Sometimes… often for me… you just meet a dog and fall in love. It was like that with Oso. He belongs to a nice couple that my daughter Mollie and I ran into down at the dog park by the bay. He had awesome eyes and a sweet personality.

And very soft fur… you know… in case you were wondering.

Every time I come from San Diego to the Bay Area to visit my mom, I end up at the dog park at least once. I miss my dogs after a day or two.

Yeah, that’s right… I cheat on my dogs with other people’s dogs.

That is how I roll.

I like dogs… and horses… and babies.

Why is my 95-year-old mother out on her front balcony?

It is the goodbye ritual. There she is, hugging Jason, my son-in-law, after hugging Jessica, my older daughter.

Just as a side note, this year, I hung some really big ornaments on the back of my mom’s tree, so people out on the street could see them. Ha!

Anyway, mom watches from the deck as whoever is leaving gets in the car. This time, my younger daughter, Mollie, and I were dropping her sister and brother-in-law at the train station.

That is a pretty good picture of my mom.

But after we dropped them off, we went to the dog park by the San Francisco Bay!!!