K-9 Trials

[Kev Allison]

“Hey Koda smells like roses to me.” He said with a grin as he looked to Koda, it had been a while since he had another human being in his car let alone a dog not that he minded at all. It wasn’t like he didnt want to have people in his car but mostly it was too and from work that he drove so unless it was work related then he never really did much else.

Kev followed her in his car as he stared at the house they pulled up outside, it was nothing short of amazing. It was the kind of place that in the city he wouldnt ever have thought existed but it look amazing. Getting out of the car when Mattie approached he nodded to her. “Yeah, I’m sure about this.” He said grinning as he opened the door for her and Koda to get in.

“It’s a beautiful place you have here.” He said not minding about the dog slobber in the slightest. “Oh so I need to watch out for you huh. Then again since it’s you, I dont mind in the slightest.” He answered and it was true. Messy or not she was fun to be around and it had been a long while since he had actually managed to have fun that genuinely had him smiling.

[Mattie Chappel]

Mattie raised an eyebrow when he complimented the house, it was in pretty bad shape, but then, the 'bones' were good and it was a nice old place underneath all the years.

"It'll look really good once it's finished...sometime in the next century!" She laughed, although it was true, it was going to take a lot of time an money to undo years of neglect. "It's pretty worn down, kind of like me!"

She laughed as she let Koda into the back seat then climbed into the front passenger seat. "I've had my rabies shot, si it's safe!" Again, she laughed, finding the banter coming easily, something that hadn't happened since...well, for a very long time, and it was something, she realized, that she really needed.

Kev Allison,

[Kev Allison]

“I’m sure you’ll have it finished way before them, remember the power of the youtube.” He said with a grin, he could see that it was a lovely place and sure some work required but then it was a beautiful place none the less. “Worn down? Never.” He said raising his brow toward her, “If wish I looked as good as your worn down, besides you’re the victor of the Trials. Not worn down at all.”

Kev knew what she meant though to him she didnt look worn down at all though he was more than happy to at least try to make her feel better. After all she was the sort of person in his head that you met once in life and to him is she was worn down then it didnt matter because she was still beautiful and gorgeous, smart and funny.

He got into the drivers seat nodding when she spoke about rabies shots. “Yay, least I’m safe of the rabies, besides cant be turning up to court foaming at the mouth. Not a great look to win over a jury, don’t think they’d take kindly to being bitten either.” He joked smiling, she was easy to talk to and get along with and he hadn’t been as happy in a long time at least genuinely so. "Though I promise I've been vacinated too." he said with a wink.

Tag: Mattie Chappel,

[Mattie Chappel]

"Don't know," Mattie commented with a grin, "seems like there's juries that could use an attorney who was mouth-foaming assertive! And for sure there are judges who need to be bitten!" Spoken in jest, but true...juries could be composed of complete idiots and judges could easily make all the cops' work totally pointless by giving criminals a slap on the hand when they really needed death!

"I guess as long as you've been vaccinated, it's all right." Mattie laughed. "You have to wonder, though, what goes through peoples' heads sometimes. I mean, there are people stupid enough to take on the dog then act surprised when they get bit! I know it keeps us in a job, but sometimes it just ticks me off."

Grumbling, she slumped in her seat, then suddenly declared, "No more shop-talk!" This was a time to leave that frustration behind and just have a good time.

Kev Allison,

[Kev Allison]

Kev couldnt argue with her at all when she spoke about the juries, he had sometimes wanted to go that far himself and then there were the judges too. A few times he had wanted to hit one of them with a law book or two but at the end of the day they were his bosses of sorts. He laughed at her jest though he knew that things didnt always turn out as they should. “I can only agree with you there.” He said nodding at her point.

He listened to her and nodded again, looking at Koda he was all fluff and cuteness though the other side of things yeah anyone who took on a dog was asking to get bitten. Sometimes people just needed to get bitten to learn a lesson or two, like don’t do something wrong and no need to get on Koda’s bad side or Mattie’s for that matter.

“Okay no more.” He said as he started to drive, no shop talk he told himself. “So besides decorating and youtube DIY, what else do you like to do in your spare time?” He asked her curiously.

Tag: Mattie Chappel,

[Mattie Chappel]

"What do I do..?"

Well, there was a question! Pretty much nothing...she'd immersed herself in the remodeling, a way of distracting herself from the frustrations of caring for her mother, and from the grief that still ran in her soul -- she'd not considered just having free time, or living again.

"I played piano when I was a kid," she finally answered, "but I haven't in a long time." The old instrument was still in the 'parlor', but was out of tune and collecting dust. "I've dabble in watercolors, too, and photography, but that was back when it was pure...you know, 35 millimeter and not all digital..."

