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We may have a problem.

Hubs and I are somewhat notorious within our circle of family and friends for being suckers for a cute animal. Mostly just dogs for Hubs, although a few years ago he was easy game for a free kitten. That's how we ended up with two cats, which didn't deal well with the Big Girl's arrival. The boys live with my parents now and find the environment much more to their liking - except when the grandkids visit.

So we have serious issues saying no to cute animals needing homes. I've often thought that I would get a big farm and have oodles of dogs with my winnings if I won the lottery. That, of course, would require that I actually play the lottery, but I digress.

We're fond of giving out advice that we can't follow so well ourselves: never to PetSmart on a Saturday. You might come home with an extra dog instead of just some dog biscuits and a grooming brush. That's how we acquired sweet Hank, who ultimately revealed that he had some serious issues with men - due to mistreatment earlier in life - and he had to find a new home.

So Big Girl came home early from school today due to the heavy rain and flooding in our area. Shortly after she came inside, she spotted a dog in the yard across the road, and she thought it looked like our yellow lab. I went out to investigate, since our lab has, in the last couple of weeks, developed a bad habit of jumping the fence and running wild through the neighborhood. I didn't think it looked like our lab, but I called to it anyway, thinking that I could check the tag and see where it should be.

So a leggy adolescent who is mostly, if not entirely, golden retriever bounded over to me. He (I think male) was only wearing a flea collar, and he looks malnourished. Not just in a "I'm skinny because I'm growing up so fast and my legs have gotten ahead of the rest" way, but seriously thin. So (cue sucker for a cute face) I gave the little guy some kibble, and he settled down on our front mat after wolfing down the food.

I was trying to restrain my emotions. I hadn't seen the dog around our neighborhood before, so I called Hubs to run the situation by him:

Me: "There's a golden retriever puppy on our front porch. He's really skinny."
Hubs: "You're kidding."
Me: "No, really. He's skinny and leggy and doesn't have a tag, just a flea collar. And fleas."
Hubs: "Put him in the back yard. Sounds like we have a third dog."
Me: "Really?"
Hubs: "Yeah, our dogs get flea treatments. They'll be fine. Give it some food and water."
Me: "I already fed it."
Hubs: "Good."
Me: "You don't think I should call-"
Hubs: "No. You know what they do to dogs."

I kid you not. The man went from "stray dog" to "we have a new dog" right away. Not even a pause. And he thinks I'm a sentimental fool for dogs, with my Cute Overload page-a-day calendar and photos of our current and late pets around the house? So we have a temporary third dog. I'm not letting myself think that he's here for the long term. I've made that mistake before, many times, when we've taken in animals that have sought out our home as a refuge when they couldn't find their own homes.

What do our dogs think of this visitor? The lab - who was inside the fence where he should have been - thinks this new kid is neat. Our sweet old golden gave me a woeful look. Very similar to the one he gave me when we brought home a peppy young lab to interrupt his sedentary senior lifestyle, which ironically looked a lot like the look our sweet old Brittany (now in doggie heaven) gave us many, many years ago when we had the nerve to bring a tiny golden upstart into his domain.

Did I mention that this little visitor is mighty wiggly? After half a dozen attempts, I gave up trying to get a picture of his actual face.

Clueless.

I keep getting these e-mails intended for someone else. Some group of women planning a party or something. And I tell them they have the wrong address, but they keep sending me their messages. So whoever they intend to send the messages to has no clue what the group is doing.

Today I got another message, and I wrote back:

"You have the wrong e-mail address."

And the woman writes back:

"What's the right address?"

What? Hello! So I am forced to spell it out:

"I don't know any of you! I have no idea what address you meant to use!"

Duh.

Happy Fourth, Y'all!

I get these calls sometimes.

For your entertainment - after all, it's Friday...

Amusing.

see Sarah Palin pictures

A little somethin' funny before I go take a nap:

more animals

New fun from Funny or Die

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Thank you Michelle!

