Father's Day Weekend

Heads up - this is long! :)

Friday

Friday afternoon my mom and I left work early, since the company was having a party in the afternoon - I never go to those things, and usually just take off a little early.

Marc and I took Bandit to sheep herding, where we worked on more of what we did last weekend, and also did a round in the pen where we had a whole bunch of sheep, and Bandit's job was just to keep the sheep rounded up with me. He did really well! He seems to look forward to working the sheep immensely - whenever we have to wait for Jan to set up the sheep, he gets totally anxious and restless. Marc took some video of Bandit and I working in the pen - you can see it here.

We didn't do too much else in the evening - we went out for sushi for dinner, and then we stopped by Barnes & Noble for like an hour. Marc got some book - I don't even remember what it was, other than that it was some historical book that looked long and boring. I picked up "The Dog Who Loved Too Much," which is all about behavior problems in dogs and how to solve them. We also picked up a children's book by Jay Leno called, "If Roast Beef Could Fly," for Jacob for his 4th birthday.

The rest of the night was spent reading and otherwise bumming around.

Saturday

Saturday morning we took Bandit to his new vet at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon. We'd been taking him to see Dr. B at the Fremont Animal Hospital, but Dr. B retired, so we didn't feel any need to keep driving down to Fremont. When we got there, he let one of the ladies at the counter pet him, which was promising, but not that bad, since he's usually better with women. We were then greeted by a male technician, and Bandit actually went up to the guy. The tech then STUCK HIS HAND OUT OVER HIS HEAD to pet him. It was like one of those slow motion scenes in movies when something horrible is about to happen.

Amazingly, the dog was completely fine with the guy petting him on the head. I couldn't believe it, I thought he was going to flip out. Still, it was a pretty bad error on the part of the tech, who really should have known better, considering where he works.

We then went into see the vet, who looked like he was our age, and Bandit was totally fine with him too, almost like he wasn't shy at all. That is, until the vet started poking around his belly. He was okay with it for a minute, but then turned around and snapped at the vet. When the vet pulled out his stethescope, it freaked him out even more. Even treats weren't helping - the vet was decidedly not his friend anymore. The vet ended up having to take him to the back to give him his shots, which thankfully, went well.

Marc and I then went to the mall to do some shopping - for Jacob's birthday, and for Father's Day. We knew what we were going to get Marc's dad, so we picked that up first. I didn't know what to get my dad, so I called Kenny for ideas. He said that Dad had mentioned he wanted a miter saw. So Marc and I went to Sears to look. The cheapest we found was $100, which wasn't too bad if all of us chipped in on it.

I talked to Kenny again later, and he told me that Mom had gone to Dad and told him to tell us not to get him a present. Instead, he went to Kenny and told him, "I heard you guys were thinking of getting me a miter saw. Let me chip in!" Too funny.

So we ended up getting him a gift card, because we didn't want to get him some crappy cheap miter saw, and this way he can choose whichever one he wants.

After the mall, I took Bandit to Petsmart to sit in on another class. Melanie just had the people in class throw treats at him the whole time. One of the workers there was really great, and spent a lot of time trying to make friends with Bandit, just slowing giving him treats and slowly scratching him under the chin. He actually got to the point where he was able to pet him on the head, which was great. Bandit was still wary, but it was good progress. I picked up some toys for him on the way out.

I took a nap in the afternoon, which ended up being much longer than I'd planned. We ended up not really having much time in the evening to go out and do anything as a result, and I had to deal with a grumpy and bored Marc for the rest of the night.

I cheered him up later though, by giving him his "Father's Day" cards from the dog and from the cats. I found these "From the Dog" and "From the Cat" cards at Hallmark while we were looking for cards for our dads, and thought they were too funny to pass up. Weird, but funny.

Sunday

Sunday morning we got up a bit early and stopped by the agility trial in Livermore, and watched some of the big dogs run. One lady had a border collie that was competing, and this dog was FAST. Unfortunately, she was nowhere near able to keep up with the dog on the course, and it caused the dog to screw up a few times.

After that, we headed down to Steve and Erin's place for a joint party for Jacob's birthday and for Father's Day. The first thing Jacob did when we got there was raise up four fingers to show us how old he was turning - it was cute. We had some yummy barbecue, and then Jacob opened up his plethora of presents. He had a ton!

I left a little early to head over to my parents' house for their Father's Day barbecue (yes, more barbecue, haha), while Marc stayed behind for Jacob's cake. My grandmother and my cousins Mark and Henry had come over, so we hung out and ate and talked. My dad had been outside doing yardwork, but finally came in, and was wearing his "TGO" shirt that Marc and I had made for him. "TGO" stands for "The Great One," which is my dad's self-appointed nickname. We'd taken a picture of him and put it on a t-shirt, with the letters "TGO" above it. Pretty hilarious.

The rest of the day was spent at home relaxing - we worked with Bandit some more on the teeter, and discovered that he was much more willing to do it if I was on the other end of the teeter rather than Marc (one of us needs to be on the end to support it so it doesn't drop too fast). So we may have to try something like that in class - me on the other end of the teeter rather than the instructor.

And that, was our weekend. Whew!