so it started like this a few months ago…

Buster disappears into the bathroom for a few minutes and all of sudden comes busting out, paws flared & nearly tripping over his own awesomeness.

grasped tightly in his mouth is a giant white piece of plastic…it’s the cover to the bolt that secures our toilet to the floor…you’ve got one too…go ahead and go check.

“Drop. Leave it…”

Buster responds appropriately and receives a delicious treat for his prompt obedience.

Fast-forward a few months later and we’ve done this little exercise about 100x…Buster now has me very well trained.

These days when he wants a treat he runs to the bathroom, pulls off the white-plastic-bolt-cap and drops it gently at my feet.

This happens nightly…and i love it.

it surprises me everytime…

by graduation, i’m confident that BusterTheDog could potentially pass any med board exam.

…in fact, I’m fairly certain he’s at LEAST as knowledgeable as the slowest kid in my class.

:: watchful ::

:: stand out (however possible) ::

:: considering all options ::

she woke up first. before i knew it she was dressed and ready to kill that damn elliptical machine—and she did.

i staggered behind with grumbling-contempt; anything less would have been out of character.

walking out of the bathroom—toothbrush in mouth—i saw buster peaking out from under the covers.

content to only catch a peek of the nonsense going on so early on a saturday morning, he would wait for the clang of his food bowl and rattle of the can opener to commit to an early morning wake-up call.

these two are what make my life such an amazing place and when they do the things that are simply “them” i feel the most at home.

there were so many times this weekend that i would look over at her and find myself needing to catch my breath; sitting on the couch, hair twirling around her finger, buster safe-and-warm in her lap.

this is my waking life and i have no idea what i’ve done to be so damn lucky.

concerned.

by my count, buster’s only afraid two things. 1) ironing boards & 2) thunder

because it was “championship sunday” brandon & i knew it would be socially acceptable to spend the day with copious amounts of food, beer and laughs. you see, brandon and i watch a lot of football together—not on a weekly basis—but definitely when the game is important enough that the local market adorns its aisles with celebrity-cardboard-cut-outs and cases of “supplies” stacked to the ceiling.

yes, on these hallowed-of-days we hangout for 10-12 hrs just being awesome.

so buster loves going over to the mansion b/c they’ve got this elevated bbq/lounge area in the backyard that looks out to the surrounding mountains and stands almost 6ft above us grounded mortals. give buster 5-10mins and he’ll sneak up there until someone goes out and coaxes him from his lofty heights.

so we watched as the ny jets blew a 1st half-lead to the machine that is peyton manning and that really bummed buster out bc he had $50 bucks riding on the jets-to-win. You can buy a lot of science diet for fifty-bucks.

soon, we hit hour number 10 of being rad and reality set in; brandon remembered that he’s a grown-up attorney who had important things to do the next day in LA and I had to do…well, pretty much more of the same thing i do everyday on campus.

buster remained resolute but would spend the next 36hrs sleeping off the fun.

you’re welcome.

The good news for Buster was that I needed something/someone to shoot…and well, you know where I’m going with this:

Here’s buster peeking out the back door and being captured sharply at 200mm.

…and here’s Buster acting more bored than I’ve ever seen him.

also, I find these photos funny b/c Buster is unaware of what life is like without having a camera firing at him ad nauseum.