The Jacket & An Afternoon at the Dog Park

My head cold is still making me drag around the house so my declaration that the jacket would be done by weekend's end is not to be realized, but I did work on it after our trip to the dog park (more on that below). The inside body is completely finished now and my plan did work out.

After the insides were connected, I trimmed seam allowances, pressed and turned it all right side out. It was the moment of truth for my first notched collar and I have to say that I think I did pretty darn good. ;-) There are no ripples or puckers and the inside corner joins all come together as they should. There is a lot to be said for accurate marking and pinning.


I still need to topstitch all of those edges but just as I was about to start, the main lightbulb in my studio burned out and it was too dark to go on. So I moved Zillie into the bathroom for a photo session and then started this blog entry. DH has now replaced the bulb but I think I'll call it quits for the night and pick up again in the morning.

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The rest of this entry is about our trip to the dog park today after lunch … just a little fair warning. ;-)

Even though we have a big yard, I wanted to go to see how Chili does off leash without risking him zooming into the woods. This dog park is about a 15-minute drive from our house. It's approximately 5 acres, divided into two fenced-in sections. One for big dogs and the other for the little guys. There were TONS of people and pooches there today since the weather was perfect — sunny and about 65 degrees. I think we saw every breed of small dog in our section today. Beagles, Bostons, Yorkies, Pugs, Shelties, Dachsies, Min Pins, Westies, and more.

Chili is Mr. Social. Pepper is a bit more reserved. By the time we left a couple of hours later, Chili had introduced himself to every single dog there, and to the girls twice! Apparently, he's still not quite reconciled with the neutering. ;-) Chili must've run 20 miles at top speed while we were there. He *never* slowed down. I don't think I'm going to be trusting him off leash for a long while yet. But since we have the 2nd retractable leash now, I'll be taking the dogs on regular walks off our property. Both Pepper and I can use the exercise.

Now on to the photos …

Here's Chili playing tag with 2 new friends soon after our arrival. DS#1 and Pepper are jogging in the background near the fence.


Comin' on to one of the little ladies.


A quick swim break. Looks like baths won't be a problem with Chili.


Football with the guys. And that's *not* Chili in the foreground. We actually know the owners of Chili's "twin" and the little black/white Jack Russell behind directly him — he's our mechanic and she's the receptionist at the boys' dentist (they're married and own both dogs together). We spent a lot of time talking with them and comparing our JRTs.


Chili is in this shot (he's on the left of his twin) along with DS#1, DS#2, and DH. The guys and the dogs tossed the football and/or chased after it for at least 45 minutes straight. It was quite hilarious to watch them all trying to get the football at the same time and if any of the JRTs managed to get the ball, they kicked it around on the ground like a soccer ball and were quite indignant to have to give it up to a human.


This dog just cracked me up so I had to include it. Do you think he knows what he looks like? Poor baby. I know he really just wanted to play football. ;-)


This was taken about an hour ago. I came downstairs to ask DH to change the lightbulb for me and found him and Chili snoozing together on the recliner. They were both so sound asleep they didn't even stir when the flash was going off. ;-) I think Chili has settled in with his new family quite well.