Pinterest and puppies

So I could perhaps try to write about something more serious, like President Obama's reversal on gay marriage or l'affaire Riley. But I might be too exhausted from the first session of Intermediate Obedience, which also serves as the prep course for the Canine Good Citizen test. So, like, Pnin had driven the car to an event at the law school, and I'd decided that I'd be okay walking Willow the twenty-five minutes to class in Ballston on foot. Except that Google Maps sent me to the wrong side of Pershing Drive and wandering around helplessly.  Except that it also started pouring rain. And.. so we wandered in, five minutes late,  all that glorious golden retriever coat and also Isabel's jeans soggy and sopping wet. But at least Miss Willow did a nice sit and down, and she's starting to get the hang of maneuvering herself into a figure eight position that's supposed to help with getting her to walk more nicely at heel.

Will Intermediate Obedience prove too much academically for us? Well... it has "intermediate" in the title, which usually precedes the names of non-scary disciplines like "French" or "Spanish." Nor does it have the word "tax" anywhere in the title, but it doesn't have "history" or "government" either.  And the presence of "obedience" makes it sounds like a nice right-wing-crank friendly discipline, almost as congenial as "economics." Despite the conflicting titular signals, I think we're going to be okay.

But... yes. Pinterest is glorious, and it is an excellent way to organize electronically one's "wanty" lists.  I am probably deeply guilty of being obnoxious by pinning pictures of items that happen to be inconveniently non-affordable, to the point that a total stranger (according to Google, she's a wedding photographer in Dallas?) felt compelled to scold me for this. Again, this is odd... the charm of the site is that organizing an imaginary closet of beautiful expensive clothes is a safer and cheaper alternative for trying to compile a closet of glorious real expensive clothes! -- but I am thick-skinned enough not to much care. I guess also there are the pictures of the colorful J. Crew ballet flats.

Also, there is my Golden Retriever Pinterest board, to which I need to add more entries.  Adding one of my fantasy goldens to my life would be almost as expensive as the Dior dress. Probably more so, once I added up the costs of toys, training, and vet bills for a second retriever.  But, speaking of which, let me close with another picture of my fortunately-not-a-fantasy-retriever (center);  two of her best golden pals, Pickles (left) and Scooter (right); and my fortunately-also-not-a-fantasy husband.