Today we all celebrated Mocha's second birthday. (Mocha is the chocolate lab.) Her parents have an enormous backyard, and they invited nine pups (and their parents) over for pupcakes and playtime (and homebrew beer). The dogs ran and barked and played until we thought they were worn out. Then we drove to the hardware store to get some gardening supplies.Our hardware store, which we love, not only serves free popcorn but also has two adorable dogs in the store. They welcome pets, but we have never brought ours in because... well, let's be frank... our dogs are at their very worst around new people. And a store full of new people and sharp objects just never really sounded like a good idea.But today we thought they might be tired enough. Ha. Haha. HAHahahaAHAHAHahaha. We got to the store threshold (and the two store dogs) upon which the jumping, grunting, barking and foaming at the mouth began (from our dogs -- not the store's). So we locked them back up in the car. Sigh. Sadly, it looks like we will never be the people with well behaved dogs that follow us around the city sans leash. But no worries. We still love our troubled mutts.*And yes, it looks like everything in our garden came back to life. Truly a miracle.