We got the first snowfall of the winter in Richmond last night, and even though it was really just flurries and has almost completely melted already, we’re in full-on Snow Day mode here. I’ve pulled out my favorite quilt to wrap up on the couch. The dog is snuggled tightly between Bob and me, and we’re stocked with shows in the DVR, holiday movies, and Christmas music in the iPod. I’m even thinking of closing all the blinds so I can delude myself into believing it really is a winter wonderland out there.

It was a good week on the blog, and it began with a discussion of why I love books that begin with the ending. I also shared my experience reading my first steampunk novel and commented on the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2010. Charles Yu, the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (one of my personal favorites of the year…but more on that later) wrapped up the week with a Bare Necessities post about nonfiction that makes him want to write fiction.

I spent most of the week reading The Secret History, which I loved so much that I didn’t want it to end, and now I’m thrilled to be spending the weekend with a manuscript of Michele Young-Stone’s second novel. Michele wrote The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors—which I adored—and she lives in Richmond, so we’ve had the chance to become friends (which, I know, means I won’t be able to publish reviews of her future work), and she surprised me with a copy at lunch this week. The novel is tentatively titled Perfect Birds, and so far, I love it.

I received great news earlier this week that I’ve been elected to the board of directors of James River Writers, and I couldn’t be more excited. Richmond has such a vibrant, diverse literary community, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it and this wonderful organization.

The coming week will bring my own Best of 2010 series, a fun giveaway, and an exciting announcement, and I’ll be hosting one of my favorite bloggers, who will be here to introduce you to a fabulous project she’s been working on for quite some time.  Should be a good one! And now it’s back to the business of being extremely lazy….I mean, I was planning to write this post last night so I could be totally lazy today, but Millie (who, you’ll recall, has a habit of trying to get in my way while I’m writing) decided that she wanted to type last night.

What are you doing today?

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Happy Sunday, folks. Hope those of you who turned your clocks back an hour last night enjoyed the extra sleep. This weekend is something of a sacred tradition for Bob and me, as we go completely off the grid for more than 48 hours of uninterrupted laziness. There will be bad movies. There will be TiVo conquering. And yes, there will be piles of junk food.

I couldn’t be happier.

(I’m writing this post in advance, and it’s making me all kinds of excited.  Then again, that could be the glass of wine that’s keeping me company or the delicious aroma of Pioneer Woman meatloaf coming from my kitchen. People, it is wrapped in bacon!!!)

Anyway, I’m on the couch and off the grid, and even though I’ve only been back from vacation for a week and a half, it is much-needed. There was a lot of work to be done in the post-vacation catch-up, and I was basically glued to my laptop. Even Millie insists that I take a break.

Not the most flattering photo of me, but whaddya gonna do? 

Here’s what happened this week on ye olde blog.

I had a quickie with The Fall (book two in The Strain Trilogy) by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan and got all excited about my next adventure in genre-busting: steampunk! I’ll be reading Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker this week in preparation for her visit to Fountain Bookstore, and I can’t wait.  I polled you about your literary pet peeves for an upcoming episode of the Bookrageous podcast (which we’ve had to reschedule yet again, so keep ‘em coming, folks), and I raved about A.S. King’s Please Ignore Vera Dietz.

King contributed a wonderful piece to The Bare Necessities this week about YA novels that aren’t afraid of the truth, and I featured a piece from the latest issue of Ms. Magazine the celebrates the “kick-ass girls & feminist boys” of young adult literature.  A mighty nice pairing if I do say so myself!

I’m spending my extra lazy Sunday with Heather Sellers’s You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know (I’m 1/3 through it, and the jury is still out), season 3 of The Sopranos (yep, Bob and I are *way* behind on that trend), an embarrassingly large pile of junk food, and the comforts of my couch. (Or, at least, that was the plan when I wrote this post during the week.)

A few clickworthies:

• Salon’s Laura Miller goes all grinchy about NaNoWriMo (and misses the point by about a mile—I’m also sad that more people don’t read, but a group of people who love books enough to want to write one are not the appropriate target for her rant)

• Carolyn Kellogg at the L.A. Times Jacket Copy blog responds with 12 reasons to ignore the naysayers (and pretty much hits the nail on the head)

• Smart Bitches, Trashy Books suggests a characteristically badass response to plagiarism

• Amazon (*shudder*) kicks off the deluge of “best of” lists with the top 10 books and top 10 debut novels of the year….and all I can think about is WHEN WILL SKIPPY DIES GET THE LOVE IT DESERVES?

