Last year when we did this walk, we took Ruby and Potatoes, just like this year. But last year we'd only had Potatoes for a week or so. He was scared out of his furry little mind! He cowered between my legs and I practically had to drag him the whole time. And at each mile marker where there were people stationed to cheer us on, Potatoes was so scared of all the noise. Poor thing. Well, that was last year. Today he trotted along like he was the king of the walk. At in the Capital building gardens, a stupid squirrel taunted Potatoes by running straight towards him. He shot straight towards it, nearly yanking Dave's leash-bearing arm off at the same time. Since we were walking with the huge group of other walkers, lots of people around us saw Potatoes try with all his might to get that squirrel. The hooted and hollered with delight at what a good hunter he is. Haha. Later on by the rose garden Potatoes saw another squirrel on a low branch in the tree. Egging him on, Dave said "Oooooh, Taters! Get it!" And let me tell you, he tried: Potatoes jumped into the tree! Granted, it was a low tree and the branches came together to make a nice landing pad. But still! Dogs just don't belong in trees. Anyway...
All along the walk route there were police cars and motorcycles stopping what little traffic there is in downtown Sac on a Sunday. Since we were lagging at the very back of the crowd, at one point the police officer used her megaphone to tell us to move onto the sidewalk. Bernie was right to think that it wasn't appropriate--so she gave the lady cop a piece of her mind. She basically told her "Look, we can't walk any faster, lady, so stop bothering us. We have two breast cancer survivors here, one of whom is in surgery recovery! So I'd appreciate it if you would lay off us." And it worked, we weren't bothered anymore. Go Bernie!
We stopped at the rose garden to take some pictures. It made me so happy that my mom was so agreeable to having her picture taken with us; she usually hates it. I think her good mood had something to do with my buying her a selection of pink shirts to choose from. Since pink is the color of choice for breast cancer activism, I went out and bought Dave, my mom, and I new pink shirts last night. And by "new" I am only referring to my and my mom's shirts. Dave's never owned a pink shirt--but he does now! He choose the "manliest" one of the 4 I could find at the store. I chose 4 for my mom and I could tell she enjoyed trying them all on for me so I could see how each looked on her.
After the walk Bernie hosted a Mother's Day potluck brunch. I made a quiche and mini scones (lemon with vanilla bean glaze and cranberry-chocolate chip). My usual quiche is spinach and ham. This time I used beet greens (since I was too lazy to go to the store for a block of nasty frozen spinach) and mushrooms since Jessica is vegetarian so ham wouldn't do. The mushrooms were wild ones that we picked last fall up in Gualala. To preserve them we'd sauteed them in oil with onion and garlic and froze them in little jars. They are so tasty--I can't wait to go mushroom hunting this year.
Dave had a great time hanging with his brothers. Mike refused to act like an adult for a picture:
I just have to end this post by saying that Donna is nothing short of amazing. She had surgery only about a month ago, followed by a near death infection that landed her in the ICU. And today she had the courage, the strength, and the outright determination to complete the whole 3 miles of the walk.
No comments:
Post a Comment