• This morning, as I ate a cookie one of our friends, who is of Lebanese descent, made for us, I told Irish Woman that I would give her a girl child if she got the recipe, and that shewas authorized to offer Boo in exchange for it.
  • I will get this recipe, and if I’m allowed, I’ll post the recipe.
• My turkey turned out to be very juicy, and my gravy was highly praised.  I’ll call that a win.
• I consider it a good meal if everyone eats in silence because talking would take away from the food.
• It would appear that Bluegrass and Moonshine have accepted Derby.  I was woken this morning by Moonie and Derby practicing their kung-fu in the hallway.  Derby can hold her own with Moonshine, but Bluegrass only let her play for a moment before showing her teeth and reminding her who was the head female in this particular pack.  Of course, 20 minutes later, all three were in a pile taking a nap in a sunbeam.
• Boo is definitely my son.  I had to drag him back in the house to put on socks, shoes, and a jacket heavier than a sweatshirt this morning.
• I didn’t think I’d be doing any scripting tonight, but as fate would have it, I got to resurrect something I wrote in 2009, polish it a bit, and reuse it.
  • I was forced to do something I’ve never done before, which caused me to learn something tonight. Can’t let that continue.  Next thing you know, I’ll be learning, and improving, and growing, and we can’t have that.

• I swear I spent hours yesterday sweeping and mopping the floors.  You couldn’t tell today, but I swear I did.
• Took the new-to-us dog to the vet to day to get checked out.
  • No chip, so unless someone steps forward, she’s going to be our dog.  Her name is Derby.
  • No worms, and except for her weight, she’s in good health.
  • She’s not a lab puppy.  Rather, she’s a lab-beagle mix, and she’s between 2 and 3 years old.
  • One of the reasons she’s so scrawny is that she probably just finished weening a litter of pups.  She’s also coming back into heat.
  • In related news, she goes back to the vet next Thursday morning to get spayed.
• We formally introduced Derby to Blue and Moonshine after we were she was healthy.
• There’s some “I’m the Alpha!” posturing, but I don’t think integrating her into the family will be a problem.
• She eats like a stray.  Eat, look, eat, look.  We also need to work on her not begging and trying to snatch food from us. It just takes time.
• A quote to have a professional come out and trap the stinky critter came to $325, because skunk.

• I fell asleep this morning for a nap while I was reading the news about SecretaryHagel resigning.  Made for some very interesting dreams.
  • I’m proud to say that the Senate confirmed my nomination in a very bi-partisan vote.  I was looking forward to leading and serving our armed forces in this crucial time when Irish Woman woke me up.
• Irish Woman was planning on having a quiet evening at home with the children.  That didn’t happen.
• First, she got a call from one of her cousins, who had found a small labrador-ish dog running around.  Being the suckers animal lovers that we are, we agreed that it would be a good idea to go get her.
  • I met the new dog when I got home. Little girl, looks like a pure-bred black lab or really close. Very malnourished. Looks to be between 4 and 6 months old. Appears to be house broken and responded to the leash when we took her out to use the lawn. Very personable and obviously socialized to people and other dogs.
  • She already has an appointment at our vet on Wednesday to get checked out.  Until then she’s will spend most of her time away from the other dogs.
  • Best case scenario is that she has a registered chip and we can reunite her with her family.  That’ll break Boo’s heart, because he’s already claimed her and named her.
  • Failing that, I guess we’re back to having three dogs.
  • I don’t want to think about worst case scenario.
• Next, Irish Woman discovered why the dogs we already had were coming in so muddy these past few days.  You see, at the back of our property, there is a dip right at the fence.  That dip tends to accumulate water from snow and rain in the winter.  The dogs have been pacing it, and the reason became evident when Irish Woman looked over the fence and saw that some animal had made a den just on the other side.
  • I was thinking it was probably rabbits or some such, but no such luck.
  • Irish Woman and Girlie Bear found out what it was when the dogs slipped their leashes and headed right over to the den to investigate.  The new neighbor skunk met Moonshine and Bluegrass at his front door and doused them something fierce.  Unfortunately, nobody noticed until the dogs were in the house, so right now, my home smells like skunk and Febreeze.  I’ll be hitting the pharmacy tomorrow for a couple of bottles of peroxide to try to soak this out of them.
  • Oh well, I needed to rotate stock in the first aid kit anyway.

