I'm not really here...

...because at 9 AM Saturday, my boss called and told me she changed her mind, come back to work.  So you might not be getting the timely stream of stupidity from me that you were, but you'll still get that annoying drip.

Speaking of annoying drips, I've got a Scrappy story for you.  Friday night- you know, the night when the 500-mile-long straight line of rain marched over Allen County- when Laurie got home, one of our activities was me and Mr. Dog roughhousing.  This is usually best accomplished when I crawl over to Laurie's leg and pretend to attack.  He'll pull my sleeve, wrap my arm, and bark as if he's a vicious killer.  But the fun thing with Scrappy is, no matter what way you play with him, eventually you reach a point where a switch in his head flips, and he becomes "Incredible Hulk-dog".  Meaning, his eyes glaze over, his legs become those blurry circles a la Road Runner, and he does laps around the room, occasionally stopping to slam into the couch, a chair, or his new favorite, the bathroom wall (which the neighbors must just love).

So, I start him going, knowing full well he has been holding a poop since, oh, six hours ago because he HATES being rained on.  Soon, the switch flips, and after a couple of laps, he shoots upstairs, and I hear him slam up on the bed.  I, downstairs, crawl into the bathroom, and he charges back down.  (Do you see where we're going with this?  Good!)  After a lap or so, he sails into the bathroom- only to have me scream, "BOOO!"  Needless to say, he doesn't quite know whether to fish or cut bait.  He does know, however, the chain reaction that I started- and heads to the door, jumping up on the screen to get out before it's too late.  Seconds later, the rain was no longer a problem.  Scrappy is the only one I've ever really known to have the poop scared out of him- and that's the second time.

The first?  His first face to face with a big buck deer.  And thankfully in a field.


Next, just so you don't get the idea from the Zoo post that he ended up at the wrong park alone, we were there earlier Saturday for a walk with my niece Raine.  We are a year and a half apart in age, so we shared a TON of growing up experiences.

As I captioned this on Facebook, "Damnit, Chris, get off my foot!"

Anyway, here are some pics from Sunday's walk:

This is possibly the noisiest hawk I've ever met.  Screeching the whole time we were out.

At least this time, I got the good shots...

Lots more water in the swamp.  Hence, more turtles.

The alumni center pond.

Since Mad Jack thought "You look too young to have a son that old", and a FB friend who has masochist tendencies (apparently) wanted "more pictures of Chris", here's another one.
 

"Peek-a-boo..."

Pond also has hundreds of little bitty, lightning-fast fish.

Killdeers on the sidewalk...

Once in the woods, we were less than popular with the squirrels, based on the several half-eaten nuts that started falling on us.

Here's something new!  Glad we weren't here when it fell...

Came off the top of this guy.

She was a ways off and hard to get.

Finally, the quick AIHL update.  Adelaide had the weekend off, as did Perth.  Saturday had the two big games:  Simon Barg and Matt Puntieri each tallied twice as Sydney's Ice Dogs toppled Newcastle 5-3; and Jack Woglemuth had two goals and an assist as the latest Battle of Melbourne had the Mustangs upset the Ice, 4-2.  Canberra played the other Saturday game, losing to the other really bad team, the Sydney Bears, 3-2, on two goals and an assist by Michael Schlamp.

Sunday was tag-team beat-up-the-bad-team day.  Canberra gets walloped by the Ice Dogs 8-1 on Barg's hat trick garnished with two assists, while Newcastle got theirs back against the Bears, 7-1, on hat tricks by (who else) Pier-Oliver Cotnoir and Jeff Martens, with Dominic Osmun pitching in three assists.

The result of which (besides dropping the Bears to 6-15-1, the Knights to 2-20-1, and former Perth captain Michael Forney to third in the scoring race behind still-playing Jeff Martens (25 G, 28 A, 53 points) and Matt Armstrong of the Ice), is to put the Ice Dogs (14-6-4) four points up on Newcastle (13-7-3), as well as 7 over the Ice and 8 over the Mustangs, while idle Adelaide and Perth drift to 15 and 13 points back, respectively.