Top Secret!

My evening was really fun. So fun that it made me forget the topics of the three or four blog posts I was planning to write back when I thought I'd be home at 6 as per usual.

I spent the evening with Alex as co-lifeguard for his own private Dogapalooza (Kath took pics and I really hope she posts some soon) and he fixed all of the road blocks I'd put up to completing one of my homemade Christmas presents. Since a bunch of people in the blogosphere will be receiving these unnamed presents any post I wrote about the evening would look like an elaborate Mad Lib; all [noun], [verb], [plural noun], [adjective], and not a lot else.

I'll hit some highlights. The first order of business this evening was a trip to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. I need to be honest here, Williamsburg feels like a different country to me. I was unnerved without my passport, felt like I was trying to conduct business under the table with just my tourist visa. Everyone is so busy being different that they all look like they're pictures from the same American Eagle catalogue. I was so not dressed or coiffed or shod right... no wait, I was wearing my clogs, I was totally shod right. Par example mes amis, in most areas of NYC there are stands with older working class guys of all colors selling Christmas trees and wreaths that they've driven down from upstate or VT or MI or wherever else people grow the evergreen for profit these days. In Williamsburg this evening I carped the diem and bought a wreath...from 2 twentysomething, camo sporting, dreadlocked white boys. It's just not like other places.

Alex was dogsitting an old Golden retriever and a young purebred German Shepherd. Charlie, the Golden, is the Omega Dog (as opposed to the Alpha) everywhere he goes. He gets pushed around and he stands for it. Tim, the GSD, is probably not as purebred as they think. I think he might be crossed with a gold fish. He's trainable, he's focused, as long as it's only in 8 second bursts. He's also just gorgeous. Both Emily and I harbor crushes on him. Emily was there and so was Bobby. All dogs I just adore and most of them I don't get to spend a bunch of time with. Of course when Alex and I holed up in his home office to do the Top Secret Project all the dogs either wanted to be in there with us milling around and sniffing and getting tangled in cords or to be barking at the front door incessantly until we went out and subdued them.

I love that part of dog ownership, though. I love the sleepover, the pack parties. I love watching one seething mass of dogmanity everywhere I look. Emily and Bobby actually played! Do you know how long it's been since Emily has played with anyone? Long time, friends, very long time. She played hard, she treed Bobbola on the couch, she poked him in the neck and cornered him by the window. She may even have induced the salvo of paint peeling farts that he then showered us with. It was super fun.

Kath came home and we watched...um, that Christmas Special, the one with Burgermeister Meisterburger and where Santa is young and redheaded and he's wanted Dead or Alive in Sombertown for distributing toys, I can't remember the name. I may have sung along and danced a little. Maybe.

Then Alex and I took all 4 dogs for a mid sized walk before he left Tim and Charlie home alone to wait for their people. Nothing will pare your dignity down to a manageable size like trying to wrangle 4 dogs with varying ages, intelligence levels and willingness to walk in a straight line. No, wait, their willingness to walk in a straight line was all exactly the same - nil, none, nada, zip, zilch, zero. It was like being a Maypole.

But again, fun! I love the pooches. I like it when they're around.

Anyway, I did a bunch of stuff tonight and I'm beat, but I can't tell you about it yet.

What have you been up to?