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Yesterday, we returned from our gluttonous trip to our local Carvel ice cream shop on a euphoric sugar high. Oh yeah...The Daily Kool family has officially kicked off our celebration of National Ice Cream Month! Needless to say, we were in a fabulous mood when we walked through our front door. Of course, so was our lovable dog, Pepper...we may have mentioned him a few hundred times or so in our previous blog posts. Well, Pepper (as usual) was beside himself with joy when we came home, wagging his tail a mile a minute to show how excited he was to see us. We're telling you, there's not much that beats the feeling of unconditional love from a furry friend. Wait a minute...did we say unconditional? Because when Pepper got closer to lick our faces (hey, he's a French poodle, after all), he literally took a giant sniff of our ice cream breath and reeled back from each of us in indignant shock. Okay, we realize we're attributing human characteristics to our dog (doesn't everybody?). But seriously, you should have seen the accusatory look on his face before he pointedly turned his doggie butt on us and walked away to pout on his bed. Yep, Pepper's big brown eyes can really bring on the guilt. No doubt about it, our dog wanted to be a part of July's National Ice Cream Month holiday.

When we were kids, our older brother hated taking aspirin. Okay, perhaps we're really showing our age here, but these were the days before children's Tylenol liquid suspension and when Dimetapp cough syrup (we remember it as the yummy grape medicine) was by prescription only. Our poor mother could only get our brother to take a pill by crushing it in applesauce and spoon-feeding him. Considering the torture he put us through growing up, it was a great pleasure to have a reason to call big brother a "baby" at times...na nanny boo boo! Our poor pets don't have it as easy as our brother did when it comes to taking medication. Whenever our dog Pepper has to take a pill, we literally pry his mouth open, shove it to the back of his throat, clamp his jaw shut and rub until he swallows. Don't get us wrong, Pepper's pretty good about taking them (certainly better than our brother was), but why should we have to struggle at all? Isn't there a way to let him think his medication is more reward than punishment?

Yesterday, we were playing catch with our kids in our development's common grassy area. It was great to have some old-fashioned outside time, though it was admittedly hard to ignore the oppressive heat of the Florida sun. Anyway, here we were, running for a long pass from one of our football stars-to-be, when we suddenly felt the ground get squishy beneath our feet. Holy sh..achem, oh cra...uh...oh, pooh! Literally. You guessed it, our big feet had landed in a pile of doggy doo. Do you have any idea what it's like getting that stuff off the bottom of sneakers with ridges? Ugh...we shudder just thinking about it.

The Daily Kool family does a lot of driving. In fact, between work, school and enrichment activities for the kids, it often seems as if we practically live in our car. By the end of the week, our poor Saturn looks like a bomb has hit it...snacks, juice boxes, papers and toys are strewn all over the place. We've seen people recoil from the shock, shake their heads in wonder or, if they're parents, simply nod in commiseration at the mess of our car....yep, it can be pretty embarrassing! So, Fridays have now become the official "car cleaning" day in our household, and everyone has a job. No one ever complains...except whoever is responsible for window cleaning. The fingerprints and dog snot (Pepper loves taking rides in the car) are not such a big deal. The windshield, however, is another matter altogether. Our car has a pretty deep slope in the front, requiring us to drum up our best contortionist skills to clean it deep down. We admit it, our flexibility is quite pathetic...thus, so are our windshields.

The Daily Kool's beloved pooch Pepper, has just turned 9 years old...wow, time is definitely flying by quickly. Though he still acts like a puppy much of the time, we have noticed that things are slowing down just a little bit for him. The vet has told us his hips are beginning to weaken, as is often common for a standard poodle of his age. Plus, we've seen the extra hesitation when he jumps in the car, on the couch, and especially on the bed...yep, it's definitely time to get Pepper a pet ramp.