The Free $40 Date

 Nathan and I were planning a date night.  We had traded babysitting with our friend Laura, so we had a free babysitter set up.  But we were kind of short on funds, so how would we pay for a nice date?  I had the solution.  I told Nathan that if he helped me give Tavi a haircut, we could use the $40 we normally paid the dog groomer on our date.  So we pulled out the electric clippers and took Tavi to the backyard.  After 15 minutes of futility, it became plain that the clippers just couldn't handle Tavi's fur.  Nathan said, "Let's just cut it with scissors."  I was horrified.  I had tried to do that a few years before, and it had turned out so awful that I had to pay for him to go to the groomer anyway.

"Well, it's either that or we don't have any money!" he said, practically.  I decided I would rather have a pariah dog and go on a date.  So for 40 minutes Nathan and I cute all the fur off Tavi, one snip at a time, with two pairs of hair scissors.  I wish I had taken a picture of the pile of fur in the grass.  In the end, it didn't turn out too bad.  He has these funny straight lines everywhere, but I can imagine this becoming a new style that celebrities would pay $800 for a Hollywood Dog Groomer to do to their poodles.

And we got our date!  We went out to Applebee's and then read books at Hastings until they closed.  (I miss Barnes & Noble.)  We only used about $25, but we're cheap like that.