These days

These days Lizzy does a lot of napping, especially in the sun, on the deck, where she can stretch herself and snooze to the chirping of the birds and the rustle of the breeze in the trees.

Spaniel that she is, Lizzy is a highly active dog. She reminds me of a young Rusty, who simply loved to run in circles as fast as he could. Lizzy likes to do that, too, so our new large yard is not only put to good use but has become essential in sating her thirst for vigorous exercise.

There are nearby trails maintained by the environmental branch of my small college on the hill and Lizzy and I like to walk them in the mornings and evenings. I've decided not to carry my Ipod with me in such walks because it seems sacrilegious to prefer human-made music to the sounds of the forest and fields surrounding the trails. My walking shoes were all muddy when I returned, and Lizzy had to be dried up, but we both felt exhilarated by the outside exercise. The dog does honor to her namesake, Lizzy Bennet, who loved to walk outdoors.

At home, we've started to settle into our new home, and my husband is delighted with his new office, which he is slowly outfitting to his taste. It's the first time in our 15-year marriage that he has such a nice office and he's really enjoying it. Magellan, seen here perched on her cat-seat at one of his front-facing windows, has become his "administrative assistant," my husband informs me.

We will now begin to prepare for the visit of my parents, who are making the trek here to what I'm sure they're going to find is a better sanatorio than any other home I've ever had (except for the occasionally annoying sounds of teenagers spending time in a pool on a nearby hilltop or riding their ATVs on the trails within their huge property). But almost all of the time this place is near perfection and I find myself thanking God over and over again for this and all the other blessings in my life.

I think Lizzy feels thankful for all her blessings, too, especially after titi D and tío J came over for dinner earlier this week and brought her five new toys to be added to all the other toys I had already gotten her and the few she inherited from Rusty. We did discover last night, to my husband's great annoyance, that Lizzy had chewed out one corner of one of the sofa cushions. The woman who fostered Lizzy (back when she was known as Roxie) joked that she might chew on my sofa but didn't seem to be serious about the possibility. I guess she wasn't actually joking.

So we'll have to keep a keener eye on Miss Lizzy (well, technically, since she had a litter she shouldn't be a Miss but who obeys such rules anyway?) to make sure she sticks to chewing up her toys and not to the furniture. Tonight we will be attending the first session of her obedience classes (this one is for the "parents" and then she begins to attend next week). We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, as August continues its relentless move to its end, the plan here among all of us, human, cat and dog, is to sacarle el jugo a each and every day of summer that remains.