Things I've noticed in 2005

If something costs $60 in the store I think it costs too much. If it costs $60 online I'll buy it.
Josh Groban's voice makes my bottom three ribs tingle.
If greed causes you to go after all the ghosts in Ms. Pacman, you'll end up trapped in a corner.
In a battle between a thumb and a cheese slicer, the cheese slicer always wins.
If you tell your Tivo who you are, it will record everything Marcia Gay Harden has ever done.
If you give a rescued schnauzer enough toys and hugs, he'll come out of his shell.
If eyebrow wax gets too hot, you'll end up looking like you have an upper eye socket sunburn.
Crushed ice makes every beverage better. Except beer.
If you pray hard enough, construction to extend the Tollway will eventually begin.
Coke Zero works better in your mouth than it does on your keyboard.
Blogs are a lot of work, but they're a great way to connect with people you might otherwise miss.
Attending a Rangers game in July will make you sweat buckets, and trying to hydrate yourself at Ameriquest Field costs more than the tickets.
The first oatmeal/pecan/coconut/chocolate chip cookie tastes better than the third.
The Colts play their best when I wear the Manning jersery that I got for my birthday.
If you buy decorative pillows, the dogs will paw at them, nestle in, and use them for beds.
It is possible to overdose on Peanut M&M's.
Wearing the right golf outfit doesn't make you a better golfer.
Long road trips produce conversations about moving to Nebraska, opening a cheese store next to the vineyard, and running everything on windmill-generated power.
40 Year-Old Virgin and Napoleon Dynamite get funnier the more you watch. Dodgeball doesn't.
A great evening out always begins with Gloria's black beans and ends with B-Complex vitamins.
Attending a Cowboys game on Thanksgiving Day is fun, but a big dinner at home is better.
If you put vanilla body spray on thick, you'll eat less.
When you're with the love of your life, every day is better than the last.
When you give energy to something you care about it gives back to you, even when you don't see it.
The end of one opportunity marks the beginning of another. Change is good.

Thanks for being here. Have a fantastic 2006!

Some Christmas pics

Our nieces, Jada and Ciara have grown a ton in five months! Especially Ciara. She's the cutie in white in these pictures. She'll be a year old on January 11th. Jada has a monstrous vocabulary now is capable of carrying on quite a deep conversation, as you can tell by our quality bean bag time. Santa found a great sale on bean bags and blankets at Garden Ridge in Plano and sent them with Angela and me since we were already going to Nebraska, and the girls loved them. I think Santa had intended for Jada to get the lime green bean bag to match her lime green blanket, but Jada liked the aqua blue bean bag so much she just took it over and left the lime green one for Ciara. Ciara didn't mind. She was just happy it was soft and fuzzy.

We had a great Christmas. It was hard to leave, but we were glad we had the chance to be there to help eat all that food, pass out some hugs, and play with the little ones. Jada starting calling Angela "Ollie" on this trip. It used to be Alala, and no one knows how that morphed into Ollie. I'm still Nenny. She snuck up on me a few times while I was off doing something by myself, and she always announced herself with, "Oh Hiiii Nenny!" like she was looking for me yet surprised to find me at the same time. She knows how to get a nice big giggling hug, that's for sure. Every time Harry would bark she would say, "Oh silly Hayee." She's just the cutest thing ever. Jada and Ciara might be the cutest sisters ever. Ciara almost took her first steps while were there, but she decided sitting down was preferable so we'll have to wait to see that. It's fun being an aunt.

We got back Monday night, but I don't have to go back to work until tomorrow. I got a wild hair and made baklava today. I've never done it before, but Angela has been craving it and I felt like baking something complicated so I decided to try it. I love puttering in the kitchen. I've never used an entire pound of butter for anything before, but it's still the holidays and we're not worrying about fat or calories right now. And it's Bowl Week! I've got to get settled for the Nebraska/Michigan kickoff at the Alamo Bowl tonight. I have a feeling it won't be pretty, but hey, we still have the Longhorns next week. I love this time of year.

Time to pack

Happy holidays! I'll let ya personalize that on your own, whether it's Christmas, Hannakuh, Kawanza, solstice, or fleece sweatshirt day. Whatever it is for you, knock yourself out.

