Easter

We spent a quiet Easter here in Las Vegas. It was warm and sunny (how unexpected). We had a small group over, and just had an afternoon in the back yard. Nothing strenuous – the pool was a little too cool for swimming – water temp was only 72F, warmer than the ocean in San Diego, but not as good as it will be getting here. bocce was the game of choice (actually the only game) and we all played slowly.

As we didn’t have an ‘official’ playground, we just rolled the balls on the grass. This provides for an interesting game, as our grass is typical, which means it is not really perfectly flat. There are clumps of grass, and sprinkler heads, and bare spots. This makes the balls roll rather strangely instead of nice and straight. It reminds me of a pool table we had in the basement when we were kids. It was cheap, and warped from the damp. This meant that when you hit the cue ball it kind of rolled in directions other than where you were aiming. After playing for a while we were used to the way balls rolled, and could shoot in a slightly different direction than was expected and have the balls end up where we wanted. It was an advantage we had over our friends, who would come over and find their shots going all over the place while ours started out strange but ended up hitting the balls we wanted.
Our dogs also had a good day. We’ve got two dogs – I don’t think I’ve written about them before. They are ‘pound puppies’ that we got from the animal shelter in San Diego about ten years ago. They are both about eight inches tall and weigh ten pounds, or at least they did, I think Buster has put on a little weight in his old age.
Buster is brown, which you ‘oldsters’ will recognize as a familiar phrase, which is how he got his name. He is friendly to everyone. He likes to just sit in the sun and sleep.

Max is black, and a vicious little fellow with a loud bark and sharp teeth.

Max also likes to sit in the sun, but at our front gate, and keep a watchful eye on activities in the neighborhood. This way he can bark at anything unusual, and keep all of those other dogs away from our house. He is very successful at this, and very noisy, and no other dog has succeeded in making it to our front door. Of course no dog has ever tried, but this does not stop Max from informing them that they should stay away.
Both guys would much rather smell like dogs than the nice shampoo we use on them. Their preferred method of perfuming is to find a good smelling spot on the lawn and then roll around in it.

This usually involves places where worms have died and left a really noticeable odor – well, noticeable to them and not us. But I guess it does work as eventually they stop smelling good to us and start smelling good to them, which means that it’s time for a bath.