And then Sam came tumbling down

I have some new readers who are following our month-long journey here and I want to say, welcome! I will try my best to entertain you throughout this visit. I thought, perhaps, I'd been glamorizing Boulder, but after two days, I quickly realize that it is everything I think it is and I'm not glamorizing it. I just love it here and I'm a happier person when I'm here. Sorry mom and bro. :(
But, lest we forget, it's all about the dogs. The drive out here went better than expected. A sedated Muffin slept most of the drive, as did a relaxed and tired Sam, and we arrived in Boulder sooner than planned with Ray (aka Raybadoo) peering through the window waiting for us. Sam and Muffin have taken to Boulder like troopers (What's not to love?) and they are frolicking in Ray's yard more than they ever do in Massachusetts. I say, Boulder's good for everyone. A bit of trouble getting SSMG set up on wireless internet, but Superwoman friend set us up with computer geek guy who got the whole thing straightened out, and now he's comfortably in the dining room, smack in the middle of the downstairs of the house working, it looks to me, harder than ever to show his company he's efficient from the mountains. Up at 6 and right to his desk, and last night, for the first time, he worked at night! Who is this person?
Me? I am quietly watching the funniest The Office episode of all time. (It's the one where Dwight decides to apply to Cornell just to get Andy's gord and Andy spends the entire episode trying to convince Dwight that he's not good enough for the prestigious IVY LEAGUE Cornell.)
Tonight we went to our favorite The Hungry Toad, where SSMG and I frequent when we're here because of their special "Lager and Lime." Lager and Lime is exactly that, but it seems that the Hungry Toad invented it and it's the only restaurant in all of the United States that offers it and knows how to make it perfectly. We live in Irish-dominated Massachusetts for christ's sake and you can't find a Lager and Lime anywhere. We've had to give bartenders directions umpteen times only to end up with very mediocre drinks that consist of a beer with a splash of Rose's. Only a splash is not really the correct amount. So I told our waitress the story and asked her if I could take home a menu and show it to our idiot bartenders in Massachusetts to prove that the beverage does, in fact, exist. But SSMG and I decided the entertainment value of the whole "show the bartender the menu" thing would be lost on the idiot, unfriendly, carmudgeon bartenders that we've encountered in Massachusetts. Except Bridget at Bullfinchs, with whom I will share the menu and teach how to make the drink and let HER profit from the knowledge.
Idiots Massachusetts bartenders.
When we came home after a stop at Glacier Ice Cream (can you say, OH MY GOD! I think I'll have gas for the rest of my life because I'm lactose intolerant but that was so worth it?) the dogs were quietly sleeping. They rose to go out and do there thing when all of a sudden Sam toppled over on his side! I gasped and almost dropped my OH MY GOD ice cream. A seizure. I've never seen that before. Usually he shakes and there's some warning and we intercept, but he just tumbled over on his side and it may have been the saddest thing I've ever seen next to Muffin's face peering out of her incubator when she was sick with pneumonia in the hospital a month ago. Muffin must have known he needed her because she immediately squished herself next to Sam's bed and hasn't moved since. I want to cry at the sweetness of it all.
Ray lies at SSMG's feet, in his office - the dining room - grunting periodically and wondering who the hell these funny little creatures are who have overtaken his home. Sam mistook Ray for a big carpet a couple of times and burrowed his way onto Ray's back causing Ray to lose a bit of fur. He looked so confused, like, "What is this thing that's burrowing my back?" Ray's so calm, cool and sweet that it didn't seem to bother him really. He just seemed confused, but thank god, that seems to have been a passing fancy and Sam's leaving him alone to have his own private moments in seizure land.