Don’t think too hard when you look at this Love Thursday shot of Moose. Freaky, huh? The Dog was a gift from Auntie M last Christmas, and Moose has taken to it.

Actually, he will sleep under or next to anything soft and smushy — he’s a complete comfort whore. Try keeping him out of the bed at night — it’s madness!

I’m still not back to my regular jovial self, what with my pretzel pelvis. I have figured out, however, that it would probably feel better if I didn’t have my own head wedged up in there. So, working on that in the next 24 hours.

I do, in the meantime, love that stout little terrier. He’s consistently one of the best parts of our days.

Eddie from Ohio, Woman of Faith

When is this human 2-year-old mutant going to bed? I have things to d…chew.

I wrote my “about” section today — rather I finished it and popped it onto the site. That’s a tall order, actually! It’s not easy to write about who I am in a few paragraphs. I do hope to learn about a lot of other people as part of this blog journey too. Not a comment yet, though I don’t really know how to get “out there” and get people reading. If you’re here and you like to talk about yourself, type away!

In the meantime, Shaun (and Moose) made me laugh tonight at the end of a self-depracating verbal purge about my stress level(s) and how I let it affect my time with Ruby. We do speak for our dog in this house — Moose has a voice that we both imitate and we speak on his behalf all the time. This evening he (through Shaun) suggested that it might be relaxing for me to try bacon origami. Put on soft music, get into a comfortable place, and make small figures out of folding (smushing?) bacon, before cooking it and feeding it to him. Just the thought of it cracked me up and took a bit of the edge off. I don’t think it would work, but Moose never stops trying to increase the amount of bacon in his life. I admire his commitment.

Shaun and I have decided to implement date night. Thursdays from here on out, Monica is going to come over and watch Ruby while we go somewhere and stare into each other’s eyes for a bit. Tonight was our first Thursday, and though Shaun is in Denver we decided I would keep the night for myself and go out with a friend. Heaven!

I came home to see Monica (through the lace curtains) leaping around the living room. She opened the front door before I even got to it, and exclaimed that she was pursuing a cucaracha, a GRANDE one. Somehow in Monica’s native tongue that didn’t sound as bad as “a big-ass dirty cockroach the size of my palm just went screaming across your floor.” It’s always so horrifying when someone else sees the bug first. Or the mouse. The one that runs right past our “ratter” Boston terrier and knees him in the groin on the way by. She asked if Moose will kill these little enemies and I said “He will if they are wrapped in bacon.”

I tried to explain about “the city” (I think there are more cockroaches here than in the suburbs?) and that we really are clean people without trash and crumbs lying around for the grande bugs to snack on. After a few blustery sentences I just shrugged and thanked Monica for her understanding and bravery.

She was a very good sport. The good news? She informed me that in Peru, “a cucaracha this big? He fly.”