​Beware of Dog
 
There’s a sign on the office that says “Beware of Dog.”  It’s there so people don’t bother me and Roxanne all day long every single day.  The office is our house, we sleep there and eat there and play there, too.  And sometimes we just want to be left alone there.
 
And I’m not sad to be at Mom’s office all day.  She says all the time, she wouldn’t have us if we couldn’t come to work with her – she doesn’t want to leave us home all day alone.  Some days we’re at the office for more than half the whole day, twelve hours or more!
 
We meet lots of people at the store.  Mom and Dad will introduce us to customers and students and even little kids.
 
But sometimes customers think it’s funny to make us bark.  We get really excited or feel like we have to defend our house or sometimes we bark just because we’re dogs and that’s what we do.  Mostly we bark at little kids because they’re a little scary.  Sometimes they pull our ears or get really close to our faces and it scares us. 
 
And when we bark sometimes the adults laugh and think its funny. 
 
Well, it’s not.  To us it’s kind of scary.  

​The Sad Guitar
 
This lady brought a guitar in to be fixed today.  It looked really sad and Jake told her it was time to take it to the guitar graveyard.  She wasn’t very happy but seemed to understand.
 
She said someone in her neighborhood told her they would teach her five year old little boy how to play guitar.  That’s totally awesome, to learn about music and how to play an instrument…wait, that isn’t the story.  She didn’t want to spend a lot on a guitar for her son, after all he’s only five, so she went to a big department store and bought something that said guitar on the box.  She didn’t realize that most of those guitars are really just toys.
 
Her son played the guitar for a few days and broke a string.  The guy in her neighborhood restrung the guitar for her, but he put real strings on the toy guitar.  It didn’t take long before the strings ripped the bridge right off the guitar.  (Jake  says there’s 110 pounds of pressure per string in a “real” guitar and the guitar they had just wasn’t built to withstand that.  What are pounds of pressure, anyway.)
 
So the sad little boy’s guitar was broke forever.  At least Jake was able to help them find a new guitar that would last a long, long time!

​Baseball with Grandpa
 
Today was almost very exciting.  Grandpa Schlea had tickets to a Braves baseball game.  He was going with Dad and some guy from his work.  I thought it was going to be a normal day for me and Roxanne until Dad got ready to leave from work.  He got our leashes and told us it was time to go.
 
I was so excited!  A baseball game!  It must be Bark in the Park or something and I was going to get to go!  All I could think about on the drive home was all the other dogs I’d get to meet and that maybe I’d get some of Dad’s hot dog.
 
We got home and Dad fed us, took us to the backyard, and then put Roxanne in her house.  I didn’t think much about that because Roxanne doesn’t like to go do things.  I thought she was going to stay home with the cat.  But then he pointed at my bed and said, “Freddy, go to bed.”
 
I walked real slow.  I rolled over and wagged my tail.  But Dad still made me go to bed.  I guess it wasn’t Bark in the Park after all.

​Piano Lessons
 
Mom’s teaching piano lessons today.  I hate it when she teaches.  It’s okay for a while, but then I get lonely or bored, or worse I have to go to the yard, and she’s not there.  Nope, she’s back in her studio teaching Jordan-Paige or Lindsay or someone.  Doesn’t matter who.  The important part is she’s not in the office when I want her.
 
Sometimes I try to get Jake’s attention, but that seems to just make Dad mad.  I don’t know why.  But then a lot things make Dad mad.
 
Except baseball.  Dad’s really happy when we watch baseball together.  Especially when then Braves win or the Cardinals lose.

​Rock Camp started at Music Authority this week.  Mom’s a camp counselor, so we have to get there early.  Really early.  No, I mean really, REALLY early.  Like seven in the morning early.  I should still be sleeping on the living room chair that early, not listening to kids make lots of noise banging on drums and playing guitar.
 
Seriously, what human thought it would be a good idea to get kids up early in the summer and send them off to a camp that starts early?  Whoever that was obviously didn’t have a dog.  Because a dog would have stopped that craziness.  It’s summertime, sleep in.  Don’t do too much work, it’s hot outside.  Just relax.
 
But when was the last time I saw a human relax?  I don’t know. 
 
The humans I’m around keep using this word practice.  I think practice means “don’t sleep.”
 
On the first day of camp Mom brought us donuts.  Techincally, she brought the camp counselors donuts.  One might have accidentally made it under her desk…well, she doesn’t need to know about that.  But if she brought donuts every day it might be better.
 
I think I’m going to sneak into Dad’s new office tomorrow and sleep on his sofa.  He probably has donuts hidden in his desk, too.

​Paw Prints on Tile
 
I’m going to be really happy when the new studios at Music Authority are finished.  Mom and Dad are both working really long hours to get the painting done, the walls up, and everything just right.
 
And when they work really long hours guess who else has to work really long hours.  Yep, that’s right, me!  Somewhere at home in the backyard is a salamander I’ve been trying to catch since the spring.   He’s probably there right now, laying on the patio next to the grill, enjoying the sunshine while the cat watches him through the back door.
 
But back to the new studios…
 
I tried to help decorate yesterday but it only made Dad mad.  He left the paint pan on the floor of the hallway so I walked through I and left paw prints all across the tile of the Student Lounge.  I thought it was very artistic.
 
Apparently Dad has a different opinion of “artistic.”
 
He had to stop his painting and clean the paw prints off the floor and then the paint off of me.  I would have cleaned it off myself but boy did it smell bad.  I guess I should put on socks or something the next time I try to paint.

​Ms. Bossy-Pants and the New Sofa
 
I really like to sleep.  If it were up to me, I’d do that almost all day long.  A couple of occasional walks to the backyard and a nice long nap that lasts all afternoon is the best way to spend a summer day in my opinion.  Or a winter day.  Or any day.

Ms. Bossy Pants Roxanne doesn’t think so.  She likes to pull my ears, make noise, and play whenever someone new comes around.  She acts like no one ever pays her any attention. 

She gets plenty of attention, trust me.

The worst part is that we spend our whole day in a music store.  There’s ALWAYS someone new coming to visit us.  So it seems like she’s always trying to wake me up.  She pushes me around, tugs on my ears until they hurt, bites my back leg…I guess she thinks she’s playing but it can be painful!

Maybe when the new space is done, Dad will take her with him to his new office.

But he’s got a sofa.  Mom doesn’t have a sofa.
 
Maybe when the new space is done, Dad will take me with him to his new office.

Today a lady brought a guitar in she thought might need to be restrung.  Clayton set it down near the door to the office so I took a look.  Woah!  My paws hurt just looking at it!  The strings were a yucky brown color – not shiny like they’re supposed to be!

I went back to Mom’s chair to nap and got to thinking.  What happens to bronze when it gets yucky like that?  I heard Dad say “bronze” is what strings are made out of for those boxy kinds of guitars. 

I looked up bronze on Mom’s laptop (I think I’m getting better at this typing thing).  It said acids in the skin makes the bronze tarnish and corrode.  Sort of like rust. 

Which makes me think more – would I want to run my paws along rusty strings? 

No!

That sounds yucky and maybe painful.  Rosanna the cat told me you can get sick if you get cut by something rusty.
​
Strings should be shiny.  If they aren’t shiny, then they need to be restrung.
 
Wow, that’s a lot of thinking for one day.  I think I better go take that nap now.