"Christmas in (almost) July"

I'm still recovering from crud, but I pretended that I wasn't yesterday so as not to put a damper on my fun-filled evening with my good friend Annmarie. AM had promised me a familiar outing that we have often shared in the past as my Christmas gift and just last night I was able to cash in on that gift. We're both quite fond of PF Chang's (particularly the Asian Pear Mojitos) and pedicures at a silly little spot just off the ferry in Mukilteo, but she was also throwing in a surprise something extra that she described as "fun and educational." Hmmm, I guessed the Vagina Monologues, but no... I had bathed Rocko and Miles in the morning before I left and decided to bring squeaky-clean Rocko as our copilot for the evening.

I'll often take a dog with me when I'm headed off Island for the day just so that Hans has only two pups to manage if he wants to take them for a really nice adventure somewhere public. I failed miserably with my plan, however, when I decided to grab Rocko's "precious" (see below) and bring that along too.


I wasn't thinking about how he would be totally obsessed with bouncing the half-eaten baby Kong all over the backseat resulting in scratches on the leather and more freaking out when it rolled under the front seats and he couldn't reach it. AM must have rolled her seat forward at least eight times over the course of the night for my silly dog to regain possession of his beloved bouncy thing.


This is an accurate portrayal of Rocko when around anything bouncy... constant motion! Oh well, it was entertaining at least and he got some one on one time with the ladies. Pedicures were first up and I thoroughly enjoyed having my legs massaged with a heaping spoonful of sugar, just doesn't get any better. Please don't make fun of my "finger-toes" because I'm pretty self-conscious about them, but I think that red polish makes them quite a bit more bearable. Besides, isn't it supposed to mean that you're royalty if your second toe is longer than your first??? Whatever, they're just awful.


Next up was the secret "educational" something or other which turned out to be an open house for the Pilchuk Veterinary Hospital's Alternative Medicine Center and in honor of their growth and new services they were holding some talks on various alternative therapies that the clinic offers. I actually did enjoy this quite a bit and found the possibilities for alternative medicine available to my dogs to be very exciting. Until now, there was only one holistic vet I knew of in our area and he has as much personality as a can of rocks not to mention how rigid he is about how you should do EVERYTHING. Since he works mostly with homeopathic medicine he doesn't feel that his treatments can work while a dog is on steroids or anything other than a raw diet. The new clinic has a great vet who specializes in Chinese medicine which primarily involves herbs and they are usable along side steroids or antibiotics. Miles is the one I most wish to bring in there because he has many health issues, but the most pressing has always been the skin and digestive problems. Perhaps I'll be able to afford to get my boy in there for some attempts at backing off his nasty steroids and getting him to grow back some hair! Here's the invite and AM's handwritten itinerary for the day!


After the open house we were off to Sushi because it was determined that we would do something a little different this time after all (see corrected itinerary). The drive to dinner was through an absolute blizzard which was fitting because we were after all celebrating Christmas. It snowed all evening through our dinner and while we were running around trying to get to the ice cream joint afterwards we were being pelted with giant wet snow flakes. I came home to my lovely boys and man and we stayed up super late having a threesome with Hans' new girlfriend.
I'm off for ANOTHER evening out with a friend and will look forward to sharing those adventures with you later!