Camping, looking for wildflowers, stargazing...there had been a lot at one time...Maybe it was time to start living again? At least as much as she could with caring for her mother...

"Of course, Koda keeps me busy, too, as talented as he is, I take plenty of training!"

She laughed, looking over at him. "So, how do you occupy your free time? Let me guess...You seem like...ballet? Maybe modern jazz dance?"

She laughed again, enjoying that she was enjoying herself.

Kev Allison

[Kev Allison]

Kev listened to her as she spoke, he knew she was remodelling her home and that she took to youtube for DIY advice which was far more than he could do on his best day. If hitting it didnt work it was a call to whoever he could find to fix it for him. Piano sounded like a good thing to do, he wasn’t musically blessed himself but then it didnt stop him from trying but air guitar didnt really count as playing anything so far as he knew.

“You use the 35 millimetre? Wow, been a long time since i’ve heard about those but they are the best. You get more of a feel for the photo rather than the digital stuff.” He said knowing he enjoyed the pre digital age where photography was an art and not just something for snapchat that lasted all of ten seconds. Besides there would be a lot less images of peoples dinners and broccoli in the world if it had stayed that way.

Kev laughed and shook his head, “Naw you two seem to have everything wrapped up so far as I see.” He said not sure that Mattie needed training she seemed to know exactly what she was doing. “How did you know modern jazz was my thing?” He asked he chuckling, “Ballet, some are okay but same with opera but I wouldnt say I spend a lot of time there.” It was more a family requirement which meant that he didnt always enjoy what he was going to see.

“Well to your piano I have air guitar so after work its either my apartment to the sounds of ACDC or if i’m out then, need a few liquid refreshments before I can do any guitaring.” He said with a grin, “Love to travel or at least feel like i’m learning something by going places. Being outdoors is also fun but then I need to get out of the city more to do that.” Kev was one of these work people who had managed to completely fail at a work life balance.

Then again today so far he couldnt have asked for a better day, the kind where he could laugh and joke and not spend the weekend working or a day being a lawyer and dealing with everything that came with it. It was nice just to be himself for a change.

Tag: Mattie Chappel,

[Mattie Chappel]

"Oh, well, I guess we'll see today how you and the outdoors go! Just be nice or I'll steer you to the poison ivy!"

On the one hand, she couldn't quite imagine him 'roughing it', but then she wasn't truly into hiking into the back-woods with only whatever you could carry. She liked a campground with a tent, a restroom close-by and showers somewhere accessible!

"It's been a long time, but I do miss camping. It's a great way to visit more remote areas...I love the Southwest."

Another thing of the past that she hadn't thought about for a long time, something she had given up in the wake of life...maybe something she should find time for again...

Kev Allison

[Kev Allison]

“So that’s how it’s going to be, I see.” He said as he sighed, “Does she do this often to guys?” Kev asked Koda grinning at Mattie, then again he would do the exact same thing but the outdoors was fun. “Even us city bugs know what poison ivy looks like... I hope.” He added though fingers crossed that one was still in his head from when he had to be covered head to toe in camomile lotion and still that didnt stop a thing.

The perks of the Navy, if one got it in close quarters mostly everyone did in some form or another. Kev liked his home comforts but he knew how to rough it, he just chose to be more user friendly in his approach. An actual place to sleep, a warm place to be, the general things in life needed to not live like a cave man despite its appeal at times.

“The southwest, well if I don’t managed to find poison ivy this time maybe we could go there. Take a trip?” He offered though how remote was she talking. “Remote is great, how remote are we talking? Like top of a mountain or forest or getting lost territory?” He asked with a grin, “Ex military so I can pack a bag and go places... I just haven’t done that for a while.”

There was that thing about finding time but he hadn’t really had a reason to find time for much in a long time. Work sleep, work sleep was his pattern until Mattie had given him something to break his routine for and he was enjoying it.

Mattie Chappel,

[Mattie Chappel]

"Hey! Koda doesn't tell my secrets!" Mattie grinned then glanced at Kev when he proposed a road trip. "Um...sure..."

There was nothing forward at his offer, and she found that she really did like the idea, it was just a matter of what to do with her mother.

"Yeah," she said more decisively, "yeah, that would be a lot of fun, let's work on that." They were, after all, adults, and could go camping without anything being read into it. "I still have some camping gear somewhere. Just...early Spring, before it gets to be a hundred-and-eleventy degrees, right?"

That was the bad part about that area, it was beautiful, but it got hotter than blazes in Summer and that just took the fun out of all of it. "I'm delicate, I don't do heat!" She laughed.

Kev Allison

[Kev Allison]

“Oh I’m sure I can find a way to get him to talk.” He said with a grin as he nodded, he wasn’t entirely sure that he had said the right thing but then he had just gone on a date with her so asking her on holiday. Yes maybe that was a leap to far he wondered for afew moments.