It's Christmas for my family. Angela and I are going to load the pups into the ark - I mean Explorer Sport Trac - at around 3am on Thursday morning and we'll make the trek to Nebraska to see my family. It's been five months since we've seen everybody. I'm certain that I'll be a blubbering mess when it's time to leave again Monday morning. Our nieces Jada and Ciara are heart-melters, and four days with them will surely turn us into a big pile of goo and make the trip home sort of somber. At least until we pop in the new Madonna CD that I just know Angela is getting me for Christmas. That will put me in car-dance mode and I'll be launched straight into happy thoughts. I know she got me at least one CD because I caught her in the music section of Barnes N Noble two weekends ago and she made me leave, and since I have been hinting around about Madonna since mid-October I'm guessing that's the one she snagged. I've been dropping some Josh Groban hints too though. Time will tell.

If there is still snow on the ground in Nebraska (yeah...and if the sky is still blue) we're going sledding! When we were kids we would always go sledding at my Grandma's house and she would have homemade hot chocolate and iced oatmeal cookies ready for us when we came in. We mostly used the steam from the hot chocolate to warm our ice-cold and red faces, because our insides were plenty warm from the layers and layers of flannel, snowsuits, and coats. We didn't mess around. All the layers made us sweat, but the exposed appendages were always mildly frostbitten. Nothing a little of Grandma's hot chocolate couldn't cure. Those were some fun times. I don't think I've been sledding since, so it will be a hoot watching me try to get the hang of it again. I sliced part of my thumb off just standing in the kitchen armed with nothing but a cheese slicer remember. Who knows what I'll do with a sled with metal runners. Maybe Dad will ban me from using those.

Enjoy the season! May you feel the flannel pants and egg nog warm fuzzies, win every board game you play, and get lots of kisses from the peeps and pups that you love. And please God let the Huskers beat Michigan in the Alamo Bowl. I hope your yuletide is really, really gay! Merry Christmas!

Our wild and crazy weekend...

Brokeback Mountain made us cry our eyes out on Friday. It's really a fascinating story and it made us realize how lucky we are to be surrounded by supportive families, friends, and colleagues. It was so powerful it made us want to walk out of the Angelika arm in arm, but then we looked around and remembered we were in Plano and not Oak Lawn. We're not big into that p.d.a. anyway so it was okay. Heath Ledger was amazing! What a departure from playing Billy Bob Thornton's son in Monster's Ball. Jake Gyllenhaal was loveable too, and then... Wow. I want to see it again.

We got up yesterday at 6:30am to go to Walmart. Walmart is a blast when no one else is there! We had a few last minute Christmas things to get for our nieces Jada and Ciara, plus we needed some beef jerkey and nuts for our road trip, and I needed some new $5 long-sleeved shirts for layering. We spent most of the two hours we were there just piddling around and browsing through fun crap like the pre-packaged sausage and cheese log gift sets. I love that stuff! Cheese logs are the greatest...especially the ones rolled in chopped nuts. That's some down home snackin' goodness right there. I don't think God meant for cheese to spread, but I sure like it when it does. Gift sets are the greatest. We saw crocks full of mustard, assorted jams and jellies, mugs with the hot chocolate powder already in them (time saver), and even a collector's pickup truck full of pistachios. I loved it all and I wanted to roll around on the floor in a big pile of those pretty boxes, but we moved on to rum extract and brown sugar before I had the chance. We didn't buy any gift sets, but we got plenty of warm fuzzies just being in that aisle, which is probably the point anyway. Warm fuzzies provide a bigger payoff than a bite of a cheese log anyway.

I'm distraught about the end of the Colts' perfect season, but as long as they go on to the playoffs, win the AFC, and advance to the Super Bowl and win that, I'll be okay. Exhale... They play at the Seahawks this weekend and we'll be in Nebraska and away from our NFL Sunday ticket, so I'm already stressing about whether or not my parents will get the game. Could be a Super Bowl preview. The Cowboys just plain suck now, huh.

I'm in for Cruz today. Yay! I love that.

That darn tease...

I'm happy that Brokeback Mountain is out today. Angela is off work so we're planning on going to a showing at the Angelika in Plano as soon as I'm finished with work and the secret Santa party. I love the Angelika, but then I love any place that sells both beer and coffee. I've never ordered a beer there, but I like knowing I could if I wanted to and I could feel fancy doing it. I'm not fancy but I like feeling that way sometimes. Anyway, we saw the previews for Brokeback Mountain way back in July when we went to another movie at the Angelika, and we were excited about it, but also mildly perturbed that we would have to wait so long for it to be released. Someone should really make a rule that forbids the teasing of movies until a month or so before the release. It's too traumatic to be teased like that for months and months. I'm going to write my congressman.

