Today was easily one of the nicest days I have ever seen in New York City. After a miserably rainy day yesterday, the sun came out and brought the gorgeous autumn weather with it. Central Park in autumn is rivaled only by Central Park in springtime. My allergies respond equally to both, unfortunately. So my eyes are swollen and itchy…at least I could see well enough to get some good photos.

Ella and I took a sunset walk around The Reservoir, and here are some of the winning shots from the evening… (click on the photos to enlarge them)

I personally can’t get enough of the Ella and Jenna show. Their shtick just never gets old to me -- noisy yes, old no. If they broadened their material just a little, I think they’d be well on their way to making it as one of the top comedy duos of all time.

To that end, Ella freestyles recklessly in this clip, catching a case of the zoomies/puppy runs/crazies or whatever expression you use to describe the nutty spazzfest dogs sometimes have that causes them to run around in circles through the house. Talk about a bull in a china closet -- she ran into me, almost took out my Macbook Pro by running through the cord (NOT THE MAC!), but worst of all, she jumped up on Grandfurma’s sofa. And none of us -- least of which was Grandfurpa who took to yelling at Ella at that point in the hopes she’d come down off her high and the sofa -- wanted to deal with the wrath of Grandfurma if something happened to the couch.

She wasn’t home when this happened and has never before seen this footage.

She’ll have a fit.

I must admit I’m rather enjoying it. Now. After the fact. Safe and sound in New York away from the Grandfurparent residence.

Just wanted to quickly share some shots from this morning’s trek into Central Park. Ella and I have found a little spot all to our own that, as you can see by these photos, also has a pretty nifty view of the city skyline in the background. Ella enjoys her tennis ball, I enjoy the view…tough to beat.

Enjoy.

(the images are kind of small here-click on any of the pictures or go here to view them in full screen)

Here’s a clip of Ella and Kasey continuing to take over the kitchen. Jenna’s had enough of their antics but isn’t quite up to getting in the middle of them (probably wise), so she hides under the table and barks instead. Apparently Jenna’s bark is at a pitch that only humans can hear because while we wanted to plug our ears, the 2 furkids were oblivious and lost in their play match…

On our recent trip to my parents’ house, Ella was lucky enough to have a special playmate for a few days (and I’m not talking about Jenna who I think we can all agree is not interested in being considered for the “playmate” role). My brother and sister-in-law brought their dog Kasey, a 3 year old chocolate lab who had no idea what she was in for.

Meet Kasey

Ella was sidling up to Kasey and relentlessly instigating play fights from the second poor Kasey set paw in the house. Although Kasey has calmed down a lot over the last year or two, she was just as devilish as Ella as a puppy and pretty quickly rediscovered the imp within.

Thank goodness my mom was so preoccupied with a busy last week of teaching and retirement parties that she wasn’t around for a lot of their mischief. In the end, nothing was broken and there were no carpet stains that couldn’t be treated, but I’m not going to say there weren’t some close calls. One of my mother’s friends who roasted her at a retirement gathering that week characterized my mom in this way: “She is not satisfied with the cleanliness of her house unless there are visible vacuum lines on the carpet”. That is the truest statement ever uttered. So you can imagine what my mom thought when she saw the vacuum lines replaced with paw prints.

Here they are in the dining room -- watch out for the crystal!

And here they are in the living room -- which shouldn’t be called a living room because ordinarily no one sets foot -- let alone lives - in it.

And finally, here’s “Ella and Kasey -- Round 1″. My favorite part is the butt sniff at the end of the round…Dogs will be dogs…