And that’s it! What are you doing with your extra hour of Sunday?

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Published March 2010 by HCI Books

I was planning to do a silly, fun review of this with Millie (my basset hound), but once she found out what the book was all about, she refused to have any part of it. Cutting back on treats and getting smarter about what she eats? No thank you, no sir. So I’m here on my own, and I have a lot to say about this fantastic book that gave me a much-needed wake-up call and left me running around the house telling my husband, “No, we really DO have to walk her three miles a day. Even when we’re tired. And have you SEEN how much sugar is in those ‘all natural’ treats we give her?”

Oy vey.

But that’s kind of the point.

From how veterinarians are taught and practice nutrition to manipulation on the part of pet-food manufacturers, from our society’s insatiable urge to include food into every act of life to a subtle shift in what we perceive as normal weight—all of these factors and more have created an epidemic of obese pets.

In Chow Hounds: Why Our Dogs Are Getting Fatter—A Vet’s Plan to Save Their Lives, Ernie Ward presents the knowledge he has gained in more than twenty years of veterinary practice and the plan he has created to help obese dogs lose weight and keep healthy dogs healthy. Ward goes straight to the heart of it and acknowledges that we humans want to make our dogs happy. “From our complementary senses to our nutrient requirements to our intelligence, dogs and humans are perfectly paired,” so it makes sense that we feel close to them, that we interact with them in ways we cannot with other animals (ever tried walking your cat?), and that we extend our own experiences of food-related emotion to them.

Ward is quick to point out that pet-food manufacturers know this. They conduct extensive research about “first-bite preference,” because they KNOW that people pay close attention to dogs’ initial response to a new food or treat and that WE want to see happiness, excitement, and wagging tails. Unfortunately, this need to see our dogs excited about their food and treats has led to a situation in which “many dog foods and treats are the equivalent of ‘Kibble Crack,’ addicting our nation’s dogs to added fat and sugar.”

So that thing Millie does where she sits at the base of the fridge, just pining after the treat jar on top, her big droopy eyes looking sad and adorable? It’s not so cute. It’s the doggy version of jonesing for a fix.

After explaining more of the techniques pet-food manufacturers use to make dog foods and treats appealing to the humans who buy them, he breaks down the difference between the fat content indicated on food labels and the ACTUAL fat content of dog foods and teaches readers how to calculate the actual content based on what the label says.  He also provides a chart with the actual fat content of many popular dog treats, and let me tell you, that’s an eye-opener.

Ward goes beyond diagnosing the problem to providing a detailed plan for how to help your dog lose weight or maintain its current healthy weight. (I’m thankful to be in the latter category, as Millie weights in at just 50 pounds—on the lighter side for a basset hound—which is happily near the low end of the 45-65 pound ideal weight for her breed.) The first step is to assess your dog’s weight by viewing her from the side, rear, and above, feeling for her ribs and spine, and calculating her Body Condition Score (BCS).  Then, you must rule out a medical problem. After all, dogs can have many of the same health problems humans can have, and it’s important to know that a weight problem isn’t caused by an underlying health issue like hyperthyroidism.

The third step in Ward’s plan is one that most pet owners likely do not know how to do on their own: calculate calories and set goals. Because most pet foods do not include calorie information on their labels (they’re not required to by law, so it’s no surprise that they’d prefer to keep us happily in the dark), pet owners (myself included) generally have no idea how many calories their dogs need in order to maintain or lose weight and how many calories their dogs’ food contains. Ward explains that the majority of pet owners are overfeeding their pets by 25 to 50% because they are following the feeding guidelines on pet food packaging, so he teaches his patients and readers how to calculate dogs’ basal metabolic rate (BMR) and provides a helpful chart of recommended caloric intake for various steps in the weight loss process.