• You know, you really fail in your attempt togive a compliment when a respected writer puts up a picture of a product on her site, you reply with “Wow, that looks interesting.  I can’t wait to read what you think about it.”, and her response is “I wrote an entire feature-length article about it months ago.”
  • I guess I need to spend a little time reading that stack of magazines I have tucked away.
• Microwaved terriyaki ramen noodles, complete with reconstituted dried vegetables and meat, isn’t as appetizing as it sounds.
  • I shouldn’t complain.  Irish Woman made up a lot of meals for the week.  I’ve just been too darned lazy to bring some of them with me to work.
• My coffee is not too strong.  It’s not my fault that words like ‘viscosity’ are used to describe it.
• Is it just me, or do the Congressional Republicans play political tiddlywinks, while the Congressional Democrats and the President play chicken?

“There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.”
― Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein, published November 20, 1974

• Ladies, if you wake up at 2 AM and are having an internal body temperature fluctuation, it is not necessary to shut off the furnace completely on a night where it got down to 40 degrees.  Most modern thermometers actually allow you to reduce the temperature in the house without completely deactivating the furnace.
• There were more posters about Ebola than there were about flu at the clinic this afternoon.  Guess which one is likely to be found in Louisville and kill you?
• The good news the doctor at the walk-in clinic had for me is that, contrary to how I feel, I am not going to die.  The bad news is that what I have is viral, takes two to three weeks to completely go away, and is quite easy to spread.
• I’m not sure if this hot toddy (peach tea, apple bourbon, and honey) is good for me, but it definitely feels good on my throat.
• Many thanks to everyone who bought the book in the first few hours it was on sale.  I write because I enjoy it, but it’s always good to see proof that I’m not just doing it to entertain myself.  If you’ve got any comments about it, please leave them on the book’s Amazon page.
• It’s amazing how many technical issues end with me saying “But it can’t be that easy!”.

• I took a my last two days of vacation for the year so that I could relax this week.  Instead, Girlie Bear and I raked,mulched,mowed, shredded, andcomposted the leaves of 1.5 50 year old maple trees.
  • Oh, my aching body.
• If my polling place was any indicator, voter turnout was quite high here in Louisville.  Parking was wall to wall, and there was a line to the door.
• Girlie Bear got her state ID yesterday and we opened up a bank account for her.  She deposited the money she’s made babysitting, and I’m proud that she thought to put most of it into savings.
• Listening to a lecture series about English history will occasionally make your skin crawl.  There were some seriously messed up people ruling England.
• I felt a rather large sense of accomplishment when I got Netflix working on our TV again tonight.  All it took was the sacrifice of a large chicken, the Konami Code, prayers to gods both old and dark, and a promise to never sin again.
  • I’m not joking about the Konami Code.

• I discovered this weekend that Irish Woman likes top shelf bourbon. I mean really top shelf bourbon. Like “A bottle of this stuff costs more than your average car payment” top shelf bourbon.
• The more bourbon Irish Woman sips, the more southern and Irish she becomes.
• According to marketing video at the distillery this weekend, the history of bourbon whiskey pretty much got started when a bunch of Scottish and Irish immigrants looked at the federal government and said “Screw you, I’m going west and making whiskey!”. And so, a great American tradition was born.
• The bed and breakfast we stayed at is a working farm.  We need to go back so I can get pictures of Irish Woman milking a goat and negotiating with a chicken about possession of her eggs.
• The farm apparently has an abundance of roosters.  There’s nothing like hearing them compete for dominance while you’re trying to sleep in.
• It’s not a compliment when I take two sips of the coffee I bought from you, then throw the rest in the trash can on my way out of your cafe.
• You know, I don’t see the point of putting Barbie dolls from 2004 in an antique store.
• After we got home this afternoon, we took Boo out in the yard to practice with his bow.  Once he learns to not stick his head between the bow and the bow string in order to aim, he’s going to be deadly.
• Sign of a good waiter – when a customer orders a dish that includes a whole fish, head, tail, and everything, he cautions the customer and even brings out the fish to prove his point.
  • Little Bear changed his mind and ordered shrimp instead.