Where are you pooping?

LUNCH

Summer vacation for us means that we are going out to eat.  Fred recently celebrated his 60th birthday and he received a lovely present of a Visa gift card of $60 dollars, which we decided to use at the Sand Pearl Resort to have a nice lunch out.

Fred and Coach relax by the player piano at the Sand Peal Resort in Clearwater.

The Sand Pearl is pretty hoity-toity and even though it is a dressy place, we decided that we would take Coach with us.  After all, he is 15 months old.  Old enough to go poo beforehand and know how to behave himself in a restaurant.  Right?

We decided that we would park a bit of a distance away from the Pearl and walk in just to make sure that he had a chance to poo.  We walked out to lone bit of grass that bordered the entrance to the beach and Coach did his little circle dance.  It was a three twirler.  Oh my!

We walked up to the Sand Pearl with confidence.  Our boy had pooped.  We were poop free and ready to eat and experience the high life.  (And people wonder why we don't go out much! 8-)

After walking through the lobby, we encountered the player piano.  It was doing an admirable job of toodling through some barely recognizable tunes, so I had Fred and Coach stand beside it for a photo.  Coach didn't see too impressed with it.

Lunch was delicious.  The hostess was very impressed with Coach.  Coach was on his best behavior and entered and exited with calm assurance.  Nicely done, Coach!

DINNER

Dinner was different.  We decided to take Jammers with us and go coatless and more informal: to the Dunedin Smokehouse!

Now, we love the Smokehouse for several reasons

1. They have amazing wings.
2. They have a great beer selection (Magic Hat)
3. Our favorite waitress is there (Lisa) and she loves Coach and Jam
4. They have a big patio that allows dogs 
5. All the staff brings water bowls
6. Coach in coat is treated like a king
7. The rest of their food rocks too!

So, it's a natural for us to go there with the boys.  We usually pick a table by the railing and under the awning and since they had the fan on, by the fan.  We were lucky.  We got all three tonight:

• Table by the railing
• Table in the shade
• Table right in front of the fan!

The boys were out of everyone's way.  It was cool, the wings were hot, the beer was cold.  Awesome.

And then, the poodle man showed up.

Really.  

It was a family.  A mom, two middle school kids and a dad.  They had a poodly-doodly thing.  But essentially, Dad was a poodle man.  I saw them coming down the sidewalk and I knew trouble was coming in caramel curls.

Poodle man peeled off from the pack and pulled the doodle into the empty field that sits next to the Smokehouse.  The empty field that borders the railing along which we were sitting. Jam had spotted them.  He sat up.  

"Hmmmmmm." I said.  Grrrrrr was what I was thinking.  Poodle man was walking up the empty field following the railing like a trail. His doodle was sniffing around.  Jam was standing now.  Mind you, we are eating.  "Fred," I said.  "Grab Coach. This man is bringing his dog!"

And poodle man stops.  Doodle stops.  And the world stops. 

Jam thrusts his whole head through the bars of the railing in an attempt to get to the doodle.  He makes it to his shoulders.  He is straining.  The doodle is straining too, but it is of a different sort.  

"Oh my God!" I am actually hissing. "Fred! Is that dog pooping?"

"Yes."

I turn back around and poodle man has a baggy out to scoop up the offending poo.  I cannot catch his eye to scald him with my irritated look.

"Really?" I turn to Fred. "Really?!"

Fred with Jam and Coach sitting at his feet as Fred frowns thinking
about the rude customer at the Dunedin Smokehouse.

 Of all the places to walk your dog to poo, you walk him in front of the people with dogs, who are eating in a restaurant.  You had an entire empty field.  And you chose to have him poop 2 feet from our table.

Really? I. Don't. Have. The. Words.

If only I was Amy Poehler.

Restaurant Feng Shui

Sometimes you can just tell whether a new restaurant is going to be a good place or not.  It may be the food, the service, the atmosphere or something indefinable about the place.  Let's call it the feng shui.  Well, last night we found a great place in Cafe de Paz in Dunedin.

