Beagleman – Page 49

Sunday Morning at Winslow Park

A dog party! A big dog party! Big dogs, little dogs, red dogs, blue dogs, yellow dogs, green dogs, black dogs, and white dogs are all at a dog party! What a dog party! OMG — how many times did I read those lines???!!! Let’s see . . . maybe 900? (That would be 300 nights x 3 boys.) If…

Ricky and the Wrangler

Sunday, April 15 was the big day. I put the top down on my Jeep, and that’s how it would stay — at least for the next 7 months. Oh, sure, you can yank it back up in a heavy rainstorm, but I generally don’t bother. I just suck it up. That’s why Jeep put those rubber plugs under the carpeting –…

CSI: Westport

Last week I walked into the playroom to a sight I might never see again: Ricky the Beagle asleep on the couch — with an untouched tray of sliced apples not more than than two feet away. I knew what was going on, of course. Ricky, as many of you know, has epilepsy. Not often, but occasionally…

Easter Sunday at Snout Hook

We got off to a late start. Those of you who followed my September cross-country road trip have heard this refrain all too often. (Getting up and getting out has never been my long suit.) I also had to do without my breakfast banana, because Nana, my mother-in-law (no relation to ba-nana), sn…

LA/XC — The Sequel

Last Thursday I ran into an old writing acquaintance at Barnes & Noble. She asked me what I’ve been up to. “You wouldn’t know about this,” I started, “but in September I drove cross-country with my dog . . .” “Of course I know about that, ” she interrupted. This happens to me all the time. …

Beagleness

Why we feel the way we feel about beagles: • The very name “beagle” is a cute name (American Staffordshire Terrier? Rottweiler? Scottish Deerhound? I don’t think so . . . ) • Their velvet ears (OMG!) • The way it looks when those ears blow back and up in the wind • Snoopy is a beagle • Th…

Moms and Madness

This has been a tough March Madness for me. As if it’s not bad enough that I currently wallow in the 24th spot in my son Matt’s 31-person pool, Carol — Matt’s mother and my wife — is in 4th place! Fourth place in a pool with some pretty hardened college hoops aficionados. Fourth place with the…

Snowy Fun

Carol and I spent the weekend before last skiing in Vermont. I should say I spent it skiing in Vermont; Carol had just undergone PRPT — platelet-rich plasma therapy — on both her left knee and right elbow. PRPT is the breakthrough non-invasive alternative to surgery, and it’s getting lots of po…

Jay Beagle? Seriously?

“Just so you know, there’s a player for the Caps [Washington D.C.’s pro hockey team] named Jay Beagle.” This was in an e-mail I received yesterday from a BEAGLE MAN follower from our nation’s capital. No, actually I did not know that. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone famous with the last…

Ricky, Uggie, and Oscar

I’d gone to see The Artist (run-away winner at the Academy Awards yesterday) last month with a big chip on my shoulder. Carol and I usually agree on which movies we choose, but not this time. I have a few rules, and she knows them: No animated films. No movies with subtitles. Okay, so maybe…