A foray to the city and some building of the dog paraphernelia

It was the day before New Year's Eve - time to plan.  And off we went to the city.  There was banking to be done, a return to be made and Costco to pillage.  All unfolded as hoped.  Unfortunately when Our Ken opened the Christmas present box he had given Lee in preparation to position it before her return from Ontario, he found a broken shell of what should have been a lovely piece of furniture.  Fortunately, having come from Costco it was an easy if somewhat wait-y return.  It is a great company to deal with and testament to that is the line stretching from the counter out the door.  Ken waited in line while Lee made a preliminary foray - finding the one remaining counterpart to the broken piece, put together and standing in pristine loneliness at the back of the store.  Onto a cart it went - much to the relief of Our Ken who by that time was almost to the front of the line and might have had to speak to a stranger at the counter had Lee not surfaced - oh, and he was happy that there was a replacement for the gift, too.  Added to the furniture were food items to create a progressive meal for New Year's Eve, two dog beds (on sale at Costco), a good supply of fruit and a crown roast of pork for New Year's day.  Likely there were batteries as well but if Our Ken managed to get them into the basket, Lee didn't notice.  After all, what is a trip to Costco without batteries!

The kennel is emptying with the visitors returning home for their New Year's celebrations.  Waving good bye were Jake and Barbaro and Poe.  Bailey is packing and certain that there cannot be fireworks in the city without her.  The boyz remain to keep an eye on the Welsh and Norwich next door.  Ruari can now bark like a Welsh - Heather, we apologize and will give you the phone number of the owners so you are able to speak to them about compensation.  Wee Margaret is mighty impressed though and is giving some consideration to inviting him home for a sleep over.  Roddi, conversely is quite taken with the Norwich.  Crockett's leadership in the vocals appeals to him and he urges him on to even greater heights.  Ruff has decided to stay to hold the side for the big dogs and is as equable as ever as he goes about his routine.   There will be a couple of short term additions to the facility just to keep things going into the new year. 

The house dogs are happy and well.  Patti was delighted to see the addition of the new beds to the den floor and has managed, at her best moment, to spread herself over two beds with her head on a third, challenging all comers to reconsider their positioning.  She does love new beds.  Charlotte, though, came into the house, spied the new couch-style bed and that was all she wrote.  She may have taken two long strides to get to it or she may have been airborne but she landed and it took all we could do to lure her out for her last in and out of the night.  The beds were a hit.  Added to the two at Christmas, there has been a good turn over.  The day was a bit cooler so less mud is in evidence and there is actually a snow/rough ice cover on the drive that will make humans miserable for the winter but is preferable to mud in a winter sort of way. 

Dinner was a change up.  Our Ken is a bit tired of the bird so there were Italian sausages and mac and cheese (Patti's preference for future meals and one that Dover approves).  A green salad and the end of the apple pie rounded things out nicely.  And we are on to New Year's Eve day.