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Just getting back from the nightly doggie-walk here. We ran around about a bit in the field by the Athletic Club, then scooted down into James Bay village. We headed down to Dallas Road to walk along the trail above the cliffs. Not a lot of wind tonight, and the tide was out, with waves lapping gently at the beach. Most nights recently it seems that the wind has been howling and the waves pounding in. We really get to feel the weather down here, and it has been quite frigid out there lately.

We have a choice of numerous routes down here for the doggie-walk. Sometimes we do the "harbour-lights" tour. That route takes us from Fisherman's Wharf, and along the waterfront walkway towards the Laurel Point Inn, and then into the Inner Harbour. That takes us by Heron Cove, where a big group of ducks must live, because they are hanging out down there, by the time-share building, every night.

Friday and Saturday nights we go out on the town. That's when me and OTP head right downtown and back. We usually go up Government Street, sometimes as far as Pandora, before looping around and coming back. We often meet people that I know, or strangers that want to get to know Oscar. He makes friends quite easily.

Last night we were out in the truck for a bit, and ended up parking at Quadra and Southgate, then walking along Humboldt towards Fairfield. There were lots of other night-time doggie walkers out there, and we saw some new sights.....

Haven't really acquired a doggie-walking crew down here, like we had out in View Royal. That is something I'd like to acquire....

I found out when this canine commotion erupted next door on Saturday morning. I go out there to see that Oscar has broken through the fence to chase the cat next door across the yard. The neighbour is out there yelling at Oscar to get the hell out of the yard, because he knows the cat and Oscar don't get along. Grrr! I can't hop over the fence because of all the natural vegetation in the way, so I have to run out to the front gate to go around and into their yard. Oscar must have known that I'd soon be running over, so he also ran out to the front of the yard, then bombs across Ladysmith St. Yah, I'm yelling at him to come back, but he's a bad dog, and temporarily forgotten all his training. Bad. He ends up across the street in the neighbour's yard, and I can't see him. But Henry, the old guy 2 doors down saw him. He points me out to where he went, and then I spot him. He's running free across a couple of backyards, before he runs out onto the sidewalk and tears up the boulevard.

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We usually go down to Holland Point, just east of the breakwater, and just south of the foot of Government St. Its nice out there on the cliffs, with the sun going down, and the waves coming in, and the pilot boat going out, and the light beacons blinking away. Very nice sea-side scene.

On Friday night though, we go down to the Ogden Pt. piers and hang out by the cruise ships. This cruise season, we've had the Oosterdam (Holland America Line) and the Golden Princess (Princess Line) in every Friday night. We go down there and generally hang out by the Beaver Gift Shop and wait for all the dog-lovers to come and meet us. It is surprising the number of people we meet, just by hanging out!

Here's the deal : all these people are on their Alaska cruise, and they've had to leave their pups at home. No pups on the cruise. By Friday night, they're at the end of the trip, and all of them are going to see their pups tomorrow. And they MISS THEIR PUPS so much! We've met so many people that just want to come over and see OTP, and have him give them the business. You know, the wagging, and wiggling, and licking, and kissing, and bouncing.....

Tonight, Oscar hit the jackpot, I'm sure. This group came over to meet him, and this one lady had a large satchel bag, slung really low, say at doggie-head height. Oscar jams his head into her BAG and starts poking around. While she and all her American friends thought this was cute, I can only think the worst about what he has found in her bag, and what he is doing with it.

I ask her if she has napkins or socks in the bag.

She does!

She proceeds to pull out 2 socks, tie them in a big knot and give them to Oscar!

Of course Oscar loves this. It was only last night that he managed to regurgitate Poppi's running socks, that he must have eaten a few days ago. It is about time to eat Yet Another Pair of Socks (YAPS).

We do the meet and greet, and then they are on their way. They're all getting off tour buses, then getting back onto the ships....

I take the socks away so we don't have an incident.

Then we meet a couple of Colorado Springs. They have 4 dogs. They miss them dearly. They saw 1 Rottweiler ( a BIG BIG one) in Alaska, and then Oscar in Victoria. They have seen only 2 dogs in the whole week. They can't wait to see their pups. They found it interesting that we were hanging out at the pier, as that is what they used to do when they lived in Monterey.

A few weeks ago, we met a couple from Louisiana. They loved seeing Oscar. Me and the woman got to talking about pups, and before you know it - she's whipping out pictures of the family (that she misses SO much) and the pups! Look at those doggies! Yes, they lost their 15 year old golden last year, and now they have a new puppy. Here they go, all over again....