We had reservations for 7 pm and unfortunately for us the place was packed and there was no way we were going to get our table.  But our waitress kindly served us a round of drinks on the house and we sat and chatted while we listened to a very good duo (keyboards and vocalist) sing standards ranging from Billy Joel to old blues songs.  Fred liked them and he is hard to please.

As we were waiting, our waitress, who was as cute as a bug's ear, came over and asked if Jam would like a bowl of water.  Now, nothing endears a restaurant or server faster to me more than sincere affection for our guide dog puppy.  Usually we get grudging acceptance, or a not so subtle attempt to shift us to the outside as in the "Oh, I'm sure you want the patio table" when it is 10 below (or in Florida terms, 70 degrees!).

Being told I want a patio seat, makes my desire for an indoor seat grow exponentially. I could have gone to that restaurant expressly for their ocean views and when those words pop out of their mouth, all of sudden I am filled with the desire for air-conditioned, four-walled, stuffiness.

"Why, no.  Whatever do you mean, outside? It's freezing." Never mind that I am wearing a tank top, shorts and flip flops. "I am in need of an inside table.  I have allergies and can't be near the surf and sea air." Direct stare into their eyes.

Of course there are amazing moments when others at the restaurant intervene for you.  That happened at the Crabby Bill's on Clearwater Beach.  The host said the deadly patio phrase and the female bartender nearly leaped over the bar. "That's a service dog!" She shouted and raced out towards us from behind the bar.  She ran over to the host and yanked the menus out of his hands.  "Please follow me upstairs." Then she turned and gave him the evil, "you and I will have a long talk about just how stupid you are" look, to which this 6'2" pretty buff guy actually blanched.  We followed the petite gal up the stairs to a nice table in the center of the dining room and had a great dinner.

But I digress.  Back to Cafe de Paz.  We were finally seated and a very fashionable and sweet hostess came over with a bowl of water for Jam.  We had to explain that he couldn't have it since he was on duty and couldn't drink in coat, but we were so thankful for her kindness.

Honestly, this restaurant rocks.  And the food was awesome!  Tapas, pizzas with gourmet toppings, crostinis, very unusual dishes and everything we tried was great.  Except for Fred's pizza.  It had clams on it and I thought that was weird.  But Fred and Ken liked it.

Afterwards, we went over to Ken and Linda's for a casual dessert, so I can't tell you about the dessert offerings at the restaurant.  However, I do want to give a shout out to our lovely friends Ken, Linda and Carrie who really are the most kind, caring and patient people and who put up with so much from us.  We are so lucky to have them in our lives.  Not only did Carrie not make a face when Jam grabbed her scarf and completely shoved it in his mouth, attempting to run off and devour it, she kindly put it back around her neck, dog slobber and all, so he wouldn't be tempted to try for it again.  And Ken and Linda, who had been dying to pet Jam all evening, waited at least 20 minutes for wanker Jam to calm down enough in their house to be petted.

What troopers.

And need we mention that we talked about Jam so endlessly that at one point I looked up and Ken was actually asleep?  Well, that is true friendship.  We promise to curb ourselves next time!!  Thanks for letting us run on last night.  We truly enjoyed ourselves.

May you all have friends like these and find restaurants like Cafe de Paz to take them to dinner!

The Dunedin Fire Department

On Thursday we had our monthly area meeting led by Donna and Don Thompson at the Dunedin Fire Department. Bingo displayed true fearlessness by staying pretty close to the fireman as he got into his fire search and rescue clothes. But when the mask finally went on, Bingo had enough and hunkered down a bit, tail lowered and we moved him back and out of the way.

The lights on the truck didn't seem to phase him at all.

We also had a short obedience class where I offered Bingo up as a demonstration dog to Donna. For the sit command, SEGD doesn't want you to push on the puppy's backside to force them to sit. So Donna showed us a little tip to help get our puppies to sit. You can pinch them softly right by the hips and if they know how to sit, they will sit right away. Here she is demonstrating the soft pinch, touch really.

It worked like a charm. She did that and then Bingo sits, and gives her a look like, "What was that?"