Friday

It was raining before dawn, and it rained until 3:30 in the afternoon, almost an inch and three quarters. It was tricky taking care of Toby’s needs, but we managed. The temperature most of the day was around 63 degrees.

I know that doesn’t sound cold to people up north, but it’s freezing to those of us who aren’t used to it. The temperature in the house was 77 and John wanted to turn on the heat. We layered up instead, reminding ourselves that we’d be thrilled to have 77 degree heat inside in North Carolina in November.

While Toby took a nap, we went to Dick’s Sporting Goods to get new sunglasses. Toby got mine off the counter and crunched them into pieces, which was a good thing since on previous sunglass parades he had left bite marks in the right lens, so that it always appeared to be raining on the right.

The clerk directed us to the two places in the store for sunglasses: the $200 glass lenses or the plastic ones. That was a no-brainer choice with Toby in the house. Mine were $19.99.

On the way home (still raining), we stopped by The Missing Piece to look at sunroom furniture. We like the set above. The table has two self-storing leaves. In this picture, one leaf is up, one is stored. We’re not sure this is the best time to buy, but we liked the style.

We also liked this mosaic top table.

But there were no chairs which left a blank space in our imagination.

Toby recovered from his raucous play at daycare yesterday. He didn’t show any ill effects. We were worried last night when he hurt to be picked up for car rides and couldn’t get into bed without assistance. He woke up around 2:00 a.m. and whimpered a time or two on the floor. We gave him some attention and he got back in bed and slept until we got up at 5:00.

But it was a good day for him to take it easy. He, too, went looking for a blanket to get under. That bump beside me in the chair is Toby.

Between brain games and threats to go to the kennel, Toby managed to stay fairly calm.

The picture above is what he does if you ask him if he wants to get in the kennel when he’s doing something you don’t like.

A few minutes later, he looks like this, which means all he really needed was a nap.

We finally got out to walk for the first time today around 4:00 p.m. Blue skies were returning.

We split a calzone from Madison Avenue Pizza, onion and basil (Italian sweet basil, tonight).

Toby interrupted dinner twice whining. The first time was to go outside and pee. It’s great that he’s learning to signal at the door. The second time was because he was bored and wanted to play. We are going to have to teach him to be patient. Most of the time he is, but today stretched his patience thin.

Miles walked: 6