Met a fellow tonight with a Golden. She got cancer. He paid the $6,000 vet bill. She's in remission. He has no critical illness insurance for his pup. Ouch.

Met a guy tonight from Texas. He grew up in Oregon. He thought Oscar was quite a handsome pup. His daughter has a Golden. The dog is great with her kids. The kids are 2 and 10 years of age.

Are you still with me? So what are we doing?

Well, we're out for our weekly doggy walk down to the pier. Oscar is getting some love and hugs from all these strangers. I'm getting people's stories, and in so doing, these folks become a little less strange..........

Took Charlotte out for a walk down into the Inner Harbour last night, as she was fairly full of beans due to a really late afternoon nap. The evening walks are a nice way for us to spend time together, and for her to wind down. We also get a chance to find out things happening in the neighbourhood, and catch up on news. When we got down to the horse lineup on Menzies, I did not expect the news I got - Roxy got the colic and passed away as a result. Apparently Roxy got in trouble shortly after the last time Charlotte and I saw her, near the end of June.

I was surprisingly upset by this unexpected news. These horses we've come to know a bit, and are members of the community. I didn't really know how to explain this to Charlotte.

Anyhoo....we met Kim and Remie the pup, who is about 1 year old. Remie actually doesn't know how to swim, so Oscar went out and gave a clinic on how to do the common dog-paddle. Oscar is quiet good at this stroke, and your Remie did take a few notes before going out and giving it a try. He did OK, except his challenge is to make his ass-end float a little higher in the water, and keep his front paws deeper down in the water.

I got into the water for the annual swim with pups too, so that was fun.....seems I only get out for about 1 swim per season with Oscar and friends....

Oscar didn't have much fun-time today until late. I took him out while bath-time was going on. He and I walked all the way down the waterfront to Mile Zero, then headed up to Beacon Drive In for a soft-serve cone. This time I went with the coffee-cream flavah burst. Oh yeah, yet another local treat. Oscar was a fairly good boy while we were waiting in line. Nice thing about the drive-in, is that you can walk your doggie right up to the window to place your order. Easy.

Got home, and seeing as how I didn't have any ice-cream left for Justine, I made chocolate chip cookies - her favourite. Perhaps I should post the recipe here. Yah, I will. I make these quite often, ie. almost every 2 nights.

• Wet ingredients: 3/4 cup butter, melted. 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar.
• Dry ingredients: 2 cups + 2 tbsp white flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda.
• Mix the wet in 1 bowl. Mix the dry in another bowl.
• Add to the wet 1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk, and 2 tsp. vanilla, and blend together.
• Combine Wet and Dry and mix together.
• Add Chocolate chips. 1 cup or more, to taste, or depending on chocolate density tolerance.
• Bake at 325 F for 18 minutes, or whatever that might mean for your oven.

The cookies turned out great, of course.

Totally windy, and lots of waves churning just offshore. Of course I'm thinking that there must be something to ride out there on a 9-foot plank. See in this shot a little peak there, and a bunch of mush to ride. OK, I could ride that for sure, but not for long, as there are lots of rocks waiting there to present a challenge....

We re-lived some of the glory days this past weekend, with a trip out to Matheson Lake. One of Oscar's favourite places to hang out with his boxer pals Annie, and Remmie. Hmmm.....Remmie is so new to the scene that I am not yet sure of the correct spelling....will have to check on that. Anyhoo, Oscar ran and ran like crazy out there, and went down to the lake for a bit of a swim, and that was really nice. We were last out there on the Labour Day weekend having a whole lot of fun swimming. This time, only the pups went in of course.

Oscar was very pooped after all the fun in the forest. Oh yeah, and there was some significant blowdown in the forest from all the storms - some massive trees laying down with their big stumps still towering in the air.

Oscar slept in the car on the way back home, with his head on my lap. You see, we're driving the core-mobile a lot right now, and with that big front bench-seat, Oscar can really take advantage of stretching out across the space...

Check out the 2 pumpkins we got here on the front steps. I left the flash on the camera so you could see the damage done to the one on the left.

Yeah, we just had some rogue Lord of the Rings character over here smashing the heck out of the pumpkin - I couldn't stop the kid, and the kid's parent was standing there at the foot of our front walk just laughing his hind end off. In fact, when his hind end did fall off, and there was guts of the gluteus everywhere, the kid started going ape-crazy on that pile of flesh, and then all hell really did start to break loose. You should have seen all the blood! I didn't call the ambulance of course....ho hum I say.....

Ok. I lied. That was totally fabricated. Oscar chewed the skull off the pumpkin, and ate the eyeball out of the other one.

