Diego spent yesterday getting groomed, shampooed and generally pampered.

Bud and Sid, the surviving mollies, got their tank cleaned and water freshened this afternoon.

I’m noticing a disturbing trend that involves everyone but me.  I sense the need for a massage in the very near future.

No one seems to be getting back to me on anything today, which makes for a nice recovery day.  We made the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last night, which was a very good movie, but it kept me up until 3ish, and then Diego alerted us to a ninja intruder at around 6ish.  Siesta will necessarily be longer than usual.

Pride is this weekend, and so is the San Clemente Ocean Festival, and then Comic-Con starts on Thursday.  So much for July productivity.

Randy’s texting me his impressions on today’s mineral water spa treatment in Boston.

Diego would be texting me from his spa if he had thumbs, gloating about how much prettier he feels when he gets his dew claws done.

I’m just hanging out ripping out the old caulking from the master bath.  Right now I’m think about what that’s done to my hands (paint thinner?  you’re soaking in it dear), but I wasn’t when I started typing this post.

Originally we headed somewhere mid-June for a two-fold celebration: school being out (and the start of Spinner‘s summer vacation) and Spinner’s birthday. Then we got married on vacation in June 2008, which made 2009 and 2010 a threefer when you include the anniversary celebration. Now with budget cuts school gets out much earlier, so the vacation is back to being a twofer, but this year we’re back at The Cliffs.  Five days and four nights walking distance to the beach with the dog.  Do you think he’ll be happy?  I think he’ll be happy.

Two new observations on Diego:

- For a dog who’s fearless against ninjas and creatures of the night, he sure becomes a sniveling coward in the face of thunder and lightning pretty fast.

- It didn’t take him long to learn how to make his own fun by dropping his tennis ball down the stairs.

Compare:

The shot of the Grizzly is from today at the zoo. The photo of Diego was taken last year.  But they both seem to be giving me that same stare.  That ‘don’t you have anything better to do with that camera‘ stare.  Didn’t really think about it until the shots showed up next to each other as random picks at the photo gallery, but now I’m just kinda freaked out about it.

If Diego was posting on this morning’s walk:

We were on the final leg when up the hill we saw my most favorite canine movie star and his posse doing the walk of shame *breath* I tried to say hi and I’m sure he heard me and wanted to come over and say hi and be my friend and maybe even trade a lick or two but Chuck’s such a stick in the mud he kept tugging at my leash and then Wile (I call him Wile) got too far away and I missed my big opportunity…

But Chuck is posting this, so…

Shut up you dumb dog, those are coyotes. They do not want to be your friend.

I knew the photography exhibition at the San Diego County Fair was big, but had no idea it was this big.  4000 submitted photographs?  982 different photographers?  Wow.

Received an e-mail this morning providing the list of accepted entries: this photo from a February 2009 rugby match made it, this photo of Diego at last June’s vacation doesn’t seem to have made the cut.  Awards won’t be announced until June 11.

Randy and I took my Exhibition of Photography entries over to the Fair Grounds this evening.  I am now officially an Exhibitor for the 2010 San Diego County Fair.  It only took a few years of talking about it to actually get around to mounting up some prints and actually entering some shots.   Technically I guess I won’t know if my photos will actually be seen by anyone for a few weeks, but I still got Exhibitor passes and invitations to the Artists Reception when I dropped off the photos, so I’m an Exhibitor, even if I might end up being an unseen Exhibitor.

Yeah, it terrifies me that next month I could be at the Fair listening to other people discuss my work.  They’re good shots, but for nine years here I’ve been able to be a little bit of an Exhibitionist while not actually meeting very many of you.  People who don’t like what I do don’t tend to hang around, with the result being that the sites can serve as a bit of an ego boost with the occasional criticism easy to dismiss, if not outright delete.

On a mostly unrelated note, Diego was with us and got to go out on the Del Mar Racetrack due to the lack of adult supervision at the drop off site.  He looked every bit the thoroughbred out there, even if the chances of him being retired to stud range from slim to none.  Just thinking though, that maybe if we saddle him up with one of the bobbleheads and sneak them back out there we’ll have our photo entry for next year.

Over the years I’ve gotten pretty good at keeping my dogs safe.  I’ve learned to stay clear from the big dogs and keep the Christmas candy stored safely.  I’m used to seeing signs for rattlers in season.  I was still a bit surprised this morning to see signs at the local dog park warning of circling hawks.  What exactly am I supposed to do to keep my puppy safe from flying killer birds?