I’m headed to the airport in a little while to pick up my little sister. She’ll be staying with us for the week, which of course, means a whole lot of Disney World. Plus, I think Kevin will enjoy having someone else around to distract the puppy!

Sir Piddlesworth Humpsalot has discovered the joys of napping. What’s hilarious is that he acts just like a toddler when he gets sleepy: He’ll do anything to try to keep himself awake. He makes sure he pees exactly 4 times (in the house, of course, and with no warning, and usually within a 5 minute span), then he runs around maniacally before–literally–crashing on the floor. The boy naps on a specific schedule, too; it’s like he’s using his ears to receive regular updates from the atomic clock.

Then he requires many smooches and snorgles, all the while burrowing as close as he can get to my neck. Somebody should figure out how to bottle the feeling of puppy-snuggling. I’m pretty sure it’s more addictive than heroin.

Smalliver has an incredible amount of energy, and he needs constant supervision (mostly so the other dogs won’t eat his face off). He’s a handful, and Kevin does a really good job watching him—as long as the puppy is sleeping.

After spending some time getting to know our new baby, we have decided to change his name to…….

Master Oliver de Barkington von Beaglestein, or Oliver for short. It’s absolutely true that having a puppy is a lot like having a baby, as Kevin is slowly finding out. Last night after we got home from dinner, he said “C’mon, just give me a couple of minutes to unwind”. Um, yeah, no.

Oliver definitely has the same beagle-type idiosyncrasies as Rigley, right down to his routine. We’re going to enroll him in training classes next weekend, though, so hopefully we’ll be able to control some of the chewing/digging/shredding issues before they get too bad. Right now it’s just typical puppy stuff, but I don’t it to accelerate.

Sir von Beaglestein really likes to make sure he naps on schedule, so right now I’m off to admire his sweet puppy face while he sleeps.

Introducing Mr. Puppy-face, an 8 week-old Beagle. Mr. McCrazy Dog is the newest addition to our family, and while the other dogs aren’t completely thrilled, they haven’t tried to eat him (yet) either. He’s terrified of dogs barking, and not a big fan of sleeping at night, but I suspect that will change in short order. We did manage to take a nap this morning since none of us slept last night.

He’s about 4 pounds right now, but he’ll be about Rigley’s size when all is said and done. All in all, Mr. Barkenstein is definitely going to be a handful, but we’re already in love!

I realize that you have/had some sort of motorcycle for sale waaaaay back in 2006, which was also the last time you had our phone number. I also realize that you are a complete and total moron who is unable to figure out how to remove your classified ads from the internet, thus resulting in an obnoxious amount of wrong numbers to what is now our current phone number.

Now, way back in October of ‘07 (which, by the way, was a full YEAR after your ad had been running), we got a lot of calls, and we figured, hey, they’ll drop off eventually. Ummmmm, not so much. Last month we got a call at 1:00 AM. Last night was 11:30. Then this morning at 7:00. And again just now.

So Mr. Guy With Absolutely No Brain, either you’ve already sold said rare yellow Honda motorcycle and you really are to stupid to figure out how to remove the ads (of which there are SEVERAL….all over the internet), or this bike has been for sale for damn near 2 years (and if it has, I would advise you that dude, it’s never gonna sell). Either way, you friggin’ tool, pull your ads before I go apes**t. I’m sick and tired of fielding your calls (and I don’t believe you when you say you only rode it on weekends to and from church, you derelict).

Respectfully,

Merrin

Don’t worry though; I won’t be going Republican anytime soon.

Now, I’ve been extremely well-behaved since Kev’s little episode. I’ve become a down-right Nazi when it comes to our diet; there is absolutely no junk food anywhere in our house. I haven’t eaten red meat in frickin’ WEEKS (and yes, Camille, that’s absolutely 100% true). I still have cravings, though, and I like to think I do a pretty decent job of figuring out ways we can still have what we love, just made better for us.

So tonight Kevin wanted Buffalo Chicken Pizza, which I had given a makeover two days after he got out of the hospital. Now, I’m not a buffalo chicken fan, but I was jonesing for some Taco Bell Nachos. Fifteen minutes in the kitchen and a lot of dirty spoons later (I use a new spoon every time I taste for seasonings….it’s a sickness), I had them. Delicious nachos. Sublime nachos. A perfect clone of Taco Bell Nachos Supreme. I seriously could not tell the difference (except, of course, that my chips weren’t stale or soggy, and everything was still hot when I ate them). Kevin had a taste, and I had to fight him off like a mama bear defending her cubs. I almost poked his eye out with my fork.

You would never ever know that my version is virtually fat-free (ground turkey breast vs. ground beef) You damn sure wouldn’t guess that my version had under 300 (delicious) calories and a mere 9% of your daily recommended allowance of cholesterol and a WHOPPING 40% of your RDA of fiber. The best part, though, is that I get to feel like I’m indulging.