Sweet Polly

The day didn't go quite as planned. The plan was to take Dexter to meet his new family around 1 p.m., but I had a note from Ashley that they had postponed the big transfer for a week, so he's here, now, until the 9th.

But she asked if I could still pick up another dog.

So at 1, I drove over to Petco. I told her reminded me of a drug drop or something. It was a grey, drizzly day and there was a group of people huddled around a car in a quiet part of the parking lot. Only instead of passing around contriband, Ashley was passing out puppies. The SPCA received 4 chihuahuas, a Lhasa Apso, and 3 pit bull puppies today, so they are desperate for homes.

I'm not sure if Polly is named after Polly Pirette, who plays the quirky Abby in NCIS or Underdog's girlfriend, Sweet Polly Purebred, but Polly she shall be. Dexter, it turns out, does not really play well with others. I sat in the recliner with the two of them in my lap for the afternoon, hoping to give Polly a good start on feeling comfortable here. Dexter spent a lot of time barking at her, each time getting a tap on the nose with a "NO!" Eventually both fell asleep--and I did too--and we all slept very comfortably for an hour or so.

They both needed medicine when they woke up, and I found that peanut butter is a great incentive, not only to take your medicine, but to be around a new dog.

It's still an uneasy truce, at best, but at least Dexter isn't barking at her all the time. He may enjoy having her here because she's very skinny and Ashley says "whatever she wants to eat, give it to her." Dexter get some of the benefit of that!

We had a lovely New Years Eve at the home of someone from the now-defunct Davis Comic Opera Company. We go to this party every year and it's just perfect for us, low key and lots of fun. There is a little champagne, a lot of hors hors d'oeuvres (stuffed mushrooms to make a meal off of!), and then two kinds of home made soup (vegetarian and non-vegetarian), bread, salad, and four different kinds of desserts.

We sit around and play "the name game" until midnight. Before dinner, everyone takes slips of paper and writes down the name of anybody you can think of, from the obscure to the obvious (Paul Potts--the Susan Boyle of his year on Britain's Got Talent--to Mickey Mouse). All the slips get put in a bowl and then we divide into teams and the idea is to get your team to guess as many correct names as possible in about 20 seconds. There's lots of laughter and I just love it. (My clue for Lou Gherig, "they named a disease after him," seemed to be the big laugh of the night.)

At midnight we watch as they prop Dick Clark up for another year and then after a toast to the new year, we are all out the door and in our cars by 12:20 at the latest.

I love all these people and see far too little of them throughout the year, so this is a much anticipated and much enjoyed gathering each year. You can tell how much I enjoy it, because I never bring a camera with me. I didn't even have my cell phone with me last night. I just enjoyed the moment and didn't worry about taking pictures to post later.