Yesterday we had a busy day. I did all my Christmas shopping in about an hour at Wal-mart, then I drove to the other side of the city (a.k.a. East Bajezus :-) to meet-up with friends for a dinner at Magiano's at East Gate mall. Dazzle did very well with the wall to wall people at the Wal-mart store, though I was feeling rather stressed by the crowds! Holiday shoppers are the worst!
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We walked around the mall a little bit because we were early for dinner. I got a couple things at the dog boutique including a "talking Babble ball." When we got back home, that was a big hit with Dazzle. When he first picked it up and it talked, he dropped it right away and gave it a long look. Picked it up again, heard it talk and dropped it. After that, he delighted in carrying it around and shaking it to get it to talk. It says things like "Ouch! Don't do that!" "Na, Na, Na, Na Na" "Ohhh you got me!" "Good doggie" "Hey that tickles" and a growling noise among several other things. Mike and I were laughing our heads off at it!
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The restaurant was crowded, but Dazzle and I found a spot in a corner and he laid down next to me. After a few treats, he decided it was time for a nap. He woke up a few times when I (or the person next to me) moved our chair, but he would lay right back down. Due to the crowds, our food took awhile to arrive, but good bread, friends and conversation helped pass the time. During the meal the head chef came out to check on us. Turns out he knew one of the people with us and they talked for a bit. After dinner, we passed around the gifts. I made chocolate chocolate chip cookies for everyone and they were a BIG hit! One of them was given to the head chef and he liked it, giving it high praise. So I think I did ok :-) Then he treated us to a sampling of each of the restaurants desserts!! Huge pieces we passed around the table: a really rich chocolate cake (which was my favorite), cheesecake with strawberries, an apple crisp, terimisu and it seems like there was another one, but I can't recall what it was. All of them were delicious! By the time desserts arrived, we had ben there nearly 2 hours and dazzle was getting restless. He would get up, I'd tell him down, he would lie down, but then after a minute or two he would be up again. Not bad for his age and the chaos and the amount of time spent there! I went home feeling over stuffed, but very satisfied. A really nice evening (& I got some very nice gifts too!)
Here's Dazzle when he was awake :-) He didn't stare at me the whole time, he was looking around too. Thank-you Evelyn for these photos!
There was a brownie in the dunkin donuts bag near him and the bag that got moved out of the way to get the photo was full of the cookies I brought. At one point he was using it as a pillow. So he's nicely food motivated, but not obsessively like a certain Cattle Dog I know and love. :-)
He's still certain most things he sees on the ground as we are walking are his and edible though he's doing much better with leaving them. Of course his definition of edible and my definition are very different; leaves, paper, plastic, pebbles, beads from Christmas decorations, are all in the edible category as far as he's concerned! LOL He had a hard time with all the stuffed critters (mostly stuffed animals for kids) being right at nose level in the shops of Metamora (read below), but was even doing much better about that by the time we left.
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Today Dianne and I toured the shops of Metamora Indiana. We took our time and several breaks, but we ended up staying FIVE hours!! We stayed long enough to see the shops lit up in lights and the luminarios along the canal and some of the walkways. Very pretty! Thank God for heat wraps! It was cold, but not as frigid as the Carriage Parade. :-) Plus we were going in and out of the shops, so it gave me some time to "thaw out" inbetween times in the cold. Dazzle did VERY well, but by the last few shops, he was done with the shopping experience and being good- he wanted to PLAY! But after a few tosses of a stick in the park area, he held it together for the last few shops and we called it a night. I'm so proud of him and because he does so well, it's easy to forget he's still so young! We did play for awhile when we got home. Then I had to focus on getting packed and ready for our trip to see family tomorrow. I'll post when I can, but it might be longer than usual between posts.
.Here's a photo of us near the gazebo in Metamora. My camera is picky about light levels, so even though it looked good on the little camera screen, turns out it was blurry. Oh well, you get the idea.
Here's a photo I just got that was taken on another person's camera while we were at the carriage parade last weekend. This is the group I met with that very cold day.
