I'm Back
Boy have I been lax on writing lately! I've been busy doing stuff around the house and bonding with my dog so I just haven't felt like taking the time to write.
So... the trip was.... HOT BURNING INFERNO OF HELL HOT. What a time to go, at the height of the heat wave. The day we arrived in London was the "hottest day in London history". A whopping 95.7 degrees and humid as well. France got well over 100 degrees. I recall it being about 104 at its worst. Very humid there as well. In fact, on the day it was 104 my friend Dave and I climbed 239 or so steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe cause god forbid we didn't climb up there seeing as we were all the way over in Paris. In fact I'd have to say we really powered through that heat wave. We walked a min of 12 hours a day. We would go all day and into the evening at times. We even went clubbing in London during the horrific heat wave. Which was super fun! Music in London is SOOO much better than it is here. Oh and we saw everything famous there was to see in London and Paris, or just about everything.
I got a bit bored with London by day 4 and Paris was a bit... smelly and dirty but I'd definitely go back to both. In fact I saw my tattoo artist friend Sunny in Paris (her website is back up at http://www.sunnybuick.com). She's hoping to have an apartment IN Paris versus in the suburbs where she lives now by next year. I plan on going back next spring when it's not HOT to hang out again. Hopefully I won't catch it when it's pouring down rain either. I'll have to plan it just right. Paris is a beautiful city and I loved being there even though I wasn't terribly fond of some of the people. In fact I'm going to try and remember my high school and college french again by taking a french class that starts in two weeks. I figured now that I'm finally going to France I'll actually have a place to use the language versus learning it and forgetting it because I had no one to practice it with.
Tomorrow Toby goes to a one hour private training class with the dog trainer in Redwood City. She's going to try him out with various other breeds of dogs to try and figure out what his agression issues are. I can't seem to figure it out. Most of the time he just LOOOOVES other dogs. Then sometimes there are some dogs he wants to attack and I have no clue why at all. Really nice mellow dogs too! The trainer thought it might be a problem with "northern breed" dogs but I saw him be agressive towards two other types of dogs last week so who knows. What I do know is that it's $95 for a one hour session so he better not love every dog she brings in there! I'd like to figure out what his deal is for sure though. It's making it difficult to take him to the patio during lunch at work for fear he'll try to go after another dog while I'm eating. Also if he's going to be ornery like that I can't start him in the beginning dog training class next week. He'll have to go to the "Grumpy Pup" class instead, heh.
This week Cristy taught Toby how to sneeze on command. You sneeze, he sneezes. It's quite cute. I taught him how to do a double high five by putting both my hands up in the air and he does it too then puts his paws on mine. I also taught him how to growl for a treat. I'm working on "speak" as well. I got him to do that a couple of times today. He's so smart though! He picks stuff up right away. It's amazing. He's even really use to his crate now and if I say "Get in your bed" he gets right in. Same with his bed at work... just hops right in there. Such a change from having a cat that doesn't do anything I say. I still love my cat though. She has her own special good points too.
So... the trip was.... HOT BURNING INFERNO OF HELL HOT. What a time to go, at the height of the heat wave. The day we arrived in London was the "hottest day in London history". A whopping 95.7 degrees and humid as well. France got well over 100 degrees. I recall it being about 104 at its worst. Very humid there as well. In fact, on the day it was 104 my friend Dave and I climbed 239 or so steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe cause god forbid we didn't climb up there seeing as we were all the way over in Paris. In fact I'd have to say we really powered through that heat wave. We walked a min of 12 hours a day. We would go all day and into the evening at times. We even went clubbing in London during the horrific heat wave. Which was super fun! Music in London is SOOO much better than it is here. Oh and we saw everything famous there was to see in London and Paris, or just about everything.
I got a bit bored with London by day 4 and Paris was a bit... smelly and dirty but I'd definitely go back to both. In fact I saw my tattoo artist friend Sunny in Paris (her website is back up at http://www.sunnybuick.com). She's hoping to have an apartment IN Paris versus in the suburbs where she lives now by next year. I plan on going back next spring when it's not HOT to hang out again. Hopefully I won't catch it when it's pouring down rain either. I'll have to plan it just right. Paris is a beautiful city and I loved being there even though I wasn't terribly fond of some of the people. In fact I'm going to try and remember my high school and college french again by taking a french class that starts in two weeks. I figured now that I'm finally going to France I'll actually have a place to use the language versus learning it and forgetting it because I had no one to practice it with.
Tomorrow Toby goes to a one hour private training class with the dog trainer in Redwood City. She's going to try him out with various other breeds of dogs to try and figure out what his agression issues are. I can't seem to figure it out. Most of the time he just LOOOOVES other dogs. Then sometimes there are some dogs he wants to attack and I have no clue why at all. Really nice mellow dogs too! The trainer thought it might be a problem with "northern breed" dogs but I saw him be agressive towards two other types of dogs last week so who knows. What I do know is that it's $95 for a one hour session so he better not love every dog she brings in there! I'd like to figure out what his deal is for sure though. It's making it difficult to take him to the patio during lunch at work for fear he'll try to go after another dog while I'm eating. Also if he's going to be ornery like that I can't start him in the beginning dog training class next week. He'll have to go to the "Grumpy Pup" class instead, heh.
This week Cristy taught Toby how to sneeze on command. You sneeze, he sneezes. It's quite cute. I taught him how to do a double high five by putting both my hands up in the air and he does it too then puts his paws on mine. I also taught him how to growl for a treat. I'm working on "speak" as well. I got him to do that a couple of times today. He's so smart though! He picks stuff up right away. It's amazing. He's even really use to his crate now and if I say "Get in your bed" he gets right in. Same with his bed at work... just hops right in there. Such a change from having a cat that doesn't do anything I say. I still love my cat though. She has her own special good points too.