Ward also stresses the importance of tracking calories (including treats!) and exercise to keep yourself on track, and as a bonus, he does the doggy version of that Today Show segment where they make comparisons between foods based on calorie content. As an example, check out these treat equivalents for a 40-pound dog:

• 1 Purina Busy Bone (small/medium) = 4 McDonald’s Egg McMuffins
• 1 Regular Greenies Dental Chew = 1 Hot Pockets Meatball & Mozzarella
• 1 premium pig ear = 6 12oz Coke Classics

And that’s just the beginning, folks!

Warn isn’t all doom and gloom. He goes on to provide extremely helpful information about how to choose the best commercial diet for your dog, how to tell that a food isn’t right for you dog (hint: look at the pooch’s poo), and how to integrate healthy home-cooked meals into your dog’s regimen.

I know what you’re thinking: I’m supposed to take the time to make home-cooked meals for my dog? I don’t even time to do that for myself! Within Chow Hounds, Ward gives a handful of quick, easy, healthy recipes for homemade dog treats.  I can’t wait to try out the recipe for Sweet Potato Cookies, which looks significantly simpler than most of the cooking I do.

Because health isn’t just about a good diet, Ward also includes a chapter called “Get Fido Fit,” in which he explains that humans and dogs are the only two species that interrelte by running, playing, and exercising together, likely because of the similarities he discusses earlier in the book. He breaks down the amount of exercise dogs need by breed and weight (I was very surprised to discover that the 30 minutes of fast walking I do with Millie each day isn’t enough—we cover about two miles, depending on how much sniffing she feels is necessary—but that she should be getting a minimum of three miles) and includes information about how to track your progress and make the move to diet and exercise gradually.

As a responsible vet, Ward reminds readers that they should never undertake a weight loss program for their dog without consulting a vet, and he emphasizes the importance of pet owners separating their own feelings about food, weight, and obesity from their attitudes about their dogs. He wraps up Chow Hounds with an exploration of doggy vitamins and supplements and the health problems that can ensue when we do not keep our dogs fit and healthy, and HOO BOY, is it motivation!

As much as I didn’t want to have the information Ward gives in Chow Hounds (because ignorance really is bliss sometimes), I’m very glad I read it so I can now cut through the B.S. on dog food packaging and understand how to make smarter choices for Millie. And what’s not to like about having real, solid research to provide me the motivation to take her for her walk even when I’m tired?  She’ll be four this Friday, and I’ve thoroughly convinced myself that she’s going to live forever, but if I want that to happen, I have to do my part. After all, when left to her own devices, she eats poop. So it’s not exactly like she can be trusted to make healthy decisions for herself.

Whether your dog is healthy or obese, you’ll find helpful information in Chow Hounds. 4 out of 5.

Hey, FTC: I received a copy of this book for participation in a blog tour with TLC Book Tours.

I am an IndieBound affiliate and will receive a small commission if you purchase Chow Hounds through a link in this review.

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Spring has officially sprung here in Richmond, and as much as I love winter and snow, I have to say that I’m glad to see it. I spent most of the day yesterday lolling about on a picnic blanket in the back yard with my well-loved copy of The Sparrow, then Bob and I rounded out the day with Mexican food and margaritas. And let me tell you, those margaritas were necessary for dealing with the Jayhawks’ loss.

Yeah, yeah. I know you didn’t come here to read about basketball, and really, I don’t have much to say about it. But I grew up in Kansas and went to grad school at KU, and I (like so many of us) had picked the Jayhawks to win it all. My bracket is still whimpering in the corner, and my Facebook stream is filled to brimming with KU-related sadness. It’s not a pretty sight.

But thanks to the sunshine and perfect weather, I’m almost to the point of not caring. Almost.

The biggest decision I’ll be making today is what color to paint my toenails.

So I’ll forgo the usual week-end wrap-up and trust that you’re capable of scrolling through the last several posts if you’ve missed anything. I’m off for more sun-drunk relaxation.

Today, I’m taking my cues from Millie.

How are you spending this Sunday?

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That’s right folks, today I turn 27 and officially enter my late twenties. And what did I get for my birthday?  A whole foot of snow (holla!), a lazy Sunday, hubby cooking breakfast, and knee-high black leather boots that actually don’t gape open around my calves (thanks, hubby!).  Ahhh, life is good.