I'm a little beat down with the gay Cowboys jokes. Much love for ya gay Cowboys!

Okay, time to find out who my secret Santa is...

Holiday lunch

We're having a holiday lunch today at the radio station and I'm messing around blogging instead of bellying up to the barbecue trough. I'll eat after awhile, but right now there are oodles of peeps standing in line and rather than stand there and talk pleasantries I figured I would blog because I won't have time to do it later this afternoon. That's anti-social of me. Or incredibly productive depending on how you look at it. I've chosen to write over have idle line time. I'm going to spin it and say it's productive.

............................

Okay, it's an hour later and lunch is over. I bellied up to the trough as the line was winding down and ended up getting there at the same time as Michael Blake, JJ Kincaid, and Big Al. They're three cool peeps and I never have small talk issues with them. While we were shoveling in the barbecue a guy at the table next to us mentioned that he had some form of lockjaw and it hurt to eat barbecue, so the rest of the time we all talked mostly about Vicodin and how terribly constipated a person can get while taking it. Good times. Then Al got a text message from some bar advertising drink specials and that was enough to move the conversation from pain killers to happy hour. Fascinating lunch talk.

Big Al is hot. Let me just say that for the record. He has pretty eyes, his skin is silky smooth, and he wears cool shirts. I like him lots.

Time to go home, get on the treadmill, and sweat barbecue.

Bad Santa

I'm a terrible secret Santa. We drew names yesterday at Kiss FM and I think I've already blabbed to everyone which name I happened to draw. I'm usually good at keeping a secret, but when it comes to the holidays I get so excited I can't keep my mouth shut. Well, I haven't blabbed to my secret recipient, but I have asked nearly everyone else for suggestions about what to get him. The best suggestion so far is a bottle of Jack Daniels, so that's probably what it will be. It's easy and festive. And it won't be the least bit tacky toting a big bottle of whiskey up to the third floor of a fancy office building at 4:30 in the morning. The sweet security guard that gives me such a friendly greeting every day will probably start to worry that I've driven in to work fully sauced. He has nothing to worry about. I wouldn't dream of guzzling Jack that early in the morning. Baileys in the coffee packs quite enough punch.

Does anyone ever keep a secret Santa secret? I don't really see the point. I want to know who is responsible for gift exchanges and it drives me crazy when it's anonymous. Last year at the Kiss Christmas party a lot of the Santas didn't even reveal themselves after the gifts had been opened. I think that's weird. Fernando finally caved and revealed that he was responsible for my intense joy over the Starbucks mug and packets of coffee. He probably wanted to make sure I was excited about it first, and since I acted as if it were the hope diamond he figured it was safe. Coffee gifts rule.

I won't tell you whose name I drew this year exactly, but let's just say he has three names and the ladies dig him. And he might be a little sauced on the air after our party on Friday.

Gift cards

A lot of online surveys (and a most of the peeps on Kidd's show) are saying gift cards are among the worst gifts we can give this holiday season. I don't get it. I love gift cards! Gift cards are a license to shop. It's shopping without having to pay at the end and I'm always thrilled to get them. The argument against them is that they aren't personal enough and I can see that, but I don't think that's enough to say they're a bad gift. A fruitcake is a bad gift. In fact, I might argue that all things that can be wrapped in cellophane are suspect gifts. Maybe gift cards are not the greatest thing to give to your spouse because they lack a certain sentiment, but they're awesome for the mailman and the newspaper delivery boy and random people like that. And what if you have a Starbucks fan on your list? It's much easier to buy a gift card than stick a grande vanilla latte in a stocking.

I'm getting excited for our trip to Nebraska next week. My mom said Jada is excited for us to get there so she can build a bird house with "Alala." Nobody knows where she developed the bird house interest. She knows Angela likes to build things, but there are no birds in Nebraska this time of year because they've all flown south for the winter, and there aren't a lot of bird house carpenters who are busy this time of year. Perhaps she's thinking ahead to spring and she wants to be prepared. Or perhaps she saw one bird suffering through the cold winter and she wants to give him a home. She's a sweetie like that. She probably just wants to work on an in-depth project with Angela. She wants to make cookies with me. She knows us pretty well. Ciara will be a year old January 11th and she's almost walking. I hope I can soak up every minute of Christmas with them.

We're buying them fun stuff--no gift cards. A gift card might be worse than a lump of coal in a stocking to a kid. Still better than a fruitcake.

