big Monday

I am hoping for a big day with many accomplishments! (I will admit -- they're big for me, perhaps verging on trivial and mundane to anyone else.)

Millie is back on track with her "get up and go" time. 6:30, not a minute earlier! 

It's cool outside. Call it April weather. But, the sun is out, our spirits are high.

(Millie, in her morning singing moment)

 

 

Breakfast, unfortunately, inside. A handful of degrees above freezing is not al fresco weather.

And after Millie's rest, after my tidying the house -- getting it ready for a monthly cleaning today! -- I take the girl to the grooming place where she will spend the afternoon playing with other dogs and this is important! -- finally getting a full hair trim. She is way too shaggy right now. Every piece of debris gets trapped in her hair and even combing her daily, as I do, is not enough to keep her free of dirt and tangles. The groomer has been reluctant to trim her fully since she is so young, but I am full of hope that today, she'll be deemed mature enough for it.

In the meantime, I have a doc appointment. He wants one more measurement of my capacity to handle serious movement (as opposed to "walking with Millie" movement). I am asked to briskly walk for 6 minutes. At the end he tells me "you are uber healthy.You walk a lot, don't you?"  I hesitate on that one. The steps are there -- I see that every night on my watch, but I can't say I sprint in the way that I did for the test.  Um, yes, I guess so, but perhaps, um, less briskly than today and honestly, this wasn't the best brisk step I could do because as you can see, I'm wearing my clogs which are really my gardening shoes and they slip off and I was mostly exerting myself trying to keep them on. Docs complain that their patients dont give them enough information. I think mine would say that I give them too much information. 

 

From there, feeling uber healthy, I go grocery shopping. And in the now very late afternoon I work in the yard of Steffi's House. Uninteresting work: sprinkling grass fertilizer because the lawn is looking pretty starved for it. Not that I ever like putting down fertilizer, no matter how "good" it is for plant life. All of it eventually drains to the lakes and pollutes them. But, once or twice a year, I succumb.

 

And still another errand, at the farmette, where the clematis is blooming...

 

 

This is when I get a text that Millie is ready to go home. I am very excited to see her!

 

 

 

She looks awesome! Like a whole different pooch! Remarkable what a hair trim can do.

The visit to the groomer seems to have injected an extra dose of confidence into the pup. Tired as she is (all that play with the other dogs, plus the bath, the cut...), my girl is wild tonight! Millie, do not chew on that chair cover. Here's your favorite toy instead! Two minutes later: Millie no, you cannot chew on it! A nice zoomie run follows and then she is back at it. Millie NO. Jumps off the chair, then up again, tearing into the cover. Gulp, I think we are entering everyone's least favorite age in a dog: adolescence! 

With so much love...