Also? My amazing friend Emy made me a wreath out of book pages.  Yes, book pages!  Does it get any better than that?  I was going to hang it on our front door, but I’ve decided it needs a permanent home, and I’m now on the hunt for the perfect spot in our house. Until I find that spot (and because I’m too lazy to mess with taking pictures, uploading pictures, and editing pictures today), here’s a photo from the blog where she found the idea and a tutorial in case you want to make one yourself.

I know, I know. You totally want one, don’t you?

Before I get down to celebrating the fact that my birthday this year coincides not only with a most fantabulous snowstorm but also with Do Nothing But Read Day, let me share a few important lessons I’ve learned this past year, on the road from 26 to 27.

• When your hair stylist tells you she’s noticing some “highlights” she’s never seen before, she’s trying to tell you you’re getting gray hairs. As if you didn’t already know and spend a ridiculous amount of time in front of the mirror on search-and-destroy missions.

• Do not, I repeat, DO NOT put your control-top pantyhose on in front of your husband.

• Though it is (for some unknown reason) socially acceptable for people to share WAY TOO MUCH information about their marriages, pregnancies, family dramas, and health crises on Facebook, it is not, apparently, acceptable to make fun of them for it. Hm.

• Nicholas Sparks wears tight black t-shirts!

• Calling a book a “phenomenal mindf#@k” is a great way to get people to buy the book….and acquire a bunch of really bizarre followers on Twitter.

• You let your husband  guest blog once, and you better be prepared to spend weeks listening to him gush about his “adoring public.”

• People of Walmart can make any day brighter.

• When your mom cleans out your closet and tells you she found something in one of your old purses and then asks if you want to know what it was, JUST SAY NO. Because the answer, though hilarious, is also way too cringe-inducing when you realize this is your mom—and not one of your girlfriends—you’re talking to.

This week, I reviewed The Guinea Pig Diaries by A. J. Jacobs and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, and I featured a guest blog by Laura van den Berg.  I also guest blogged about my favorite Christmas song at My Friend Amy.

I read (and loved) Tana French’s The Likeness this week, and I’m spending my snow day today with The Lost City of Z by David Grann.  I’ll be checking in periodically for the next few weeks, but I’m going to be mostly unplugged so I can enjoy the holidays, and I’ll probably either save my book reviews for after the holidays or post a series of mini-reviews in between. My Christmas shopping is done, my birthday celebration is in full swing, and I’m ready for a most excellent lazy Sunday with Bob and Millie.

What are you up to today?

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This was one of those weeks where I thought Sunday would never come. I had special events for work every day and hardly spent any time in the office, so there’s a mountain of email and administrative tasks awaiting me tomorrow.

But today I’m doing exactly what you think I’m doing. I’m camped out on the couch in my PJs, snuggled up with Bob and Millie, studiously avoiding any reminder of the real world. And that’s just the way I like it.

I should spend this precious quiet time writing reviews of the great books I read this week: Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, and The Guinea Pig Diaries by A.J. Jacobs, but even though I have extensive notes and a lot to say about all three, I can’t seem to muster the mojo. It’s a cold, rainy, winterific day here in Richmond (finally!), and I want to spend it reading. Not to mention the fact that hubby and I endured the world’s longest office holiday party last night and desperately need to decompress. (I mean, really, whoever thought their coworkers actually wanted to be herded onto a bus and driven around on a tacky lights tour—in which the ratio of time spent driving to time spent looking at lights was horribly off kilter—is just straight up crazy. For reals: we spent three and a half hours on the bus and only made six official stops. IT WAS RI-FREAKING-DICULOUS.

So I think I’ll curl up with The Likeness and check out for a while.

In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this little piece of holiday sacriliciousness, compliments of South Park. (If you’re reading this in a feed reader, you may need to click through to my site in order to view the video.)

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.4191848&w=425&h=350&fv=autoPlay%3Dtrue%26sowmode%3D]

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Hello, world! Millie the basset hound here. My mom Rebecca has been unplugged this weekend, and she’s enjoying it so much that she decided to stay lazy today and let me write her Sunday Salon post. And Thank goodness for that. I’ve heard that she tells some embarrassing stories about me, and it’s time I set the record straight.

This is me.

I’m cute. I’m thoughtful. I can actually stand still for a picture every now and then. So what if I spill my kibble all over the floor and bark at it before I eat it?

But I’m even cute when I’m barking. See?

You’d be barking too if you saw all of the delicious food that has come and gone through my house this weekend. My parents have barely let me lay a paw on it!

