lake was more like "a scuzzy pond", so we never went back. Well. Apparently Water Dog Lake Park is only lame if you go the way The Man took us. If you actually leave the big ugly gravel road, there are miles of very cool hikey trails.

And, according to the signs, also rattlesnakes and mountain lions.

Note that the what to do if you encounter a lion part is BLANK!?!

Since my human thought the park was small and lame, she didn't bother to look at the trail map at the entrance to the park. So our walk in the lame park turned into a pretty long hike because we got kinda "misplaced". But that was cool because our lame little walk turned into a bonafide adventure.

I even went swimming in the lake/scuzzy pond to cool off:



We're all sooooo glad DMBY mentioned the SFO/sun thing. My human got to see the sun (and shed her fleece for the first time in weeks), so she was superhappy. Dutch found a few invisible squirrels to chase, so he was happy. And I'm pretty much always happy, so I was happy too. We didn't see a single lion or rattlesnake, and that made all of us happy.

TO GET TO WATER DOG LAKE PARK:
From 280, take the Ralston Exit.
Head South on Ralston about a half mile to Hallmark (I think there's a traffic light).
Turn RIGHT on Hallmark, go down the hill and you'll see a turnoff thing on the LEFT that's so short, it could be someone's driveway. Park there!

THE FOG

If you live anywhere but San Francisco, summer means hot. But if you live in San Francisco, summer means fog. And fog is definitely not hot.

Usually fog isn't a problem in our neighborhood because a great big hill keeps it out (picture the fog as a great big icky donut; we live in the middle, empty bit). But lately it's been foggy and gloomy and not-hot everywhere.

Since I'm a pug and start to melt if it's hotter than 65 degrees, I don't mind the fog and cool weather. But it's starting to drive my human nuts.

ME: can we go to the beach?
HUMAN: no, it's too gross out.
ME: can we go hike with the cows then?
HUMAN: no, it's too gross out.
ME: is there anywhere we CAN go??
HUMAN: Florida?

Fog (on a good day)

Today in the car she even had the heat on. Yeah, the heat. I don't think we're going to Florida any time soon, so maybe if my human knew the sun was is still in the sky *somewhere*, she'd feel a little better about the fog situation.

If the sun's shining where you are, please speak now. So my human doesn't think the sun is gone for good and completely lose it.