On knives and missing dogs

7.44 pm

My boyfriend bought a new knife Friday night. I've always been somewhat skeptical of $100+ knives. As long as it has a pointy end and an edge it cuts, right? We got home from the knife shop, and he told me, once again, that my knives were scheduled for an appointment with the trash can. I told him that my knives were perfectly good.

He gave me his new knife and told me to cut a very thin slice of tomato. I gave him the "you've got to be kidding" look. He pointed to the cutting board and the knife, so I picked it up and cut a respectably thin slice. Then he handed me my knife and told me to cut another slice. The knife all but bounced off the skin of the tomato.

Global knives, you have a new convert.

7.50 pm

The dog escaped today. I was sitting in the living room, doing homework, the door wide open to get a breeze or two. He was curled up at my feet, pushing his nose into my lap every time every time I stretched out or changed position. I heard some keys jangling outside, and he got up and poked his nose out the door to investigate. I didn't worry because he's such a mellow dog, and he never runs away. Then the rest of him disappeared, and I put on my sandals and grabbed the leash and the keys, figuring he'd be just down the bottom of the steps. By the time I made it outside he was gone.

Did I mention he isn't my dog? I went down to one end of the block, looked around all the corners, and didn't see him. I went down to the other, did the same thing. Still no dog. This is when I started to panic and think that maybe he'd decided to do like the dogs in "Homeward Bound" and find his boy. I was trying to figure out how to explain to my friend that I'd lost his dog because I hadn't been quicker out the door after him when the phone rang.

"Where are you?" my friend asked.

"I'm outside your apartment," I said.

"Someone just called me. They found my dog."

He was more surprised that the dog had gone out than anything else, and the dog hadn't made it more than a few doors down - which was why I hadn't seen him when I'd gone out looking. Moral of the story: when you're watching someone else's dog, keep the door closed or the leash on.