It's just a big crate, Stanley

Our new tent is so pretty and spacious and - most important for backpackers - light. This frees up more weight in Jeff's pack to carry more things for me!

We slept in the yard last night and while the tent passed all its tests, we're groggy and sleep-deprived today. The night went something like this...

• 9:30pm Molly heads to the tent to read her latest issue of Time magazine (Barack Obama on the cover!) while Jeff watches TV.
• 9:32pm Molly goes back inside to get a sweatshirt and a blanket. It's cold out there.
• 9:50pm Molly calls it quits and goes to sleep.
• 10:00pm Jeff comes to bed in the tent, waking Molly up.
• 10:02pm Max follows Jeff out and wants to see the insides of the new tent. Cujo, in the meantime, is snoozing in the grass nearby and Stanley is firmly esconsed indoors because whatthehellisthatbigbluethinggrowinginmyyardandwhyareyoupeopleinsideit!!!!
• 10:05pm Something goes boom in the night and Max wants out of the tent in a hurry. Hole in tent wall is narrowly avoided as Jeff is quick to unzip the door. Max retreats indoors to safety.
• 11:00pm Motorcycles race down the street.
• 11:30pm Molly goes in the house to use restroom. Wakes Jeff up getting back in the tent.
• 12:00am Molly wakes up to hear loud scuffling noises and hollers at Max, who is digging a hole next to the deck. Max wants back in the tent and Jeff lets him in. Then he realizes Max has brought a pile of dirt into his sleeping bag. Max is already fast asleep before Jeff is done sweeping mud out of his bed.
• 1:00am Jeff yells at Cujo to stop chewing on himself (this is a very loud noise with a St Bernard) and falls back asleep.
• 1:01am Molly yells at Cujo to stop licking himself.
• 2:30am Jeff goes in the house to use restroom. Wakes Molly up while leaving, so she runs in to go again. Molly and Max beat Jeff back to the tent, where Max sets up camp in Jeff's sleeping bag and is reluctant to give up room for its rightful occupant.
• 3:00am A branch crashes to the ground in the yard behind us.
• 3:30am Jeff yells at Cujo to stop chewing on himself and falls back asleep.
• 3:32am Molly yells at Cujo to stop licking himself and wakes Jeff up.
• 3:35am Jeff yells at Cujo to stop licking himself.
• 4:00am We finally fall into deep sleep.
• 6:00 Alarm goes off. Stanley wanders out to say hello and immediately wants to be let in the tent and ohwowthisissocoolinhereguysgoodmorningkisskisslicklickwhatchadoing??!!!

And another day begins in the loony bin.

In other news, Stan and I went to the Norcal Golden Retriever Club's obedience fun match this morning. If we're hoping to enter competition at the beardie national in 2 months, we need more ring practice and this was perfect for it. We did a run through in the obedience ring and one in the rally ring. In an effort to get me laughing, the obedience judge said something like "Pretend you're representing the US in the Olympics!" and all I could think was, well then Uncle Sam is SCREWED on this one. Anyway, Stan actually did quite well and we had some nice practice runs and found more things to work on. I do have to remember he's still a teenager and it's enough that he's enjoying himself at this age.

Jeff wants to go out for a nice Italian dinner tonight so my carbo-loading-focused brain is waltzing around dreaming of bruschetta and ravioli and gelato. I'll have to bike fast tomorrow to make up for it!