Feb 12, 2011

Just About Barkley

Our youngest son is at a Boy Scout campout this weekend, and this morning the rest of us were sitting around the house discussing what we should do today with Barkley.  Cindy came up with the idea of going to St. Armand’s Circle, a nice little touristy shopping area in Sarasota, about an hour south of us.  I piggybacked on that idea, saying we could go to the SEGD Discovery Center, then have lunch at a place we saw on TV, then hit the shopping area, and finish with a piece of pie at another place we saw on TV. 
Barkley didn’t act like he was too interested in going.  That is one big difference between Joey and Barkley.  Joey is very excited about getting in the car.  He sits very impatiently while I open the car door, waiting for those golden words; “Joey, IN ”.   Then he jumps right in and lays down.  Barkley doesn’t really seem to care for the whole “get in the car” thing.  We say “ Barkley, IN “ and he walks over and put his front feet in, then just stops.  He looks back at me as if to say “You really want me to get in this car?”  He finally slowly climbs the rest of the way in.  By the time I get in, he is usually asleep.  We get to the Discovery Center and have to wake him from his beauty sleep.  He is a lot more anxious to get of the car than get in.  I try to get him to “busy” before going in, but there have been dozens of dogs here every week and their smells are just too heavenly for Barkley to think about relieving.  I give up trying and take him inside.  There just happened to be a couple other dogs from our raiser group inside, so they had a nice little reunion.   Barkley has doggie distraction issues, not as strong as Joey’s, but they are something to work on.  He did get to play with the other pups, but also had to spend some time sitting by me and not playing with them.  The place started to fill up with non-SEGD dogs coming in for an obedience class, so we decided it was time to go.  Soon, we were looking for our lunch spot, a little place we saw on the Food Network show, Man Vs Food.  We followed my GPS and couldn’t find it.  We did find an empty building.  We got out the smartphone to look up online where they may have moved to.  We finally found it and we had been in the wrong place to begin with.  The place is called Munchies 420 Café.  Guess what the 420 stands for.  The place doesn’t open till .  Barkley doesn’t care, he is still sleeping.  There is a shopping center nearby where we can kill the last hour before we can eat.  Barkley was a perfect angel while shopping.  Lots of kids were telling their parents that they can’t touch the working dog.  Anyway, we get back to the café for opening time.  I thought this place would be a lot bigger than it is.  Only four tables in the place.  The food is great as long as you aren’t a cardiologist.  One of the popular items on the menu is a sandwich they call the Fat Sandy.  This is two cheeseburger patties, chicken fingers, onion rings, mozzarella stix, and macaroni and cheese, all in a sandwich.  Yea, heart attack just waiting to happen.  But, boy is it good!  Barkley was perfect under the table.  We never did make it to St. Armand’s Circle, and never made it to Yoder’s Amish Restaurant for the pie we were looking forward to.  But Barkley got to see some friends, go shopping, and sleep under a table and in the car.  Life is good. 

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you guys had a fun Saturday! Joe sounds like Joey! He gets so excited when he knows he is going someplace! Barkley sounds like a very sweet boy!

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