Stoutpup

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. Now who could sleep through that?

Last night was Hoegaarden Beer Night at the downstairs bar. Buy a Hoegaarden take the glass home! I met Corey there after work and we had a few Hoegaardens and dinner.

Pretty sweet deal because we already love this beer and now we have a set of glasses from which to drink it with two of our closest friends. I have been pronouncing the name of this beer wrong since the first time I ever drank one which luckily has only been like 4 months ago. It’s pronounced /huːɡɑrdən/.

A hump day in the middle of a four day work week makes the week seem shorter to me. Mazzy says have a nice one!

I know you love your dog. I see you in the park throwing your tennis ball to and fro — your adorable and smart puppy chasing and retrieving every time. I see the way that you look lovingly at that beautiful sloppy mouthed mutt. He’s a good dog! I can see that. You may even think it unfair to leash such a well-behaved creature on such a sunny day as today – even though signs explicitly indicating dogs must be leashed are clearly posted at my park and majority of Public Parks In Seattle.

I love dogs. In fact I love dogs so much I have two of my own. You may have spotted me walking them in the park trying to get them to do their business before and after work and on my lunch hour. I’m sure you saw me, because your dog came lumbering towards me and stuck its nose up my dog’s butt to get a good sniff. Lucy didn’t like that. She was at the park for a purpose – to do her business. But your dog was so distracting – so interested in playing “off leash” with my leashed dog, Lucy forgot what her original reason was for being out at the park at that time. You caused such chaos during my 5-minute window of time to get my dogs to do their thing, that my 5 minutes became 15 minutes.

“Is your dog friendly?” You ask. Why, yes, she is. But THAT’S NOT THE POINT. Leash laws are there for a reason. I found an article that you might like to read in the archives of The Seattle Times. I just had to look it up because I saw a printout of it posted in Seward Park this past weekend. Here it is >>

Dogs are unpredictable. They are animals. Why don’t you get it? What if your dog bites my dog in the park because yours is doing something illegal like BEING OFF LEASH? I will sue your ass and your dog’s ass too. Hey is that your dog wandering off near the play area – dogs don’t like their tails pulled by curious children!

It amazes me that when I am at the park across the street and someone’s loose dog comes up and starts acting aggressive with one of my leashed dogs, the owner will say, “Oh, it’s the leash thing.” You’re damn right it is. Off Leash Dog in combination with On Leash Dog causes tension in the form of aggression and dominance. Read some Cesar, people, and kindly put your lovely dog on a leash.

Be responsible. Don’t ruin it for us all. We like our parks where we are free to walk our dogs or sit and read a book with our canine companions by our side. And we don’t want that privilege taken away because of your silly sense of entitlement and penchant for breaking the rules. Go to the Off Leash dog park. We may even see you there, we like it there too. We can watch our dogs can play together.

PS. Don’t forget to pick up your dog’s poop. I know you’re really busy chatting with the other Off Leash dog mommies and daddies while your canines run around out of your eyesight and shit everywhere, but I’m really tired of picking up after you and your Off Leash dog in my on leash park. Have a nice day!

Yesterday we went to Bainbridge Vineyard and Winery for a bit of wine tasting and wine education. We started the afternoon by riding over on the Puyallup. I just love ferry rides. It was such a beautiful day outside, even the bunch of super obnoxious college girls screeching and singing stupid songs on the deck next to us didn’t spoil the mood. We arrived at the winery just in time to join the 2 o clock tour. Bainbridge Winery is a small vineyard on the island and on of the two “real” wineries located there. That being said, the grapes are grown there, and the wine is produced and bottled at the winery. It does not import its grapes like many new “wineries” do these days.

The Vineyard and Winery is owned and run by Gerard and Jo Ann Bentryn. They’ve been growing grapes on the island for 30 years. I am so glad we ended up at this particular winery. Google picked it for us, but I had actually read about it in Seattle Magazine previously. We learned about how grapes are grown in the different regions and climates and we’ll carry this information with us next time we are driving through somewhere and see a vineyard with high-climbing vines versus low horizontal outstretched “arms”. Normally I find the tasting part of a wine tour to be the most fun, but really this tour was truly fascinating — with lots of history of the region and how the land was attained.

After the hour-long tour was over we went back to the tasting room. $3 will get you four tastes. We ended up buying 6 bottles of our favorite and will save these for special occasions. Gerard Bentryn says that one needs only to pay $10.00 for a bottle of wine that tastes acceptable for drinking with meals etc., and if you pay more than that — then you’re a sucker! Because unless the bottle says “grown, produced, and bottled by” the wine could be bottled 300 miles away from where it’s grapes were grown - even if it’s the best wine you’re ever tasted - it has less meaning. After hearing all Gerard had to say yesterday I really began to understand what he meant about his process of making wine and farming in general. I walked away thinking it’s a lot about integrity.

“Wine is Sex, a Vineyard is love and commitment.” That’s what Gerard says.

It’s appropriate that I am writing this post on Memorial Day because Gerard Bentryn, a noble man of extreme integrity, is also an Army veteran who is proud to have served his country but remains against war. I am happy to have visited his winery this weekend and look forward to returning - and of course drinking the wine.

Today we went to Seward Park with the dogs. It was a beautiful clear day at 76 degrees and a perfect start to the holiday weekend. I decided to take my camera out and give it it a whirl by practicing on the dogs in this great weather.

Seward Park is great.

From the City of Seattle website: Within the Seattle city limits, Seward park boasts 300 acres of beautiful forest land - home to eagles’ nests, old growth forest, a 2.4 mile bike and walking path, an amphitheater, a native plant garden, an art studio, miles of hiking trails, and more. It’s amazing that this park with huge ancient trees is located right in the city.

I don’t really know what I am doing with my camera yet because I’m really intimidated by all there is to remember as a person who is just beginning to take photographs.

I got luck with this one of Lucy.

Notice her fur is all wet from sloshing around in the Lake. She is obsessed with the water and will tug you into the sea if you’re not holding on tightly. Bulldogs don’t swim so it is my greatest fear that she will just “bloop” and sink like a cannon ball, but we let her wade around up to her armpits just off the beach.

Have I mentioned how much we love Seattle?

We’re not in Kansas anymore - Actually not in Tacoma anymore. A lot has changed over the year. We sold our house in the worst housing market ever and made the plunge to South Lake Union in Seattle We. Love. It. Here. 

Every weekend we try and visit a park in the surrounding areas. Here we are pictured at Gasworks Park. You can see the old gasworks behind us. We ran into a couple with a little bulldog named Stella. She was as cute as can be.

Last week while me and Lucy were laying in Cascade park reading Gene Wilder’s Kiss me like a Stranger we were approached by a Pet Photographer for City Dog magazine. She was shooting for an article about dogs in our neighborhood. Lucy got her photo taken for the magazine and we’ll soon find out if her sour mug made the cut. Tune in to find out!