A New Year!
Inasmuch as I like Mondays because they are the beginning of a new week, during which I can catch up on everything I could not get done the week before, I absolutely love every new year. Not just for the reasons I like Mondays, but for all the things a new year will bring. First of all, TIME. 365 days and nights of glorious time. Time for new things to learn and do; new books to read (YES! The new year will finally give me time to read!); new friends to make, new people to meet whom I can be helpful for in some way (there are so many needy people in this retirement place where we live); new stories to write; new get-togethers with family members (our 58 th wedding anniversary is coming up, yeah!). I will stop this summary of wonderful things to mention what we did last Saturday. We skipped breakfast at the Club, picked up our youngest grandson and took him to IHOP for a pancake breakfast. His eye fell on a four-stack of chocolate pancakes (diameter about 5”) with chocolate chips and dark Belgian chocolate sauce inside. Hm, that was my choice as well. But then there was a four-stack of cheesecake pancakes that looked very good too. We decided to order both and share fifty/fifty. Granddad ordered a tres leches four stack and we looked at the menu again while we waited in anticipation of the feast.
”The chocolate pancakes have 1085 calories!” said our grandson, with a sideways glance at me.
“So what? It’s your birthday, isn’t it? We can splurge a little. Besides, you will only be eating half of it, so, how many calories is that?”
“Um, five hundred forty two and a half.”
”See? Only half as many. And your great-grandfather would say that you would get the same calories in a bowl of pea soup, and pancakes are so much more delicious, so eat pancakes today!”
We did not check the calories in the cheesecake stack, and it turned out that both of us, after eating our half of the chocolate stack, had enough and the two half four-stacks of cheesecake pancakes went home in boxes, including a third of Granddad’s four-stack of tres leches (how fun to work with numbers!). Management found out too late that it was our grandson’s birthday and they hadn’t sung the birthday song yet, so one of the waiters hurried to the kitchen and made him a large smoothie with lots of whipped cream on top. Since we were already in the starting blocks to go to his next birthday event, he took the smoothie home too and put it in the freezer.
The next event was an hour and a half in a jumping place for kids, where they jump on trampolines, on large rubber blocks, jump from towers and throw basket balls jumping on moving surfaces. Oh, the fun things people think of! His mother later said she was glad he jumped off some of the calories he had consumed, but it would not be for me. I think I would have thrown all the calories back out, on the rubber blocks!
Doggy Day Camp
On Tuesday, Lani had to get another wellness exam at the Vet. This time it included a Rabies booster. For now she is completely protected against any outside threats. She had grown so much, that she has outgrown her kennel and a new one is on order. We are guessing that she will be around 20 pounds, while at 4 months she is 11.6 pounds. We have learned that there are mediums, minis, teacups and toy Goldendoodles. Ours right now is a teacup, and today she is at a doggy day camp because they had no puppy classes at this time and she needs to socialize. The amazing thing is that with the special Camp Bow Wow App, we can watch her on the cell phone from home! She is very outgoing and we haven’t seen her sitting down for a moment. She will be exhausted when I pick her up again. And I, finally able to walk a few miles in Wimbledon again without a pulling dog on the leash, took advantage of the beautiful weather and did just that. I need loose leash training with Lani, and have to find a good trainer for that. In the house though, I am proud to say that she knows sit, down, and we are working on stay (it feels like I am home-schooling her). She is light-footed and silent as a kitten, and we constantly need to keep an eye on her; but that’s what we expected. She is a delight when in a cuddling mode early in the morning after breakfast and at night before bedtime. And her shaggy coat is soft as velvet feathers. They say that owners often get to look like their dogs. Well, you could say that of me now. I have let my hair appointment of December 19 go, and finally made an appointment for this Friday. That’s 23 days plus 6 weeks after my last cut! You can call me shaggy!
It’s a wonderful Life!
Until next time,
Ronny