One of my online friends shared this - isn't it fabulous?!

Do you have adequate insurance coverage?

Dubya Winking

This is an odd picture. It kind of amuses me, and then again it's just kind of weird. It's the picture of the day on Anderson Cooper's show, AC 360, on CNN - they have a daily contest called Beat 360 where they solicit captions for amusing or interesting pictures. Apparently Dubya was preparing to speak before the UN yesterday when this photo was taken. He kind of looks like he's trying not to sneeze to me.

A Political Funny

My mom sent me this gem from the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

(to the tune of Rawhide, naturally) Voting, voting, voting...

The kids and I went to the Masonic lodge behind a certain nearby elementary school to vote before I took them to school. I kind of sentimentally wanted them to be there to see the voting first hand. The whole process, from joining the line until I returned to my car, took about an hour. It was a bit chilly, standing outside in line, but the kids and I had coats and the sun came up higher and warmed us up after a bit.

An older woman in front of me surprised me just after we joined the line. A young man standing between the woman and me in line was wearing short sleeves, no coat. This young man was wearing a stained button-down workshirt and looked like he probably works in some sort of manual labor-type job. He was also Hispanic and spoke heavily accented English - that matters in this context because of this town and the dynamics of class/race/ethnicity here.

The woman was dressed for work in an office setting, in a tailored dark purple wool blazer and black pants. She had nicely coiffed hair, perfect makeup, and generally looked rather affluent and professional. And she turned to the young man and made a remark about the chilly weather. When he agreed with her assessment, she told him she had a coat he could wear, and that she would be glad to get it from her car for him. He demurred, but she offered again, more than once. She wasn't annoying about it. She just didn't want the guy to get cold. He seemed surprised initially by her offer, but thanked her for her generosity and declined.

I wish that this exchange hadn't surprised me, but given some of the interactions (or lack therof) that I've seen between people here, I was also a bit surprised by her generosity. There are a lot of immigrants in this town, drawn by jobs in the carpet industry, and I've seen and heard some ugly rhetoric toward people who have come here from other countries - Mexico and elsewhere - in search of jobs. I've heard comments about people who don't speak "good" English (and given the diction and syntax of some locals, they're being hilariously, un-self-consciously ironic). I guess these tensions crop up in many places, but I was delighted to see my pessimistic expectations upended today as we waited to vote.

In general, everyone in line seemed very patient about waiting. There was even an undercurrent of camaraderie. And Big Girl showed me that she's really been paying attention during Dora the Explorer. A mother and her young son were in line behind us, and I was amusing the kids by asking them to identify letters and numbers on the plates of cars parked in the lot. The young boy pointed to a number on the plate of a nearby car and asked his mom, in Spanish, "what letter is this?" She corrected him, saying (again in Spanish), "what number is this?" Big Girl piped up with the correct answer at the same time as the boy.

My robe

My robe, or rather the sash for my robe, is under constant attack. Two keeps attempting to steal it so he can play with it. He calls it his "rescue rope" and, I believe, plans to use it to rescue animals like his television hero Diego. Many of these animals apparently need to be rescued from his sister's room and taken to his room.

I love for him to play animal rescuer - it's a favorite game that he and Big Girl often play together - but I can't get him to choose an alternate rescue rope. He keeps coming back to the robe, which I would like to wear closed so I stay warm.

Nicely done!

Ben Affleck did a great Keith Olbermann on SNL...



SNL is getting better. I thought it was dead, but the presidential election seems to have given it a breath of fresh air.

Reading this evening

Passive-Aggressive Notes

Austin residents seek to break Guiness World Record

They are trying to break the record for the number of people doing the "Thriller" dance at the same time. This record is currently held by a group of inmates in the Philippines. Yes, seriously. The part where the mayor joins in? Priceless.

It figures.

Right after I post about how I love to use my headphones to watch tv on my laptop, one of the earbuds falls apart. Guess I'll have to buy a new pair.

Betty White? Oh, yeah, she rules!