I need to do something to distract me from the terrible officiating of this USA vs. Canada hockey game and the screaming sinus headache that’s been plaguing me all day.

I don’t have a lot of great photos or a lot of great news… I went to the farm this weekend with my pup, all by myself, since the boy is out playing in the mountains skiing in Lake Louise, Golden and Kicking Horse. I really think I need to learn to ski soon so I don’t continue to be left at home on these trips!

Unfortunately I made the mistake of trying to travel with Luna by myself without properly wearing her out first. I had debated taking her to the dog park after work (for the first time when presumably there would be other dogs there) but I decided I’d rather just get on the road and get to the farm before it got too late. I was using a chest harness on her instead of restraining her with her collar and well, that didn’t work so well. She was not a fan, and she gnawed the leash I had tied her with probably within the first few minutes. She did crash out for about an hour, thankfully while I was on the 401 and the traffic was pretty tight. But once I got onto the lesser highways through Kitchener to Stratford, she was quite active and getting into all kinds of trouble chewing things in the back seat. I stopped several times to restrain her, tie her up tighter, etc. By the time I got to the farm I was pretty nearly at my wits end. It was not a good night.

So Luna got to meet Harvey, her first real introduction to another member of the canine species. Harv is pretty good with other dogs although he can be a bit possessive and you have to watch him. Luna got “told” more than once for trying to steal his stuff or invade his indoor space. It was good for her to learn to be respectful. Unfortunately I don’t think Harv was too interested in entertaining her by today so they didn’t play as much the second day we were there.

I had hoped that Harvey would wear her out today so that my drive home would be peaceful. Instead I made plans to meet with my friend Leanne and her dog Lola in Stratford at what has got to be the best dog park evar. It’s 6 acres of fully fenced in park land, designed all for dogs. They have a big open meadow section, as well as about half of the park is bush with trails. It was a perfect day to go because while there was snow on the ground and it wasn’t muddy, it was sunny and beautiful. There must have been about 50 some odd dogs there too, so Luna really got a big intro to lots of other dogs of all kinds. Only one was inappropriately aggressive with her — a little Spitz cross, with an obvious chip on his shoulder. Of course I forgot to take my iPhone with me into the park so no photos (and Chris has the nice camera out west with him — mountains trump puppies I guess).

Thankfully the drive home was entirely peaceful. She snoozed the whole way so she was a dream. But I have to admit I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed with the pup all by myself. She’s got so much energy and even though she had a really big weekend she was rip-raring to go again tonight and I am not doing well with this headache. It’s off to the crate with her (where she continues to snooze — why can’t she do that when she’s out here in the living room?). She’s got it in her head that the living room is where we go nuts, not where we relax. Perhaps we have to consider moving her enormous crate out into the living room to try to give her the message, but space is pretty tight so I don’t know how we’d do that.

Alright I’m rambling. Time for me to sign off.

Oh I should also add that not having the camera this weekend was a huge let down when we had hoarfrost both mornings — that doesn’t happen often and it’s so darn beautiful when it does. Check out my photos from Boxing Day back in 2007.