Friends and Dogs...Or Dogs are friends...or...forget it

We are blessed to have some terrific friends!  Over time, some have moved or we have moved, but we do our best to stay in touch.  We have some very special friends from when we attended church at Upland, and Hilltop and Lakewood and La Habra....needless to say, we have moved a couple of times and we always get involved at a church.  Sooooo, lots of church friends!  One tradition we have with our Hilltopper buds (Fred and Cathy & Bob and Diane) are birthday get-togethers each year.  If I'm not mistaken, the guys all have birthdays within 30-days of each other and the girl's birthdays are close as well (all in late summer).  It's always a chance to try a new restaurant, maybe a new bottle of wine and most importantly, to catch up on what's been happening in each other's lives.  I love the fact that in about a 2-hour span of time, we can be completely caught up and feel even more connected and in tune with each other, even though we may not have seen each other for months.  By the way, here we are at Season's 52 - my favorite Orlando restaurant which has just landed in Costa Mesa!  I've only been there three times in three weeks, but hey, who's counting (Kim)?  The address is ....just kidding...but if you decide to go, tell Kristen and Parker hello for me! 

So you're asking what did Bill mean about dogs..?  By the way, there is no correlation between the friends and the story I'm about to share.  Purely coincidence and the fact is I missed posting to the blog last weekend...so a little mix-in here.  We are the proud "dog watchers" for Kyle and Julie, who are off enjoying their very late honeymoon in Europe.  And did I mention that Kim left me....well not left me but went to Tennessee to help Kari and Dylan work on the house (see Kari's Blog), so guess who's watching the hounds!?

So here are Minnie, Java and Rummy.  They aren't really digging Gramps taking off at 6AM and coming home at 6PM every day.  In fact, I felt so guilty, that when our neighbors across the street invited me to dinner last night (Friday) because Kim is gone, I told them that I needed to hang out with the dogs because I had been gone so much this week.  I bet that sounded pretty stupid!  Anyway, everyone is alive and well at the Partin house.  Kyle and Julie, if you're reading this, please come home!  Rummy and Java miss you!  Kim, if you're reading this, please come home! Bill and Minnie miss you!  I gotta go...it's time to cook dinner....which takes me a lot longer than when Kim does it!  I'll leave you with an exciting video of the dog days of Glendora!