TGIF

Another scorching day in Northern California.  I am begging and imploring any and all powers that be to please bring us some cold crisp autumn weather!  The Pacific Northwest is looking cool and lovely, though I know Seattle has had some record breaking heat.  My friend Bob Adler (look up his fabulous photography web site) has been up in the rainforest for crying out loud.  Sending back lush green images of the trees and mountains.  How I wish I were there.  Western Washington is not burning.  It's not smoking.  It's verdant and cool, with moss dripping from the trees.  As it should be.

I've been living at Mom's house this week, while dad is enjoying lobster lunches and ferry rides to Martha's Vineyard.  The weather back east is favorable as well.  Only here can you walk out your front door into your very own brick pizza oven. 

My husband and I took a chance this week, and picked up this 4 mos. old puppy as a gift to my mother.  My folks have never had a dog, but mom loves my chihuahua so much that they both are open to the idea of having a pooch around the house.

This lil' girl was supposedly house-trained.  Allegedly. So now I am running about my parents' lovely home cleaning poop and pee off the shiny hardwood floors and expensive oriental rugs.  A challenge on it's own, but when paired with the challenge of making sure my mother doesn't take a fall, well, it's almost too much to bear.  I was helping her along her way when I saw Mocha take a squat on the floor.  All sense left me and I practically pushed dear mom down in order to grab the pup and place her on the pee mat.  Of course she stopped peeing when placed on the mat.  This is why I usually adopt older dogs.  What were we thinking?  The road to hell, and all that.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Happy Friday, all.  Hope your weekend is carefree and, above all,  below 70 degrees.