A Love Story - And A Happy Tail

From the moment Zozo saw Max, she was captivated.

It may have had to do with his sharp clothes, stylish sunglasses, and side tilted ball cap.  (It didn't hurt that he spoke French either.)  Zoe was a goner.

In her extreme joy, Zoe whipped Max's legs a few times with her 16:" inch tail.  Zozo has something called "happy tail syndrome".  When she is happy, she yields the tail like a whip, sometimes causing herself to bleed from getting cuts on her tail when it hit furniture and walls.  The blood splatter and spray left the surrounding area looking like a mass murder had occurred in that location.

I too have sometimes suffered from "happy tail syndrome", but that's another post.

Max more or less misunderstood Zoe's devotion and screamed bloody murder upon being whacked repeatedly with that whip-like tail.  We got Max out of Zozo's reach and soothed his cries.  Zoe was very upset that the object of her affection screamed every time she got close to him.  When Zoe finally spotted Max asleep later that evening, she crept in to his room and up on his bed just to watch him with worshipful eyes.  She curled right in the corner of the bed and did not take her eyes off of Max for hours.

Zoe was discouraged.  All of her attentions seemed to frighten Max and make him move away from her.  She wanted so badly to lick him, to play with him, to sniff him.  Zozo even stopped wiggling really hard every time she saw him.  Sadly, it didn't help.  Understandably, Max wanted nothing to do with this dog with the whip-like tail.

My daughter Sheila; and my grand-daughter Arianna paid us a visit on Friday morning.  This visit totally changed Max's perspective of Zozo.  He laughed with real joy as Zoe kissed, smelled, rubbed against, and otherwise made a pest of herself with Sheila and Arianna.  When Sheila and Arianna petted Zoe, Zozo threw herself on the floor and stuck all 4 legs straight up in the air to encourage a tummy rub.  Max was finally convinced that Zozo was just trying to play with him all along and not trying to hurt him.

From that point forward, Max laughed at Zozo when she approached him.  He tossed balls and toys for her and let her lick him on the nose!

After Max left for home on Monday, Zozo climbed up on the bed and sniffed his pillow.  With a sigh, she put her head down and looked forlorn.  Zoe  looked everywhere for Max for days. Her tail ceased to wag at all. 

Finally,yesterday, I showed Zoe a photo of Max on the computer.  Her tail swung back into action and she whacked me a good one right across the shin.

Zozo has her happy tail back, thank goodness!

Nude Is Not Lewd

Naked guy on right side of photo

No trip to San Francisco would be complete without a trip to the gay capital of the world, the Castro District!  I had told Nicky and Alex that people walk around naked in the Castro and they both thought I was teasing them.  (Actually, the California Supreme Court ruled that "nude is not lewd" and therefore legal, but one must carry a towel to sit on "for sanitary purposes.")

Nicky, Max, Alex and I drove across the Bay Bridge from Alameda and went to San Francisco's Chrissie Field in the Marina District for gorgeous views of the Golden Gate Bridge.  En route, darling Max dozed off and so I stayed in the car with him while Alex and Nicky ventured over to the base of the Bridge.

Nicky at the beach with Golden Gate in background

Alex took a couple of really great photos of Nicky with the Golden Gate as the backdrop.  It was a stunningly clear day so we had wonder view of Alcatraz and the Marin Headlands.  We oohed and ahhed at the windsurfers and enjoyed watching the children play in the freezing water.

We saw boats going by and ferries too.  Max woke up a little cranky so we hung out at the sea wall long enough for him to cheer up a bit.  I think he was a bit jet lagged.  Max calmed down considerably when we told him we would be taking a ferry boat the next day ourselves!

We drove through North Beach and Chinatown and Nicky and Max seemed to enjoy seeing  the crazy crowded street scenes.  We continued on to drive down Lombard Street, touted as "The Crookedest Street In The World".  To get there, we were driving straight  up the side of what seemed like an alpine mountain, and the trip down is like a roller coaster!  Really a gorgeous sight with the Pacific Ocean laid out in front of us.

Finally, we drove to the Castro District.  I had assured Nicky there were naked people walking around there.  At first we saw a wide range of characters, but nothing resembling a naked person.  We parked and looked for a place to get some liquid refreshments.  A bistro Alex and I had enjoyed in the past had closed, so we walked the length of the commercial section and "Voila" as Nicky and Max would say.  There was a man standing in the sun reading a newspaper completely starkers, nude, naked!  The sight made me and Nicky "clutch our pearls", but Max seemed not to notice at all.  After a couple of stunned seconds, Alex said "Wow!  He's really got an all over tan!"  Nicky and I agreed that he did and for a mad moment, discussed how we might take his photo, but we decided that would not be kosher.  We crossed the street and walked down to "Harvey's" for margaritas.  Nicky agreed these were the best margaritas ever!