This time, I was right in there paddling about. It was a bit tricky with both of them dog-paddling after me, and then scratching at me when they got too close....."It's OK pups!"....anyhoo, nice times out there on the lake....a little windy it was, so nicer to get in and stay in.....

So here's the scene; Justine and Robin were making a bunch of food for a little brunch we were going to be having on Sunday morning. I was out mowing the lawn. Lance was looking after Charlotte. Oscar was cruising around, casing the joint. The hot carrot-cupcakes came out of the oven, and were sitting on the counter to cool. Oscar must have spied the tray, holding 12 fresh cakes, and silently began to gobble them down as the chefs were pre-occupied with the other goings-on in the kitchen. I heard later that the rice had posed a particularly unexpected challenge. Oscar must have been gingerly devouring the cakes while the chefs continued on unawares. He must have made a bit of a slip-up as one of the chefs finally heard a noise coming from that end of the kitchen. It was far too late. All 12 cakes, including the cupcake papers were gone.

So into the crate he went. And there would be no dinner. Bad Bad Dog.

After dinner cleared up, and Charlotte was sawing logs, I tossed the pup in the truck (he doesn't usually jump in for me) and we went up to the Mckenzie Creek Trail in the park. We got up there about 8:10 PM, and headed off into the forest for a good romp. I noted the kids swimming in the lake up there, and even though they were a couple hundred metres away I could still hear them exclaim, "Hey, I can see my breath!", and "It's not as cold as the other night!". Hmmm. I guess they really can't wait for summer, and it really has been a little chilly this week....

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The unusual thing was me up with Oscar the Pup for a couple of hours! groan.

He got up at 12:36 AM and wanted to go outside. Fine. He missed his "last-chance-to-pee" before bed. So he goes out. After a brief period, he comes in again. He was quite restless for the next 1/2 hour or so, and I'm trying to get back to sleep with no luck. He kept asking me to go outside again by walking out to the back door, back to the bedroom, and repeating. sigh. After a few loops of that iteration, I finally caved and got out of bed and took him out myself, on leash, to see what the problem was. Hmmm. He kept zoning in on the "sweet spot", hunkering down into the crouch, and then..........getting up to find another sweet spot! Hmmm. Over and over.

So I'm thinking to myself, "Grrrr! Oscar, this is really not my idea of a good time at quarter to 2 in the morning...."

We go back in. I go back to bed. So does he. I try to get back to sleep - can't, because now I'm thinking of what is clearly looking like one of Oscar's classic digestive issues.

He ate one of Charlotte's socks 2 days ago, but I think that one might have already passed. Not sure. On Thursday night, he was left unattended in the backyard for a little too long while we made dinner for guests. When I eventually went out to check on him, I found that he had skinned a baseball, and I could not find the outer skin anywhere! Oscar likely ate it, and it was now probably sitting in his stomach swimming about causing all sorts of upset. This is what I'm thinking, late at night. And how this might develop into a trip to the Vet for some special treatment.

So then he gets up again! Out he goes, and this time I watch him hunker around the yard trying, but possibly in vain. I was watching him from the kitchen window. Hmmm. Wonder if he did it? So I go out for the world famous flashlight crapfest. Yes, those keywords are still number 1 in Google.

So I eventually get back to sleep sometime after 3 AM, and as did OTP. Little Miss C began to stir at 5:46 AM.....she snoozed off and on until about 7:30 AM so that's not too bad.....but she's always ready to get up before I am. I eventually hauled her out of bed for an hour of playtime in the kitchen, allowing Justine to get some ZZZZzzzzzzzz....

However, today is a different day. Perhaps today is the turning point to the spring? Maybe not, and I am always looking for that day - the one that marks a turning point to a new season. I need to be out of this season.

Got up this AM with Charlotte at 6:53 AM for a diaper change. Just in time too - she put in a very determined effort to soil the next one shortly after I got it on. *whew* I put on my new slippers from LL Bean, and started to walk around with her while Mom went back to sleep for a bit. Put Oscar out, as he was beginning to spin given the light of the new day.

Those new slippers took over a month to ship here from the US - we thought they were missing, so sent out the hounds of the USPS. Sure am glad they got here finally....those Labatt Beer Can slippers I've been sporting for a while are showing their age. Among other things, I am sure.

It would appear that it is getting lighter earlier. This *is* it.

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So he was pretty excited to see me up at Brenda's, and he could not resist jumping up on me - bad boy! He mellowed out in the truck ride home, but his excitement peaked again at home when he couldn't resist rubbing his head into his bed in our bedroom, and then humping his bed in the kitchen! OSCAR! Hmmmm....I guess he is glad to be at home!