Games

There’s something about winter that makes me want to wear nothing but flannel pants and do nothing but play games. I rarely get the urge to play Trivial Pursuit or Scrabble in the summer, but when the weather is even the least bit chilly I want to be home with Angela and the pups rolling dice and fiddling with plastic game pieces or playing pool. We get so excited about the flannel pants part of the game-playing that we both let out several “Hmm hmm hmm’s!” as soon as we put them on. It’s the little things.

We don’t have an xbox or playstation and we don’t really want one because the only game we would probably ever play is Madden 06 or some other football game and we can think of better ways to spend money, but Angela happened to be browsing through Kohls last week and found a much cheaper time-waster—a joystick that you just plug straight into the TV that comes loaded with Pole Position and Ms. Pacman. It rocks! It was only seventeen bucks and it has games on it that we actually understand. I wish it included Frogger, but God can only answer so many prayers at once without making a girl feel spoiled. So we played Ms. Pacman a lot over the weekend. And last night Angela figured out how to split the TV screen so we could watch the Packers/Lions game on the left side while we were playing Ms. Pacman on the right. It’s genius! We’re already planning a Monday Night Football/Ms. Pacman marathon.

We played Cranium and Catchphrase with our friends Anna and Jocelyn Saturday night. We met them at Buca di Beppo near Stonebriar first and we all stuffed ourselves full of salad, bread, pizza, and pasta, then we rolled ourselves out of there and came back to our house for games. We had never been to Buca di Beppo before, but now that we’ve discovered the greatness of it we’re going to have to go back. The Pasta Cardinale was amazing. So was Anna’s L Word knowledge! She’s my new source for Season 3 spoilers and behind the scenes info. A plethora of L Word tidbits and she just watched her first episode a couple of months ago. Anyway, Angela and I were smoking them at the beginning of Cranium, but then I had a really bad charades performance and the lead unraveled from there. Oh well. It' s polite to let the guests win. They beat us at Catchphrase too. We're so hospitable.

We leave for Nebraska next Thursday. Then it will be a week of games, family, nog, and warm fuzzies. I love this time of year.

I just got back from the mall

Last week at this time I was so focused on my own troubles that the Christmas spirit just had to sort of float around me and keep a healthy distance, but now I'm outta control crazy with the holiday joy. It started Monday night when Angela forced me to participate in putting up a few Christmas decorations. That yanked me right out of my egocentric pit of Christmas-less doom and forced me to start thinking outward instead of inward. She knows how to work me. I did a little bit of Christmas shopping yesterday and a little more today, and all of a sudden I'm thinking about giftwrap and the warm fuzzies associated with holiday giving, and the things I'm worrying about have taken a back seat. Perhaps if the mall had been super-crowded and I had gotten into a fist-fight with somebody over the last Hickory Farms cheese log things would be different and I would be hating the holidays right now, but as it is I'm warm fuzzy-filled. I just want to light a fire and drink egg nog and watch cheesey Christmas show marathons all day. Major progress. Of course it helps to know God is working on things for me and that there's no point in stressing over it. All will be well in time.

Check out what Angela wants for Christmas. I can't say whether or not she's getting it because she reads this blog sometimes, but she wants a Sudoku book (the crazy number puzzles) and some mechanical pencils. I have it so easy! We're so uncomplicated. I asked for some legal pads. Seriously. But she just laughed at me so I bet that wish will have to go ungranted. We're trying to practice financial restraint and be less commercial in our approach to the holidays. Paper seems to be the perfect fit.

I didn't buy the Hickory Farms cheese log. I'm still afraid of the cheese slicer after the thumb slicing incident. It's been four weeks and it's still not healed! So my cheese intake is limited, but as long as no one invents an egg nog slicer I'll be fine. Have a good weekend.

Pastey white and wintry

Priscilla called me at 3:30 yesterday afternoon and asked if I wanted a hotel room close to the radio station with a few other peeps who had to be at work early in the morning, and I decided that would be smarter than waking up extra early and facing the icy road crapshoot. So I threw some stuff in a bag and hit the road, and a trip that should have taken me thirty minutes took about an hour and fifteen minutes. I was sweating by the time I got there because I had to have the defrost on 90 degrees to keep the sleet from freezing on my windshield. I'm sure the front desk gal at the hotel wondered what I had been doing to work up such a sweat out in the cold like that.

