Happy Birthday To Me

I know this is about a week late in coming. My apologies. . .

I had a pretty decent birthday last week. Even though my original plans failed to materialize, I made the best of it. I had taken the day off from work, so that right away started my birthday on a happy note. Oh how I love days off. And since it's no fun taking a Thursday off just to go in for one more day before the weekend, I also took Friday off. Weekends are so much better when they start in the middle of the week.

It was a really nice day outside. Much too nice to spend my birthday in my little apartment, so I layered on my coat, scarf, gloves, and hat (it was bright and clear but still VERY cold), grabbed Jade's leash and Don's camera (he was kind enough to let me play with it all day), and raced the dog out to the car (she won, as usual. She's like a little black lightening bolt of speed. Especially when it comes to going for a ride).

Our first stop was at the dog park. I wanted to give Jade a chance to run some of her cooped up energy out while I practiced taking action shots and figured that would be the safest place to do it.

Jade was very excited to go to the park. As soon as we drove into the parking lot and she realized where we were, she started wiggling and whining. "Ooo, ooo, ooo, let me out, please, let me out, ooo, ooo, out now!" I parked the car and had hardly turned off the engine when she started her impatient barking. "Come on, let's go, why are you just sitting there, let me out so I can play, let's go, let's go, let's go!" Her impatient bark (also used when we don't throw the ball quick enough for her) is extremely high pitched so my ears were literally ringing when I opened the car door and she flew past me. Crazy dog.

There were plenty of dogs there for Jade to play with and for me to take pictures of. There was just one minor problem: bending down to be closer to their eye level to get pictures is not a good idea at a dog park. Because the dogs all figure that you are down on their level, therefore you are to be licked and played with. I was knocked over several times while we were there. The owners always felt bad about it, but I laughed it off every time. No harm done.




While I tried to get pictures and not end up on the ground every couple seconds or so, Jade ran off to play with the dogs and people who were throwing balls. She LOVES chasing the ball. The people didn't mind when she would join their dogs in the race to retrieve the ball, but they got a huge shock when she would grab the ball and run away from them. I was taking pictures when I heard one person say "hey, where are you going with that?" I looked up and realized that Jade was bringing the ball to me! She's such a weirdo. Eventually I got to the point where I would stand near the owner of the ball so she would at least bring it in their general direction.



When I had my fill of doggie antics, I took Jade on a bit of a drive out to Lucia Falls.

Again, it was gorgeous, but VERY cold. I enjoyed getting to take some lovely scenery shots out there.


We hiked up the stream for a little while and I got some really nice shots. Jade, it turns out, is absolutely fearless. There were several times when I had to shorten her leash because she would walk right out to the cliffs and stick her nose downward. I kept having images of having to choose between rescuing Derrick's dog from the icy water or protecting Don's very expensive camera from being dropped to the cold, hard ground. Luckily, it never came to that.

On the way home, I stopped and birthday treated myself to a Chocolate Hazelnut milkshake from Burgerville. Yum!

Later that evening, my family took me out to dinner at Benihana's. I love going there. Not only is the food wonderful, but the chefs (who cook right at your table) are absolutely hilarious. It's such a blast. Naturally, with both Don and me at the table, many pictures got taken.

Here's the link to my facebook album where I posted my favorite ones:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=130167&id=840189872&l=c64ca2bc2c

I may not be terribly thrilled at the whole "getting older" concept, but I have to admit, birthdays aren't that bad of a deal most of the time.