But enough about me. I’m supposed to be telling you about our Thanksgiving weekend. Now, as much as I can figure, Thanksgiving is just a good excuse to have some of your peeps visit and make a ton of the aforementioned delicious food (and torture little basset hounds by forcing them to smell all of those wonderful smells and keeping the food just out of reach on the counter).

On Wednesday, my mom and Dad drove up to Washington D.C. to pick up Rebecca’s parents. I call them Grandma Kaye and Pookie.  While they were making the long drive, I went over to my neighbor’s house for playtime with my two best friends Hazel and Bean. My mom kept saying something about wanting me to be tired and mellow by the time all of our company arrived, and man did her plan ever work!  I ran around and barked and played chase and barked some more, and then I wrestled Hazel to the ground a few times. She’s part hound dog like me, but she doesn’t have my skills.

Oh, but I digress.

So, Grandma Kaye and Pookie came to visit, and that made me really happy because Pookie is just about the easiest mark I’ve ever seen. He basically fell in love with me the first time we met, and ever since then I’ve been batting my droopy eyes at him and getting nibbles of tasty food in return. My mom and dad pretend to be upset about it, but I can tell they think it’s cute too. I mean, who can resist this face?

After I greeted my grandparents (they have a hound dog named Maggie, but she didn’t come to visit), Rebecca’s sister and her fiance came to my house, and they brought my cousin Angus. He’s a giant yellow lab, and even though he’s a few years older than me, he’s still pretty good at chasing after tennis balls and playing tug-of-war with my big rawhide bone. He sleeps a lot, and he tries to steal my food, but I love him anyway, and I was so proud to show him off when we all went on a walk together Thursday morning.

But getting to Thursday morning was an adventure because I decided to wake up in the middle of the night Wednesday night and check on all of my visitors. Mom and Dad told them to keep their bedroom doors closed so I couldn’t barge in, but they didn’t close them tightly enough….so at 2am, I tried to jump in bed with Grandma Kaye and Pookie, but my mom caught me. So then I tried to sneak upstairs to visit Angus, but my mom caught me again!  Really, I just like to make her run around in her underwear in the middle of the night.

Oh, I digressed again, didn’t I?  I’m sorry. I get distracted easily, and there are squirrels running around in my yard. I have to keep them in check. Plus, my brain’s the size of a walnut. What can you do?

Anyway, everyone spent most of the day on Thursday cooking up yummy side dishes and desserts, so I spent most of the day sitting on the kitchen floor just wishing and hoping and thinking and praying for a few morsels to fall my way. Then they all went over to my dad’s brother’s house and left Angus and me here all by ourselves! We felt really left out, but it turned out that they brought home leftovers, and my dad made us each a little plate! So I had a nibble of turkey, and a nibble of mashed potatoes, and a nibble of sweet potatos, and even a nibble of pumpkin pie for dessert!  I never get to eat people food, so it was a big treat.

And I loved every minute of it…..until Angus started farting. Do you have any idea how awful it is to smell big dog farts with a nose as powerful as mine?

On Friday, I lazed around the house while my mom and Grandma Kaye went shopping (but not crazy early like some of those peeps I saw on TV), and yesterday I held down the fort (whatever that means) while my mom and dad drove my grandparents back to the airport in D.C. They said traffic was really bad, and they were gone a long time.  They looked very tired when they came home!

So this morning we’ve been pretty lazy, but that’s not really different from any Sunday around here.  Mom and Dad will wear their PJs all day, and we’ll all take a nap together on the couch this afternoon, and Mom will read books while Dad watches football.  They’ll probably eat leftovers for dinner tonight and maybe watch a movie or something. I don’t really care what they do as long as I get to be cozied up in the middle of them. Or snuggled in my armchair with my favorite afghan.

It’s almost time for lunch now, so I have to go muster up the energy to beat the fight out of my kibble.  Before I go, my mom wanted me to show you our new family picture:

Thought I should end on a good note in case that little goat I’ve been hearing about comes by to check me out. Apparently our moms are cooking up some kind of interview or something.

Thanks for letting me visit your Sunday Salon. I hope you’ve all had a wonderful weekend. Now that I’ve said my how-do’s, I’m off to resume my lazy Sunday. Watch out, kibble….here I come!

