Pupdate #17 (making new friends)

THE SCENE: An ordinary morning on Trinidad Avenue

LINUS: Hi, Sparky. Hi, Dozer. How are you guys?

SPARKY: This is MY yard. I'M the boss here!

LINUS: Says who? Dozer's an awful lot bigger than you are.

SPARKY: Ha. Dozer can't hear you. He's deaf--it happens in white dogs sometimes. See: YOUR MOTHER WAS A PUG AND YOUR FATHER LOVES CATS!!

Ha! No answer. I, on the other hand, have unusually acute hearing thanks to a genetic anomaly that attached my ears BACKWARDS. Behold, the power of my BIONIC RIGHT EAR:

LINUS: Umm, okay. I have to go threaten the Six-Pound Hellhounds now. Catch you later.

SPARKY: Fine. Leave. This is MY YARD! I'M the boss!!

Later that day...

LINUS: Heyyy... where's Sparky?

DOZER: ZZZZZzzzz... oh hi, Linus. Sparky's under house arrest for digging up the garden.

LINUS: You can hear! Why do you pretend to be deaf?

DOZER: You would too, if you had to share a yard with Sparky all the time.

LINUS: Good point.

Pupdate #16 (Linus puts his work gloves on)

The Trinidad neighborhood in NE DC gets a bad rap, but the truth is that there are many beautifully maintained early 20th c. townhouses and charming postage-stamp gardens in our area. In an attempt to hop on the bandwagon--and excited at finally living in a place that has a yard--I began Memorial Day buying and potting plants for a small container garden in the front yard. Our yard now boasts:

• Basil
• Tomatoes (Roma and Patio)
• Mexican roses (Portulaca)
• Lemon thyme
• Lemon verbena

I have a whole bag of potting soil left over, so I might go crazy (or is that grow crazy? Ha!) and buy some more plants...maybe mint and parsley so I can have fresh tabbouleh all summer. And maybe some cucumbers for gazpacho. Mmm....

Of course, Linus did his bit to help:

He's so "handy"!

I also celebrated the holiday by biking to the Mall (I still find it trippy to be living so close to Monument Central) and watching my crazy dad and his crazy friends march in the parade on Constitution Avenue:

Then I shopped. Really, all my Memorial Day lacked was burgers and watermelon.