Ehhhhhhhhhhhh. Busybusybusy.

Please meet the newest member of my extended family — Miss Southern Belle. She is 7 weeks old, and
the first four-legged “kid” of my younger brother. My parents, anxiously awaiting grandchildren still are quite delighted with her. (Sorry to say, Allcats, but they definately like the canine grandkid better than the feline one. Ah well.)

That being said, it’s difficult not to completely deginerate into a babbling baby-talking puddle of goo. She’s weilds her cuteness like a +10 dex-buffed broadsword. She ambles saucily, her hips not quite yet in line with her forepaws. She falls over her own feet, her blankets, a tree branch, a
soccer ball. She launches herself towards you like a tiny furry rocket. A rocket with needle-sharp teeth.

She’s amazingly well-behaved. Say what you want about my brother’s occasional boorishness, the hint of redneck, the overwhelming flavor of ‘Republican,’ but he appears to make one fine dog owner. Belle is mostly house-trained, comes when called, does not beg at the table, and already knows a fairly large number of basic commands. Sit, stay, shake, high-five. High five? Seriously.

Even my mom is in love. My mom — the lady who swore off all dogs after the ancient dachsund bought the farm in 1991, and has resisted my dad’s ever-so-charming entreats to re-introduce a puppy into the household for the last 14 years? Apparently she got caught the other morning sneaking Belle outside to play before work. Dad, on the other hand, just takes her to his office. He says she likes it, though she did leave teethmarks in his filing folders. This is going to be one rotten little puppy. Well-trained and rotten.

Now, admittedly, that didn’t stop me from offering to doggie-sit. In fact, nothing would. I mean–I’m a cat person! What am I thinking? I’m thinking she’s too adorable for words, is what I’m thinking. First person to invent a puppy- or kitten-powered doomsday device? Would totally succeed at blowing up the world. Sigh. The Power of Cute.

In other news…

Now that I have sort of returned from a brief blog hiatus, let us get on with it. (Mostly I’ve had stuff to post, even if I’ve had no time to post it.)

List of stuff happening

  • Plans for this year’s lake trip are underway. If you get the mail, consider yourself invited. If not–well, it’s not that we hate you, really… but someone might. And apparently that someone managed to be higher in the food chain than you. Sorry, dudes, but that’s the way life goes. And, as dooce might say… suck it. Life isn’t always fair and space is limited. So deal.
  • I’m heading for the Big Easy tomorrow morning. Whee! Though Wil Wheaton has mono and won’t be attending, it’s all good. I’m still helping with the Red Hat Summit. I’m sure it will be a whirlwind five days and four nights. Emphasis on the whirl. So far, it sounds like I’ll be taking names, taking pictures, and generally just running around doing stuff. I say again, “Whee!”
  • Gaming is going well. K and I have been writing the storyline for the last 5 sessions now, and so far noone is dead-dead. They’ve been locked on a plane with innumerable zombies and other undead creatures, they’ve murdered three teenagers who were out on a road trip and happened to get in their
    way, they’ve communed with a fairy and a crazy clock-maker. And they’re only half-way there.

Friday five

  1. What was your favorite breakfast cereal when you were a kid?
    Honeycomb. My grandmother used to keep a box in the yellow cabinets, beneath the sink and to the left. It was one of the first things I would go for when we got there–the sugared cereal I wasn’t allowed at home and the box of old toys and books that had belonged to my mother. Often, it was a toss-up.
  2. What is the best toy/prize you ever got in a box of cereal or because of sending in UPC<92>s?
    They didn’t really have prizes in Grape Nuts and Chex then, which was about all we ate at home when I was a little kid. I orchestrated a major campaign for Sugar Pops once–only to find a seven-letter limit on the customized bicycle license plate. I was so bummed. But that would have been the coolest.
  3. How do you take your eggs (scrambled, over easy, egg beaters)?
    In an omlet, usually. Also poached, boiled, beaters, or whites. Occasionally over easy (anywhere from runny yolk to solid — but no runny white!).
    Never sunny-side up (ew) and very very very rarely scrambled. I like eggs.
  4. What is your favorite breakfast meat (bacon, ham, sausage)?
    Ham, probably. Especially in a ham, onion and cheddar omlet. I like omelets.
  5. What is your favorite spot (local or chain restaurant) for breakfast and where is it located?
    Currently, the breakfast buffet at Wyndam Sugar Bay Resort and Spa in St Thomas (US Virgin Islands). Even on vacation, we got up every day to go to the Manor House restaurant in the resort’s main lobby for the enormous, delicious, hangover-abating meal. Every day they had acres of fruit: pineapple, mango, honeydew, canteloupe, strawberries, kiwi. They had yogurt and cold cereal and apples and oranges. They had juices (mmm, mango peach — cause we might have left a mango or two remaining on the island) and strong, thick, nutty black coffee. The most handsome man prepared the most tasty omelet I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a lot of omelets–in fact, I had a lot of omelets that week). There were all kinds of bread: toast, bagels, english muffins, pastries. Lots of jellies, jams, and spreads. They also had a hot bar with breakfast meats, eggs, and a couple of changing selections. One day it was biscuits and sausage gravy, another it was some sort of savory shortcake with a seafood sauce topping. Other offerings included griddlecakes, quiche, waffles, or eggs benedict. It was awesome. Too bad it’s a reaaaaally long trip.

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