We returned to the car to go home.  When we passed the corner where the naked man had been, we noticed there were a new bunch of nudie cuties standing around.  Nicky whipped out her camera and got one money shot that I know of.  She will have to choose to show it or not.

It was a good day!

Nicky's Bed

Nicky arrived on Monday afternoon last week with her gorgeous son Max.

She was standing on the sidewalk in a pair of shorts and Alex recognized her and Max before I did.  (Of course, with legs like Nicky's, every man in the row of cars was hoping he recognized her!)

We brought our charges home and got them settled in.  Max was thrilled with the wide variety of toys and such that we had for him to play with.  Although he loved his power rangers, he actually went crazy for a plastic rifle (machine gun?) and a plastic pistol.  Max is all boy!  He was a little bit shy for the first hour but soon relaxed enough to begin enjoying himself.

The only down side was that Zoe saw Max as the perfect playmate and would not leave him alone despite the fact that he screamed when she walked in the room.

A day or two later they were the best of friends and Max even allowed her to kiss him on the nose.  Still, I think Max preferred the rather sedate Harry who primarily sniffed him and found him acceptable and moved on.

Alex went out after something and came home with a bottle of Silver Oak Cabernet.  (He was showing off for Nicky as this is the most extravagant he ever gets.)  Actually I love her so much it was hard to keep from drooling when I looked at her.

Photos do not do Nicky justice in the first place.  She is tiny.  She has the most amazing eyes I have ever seen, the most perfect body ever created, and the prettiest lips you can even imagine.  Add to that her charm and sweetness and you get a small idea of how lovely and perfect a young woman can be.  Alex was totally in her thrall as well..  Not to sell Max short, he has his mother's beautiful lips, his handsome daddy's gorgeous face, and a personality that is well, just so French!  He made my heart sing!

We dined in the first night on chicken, rice and spinach.  Simple food but filling.  Before dinner, we also shared some magnificent cheese that Nicky brought with her and some petite agor that we had gotten before she arrived.  We drank some lovely wines and everyone went to bed relatively every since it had been a big day!

Considering that I already loved Nicky from knowing her the last 3 years, there were no surprises.  She was exactly how I knew she would be.  Perfect?  Yes.

This Is Why I've Been MIA

Nicky in front of my house.  Just kidding.

Yes, that really is the gorgeous and delightful Nicky of We Work For Cheese.  No, that is not my house.

Nicky and I have gone to San Francisco shopping and sightseeing.

We have been to beach at  Chrissie Field right next to the Golden Gate Bridge.

We have gone to a swank supper club in Oakland and had lunch at the beautiful Rotunda Restaurant in Neiman Marcus San Francisco.

We went to the Castro District and saw naked people (yes, totally naked) out basking in the sun.

We were joined on Friday by Jayne of In Jayne's World and Margaret of Nanny Goats in Panties and had a slumber party that lasted into the wee hours.

We all had lunch at an authentic German Beer Garden after walking around the annual Alameda Art and Wine Fesival with Nicky and her handsome, adorable and brilliant 4 year old son, Max. 

I'm going into detail with all the ups and downs, but not tonight as Nicky and Max leave very early in the morning and we need to get them packed up and ready to go.

Regular posting will begin tomorrow.  If I can get out of bed after all the adventures, that is.

It All Started Early This Afternoon

This sheet looks like it had an unfortunate encounter with red or pink dye.  I assure you it did not.  The room is red and for some reason, it reflected the color on the white sheet. Part of the problem might be that the sheet is wrinkled, but I'm not tripping on that part just yet.  Ironing a poorly folded sheet is just not that important, now is it?

Let me back up.  As you may know, Nicky, the glorious jewel of the blogging world, is coming to visit me next week.  In preparation for her visit, I have done a few things to make Nicky feel good about coming to visit.  I have put on fresh sheets on the bed in her room, ordered the flowers, cleared out drawers for her use and emptied the "guest bedroom" closet.  Further, I have cleaned the bathroom with an old toothbrush to be sure that she and her darling son Max will have pristine surroundings.

I've gotten some fun toys for Max to play with and gotten Nicky some nice bath and beaut;y stuff (not that she needs any the beauty part), and forbade Harry to lie on their bed until after the visit.

I even cleaned up my linen closet.  Well, sort of.  The problem is those frigging fitted sheets.  I have never been able to figure out how in the hell to fold a stupid fitted sheet.

Never mind.  Since Mama never taught me, today there is another answer.  I went on the Internet and was amazed at the videos available on just this subject.  I watched about ten of them and then thought, "Hey!  I've got this!".  Little did I know that after 3 hours of trying my damnedest I could not make the sheets look like they did in the videos.   My one hope was that Alex (my brainiac husband) would come home, watch the video and fold the sheets correctly.  This man is a rocket scientist.  He's a rock star in his field.  He is a stud!