As soon as I checked in I hit the fitness room! Why not keep the sweat going I say. So I changed into black shorts and a black t-shirt so I looked extra pastey white and wintry, and walked fast through the ice cold hotel lobby to the fitness room. There was nobody in there. Just me and ESPN. Sweet! I don't usually like public workout places because I don't want people watching me sweat and pant, so I was thrilled that I was the only crazy nut working out at that moment. I was hoping I would make it all the way back up to my room without seeing anyone since I was sweating and in crappy clothes, but I had to share the elevator ride with a guy all bundled up in a hat and coat who had just gone out to pick up dinner. Of course I was starving too, so the Pei Wei fumes didn't help matters any. At least that's what I think he was eating. Could have been Jack in the Box for all I know. I made sure I kept wiping the sweat from my brow with a towel so he knew I had been working out, and that I wasn't just some disoriented loon in shorts who thought she was in the Bahamas. I said something uncreative like, "Brrrr" and he didn't say anything back so he might have thought I was a loon anyway.

I missed Angela and the pups somethin' fierce last night. But it's Thursday and that means it's home date-night so my life will be warm and cozy again. I'm done with winter!

Snow and toddies

First of all, thanks for the love. Angela and I talked about things in depth last night and I brought up the comments and emails and little nuggets of goodness that ya all emit, and she thanks you for helping keep me sane. She does an amazing job of that too. I don't know what I would do without her. I'd be a total nut, that's what. Hopefully all of this will be over soon and then we'll all be able to jump in a big pile of leaves together and roll around and be carefree. Oh, and Douglas, you're a genius. Sometimes neutralism is much more feasible than optimism. And it's a better fit for me cuz I'm blonde and pastey...like Sweden. :-)

I'm snuggled up in the house for the rest of the day and I couldn't be happier about it. I'm not a fan of snow, sleet, sneet, or anything else wintry, and the thought of going outside while that is going on doesn't excite me. I guess I spent too much time under drifts growing up in Nebraska and now I have snow issues. So the pups and I will cuddle this afternoon and wait for Angela to get home, and then perhaps we'll light a fire and whip up a hot toddy. I've never known exactly what a toddy is because you never hear it without the word hot in front of it. A plain toddy must need heat by definition. I'm always cold and I'm always in search of heat, so maybe I'm a toddy. Hmm. Something to ponder this afternoon.

Angela bought Harry this sweater yesterday over her lunch hour. He's such a skinny little guy...he needs all the layers he can get. He's a toddy too.

Stay warm. You snow-lovin' weirdos enjoy!

Choose optimism

I've been stressed out lately about things I can't really blog about, and I've withdrawn a bit. And that has made me think about why my natural instinct is to slink back into myself in the face of conflict or uncertain/frightening cirucmstances, instead of living with a little more conviction that everything is going to be okay. I know in my heart that it will be and I'm making every effort to choose optimism, but I still have that uncertain feeling underneath it all that wonders if it truly will be. Just being perfectly honest. I think that's a natural thing to wonder. God hasn't let me down to this point in my life, and that should serve as proof enough that I have nothing to worry about. My faith will surely grow from the experience. Choose optimism Jen. You silly goose.

I have even withdrawn from Angela a bit. She's not part of the problem and she's been doing everything she can to keep the love, encouragement, cards, and refrigerator notes coming, and while all of that helps I haven't felt like talking all that much. That started to change yesterday. Angela called me from work and said we were going to put up Christmas decorations and enjoy the holiday cheer, like "Come on, silly! Tinsel is fun!" She's absolutely right. We put up a little tree and a few other decorations last night and we had fun doing it, and it helped to do something outwardly cheery. I knew it would. It's just the act of getting to that point--the motivation--that is the hard part.

Retreating is a defense mechanism and it keeps me safe, but I'm tired of being safe. There's nothing to be learned from safety I say. So dang it, today I'm going to make a better effort to make my focus outward and expect that everything is going to turn out better than I ever thought it would. Struggles are okay as long as you learn from them and take something positive from them once you move on. And I'm ready to move on. So here's to the good things ahead...

I think I just chose optimism. For real. Yay!