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Well, it’s not exactly the quietest Sunday morning here in Book Lady Land (just in case you were wondering why I’m even out of bed at 9:30am). The hound was wide awake at 7:30 and refused to leave Bob and me alone. So we got up, made coffee and cinnamon rolls, and have spent the last hour—I kid you not, it’s been an hour—watching the dog knock all of the food out of her dish then chase it down one piece at a time. Sounds straightforward, right?

Not if you’re a basset hound and you get freaked out when your kibble gets too close to a wall or a chair or a bookshelf or a shoe that just happens to be lying on the floor. Oh no. Those things are all threats to your kibble, and they must be warned with loud, hound dog barking. Then the kibble must be rescued, very carefully, from its imperiled position. One. Piece. At. A. Time. I’m telling you, our kitchen floor is a minefield of dog food right now. And it’s not even 10am.

This is so not cool. Clearly, we need to sit Millie down and review the rules of Sunday with her.

Luckily, the rest of this week has been pretty great.

I kicked off the week with a giveaway for signed copies of Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk.  Entries closed on Friday night, and I’m happy to announce that Lena and Trish won the random drawing (I used random.org) and will be receiving two of the first signed U.S. editions of this most excellent book.

John Grogan guest blogged here on Tuesday, and then he made me squee at a decibel only dogs can hear when he posted about me on his blog.

I also featured a Book Club Breakdown of Gossip of the Starlings by Nina de Gramont and a review of Same Kind of Different As Me, in which I discuss the inspiring teacher who pushed me to read it and the many ways in which it made me cry.

Coming up this week: reviews of Bad Mother, In the Woods, and Two is Enough.

Hubby and I had a busy day running errands yesterday, then we went to see Boondock Saints II, which was enjoyable (though not nearly as good as the first movie), a bit campy at times, and really quite funny.  Now that I’m snuggled safely into my favorite spot on the couch (did I mention I’m wearing brand new flannel pajama pants?), my plans for the day include napping, finishing Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon, catching up on blog reading, and more napping. A girl’s gotta recover from early morning hound dog wake-up calls somehow, you know.

What are you up to today?

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Rebecca Schinsky

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Current selection: The Last Song, which I’m hoping to finish with some sleep-deprived snark for #IHeartTheSpark

Time spent reading: 15 hours and 25 minutes

Page count so far: 805

Books Finished: Bad Mother and Same Kind of Different as Me; still in the middle of the John Irving, which I’ll finish tomorrow.

How’s it hanging? You know how they say that being sleep deprived can make you function as if you were drunk?  I’m kinda feeling like that. And the typing? It’s not happening so easily.

Etcetera: The dog finally figured out that Mommy is just crazy and decided to go to sleep, so I am truly going it alone now. And I still haven’t napped.  Can I really make it six more hours?  How am I going to keep reading? And who wants to bring me a snack?

Also? I think my couch is going to have a permanent ass-shaped indentation in the spot I’ve occupied for most of the last 18 hours.

And Millie looks so cute and happy curled up next to me. Sleep must be nice….

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Well folks, we’ve officially entered the portion of the read-a-thon where I’m up past my bedtime. Having resisted the siren call of the coffee maker for the last, oh, seven hours, I have finally caved in and am caffeinating as I write this update. Now that we’re safely beyond the halfway mark, and I’ve had only a few short breaks and nary a nap, I’m feeling pretty confident. Let’s hope it lasts.

Current selection: Same Kind of Different as Me. I should finish it in the next hour or so.

Time spent reading: 12 hours and 45 minutes

Page count so far: 640  (which seems kinda low, but I haven’t exactly been reading fluff)

Books Finished: Still just the one—Bad Mother. But I should finish Same Kind of Different pretty soon, then I’m going to revisit The Last Song to complete my #IHeartTheSpark challenge….if I can stomach it.

How’s it hanging? I’m doing better than I thought I would be at this point, though things are going to get interesting now that hubby’s gone to bed and left me out in the living room alone.  Regardless, I’m feeling like I have a pretty good chance of making it.

Etcetera:Millie (the basset hound) is more than a little bit confused about why I’m up and around so late, and she’s decided it’s playtime. So I’ll be wrangling that rawhide bone away from her in between pages. Delightful.

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