NDP

Also known as "Non-Dog Post." AKA "Joseph and the Colorful Raincoat."




Last night Kate invited me (and I accepted) to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. I thought I had seen it before, but all I could remember was Mom singing various songs from it, most notably, Any Dream Will Do. While watching the play I remembered I had seen it at the community theater because I remembered Craig as an Ishmaelite (a hairy, hairy Ishmaelite.)

It was a good production. I thought the narrator had a great belt-it-out Broadway voice. The man sitting next to me kept shouting, "Ay! BRAVO!" Other than that the crowd was not very enthusiastic.

We had really good seats, thanks to Kate's grandmother who gave us the tickets. She couldn't make it, which was too bad for her. We were right in the middle, just a few rows back. I could see the conductors hands shoot up out of the orchestra pit every so often.


In other non-dog news, I have tendonitis in my right elbow. Diagnosed by none other than Dr. V himself. I bought a little Ace bandage brace thingy. I thought it was helping, but then I was using the chuck-it to throw tennis balls for the dogs (maybe this is related to the dogs after all) and I had a sharp burring pain in the elbow. I suppose it is not working as well as I thought. Thereafter I used my left arm for the ball throwing, but that was not nearly as satisfactory for the dogs since the ball usually just ended up a few feet in front of me, except for the time it hit the tree, rebound and almost beaned me in the head. Some people call my injury tennis elbow but since I don't play tennis I call it tugger's elbow. It gets worse when I play tug of war with Pie. I try to use my left arm, but sometimes it doesn't work. The original injury is from moving a mattress back at the end of December when I moved to my new place. It has since gotten worse- due to ball throwing and tugging. Apparently this is not a NDP after all.


Since I've already veered off the NDP path, I will write one more thing about the dogs. I bought Bosco a kong toy and fill it with peanut butter when I leave so he isn't upset. I bought the XXL for extreme chewers. So far (just a few days) it is holding up great. Pie loves to chomp on it as well. No PB for her, although she does stick her tongue in the hole hoping for left overs. She ocassionally whines softy in excitement as she chews. The directions said the dogs may improve jaw strength by chewing on it, so after a while you may need to "size up." If that happens I will be in trouble because they don't come any bigger or tougher. Maybe my next dog will be a tiny little doxie. Or maybe not.


Bosco is staring at himself in the floor mirror. His body language is telling me he thinks the other dog is weird and he doesn't really trust him. He has now slowly approached the mirror and is sniffing his reflection. I find it very interesting that some dogs can see and are interested in two dimensional shapes while others are not. I have heard the ability to recongnize 2D shapes may be linked to intelligence. Now he has laid down in front of the mirror and is still staring. I went over to get in the picture with the "other dog" and Fancy came over also and he sniffed her then sniffed her reflection and maybe got a glimmer of understanding that the reflection isn't really another dog, when when I left he glanced in the mirror again like he still didn't quite understand.


Well, I'm off to do some laundry. (See mom, I told you you can blog about laundry.) I have drill this weekend, then combat Monday after that which is like a third drill day, then two weekends off, then another drill, then we go right into our exercise/ inspection. I am so lucky that I get to leave a whole day ahead of most of the people who are going. Anyone want to babysit some dogs?