What Is It About Puppies...

....that I love so? All I know is I love them. They are so freaking cute!

I've just been relaxing on the couch with our, er, I mean my daughter's new puppy, watching her sleep. She is a tiny ball of adorable!

It's like having a baby in the house. We've been looking forward to her arrival, counting day the days until her 'due' date. My daughter cleaned up and puppy proofed her room. We spent hours tossing out names, even on the car ride down to pick her up, I couldn't resist giving my daughter suggestions. Turns out the puppy wasn't a Gracie or an Alice, but a lovely Olive.

Then we've got to introduce her to her big dog 'sisters' or would Sarah and Emma be her aunts? We've made sure we have new dog toys for the Beagles, and special treats to ease their meeting.

Night time comes with a crying puppy and a daughter knocking on our door to say Olive has messed in her crate. Very similar to newborns and dirty diapers!

As she slept next to me on the couch, I watched her do a little suckling motion with her mouth and instantly I saw in my mind my own babies doing that in their sleep. It was a very sweet moment, and I remembered how much I wanted 6 kids. Well, if you count dogs, I have five now.

The thing that is not like babies at all is that I am going to put Olive away in her crate when I take my shower. You really can't crate a baby. You may want to, but you can't. Laws and good parenting and all that.

This is why I love puppies. They are like babies, but really, they are dogs. I'm not so dog crazy that I don't know that!

Just almost that dog crazy.

I Am A Closet Trekkie

I actually had no idea I was a Trekkie, closeted or not, until the new movie came out.

I mean, I know I watched reruns of the original series. I remember getting scared silly with some of those episodes and that might explain my fear of deep space and all the alien horror that might entail. I loved the Next Generation. I occasionally watched Capt Janeway but I never watched the Scott Bakula show.

I have watched all the Next Generation movies. I think I've seen the original Star Trek movies. I know for sure I feel asleep during The Wrath of Khan at the movie theater. In my defense, I was just a little kid and it was kind of boring. And I remember one with the whales (which also scared me silly since I have a fear of the deep sea too).

I am no stranger to the genre. But I did not know I loved it until I saw the latest movie in the theater.

First, when I heard they were making a Star Trek movie, with Capt Kirk and Spock and Bones and Uhura and Scotty and Sulu and Chekov, I was horrified. What is it with the movie industry that they can't come up with anything new? That being said, has any one seen a trailer for The A Team? Holy Smokes! I'll be there opening weekend. Then I saw a movie poster and thought, hey that does look like Spock. Then I saw a preview and thought, wowzer! That looks good.

Then I saw the movie in the theater and I was in love! It was so awesome. The beginning just takes off with a bang and it never slows down. I fell in love with these alternate reality characters.

We just rented the move and watched it at home. It only got better! And as I sat on our new couch, all snuggled in next to E, and we were talking about Star Trek, all generations of it, and trying to explain to our daughter how we remember the original series in reruns, and it is such an iconic part of our life, I realized I am a Trekkie.

Not so hard core that I would recite things in Klingon or have serious technical questions about space travel and I probably won't don an Uhura costume and go to conventions.....but you never know!

Back In The Land Of The Living

I'm back in the land of the living, and no, it's not because I've stopped throwing up and praying for death. (I don't handle illness that involves puking with any sort of maturity.)

No, I'm back because I have a cell phone again. A lovely, shiny, complicated piece of electronics that I never realized how much I depend on.

I can remember years ago, when my kids were little, thinking a cell phone was an unnecessary, expensive complication to my all ready busy life. Did I really need one? Like I needed brain cancer.

Then my husband was deployed in the Puget Sound area, and we could stay in touch through a cell phone if we had one. We got one, and I've had one pretty much ever since. I've liked the one I had the last couple of years, but it suddenly decided it had an incompatible battery, and it wouldn't work. I could buy another battery, or get a new phone.

Hello, new phone. As soon as it got out of it's box, and set up, and started charging, I felt so much better.

Again, I'm sure that had nothing to do with the fact that I was actually, physically, on the road to health. It's the power of a cell phone that made me sit up a little on the couch.

I had to input the kids numbers, and text them to try out my new full keyboard. I had to buy my ring tone again (I have only had one since I discovered I could buy my own: David Cassidy singing "I Think I Love You.") I had to call our home number to test the sound quality. I had to take an unflattering picture of my husband and not save it, and take a cute one of Sarah Beagle, and save that.

I did not sleep with it that night, but in the morning I made sure it was right next to me all day. That's totally normal right?

The Cream In My Coffee

I love coffee. Nothing new to people who know me. I will drink a whole pot of coffee by myself, straight up black, no added anything. That's not to say I don't love a mocha. I do! More than I should. But I learned to drink coffee black so I could drink it anywhere, anytime and not have to worry if I'd have my creamer.

Well, on Monday night I made a delicious tortellini dish which called for heavy cream. I didn't use all of the little carton, so I put it back in the fridge. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it since I don't usually make things with cream it (too fattening, don't cha know). Yesterday morning I poured myself my usual cup of coffee and happened to think of the cream.

Ooohhh! I added a splash and OMG. Heaven. I drank way more than my usual three cups. It was so good!

In the evening, my husband made a pot of coffee and I said goody! I can have more cream. My daughter asked if she could pour our coffee. For some reason this is a very exciting thing for her to do and she loves doing it. That's cool with me, I like being served! I said not to fill mine to the top so I could add some cream.

Cream you say? Could she have a cup of coffee with cream? I guess. I said she wouldn't like it, but go ahead and try some. She's actually been drinking mocha's since she was old enough to sneak around and steal sips of mine when I wasn't looking and it hasn't stunted her growth one bit!

This video is how she reacted to coffee with cream. We might be in trouble! The only saving grace is that I won't buy cream next time I go to the store, so once this is gone, it's gone. There will be tears. And not just from my daughter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuGlG-Nktgk

It's Monday Morning, So....

So I must have a huge case of the lazies.

I must get up grudgingly when the alarm goes off. Trudge up the stairs to wake up the kids. Stare bleary eyed at the email.

Drag myself off to exercise. Feed the super charged Beagles their breakfast.

Drink three cups of coffee while I read gossip on the internet. Eat my breakfast while I start another book.

Can't put the book down, so I must get into the shower 15 minutes behind schedule.

What I've planned to wear today will either be in the dirty clothes or desperately need to be ironed. Plan B will be a jean skirt.

And as I'm racing out the door, late, the last of the coffee poured into my pink thermos and a bottle of water and a snack bag of nuts shoved in my purse, I must remember to put a new note on the door for my son. The note that says the same thing every single day, but must be replaced every day because he won't read the old one.

"Please feed and water the dogs. Thanks. Love Mom."

Did I mention the case of the lazies? It feels particularly bad this morning.

Dog Doppelgangers

It has come to my attention that our lovely Beagle Sarah is a dead ringer for a celebrity.

What? Doesn't everyone know that somewhere, out there, a dog is drooling on the doggy version of your face? It seems like that should be common knowledge.

Sarah is a very cute Beagle, a little on the wrong side of disgustingly skinny. She's healthy, but you can see her rips and every one of her vertebrae. She's also got a very sharp jaw line and a big old mole on her cheek. Her back legs look pretty frail, almost as if they can't support all of her weight.

Today we noticed that Sarah is almost the spitting image of one Sarah Jessica Parker! Yes! Be amazed, but also see the truth in our words.

It's like looking at twins! Granted, SJP has recently removed her mole, while Sarah Beagle now has one on each side of her face....that in itself is suspicious.....

Well, now you know. So when you see the dog that looks like me, quick, take a picture! I'd love to see it.