I'm afraid of dj's

We met our friends Suzanne and Linda for dinner Saturday night at Glorias on Lemmon and then drove over to Round Up for awhile. Round Up is always an adventure because, although it's a cool place to hang out and the people are fun, I'm not big on the dancin'. Well, I like to dance if it's Madonna, not necessarily Brooks and Dunn. That's what it is. So when we go to a country bar I usually stand there and watch people while Angela dances with our friends or with random strangers who watch her and figure out she's a good dancer and come up and ask her to dance. She loves it. I'm content with the people watchin'. But I love that song by Little Big Town called Boondocks and I promised I would dance if that came on. I was too chicken to request it though. One time while Suzanne and Angela were out on the dancefloor I told Linda it's odd but I rarely get nervous talking to thousands of people on the radio, but the thought of walking up to a dj booth and requesting a song scares me. There's some issue there. Perhaps it's because I know how beat down dj's get with song requests and I don't want to burden them further. Perhaps I doubt my ability to find the little opening in the dj booth where random people can poke their heads in and I don't want to look foolish in my search. Perhaps I'm shy. Perhaps I'm afraid of people. Who knows. But Linda was kind enough to go ask the dj to play my song and I didn't have to confront my fear. He played it five minutes later (luckily Angela was free at that moment) and we danced to that and the Cross Canadian Ragweed song right afterward. I love me some Cross Canadian Ragweed too. We left after that because it was getting late and we were all tired. It was 10:30 I think. We're hard core.

Christmas procrastinator

This is the spot in the office where the Christmas tree is supposed to go. Last year I think I had the Christmas tree up by November 15th. This year the tree is still in the attic and I haven't purchased one gift. Stress and anxiety coupled with the lack of time can really put a cramp in the holiday season. I have had my share of egg nog in the past week though, and that has to count for somethin'.

We're going to visit my family in Nebraska this Christmas, so that probably has something to do with the decoration hesitation. What's the point of volunteering for a near-death experience by attempting to adorn the roof with white lights if we're not even going to be here for Christmas to enjoy them? Actually, my feet are always firmly planted on the ground during the light-stringing process on the house. Angela is the one who unselfishly risks her life crawling around on the peaks. I guess we can look on the bright side--no lights means no risk of a roof death. Christmas is as much about the weeks leading up to it as it is about December 25th, but even so I don't want to put up decorations if we're just going to have to take them down right when we get home from our trip. That would interfere with Bowl Game watchin'.

I can't wait to see my family. My sister is getting along well in Nebraska and Jada and Ciara are growing like weeds. My mom says Jada still asks to "show Nenny and Alala" new things that she's excited about, and it makes me sad that Aunt Nenny and Aunt Alala have jobs in Dallas and can't be there to see them. I suppose all of that could change.

For now I'm just going to try to focus on the peace rock sitting on the window sill. That little rock can probably produce way better warm fuzzies than a Christmas tree could anyway. Isn't peace what the holiday season is all about? Or is it X Box 360's. It's confusing sometimes. Maybe we could put a Santa hat on the peace rock and string a few lights on the cactus sitting next to it. And then drink about a gallon of spiked egg nog and peacefully crash on the floor while watching It's a Wonderful Life. As long as we're together it's all good.

Girls!

Last night before I got home Angela was on the phone with her sister, and our girl dogs (Sophie and Marlee) got into a huge fight, evidently about something of major concern in doggie world. It was right before they were about to be fed, so perhaps they were hungry and grouchy and upset that Angela was on the phone and I was at work and they couldn't get any love. Who knows. They barked and growled and nipped at each other with more ferocity than Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie in a mud wrestling match and they probably would have gone on until they were both bloody pulps if Angela had not been there to pull them apart. I think we need Rich's dog whisperer. They rarely fight, but last night something set them off.

Sophie emerged from the fight relatively unscathed, but Marlee ended up with a cut on the back of her head and another one next to her ear. I was surprised at how deep the one on the back of her head is. It's not long, just deep. Angela's sis told her to clean it and then put some triple antibiotic ointment on it so we did that, but Marlee is acting sheepish and hesitant now. She probably has a big bruise too. I feel bad for her. Girls!

The whole thing got me started thinking about how scrappy and competitive girls can be with each other. I've never had the urge to bite another girl's ear off or anything, but I have become highly annoyed when I think another girl is trying to infringe upon my territory and I've wanted to bark and growl at her until she goes away. I'm professionally competitive with guys too, but I guess I consider us to be different enough that I don't get too upset when guys are given opportunities that I think I'm qualified for. When girls pass me up though I hate it. But by the end of the night last night Sophie was licking Marlee's ear, so I guess everybody gets to a point when they're ready to make up. I wouldn't lick anybody's ear though. That's gross.

Pierre and Harry were perfect angel dogs yesterday. Boys rule. I don't get the chance to say that everyday.