It's raining. Ugh.

Well, it's Friday morning, the day before we leave on our February Road Trip (Road Trippin' across the USA... in my Honda Element with my Bouvier!) and it's raining in L.A. WHAT? AGAIN??

That means no park time for The Gman and a delay in his bathing, drying and grooming in preparation for being a clean and welcome house guest and a show pony in Indianapolis. Rain delays. They aren't just for baseball games anymore.

We do have new tires on the Element thanks to a generous gift from my parents. That took 3 hours yesterday which I wasn't anticipating, but it did hold me captive at Coco's for 3 hours so I have half of my tax prep completed.

And then I got a surprise text from one of Rod's sisters-in-law Sara. She is married to Rod's youngest brother Doug. Sara and Doug and their two small children Cort and Lyla are all out here in LA LA Land because Sara is at a conference/workshop for furthering education or something that has a really nice official title. Hopefully she'll read this blog and post a comment to share what the official title/purpose of her trip is. Heh heh. Interactive blogging to keep Pilar's facts straight. LOVE it. Sara is currently teaching 7th grade in Wichita, Kansas and is one of 7 teachers from her district that have flown to Los Angeles to present what they are doing in their district.

We met up at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel and then walked over to the California Pizza Kitchen. Great place for kids to get pizza and pasta... and the adults to have beer, wine and good food.

Doug gets a door prize for being the first Ott brother of Rod's that I've met! One brother met... 5 more to go. And the parents. Eventually. (I'll think of what the door prize will be, Doug, and the next time I see you, I'll bestow you with your gift. Sara should also get one for having the job that brought you all out here and she is the first Ott family member to text me.... besides Rod, of course.)

Doug also has excellent coloring skills.Lyla put him to the task last night.

What a treat to be able to meet some of Rod's family in Los Angeles! I'm so glad it worked out!!

And now we must continue with our day of schlepping laundry down the rainy stairwell to wash and dry and start packing our suitcase... clean the house some more... and prepare Casa Fairview for our 3 week absence. Thank goodness the previous residents will be checking on the house while we're gone. God bless good neighbors!

And Garrison is bumming because of the rain. Poor, poor puppy. I bet he gets over it really soon.

Road Trippin' across the USA.... in my Honda Element with my Bouvier!!! :-D

T-minus 2 days - February Road Trip!

It's Thursday morning and I've been up since 6:45am... mostly thanks to Garrison licking my face and encouraging me to get up and start the day. We have an 11am appointment to get a new set of tires on the car and it's Trash Day, so I had to clean out any unpleasant items from the fridge... or items that would end up scaring the neighbors before we return.

I laugh at Garrison whenever I move the bins in and out. You see, he hates the sound of OTHER people moving their bins, hates loud sustained booming noises at any time, not just before 9am (challenging your movie trivia knowledge), yet he loves to "work" and will follow right along me when I'm moving OUR bins. I figure he is channeling his cart-pulling ancestors or merely herding the bins making sure they don't get out of line or away from me. The happy and silly smile on his face when I call him off of the bins as he trots back to the driveway cracks me up.

We have a lot to get done today and tomorrow before we drive away Saturday morning.... early. We are fulfilling our SoCal Bouvier Club obligations by spending the morning and early afternoon in Menifee at our Valentine Fun Match before driving to Flagstaff.

Oh... and we'll be hitting 12 states on this road trip:

California (duh!)
Arizona
New Mexico
Texas
Oklahoma
Missouri
Illinois
Indiana
Ohio
Iowa
Kansas
Colorado

In Garrison's first 3 years of life (his 3rd birthday is March 16th - coming up soon!) he has been to more states than Emilie ever made. She was a western kinda pup (CA, AZ, NM, CO, UT, NV) with one trip to Texas thrown in there. How she loved road trips. Garrison was born in California, but made the trip with me and Miss Em to Albuquerque in 2008. He and I flew to Oregon last July and went to a friend's house in Washington State and then we were off on the East Coast this past fall - Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island.

He'll have been in 20 states by the time we get back from our February Road Trip - not too shabby for the boy pup!

I just hope that road conditions don't get nasty while we're driving 2/3 across the country.

Well, we have many more things to do today - morning ritual these days consists of going to AM/PM for "cheap ass coffee", sometimes getting an egg and cheese burrito from Del Taco (400 calories) and hitting up the park so that Garrison can chase his beloved ball and burn off Happy Puppy energy. We also have that whole laundry thing to get done, house cleaning, tax prep 2009, show pony bath, dry and groom job (tomorrow) and various assorted chores before launching the mobile dog crate (aka The Honda Element) Saturday morning.

And I have to accomplish this week's goal of hitting the gym 5 days in a row. So far, we've made it Monday through Wednesday... so add two more trips to the gym in the above mix.

I can't believe it's already Thursday!! WHOOO HOOO!!! By this time next week I'll be with my awesome boyfriend, a couple of his Scotties and we'll be dog showing in Indianapolis! How fun!!!!!