Productive

This Saturday I:

• Took Chickenbone to a dog park.
• Went to Target to purchase dog food, boxed cereal, a flat of bottled waters, a box of thank-you notes, and assorted cleaning supplies.
• Then headed to Trader Joe's for red and green bell peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, yellow squash, zucchini and fresh baby spinach; frozen salmon, dover sole and marinated mahi-mahi; organic free-range boneless/skinless chicken breasts; bananas, raspberries, strawberries and plums; and a carton of milk.
• Stopped at PetSmart to buy a box of stuffed squeaker squirrels and a 10-pack of poop bags.
• Ate a grilled bratwurst at Top Dog.
• Accompanied husband on long-planned "date night," which began at the Tapestry Arts Festival in downtown San Jose. Purchased delicious-smelling homemade soaps in mint, bay rum and california citrus (from a fellow who looked a little organic and free-range himself, if you know what I mean.)
• Beat the heat with a couple late-afternoon cocktails at the Caravan Lounge, a grimy dive bar with just enough questionable clientele to keep things exciting.
• Ate dinner on the outdoor patio of the Poor House Bistro, where we tapped our toes to the music of a live blues band while feasting on barbecue shrimp, sausage bread with dijon mustard, and a pitcher of cold PBR.
• Headed to the local theater to get our pants scared off by "Halloween," then took the bus home at around 11 p.m. Realized with horror (har, har) that to get to our house from the bus stop, we had to walk past a hospital. An abandoned hospital. Abandoned, except for a hunched-over half-naked homeless man on a bench who was so thin you could see his teeny spine bones dotting the skin on his back. Not making this crap up.

And on Sunday I:

• Stripped the bed, flipped the mattress, then made up the bed with crisp, clean sheets.
• Sorted the laundry and started a load up in the washer.
• Went for a rather grueling eight-mile run in the Los Gatos Creek Trail.
• Ate lunch, an avo-turkey on dutch crunch bread at Togo's.
• Cut back the six Dusty Miller plants in my front yard.
• Picked cigarette butts and other tiny pieces of garbage out from the bed of tan bark where the flowers live.
• Trimmed the rose and lavender bushes.
• Pulled the rosebush straight with a piece of string tied to the house.
• Edged both the front and back lawns while Sal mowed.
• Swept 14 or 15 pounds of peppercorn-tree droppings off the driveway.
• Unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. Scrubbed the kitchen sink.
• Went to Safeway to buy a six-pack of root beer, vanilla ice cream, pink plastic tumblers and neon-colored bendy-straws.
• Headed to a barbecue at the home of friends, where we ate grilled chicken and vegetables, salad, corn on the cob, with those frosty root beer floats for dessert.
• Came home and folded and put away six loads of laundry.
• Watched the season finale of "Entourage."
• Collapsed.