So, as you probably figured, we slept late. We did stay up until after Fallon was over after all. And I'm trying to gain sleep points for end-of-fiscal-year, because after this it's Katy-bar-the door.

But first things first:


After perambulating the puppy, we went out for that all-American breakfast: Panera! By the time we got there they were serving lunch, so I had both, a bowl of chicken soup with a baguette and a bagel with roasted vegetable cream cheese. Yum!

It looked like every single store was open today. While I appreciate the opportunity to pick up dog food and more stuff for Tucker (we've spent more on this dog in a month than I spend on clothes in a year!), it's kinda sad, too. I guess that's celebrating the American way: shopping. So we bought Tucker more food, tried another one of those "keep the dog occupied" toys (he has to figure out how to get the chicken-flavored cookie out of it), another extendable leash because James wanted a longer one, and a funny monkey stick toy which said it was for active dogs and had two squeakers. [Note: he tore a hole in it before the night was over.] Then we went to Michaels because I had coupons. We bought a hook to hang the leash on and I bought a beautiful fall arrangement, a wall hanging: leaf frame with artificial leaves, pumpkins, and squash against it. While we were there we went to Petsmart next door and bought Tucker a new squeak mouse because he has pretty much destroyed the old one. [Note: He broke the squeaker before the night was over.] James also got a tie-out line for the back yard. At night he takes Tucker back there and sits under the deck while Tucker sniffs around. We got a 30-foot one.

One final stop: I bought a small crate originally designed for DVDs in Dollar Tree. It's to put the dog toys in. :-)

On the way home we realized we still needed something from Lowe's, so we just drove straight there. James got two lag bolts to mount on the deck posts to fasten the tie-out line on, and a hook to hang the line on.

Whew! Finally home, and before I let Tucker out of his crate I threw away the three toys he destroyed so he wouldn't miss them. He didn't. and he figured the puzzle toy out in about fifteen minutes. So much for all day distraction!

We watched 1776 and you should have heard Snowy singing to the music [later on, too]. He was singing along to the Pops last night, too, in full symphony! I remember when I used to dance with Bandit to "He Plays the Violin." He never figured out why we were doing it, but he knew it made me happy. This was interrupted by (a) taking Tucker out back and installing the lag-bolt (he still can't reach the fence to bark at Topaz the white German Shepherd and is not happy about it even on a 30-foot lead) and (b) cooking dinner. We finished just in time to turn on A Capitol Fourth and watch the festivities from Washington, DC. Either the sunset lent more color to them, or they had some violently orange fireworks this year! Lots of "willows" (those big waterfall-looking ones), too, to remind us of our girl.

Poor Tucker—first he tried to mooch our dinner (steak, corn on the cob, and apple pie for dessert) unsuccessfully, and then people started off shooting off fireworks down the street. The books say to ignore this and act like everything is the same as it always is, so James played with him, and he had a Dentastix, and then he finally lay down to sleep in front of the fireplace on his rug. When Capitol Fourth was over, we changed channels and watched the fireworks from Centennial Olympic Park. They had a great finale to the armed services songs and "Stars and Stripes Forever." Then I put on the Macy's 4th of July Spectacular which was recording on the DVR and we've been hopping between commercials ever since to see the performers. They even showed a couple of musical performances from Red Rocks out west, from Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry, and from Fenway Park. I guess this means Arthur went out to sea; I know it poured on the annual parade in Bristol, RI, this morning! Just waitin' on the fireworks now!

[Later: Nice show!!! I loved them using the Brooklyn Bridge as a launch area for some of the fireworks. One set of them looked like giant golden brooms! The waterfall effect was really cool, especially the stars and stripes version. Some shapes here, too: cubes, spheres, "Saturns" (well that's what I call them, a sphere of fireworks with a ring around it), smiley faces. Again, not a lot of purple as in the last few years. Did they discover the pigment was poisonous?  Nice music, too, I especially liked the jazz arrangements.]

Labels: birds, dogs, food, holidays, pets, shopping

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