When she said yeah more decisively he grinned. “Sure sounds great, I mean I know between work, life and more life it might be tough but you know I’m sure we can make something of it.” He said, two adults camping was just that a camping experience nothing to read into. “I can go get some camping gear because, well city guy here doesn’t really have much in the way of camping gear.” He said grinning.

It was true, the military had been fun but it was basic training camping. He could survive in a forest but he’d rather not and as for the sun he had been on enough out door experiences to know that camping and sun was not your friend. “Yeah good choice, don’t want to be cooked outdoors. Sun is wonderful and all but not when it’s cooking you.” He said with a grin, “Awww well we will make sure the sun doesn’t get to you, might even get you a hat and the cooling fans.” He said though he knew what she meant.

He wasn’t overly fond of the heat, it was why Chicago was so great a heat wave was a rare thing where as cooler weather. Freezing winters were all he wanted from life, there was no problem in putting on a jacket but there was only so much clothing that could be taken off before getting arrested if it was too hot.

Tag: Mattie Chappel

[Mattie Chappel]

"Let me check and see what I have, what's still useful." No point in having a tent if it hadn't been opened in twenty years and was all rotted. "And if we really want to go 'cool', then we could rent a camper." She shrugged and smiled. "But that's cheating. Honestly, even for all the work of setting up and breaking camp, I kinda prefer tents and the old Coleman stove. Guess that was something my Dad taught me."

She'd loved the whole 'camping thing' as a kid, but especially being outside, sleeping under the stars, sitting around a campfire.

"And, I don't really care much for cooking, but I do make a mean S'more!" Those were the best part of camping...that and hot cocoa on a cold night!

Mattie Chappel

[Kev Allison]

Kev nodded and smiled, he had little in the way of camping gear he maybe had water bottle he used now and again and a matt he had for the floor though that was supposedly for fitness though it hadn’t seen the light of day for a while as he preferred running. “So you went camping a lot as a kid?” He asked her, with his dad it was more fancy dinners or country club outings that he hated. He was more likely to steal the golf cart than actually use it to carry clubs in.

And the family wondered why he joined the navy an rebelled he thought. He could imagine his mothers attitude to camping too, even a camper van was bad. Her idea of camping would be a four star hotel and drinking tap water, yes camping wasn’t a natural thing for the Allison family at least not the rest of his family that was.

“Oh i’m sold on this then nothing better than S’mores, why cook when you can eat those for breakfast lunch and dinner too.” He said with a grin liking the sound of that. So for a single guy he could boil rice, make a few basic dishes and pretty much microwave a meal or in his case microwave it forget about it and hear it explode all over the inside of the machine when it was over done. "So what's you're favourite camping food other than S'mores?" He asked her as he drove.

Tag: Mattie Chappel

[Mattie Chappel]

"Yeah, we'd go out at least a few weeks each Summer...Dad loved it, well, so did I, heck, I could have lived in the woods all the time and been happy."

Life, or rather, death, had ruined that, but it was about time she took it back, got back to what she loved. Besides, she'd seen what dwelling on the past had done to her parents, and she knew that Annie would have told her keep living.

"Camping food, huh? Well, pancakes for breakfast, with peanut butter and marshmallow creame, I like to split a banana, then put chunks of chocolate in the middle, wrap it in foil and stick it in the fire for a couple minutes..." Wow, a lot of junk food! "Easy to clean up, right? Just crumble up the foil..."

There was a lot that was nostalgic for her, and just thinking about it, she could almost smell it! "Steak, hot dogs, baked potatoes...if we go fishing we can cook those." She glanced at him. "You know how to clean fish, right?"

Kev Allison

[Kev Allison]

Kev smiled as he listened to her talk about her dad and the weeks each summer, it sounded nice and something he had no idea about. His summers were spent being paraded in front of the right people, told when to smile and what he had to do to follow in his father’s footsteps. That had gone oh so well though now he was more of ‘that son who branched out and did his own thing’ though he knew his brother was more than happy to throw himself into the running for best son.

“It sounds like a lot of fun and summers well spent too.” He said smiling at her for a moment as he turned his attention back to the road. “Camping food, now that sounds like an epic breakfast.” He said almost wishing he had brought a bbq with him and banana’s with chocolate. “Now that’s mind kind of cooking, crumble it up and throw it out but chocolate banana’s is life’s dream.” He stated grinning, so for all his running and eating apple’s for dinner he was a junk food foodie at heart.

“I can fish for a fish but clean it i’ve no idea. Do you know how to?” He asked her raising a brow, so he had been fishing and much to his surprise caught fish but beyond catch and release he didnt know much. The idea was there but when it came to ending the fish he was one of those who just couldnt do it.

Mattie Chappel