Showing posts with label Adventures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adventures. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Adventures In Tucson

German Chocolate À La Mode

It's been almost a week since my mom's birthday last Thursday (January 10th) and I meant to post a Happy Birthday Wish but was too busy to do so. The night before her birthday I drove down to Tucson, unbeknownst to my her, picked up a steamy, melty pizza pie from Oregano's (best.pizza.EVER) and showed up at their front door. My dad knew I was coming so he quietly let me in while my mom peeked through the front blinds, wondering who could be ringing the doorbell at 7 o'clock at night. I sicked Dookie on her while she was peeking and got the best surprised response that I hoped for! (yay! I love surprises!)

We spent the next morning having coffee and then went to the church to help serve lunch to the kiddies at school, which I immediately agreed to do only after making sure there were no hair nets or booties involved. (Only kidding. Kind of.) When we were finished, we went out for barbecue per my mom's request.

Thanks for lunch, Daddy!

After a little shopping we drove back home to relax, only to find that Dookie had burrowed under the gate and gotten out. My first reaction was to shake my head and say, "Oh, Dookie! Silly puppy!", followed by a reality check, during which the panic set in. She was only wearing her collar and had no single piece of identification on her. (Bad! Bad puppy owner!) We scoured the neighborhood and all I could think was the worst. Cute, potty trained (more or less) puppy with no tags... Someone will scoop her up and love her forever. Busy intersection... Unthinkable horror! Either way, I'd never see her again! Screw my slippers, Christmas ornaments, carpeting, dishwasher (don't ask) ... I wanted my baby back! A couple of hours of driving around streets and allies, and a few tearful phone calls to the Humane Society later, I spotted my parents down the street. They had pulled off to the side of the road to ask a couple of teenagers if they had seen her. My mom began waving her arms at me like she was signaling a rescue helicopter. Running as fast as my flip flopped feet could carry me, I landed on their front porch with mascara streaming down my face. Dookie had been running up and down the street and then managed to find the one house with three other pit bulls. She just sat on their front stoop until someone let her in so she could hang with her PB Homies. I could have peed myself, I was so relieved to see her hop out the door all puppy-ish and happy with no CLUE as to what she put her mama through. Kisses, kisses, hugs, tears and more kisses.

That evening, my dad boarded up the gates the best that he could, while Dookie no longer did her duty unattended by a human (even if the thermometer outside does read 20 degrees Farenheit). My mom opened her gifts, we sang Happy Birthday and my dad served up cake and ice cream. We kicked back to watched Leno and Conan, while Dookie made herself at home on her own personal doggie bed.

Love the Dook

I drove home the next afternoon so I could go to work. Needless to say, Dookie now has a brand new shiny ID tag and our next visit to the vet will include microchip placement!




Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Adventures in Rocky Point

This weekend we took one of our summerly trips down to RP and my friend 'J.D.' and I decided to take a short walk to Phase III of Las Palomas. Rumor had it that they had built a new pool area and the building next door had been completed since the last time we'd been down. The walk was to be brief enough that 'J.D.' did not put sun screen on... She would realize that this was a mistake.
We made it maybe a quarter of a mile, which in the heat felt like three, when this cute kid, swim goggles in hand, approached us from the opposite direction. He appeared to be 4th or 5th grade, but what do I know since I don't have kids. Anyway, we said hi to him and asked if he was okay. He said, "Yeah, I'm fine", and started to walk away when his face got suddenly long, "I can't find my family". Apparently, he had been swimming and drifted down the beach. When he got out of the water he did not recognize anything.
He didn't know where he was staying but 'J.D.' noticed that he had a bracelet on with the name of his hotel.
We were on a mission... we proceeded to walk him back in the opposite direction knowing that all of the other condos were at the far end of the development. On our trek he talked to us about where he was from, his two sisters, cousins, his mom (who apparently had some sort of eye problem and was unable to drive), his dad's job, his XBox...
When we finally made it near to where he was staying a frantic woman came running down the beach towards the three of us, with several security/police officers close behind. When she finally let the boy go, caught her breath and was able to talk she told us that she was his aunt. His mom soon followed. If the sun had not sucked all the fluid from my body, I probably would have been bawling. She was so relieved to see him and couldn't stop hugging and crying on him.
With "T" safe with his family, 'J.D.' and I had to find another way back because walking was NOT an option at that point. Then a nice Mexican man, we'll call him Banana Boat Guy, offered to give us a ride back in the boat... the banana boat. We handed our mucho expensive digital cameras to BB Guy, donned our floaty gear and hopped up onto the giant floating banana. This is when my bikini bottom and I decided to part ways and I ended up bare-ass to face with BB Guy. Nice. Gracefully, I flopped up and over the banana seat and into the middle area of the boat. I can honestly say I have not laughed so hard, in so long, as we did on the way back in the middle of that boat, bouncing along trying desperately to keep our cameras safe.
Lastly, we made a plan to get back to shore while keeping our cameras dry. I jumped off of the boat, directly onto the rocky reef below (ouch!), grabbed the cameras and rode the waves into the beach. Picture it, I am crouched like a crab, my life jacket like floaty-shell, crawling along the rocks, riding the waves. My left arm is full of flip-flops & sarongs, my right arm far above my head with the cameras. All I can hear from behind me is 'J.D.' yelling, "BIG WAVE COMING!"
If only I was a people watcher on shore....