Coal Harbour in the morning

Yesterday was a pretty nice day so after Holly made a tasty breakfast of english muffins, eggs and fruit, it had warmed up enough for a dog walk. We decided to take Louise down to Coal Harbour. Our first stop was at Waves Coffee, where we used a 2 for 1 coupon to get some morning drinks. After that, Louise and I hung out on the patio while Holly stepped into a drugstore for a moment.

Waves offers free wifi service for it's patrons. However, they have figured out a way to prevent the signal from escaping outdoors, so that meant I wasn't able to use it while we waited. This was probably for the best, as after only a couple minutes of trying to make it work I had to put away my ipod. Louise was growing tired of sitting on my lap (especially after discovering that I only had coffee and nothing to eat) so she wanted down to explore a bit.

Holly returned shortly and we continued on to the harbour. We weren't expecting to see a 'boat show' so we figured we would check it out. Unfortunately it was only a couple sales people there to answer questions about the models they had for sale. They were nice enough to look after Louise while we stepped aboard a nice 31 foot model though and it had more comforts and room than it appeared on the outside.

I left with a brochure and lots of dreams about boats I can't yet afford but it was fun just the same. Oh and we also saw another heron while we were there. Louise wasn't interested though so we continued on to Bark and Fitz, the bet supply store nearby. Louise had some water and we got some treats for her, which she had some of on the way home. Holly had fun feeding her pieces of the peanut butter and banana flavoured biscuit as we made our way back home.

The whole plan was to take Louise out and bring her back tired so she would sleep, giving us a chance to go out shopping. We knew we had succeeded when we got home and Louise showed no interest in leaving the house again. When we got back, she was still sleeping hard unlike the days when we find her waiting for us at the door. Overall, it was perfect because Louise slept through the hottest part of the day and we got to do some errands.

Back from a Cat-Free Vacation

We spent last week visiting family on the east coast. While we almost brought Louise with us, we ultimately decided against it. There was no way we were going to consent to having her in the cargo hold, especially during the summer months.

That was okay though because she stayed at the Rex Dog Hotel again and they have a new feature for the dog owners: nightly updates to flickr so we can check on our pooch while we are away. (This feature is subject to the whims of the local internet providers. The Maritime provinces - especially the rural parts where we were going - weren't stellar in the state of connectivity to be offered.) Anyway, the staff at Rex always treat Louise very well - she is always happy to arrive which helps to put us at ease before starting our trips.

Of course, now that we are back home, it meant that there was a lot of laundry to do since there were cats sleeping on the bed, a week's worth of dirty clothes to clean and one smelly dog who required a bath. The thing about baths is that it always takes a while for the dog to dry off well enough to be allowed on a clean bed. The thing about laundry is that it always takes a while for the blankets to dry well enough to be used again. So here we are, blogging for Wheezie while we wait for her to dry off a bit more and for the blankets to be ready so we can finally drag our weary bones off to bed.

Oh, and I have peppered this post with links to various pictures of Louise that were posted by Rex. Feel free to click on 'em to see what she has been up to last week.

Pizza crust fuelled Pug

The weather is finally improving around here, although bragging rights still seem to be with the family on the east coast. At any rate, after spending a Saturday afternoon in the office for some more overtime, we decided to take Louise out for a walk along the sea wall.

It is still a bit cool if there is a breeze, but if we can stay in the sun then jackets really aren't needed. Of course, to put things into perspective a little bit, this is perfect Louise weather. She can run and run and not overheat, which is pretty much what she did. Well, once we let her off leash, that is.

Either way, the sea wall was very crowded as the city took advantage of the nice weather, which meant there were lots of people who wanted to say hi to Louise. Louise sniffed the trees, scratched at some grass and admired some art that was for sale. The artist was pretty shrewd to show off his wares where he did as he was getting his work in front of a lot of folks.

Of course, now that we are home again, Louise is fast asleep. Seems she has had a full day. It's either that or the pizza crust snacks she had weren't enough energy to keep her going.

PS - I just noticed that it looks like Louise in the second photo has noticed Louise in the first!