Tate with a gift from her new buddy Mabel.

(Sunday Paper, Year IV, Issue 27)

Guys.

I hate to interrupt the flow of guest post season, but today seemed like a good day to do it.

After all, it’s the most special of days…

And we have the most special of news.

After talking about it for a long time as a possibility, and then waiting for a short time that seemed like a very long time for an application to be given the OK, it has become a reality:

We have a dog.

And so far, it’s going great.

That cute dog you see pictured up there at the top is Tate.

She is our new dog.

She is a good dog.

We brought her home at the end of June.

And June was a very long month of liking different dogs on the rescue sites, visiting and falling very hard for a dog in person, and then trying not to get our hopes up about Tate but kind of stumbling into her and watching everything fall into place and then suddenly she was ours.

It’s been quite a year - you may remember the work we did on the yard last summer, which was a big part of working our way to this goal of dog ownership.

That work in the yard culminated in the installation of a fence last week - right after we brought Tate home - perfect timing as far as we were concerned. (Though one of the adoption agencies put such an emphasis on the necessity of a fence before adopting the dog that it was less than ideal in that case. We ended up using a different agency that maybe, just maybe, valued us as people instead of whether or not we had a fence. Like a fence is the be-all, end-all when it comes to keeping your pet safe. You can’t fence the world, that’s what I always say now when I think about that adoption agency and their emphasis on fences.)

As always there is still work to do back there but it is night and day from what we had last summer and I’m so happy with it and I have been enjoying it back there so much. Equally importantly, I think Tate enjoys it back there too.

Back when we hosted my daughter’s Communion party in May I told my family they should come back for the 4th of July when we might have a dog and a fence to show off.

For a while there in June that was looking unlikely.

Then, on Thursday, we hosted a 4th of July party with my family. (Some readers may remember that the 4th of July is also my nephew’s birthday, so it was also a high compliment from him to spend his birthday at our house rather than his own.)

It was a fun party. And we were able to show off our fence and our dog.

Comedy

*Guys, as it turns out, a new dog is a lot of work. I am not going to lie and say I would be doing a ton of shows right now if we didn’t have a dog - it just so happens this is the time of the summer where things usually slow down and I’ve continued to just choose to enjoy time home with the family rather than race off to different shows, but it has also been good to be home and help Tate adjust to the new home.

But things will be picking up in mid-to-late July and beyond, in August and the fall. It starts with Saturday night, July 13, with the next edition of Comedy Night at Exhibit ‘A’. I’m looking forward to this one because a) I haven’t been on stage in a while, b) I have some good new dog material to try out, and c) it’s a showcase-style show, different from the format we’ve been doing with the first six shows. We’re going to try it out for the July and August shows and see how it goes. Tickets are still available and you can click here to order them.

Writing

*Work has been busy. I’ve had trouble figuring out a steady schedule with the girls home and now working around Tate’s needs and some other non-writing work, but busy is always good. I’ve mixed in a little creative writing, too, but I’m still running up against some deadlines and feeling a little pressure…which is leaps and bounds away from the slow days I’ve had in the past. So, long story short, work is going well.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

*We did it - we worked our way through all of the Marvel movies leading up to Avengers: Endgame. Our goal was to try to do it before Endgame was out of theaters, and we met that goal, and wanted to see Endgame in the theater this week, and then we got Tate and can’t really justify the 3-hour movie and drive time to and from the theater on either end of the movie in leaving her home this soon after getting her. So we’ll see - we are coming to grips with not seeing it in the theater and maybe watching it on demand instead…and we’ll just catch the new Spider-Man on the big screen.

A Few Thoughts About Dog Ownership (possible new section? Probably)

*I mentioned the fact that a puppy is a lot of work. I don’t think I can stress that enough. Turns out - I am not very good at training the puppy. We started a puppy training class on Saturday - that seems like it’s going to merit its own post. Hopefully by the end of those four weeks I’ll be able to get Tate to listen to me…but early indications are not promising.

*The best thing is how good Tate is with other dogs. She plays well and is so excited to see them. And my brother brought his dog for the party on the 4th and they got along great, so that was fun to see.

*Tate is her name. The girls thought it would be cute to name the dog Tater Tot and I kind of loved it. Kathy liked Tate, but she says her full name is not Tater Tot. I beg to differ.

*I’ve been rather enjoying the quiet of the yard at night taking the dog out for the ol’ post-9pm pee. That was not something I used to enjoy. (What? No, YOU’RE scared of the night-time animals.) Maybe the fence has given me a layer of security. I don’t know. I do know the only thing I don’t like is the mosquitos. Anyone have a good bug repellent solution?

Notes

*This is funny, for anyone who knew this about me when I was younger: earrings freak me out. For some reason they’ve always given me the willies. Just piercings in general, I guess. So for her birthday my youngest daughter got her ears pierced…and now I’m the one who often has to apply the ointment or whatever to the piercing and fiddle with the earrings in her ears. Life has a funny way of testing your mettle as an adult.

*Some of you (you should be ashamed of yourselves) might be wondering, “John, you mentioned above that it’s a special day. Why Is that?” Well, today’s my birthday. Not as big a deal as last year’s 40th…but I did have the wherewithal to take this picture on the left at Citi Field last year in anticipation of the big 4-1. Not my most flattering angle.

*And this might also amuse those of you who know how much I love just sitting back and enjoying my birthday: I have to work later today. It’s not like I haven't ever worked on my birthday before - but it has been a while.

*Running has also taken a big hit with the new dog routine. I imagine I’ll get back to it at some point, but there’s hardly time for my regular nonsense (read: work, I guess) and I don’t know where to squeeze in the time for a run.

*I’m not expecting any gifts, but if you were dying to do something for my birthday, you can make sure you or your friends Like the Facebook page (if you or they don’t already), and follow me on Twitter if same. Thanks for the support!

*OK. Back to the guest posts for a few more weeks. I need to get back to work and make sure I meet my writing deadlines. See you Saturday (?) at Exhibit ‘A’!