Unfortunately, the sheet I photographed is the one fitted sheet I folded and it's the best one of the bunch.  Alex attempted to follow the directions and then just rolled the frigging sheet up and said "There!  That looks fine!"  Alex is a total idiot!

I had so wanted to impress Nicky with my home-making skills.  I had so wanted to have Nicky love us and want to live with us as my "sister wife".  Alex has no idea how his half-assed non-effort has just made those things next to impossible.  I am distraught beyond words.

Nicky, forgive me.

"Stick It In A Bag - But Don't Tell Anybody!"

I watch too much news.

There was a story last week about a young guy in Florida who got in trouble with an alligator and nearly lost his life.  In the end, he did lose a good portion of his right arm.

There was a story of a guy off the coast of Perth, Western Australia last week who got killed by a shark.  I think the news story went so far as to say he had been bitten in half.  They (the news people, not the sharks), are always so graphic!

I'm going to tell you another story from last week that didn't make the newspapers, but perhaps it should have.  I'm going to call my story "Goose Gets Gotten By Pit Bull And Lives To Tell the Tale".

We take our dogs to Coast Guard Island a lot.  There's a lot of land over there where they can run off leash and both Harry and Zoe love the place.

Harry especially loves that there is a very large goose population on the island.  The Coasties mainly hate the geese because they poop everywhere and are generally a pretty annoying bird.  They have tried putting up fake dogs to deter the birds, but as likely as not, we see the fake dogs knocked off their posts and shat upon by the geese.  Talk about adding insult to injury!

Zoe, black with pinstripe, Harry, orange guy

Harry is a big dog but he's getting a little older now.  When we drive on to the base, he sees the huge numbers of geese sitting around just making goosey noises, he starts to hyperventiliate.  We let Harry out of the car and he runs at his top speed toward the flock.  The geese scream and run and fly off into the Bay.  Harry is very proud of the reaction the geese have to him. 

We generally don't let Zoe out of the car until after Harry is well on his way to driving off the geese.  The reason for this is that Zoe's nickname to us is "Zoe Zoe A Go Go" because she is the fasted dog I have ever seen.  Zoe goes from zero to sixty in about 3.2 seconds.  She also flies through the air like a Russian ballerina.  Zoe is about 50 pounds of pure muscle and loves to chase! 

We pulled up to the usual spot yesterday and there were about 200 geese there hanging out on the lawn.  Alex opened the car door and Harry and Zoe jumped out at the same time.  This was a worry.  The geese were running for their lives, but one guy just wasn't that fast!  Zoe brought him down and she was laying on top of him.  Now there are not little geese but huge geese.  Alex was running toward her as fast as he could run, (which compared to Zoe, or Harry for that matter, he's pretty slow).  He yelled at Zoe, "Come here!"  And she slowly got up.  My heart was in my throat!

As Zoe slowly ambled toward Alex, the goose shook his head and got up!  He ran toward the water and got into flight!  She didn't hurt him.  She flattened him under her, but didn't bite him.  He was fine!  Now this is a good news story.

Today we went back to Coast Guard Island with the dogs.  My favorite handsome security guard was on duty.  Alex asked him, "Officer, what should we do if one of our dogs accidentally kills a goose?"  The cop responded "One of our geese?"  Alex said "Yes."  The security guard took a moment and said the following:

"Just stick it in a bag, but don't tell anybody."  We rode off snorting with laughter. 

Yeah, we're sick.

The Arab Boy At The Corner Store

I see him almost every day.

I run into the corner store to buy a coke, bread, a six pack of beer, something.  Jamal always makes it a point to wait on me.  I'm a good customer and I'm friendly.  In return, Jamal is friendly too.

He goes so far as to comment on my appearance in rather flattering terms.  But Jamal usually makes a big deal over my jewelry too.  I'd love to think it's because I'm so damned darling that he seems to favor me.  Alas, I'm not good at self deception.

I dropped by the store yesterday and Jamal stopped stocking shelves and came over to ring up my purchases although another young man was already at the next register.

The two men were bantering back and forth about Jamal's girlfriend.  Jamal responded that he didn't have a girlfriend.  He followed that up by saying "Right now, I'm single."

I said "What a coincidence!  Right now I'm single too!"  Jamal and his friend responded to me with a whoop!  Jamal said to me "You should invite me over to visit you!  We could have a glass of wine."  I then explained that while I would enjoy that tremendously, my husband would disapprove.

Jamal said "I thought you said you were single!"  I replied "I'm only single right now, Jamal.  My husband is on a business trip." 

Jamal rang up my purchases and said "So am I invited?"  I told him "Of course, Jamal. You are always invited."

I felt his eyes on my ruby bracelet as I left the store.