Groundhog Day, etc.

Joe’s Recovery: We’re still eating up a storm and it’s paying off! The doc said that Joe gained enough weight over the last two weeks that he can maintain at this point. Recent training meals included a wonderful braised rabbit a la Joe, lunch at the Northside Grill and dinner at the Earle Winebar.

Happy Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil predicted 6 more weeks of winter. However, Woody, our-closer-to-home rodent at the Howell Nature Center predicted an early spring, so I’m with her! Here she is. Isn’t she cute?

Overheard at the car dealership: From the driver who picked up my car: “So, your car’s a manual?” I didn’t say, “So, do you know how to drive one?” I did linger briefly until I saw him successfully drive out of the parking lot. From the service manager when I asked about the service alert related to the clutch. “It’s the bushing, um, the clutch arm, um, ... to be honest, those service alerts are about 18 pages long and I haven’t read it.” Then he said, “It’s our first one, no, I mean we’ve fixed clutches before, but this is the first one for this service alert.” I told them to take all the time they needed to read the documentation and complete the service. I love the Internet; I was able to find the service alert on edmunds.com and determine that the problem was actually the slave cylinder, which reminds me of the evil, cylindrical robot called The Master Cylinder in the Felix the Cat cartoon. Here he is. Isn’t he cute?

Dog Gear: “What’s it gonna take to get you into these Merrell Women’s Thermo 6 Waterproof dog walking shoes? They’ve got yer Thinsulate, yer Polertec, yer Vibram soles, yer product tags in five languages”. Won’t take much. I’ve test romped them a couple of times and they’re perfect. Here they are. Aren’t they cute?