Lesson Learned

Now generally, most people would say that nothing is more important than taking a break out of your Saturday day to take your dogs to Petco for a quick picture with Santa Claus. It seems like a good idea, and really how long could it take? Five minutes, a half hour at the most probably. And the cards will be priceless.

WRONG!!

Try more like 45 minutes, which seems more like an eternity when you're dealing with a 10 month old Husky who thought he was going to the dog park, and sees no problem with vocalizing his desires to play with every dog in the vicinity (and somehow these whines are much louder because something Petco may not tell you is that their store has a tendency to echo 3x more than any typical building in the world). Then, finally you think you're done, when the weird photo lady snaps some awful pictures (in which your dogs look like they are in serious pain and may run directly into the camera at any given point). At this moment, you are told that it will be a half hour to an hour before your picture is available.

So, now you decide to just leave and come back. Approximately an hour and a half later you arrive only to wait several more minutes, while a girl picks out pictures on the computer for her $300 photo package. Finally you are told that you are actually in the wrong line because they have changed how the free photos work. You then have to tell the store clerk which dogs are yours, and point out your picture. To your frustration, you realize that half of one of your dogs is cut out of the picture, but even more upsetting, the white backdrop that was behind Santa has not been taken out. So while customers who purchase the $300 gift packages are very satisfied with the computer graphic background they are given in place of the "white screen", you dear friend are forced to accept that you spent two hours getting a picture that will inevitably end up in the trash can.

Lesson Learned: Next year have your significant other dress up like Santa Claus. Either that or get your portly step father to wear red and get him drunk enough to forget that he hates dogs and would love to have his picture taken with them. Not sure which one is more likely to happen. Something to try out before the world ends in 2012...