1. Summer berries, still. Eric brought these to me yesterday morning, and said “don’t give up on summer yet.” Then he told me he thought there was bear poop in our front yard. I went out and checked later, and he was right — a pile of bear scat next to the tomatoes, near a sunflower head with all the seeds picked out and gone. There have been bears in our neighborhood before so it isn’t unusual, but it’s still pretty cool to live somewhere that BEARS might be in your garden!

2. Chew time. After working a bit with Sarah Stemming, my favorite dog trainer, we determined the dogs, especially Ringo, needed some challenges, that they got plenty of physical exercise but needed a bit more mental. One of the things we are doing for them is giving them Kongs, stuffed with Taste of the Wild Pacific Salmon soft food and then frozen. I’ve always done this for our puppies, but for some reason got out of the habit when they became dogs. I think it’s because I somehow felt guilty, like I was just giving them something so they wouldn’t bother me for a bit, but it’s actually really good for them to be able to chew, to work a little for their food, even when they are big dogs.

3. New glasses, four pairs. I posted this picture the other day on Instagram with the caption, “this is what tired looks like.” I broke my only pair of distance glasses last week, and I decided to try the online store Eric got his last pair from. I got four pairs of glasses for the same price I usually pay for just one, although I’m conflicted about this sort of thing. I want to buy local, but when I can get four pairs of nice glasses online for less than one pair locally, the Kmart kid in me kicks in and I can’t pass up the deal. Sometimes a cheaper price, getting a deal, trumps my other values. Like when I go to the grocery store to buy raspberries and the organic ones are $3.99, but the non organic are on sale for .99 cents, I choose price over my desire to eat safer food. And I buy them with the further complication that any kind of raspberries from the store aren’t local, come in a plastic container, etc. etc., but they are such a good source of fiber and yumminess — being a modern human is complicated. I’m grateful that these are my “problems.”

4. My dogs are cute. You can’t see it very well in this picture, but there was a squirrel in the corner, on the ground, and Ringo was transfixed. He watched it for almost five minutes, and then tried to sneak up on it, but it got away, as they always do. We feed lots of squirrels by way of our compost pile, which you can see just over Ringo’s head in this picture, so they love our yard. Ringo and I had our Tricks and Games class last night, and he loves it so much, did such a good job, even though we hadn’t practiced at all last week. More cute: when I get home from work, Sam always has to go get a toy and bring it to me, whines and wags his tail so hard his whole body moves. Ringo is always more interested in seeing Sam, (he’s is in his crate when we aren’t home, but Sam can go where he wants, so Ringo misses him too). This morning Sam got into bed with us and then fell back into a deep sleep. His feet were against my back, and he started dreaming he was running. It was like a free massage. 🙂

5. Friday. Y’all, I’m so glad.

Bonus joy: cool mornings, good books and good tv and the money to be able to buy both whenever I want, physical therapy, my foot getting better, a warm shower, ordering the materials for our bathroom remodel (now that it’s so close, I can’t believe we are finally doing it), Rocky Mountain Popcorn/Caramel, a cute video of a parrot with a paper towel, a new notebook, Wild Writing class, Whine About It, an excuse to buy more toys for Ringo (it’s for training, yo), a boss who thinks I’m brilliant (those were her exact words yesterday).