Our newest arrival, and perhaps a permanent resident, Gus.

Here's one way to handle getting laid off: FuckedCompany.com - The Dot-com Deadpool

Looks like the Taliban's tenuous hold on their lower ranks is slipping: Taliban officials and soldiers are abandoning their posts and young men are avoiding military conscription by returning to their villages or leaving for neighboring Pakistan. I can't say that I have any complaints about that!

Anyone interested in seeing the USA Women's Hockey team play Team Canada on their way to the Olympics? They're coming on October 23 to the Compaq Center and I'm about to buy a few tickets. If you'd like to join me, please email me and I'll add you to our posse. I think I got some pretty great seats, row 2!

Just when you think you've seen everything, there's MANties - Panties made just for men. Thanks Deb.

I never know how to handle it when someone tells me something that they've already told me, I really don't. I know that I'm guilty of this a lot and I really don't like it when someone says "yeah, you told me that already," I'd rather have the chance to finish whatever mundane or uninteresting story I've begun, since it must have been interesting enough to me to repeat. Though, more likely, it's because I have a tenuous connection with the person in question, based on a thread of something like hockey or rescuing dogs and I have a limited supply of topics related to that topic so I'm forced to recycle more often than I'd like.

So... one great thing about my new job is that I can bring a dog. Probably not all three or even 2 at once but one. I've been bringing Alice, who of course is a big hit with the other kids here. This certainly inspires a host of animal stories from co-workers, including today's repeat of a very heart-wrenching tale about cats. The guy is so sad without his cats, I wanted to prevent him from reliving the pain but it seemed inappropriate to say "yeah, you told me that already" so I just listened politely and wondered what would happen if I bring Rainie in.

Speaking of Rainie... when we first got her and before she came home, I worried. Would we be able to handle her energy level, were we adequately puppy-proofed, would Alice mind (yes, she does, but that is another story). 4, almost 5 months later, Rainie is almost 9 months old and I really can't imagine life without her. She's not too much energy to handle and she's recently decided that Andrea and I are her best friends, she doesn't like to be away from us all night and will croon outside our bedroom door if we're apart too long (I know, it sounds charming, and later, I may remember it as such, but for now, it's kind of annoying since it's generally at 6 am that she feels this way). But every day, Rainie does something that makes us laugh. She's filled our house with discarded toys, with the sounds of wookie (she really does talk like Chewbacca) and with the thunder of Baby Basset hooves as she romps about at high speeds, then collapses wherever she is. So, in case I don't say it enough, thank you Dena and the wonderful folks at Arizona Basset Hound Rescue for bringing these pups into the world and raising them to be the most self-confident bunch of dogs I've ever seen. My world is a brighter place thanks to Rainie Roo.

Please congradulate Ellie the basset, Rainie Roo's mom, on becoming a permanent member of her foster family. She's upholding the legacy of my Ellie by sharing her love of hamburgers and silly grins with the world. I miss my Ellie every day but there's great joy in knowing that 13 dogs are her legacy, that 13 families have a new kind of joy that started with a little girl who changed my life forever.

Rumor has it that the guy who had the heart attack at my hockey game is in critical condition and on full life support right now. He's only 30.

As usual, Rob has something tremendously powerful to say. I still can't believe that the bombings happened.

Last night after my hockey game, I saw Andrea standing outside of the center rink watching what I assumed was a game still in progress. I walked up to her and saw paramedics doing cpr and other things with tubes to a man who had, only minutes before, been playing hockey. Now he was lying there, in front of bench, hovering between life and death as a team of folks worked hard to save him. We watched for 15, maybe 20 minutes as I gathered he was in the over 35 league, he must be in his 50's or 60's I thought. Young people don't have heart attacks or whatever it is that's causing him this pain. Finally, they out him on the strecher as the paramedic climbed on top to continue CPR. Instead of the grey hair I expected, I saw a young man, not too much older than me, with a tube down his throat, wearing his hockey pants. I guess his teammate had removed his skates. I don't know if he lived or died.

Rainie likes hockey too.

Alice had her follow up x-ray this weekend and it appears that her lung has cleared up. She finished the antibiotics 2 days ago and is a lot perkier than she was. Woo hoo! My Al is back in business. Thanks to everyone who sent her prayers and well wishes, I'm so very grateful.