How I Met Your (Human) Father

I only just learned the premise of the show How I Met Your Mother (the last time I had cable TV, Neil Patrick Harris was starring in new episodes of Doogie Howser, MD). Anyway, the allusion in my post title is a dorky intro to this seemingly uninteresting photo:

So, young Freddie, listen up! About thirteen and a half years ago, I was invited to a party in this apartment building — which you no doubt recognize, as it's located less than a block from where you now live. The party was being hosted by Julia's friend Nancy's friend John, whom I'd only just met. Neither Julia nor Nancy was going to be at the party, which, normally, would have discouraged me from attending. But, given that the place was so very close to home and that, if it turned out to be awful, I could be back in my living room in about 43 seconds, I decided to go. It was April Fool's Day, 2000.

Apart from John, whom, as I said, I hardly knew, there wasn't a single familiar face in the joint. There was, however, an only slightly-younger-looking version of this handsome visage (posing here with your cousin Dusty):

He was chatting up some other woman, but they were talking about Montreal — about which I figured I knew plenty, having spent my formative years in one of its Anglo suburbs — so I slugged back my pear cider and busted in on their tête-à-tête. Not long after, we had that first date mentioned in Post #1 ... and that, Mr. Doodle-Head, is how your human family began!

And now, back to our regular Walking With Freddie programming ...

This big ol' red house is next door to our building. It's subdivided into multiple units. This part here is occupied by Reimut, who's often outside, invariably cheerful. He and his friend Genevieve planted this garden — now almost completely harvested. They planted corn in the middle. It grew tall, with fat tufty ears. I kept expecting to see the stuff pilfered, and when, one morning, I came out to find the stalks bare, I gloomily asked Reimut, "What happened?" To which he replied: "We picked it. Want some?" Yay, humanity!

A close-up from Reimut's garden:

L'arbre du jour:

Shadow art (too bad you can't see the dew on the grass):

Puppies in the Mist (in the community garden that follows the railway tracks) ... Freddie was outsized by these two — Jackson and Jasper — but he's pretty fearless!

I love the look of this little café. I've yet to go inside, but I expect we'll have more occasions to do so in the not-too-distant future (hmm ... stay tuned!).

Most of Broadway, on the other hand, I don't dig all that much. I think I remember hearing (reading? fabricating in my own imagination?) that much of the ugly low-rise construction on Broadway was only ever meant to be temporary but has, for whatever reason(s), stuck around. New developments such as this one below are, I guess, an improvement ... maybe?

Not the same walk, but later this morning we went here with Paul's sister, Katherine, and her Energizer Doodle, Dusty ...

Off-leash walking still can't help but make me just a little nervous. But Freddie adores it, and his recall has progressed from mediocre to pretty impressive. Here he is after an about-face away from a very tempting playmate ... good boy!

Pacific Spirit rainforest (looks better if you double-click for a bigger image, though still nothing like the real thing, baby) ...

These little doggy water bottles are the cat's meow!

Our camera is crap in low light (takes an eternity to figure out what it needs to do; by the time the shutter releases, the moment is long gone). This is the best of Paul's several attempts to get me and Freddie in a woodsy pose. iPhoto edited to the max, and still Freddie has demon eyes. We'll just have to go back and try again!

Hasta la próxima!