The One without a Title

So... There's no good reason not to have blogged 'cepting life just happened. Work on the house slowed down, and we started working on major repairs. Our plans to bring new plumbing to bring water INTO the house have been turned topsy-turvy by our need to get new exit pipes installed. On Thursday. Our neighbors (the ones with the father who was an on-again-off-again resident and was the scourge of the neighborhood for being on the FamilyWatchdog list) moved out. Ten days after their departure their house burned... badly. We didn't even realize it was happening. The blue lights of the police car in our front yard alerted us to the fact that something was amiss. What was amiss was the fact that 40-foot flames were leaping up out of the neighboring domicile. Not good. We've done a few things here and there, but most of our time for the last two months has been filled up with this guy.

Marley. No we didn't see the movie and get all sentimental and name him that. Nope. We read the book... Just kidding. English teacher bad joke. He came to us with that name. I'm so ignorant to dogparenting that I didn't know you could change a dog's name... oh well. C'est la vie, right? Marley it is. And I couldn't love him any more. He's perfect. He's quiet, patient, cuddly, attentive, smart... y'know, all the things dogs should be. And right now? He's got his head on my lap while I type. Really. Just that cute. Almost as cute as my grandmother shushing me in order to sneak him some table scraps. "No, Mama Jean. Don't feed him. He'll learn that begging is ok." Her reply came quickly, "Shush. I'm just going to throw it over there on the floor. If he doesn't know where it came from, he won't start begging." Really. That's what she said. And then my grandfather confessed to feeding him a smidgen of a cookie while Todd napped. Those grandparents of mine... they're suckers for a cute dog! And their granddaughters and grandson-in-laws...

So the Race for the Cure day will 'most always be Marley's homecoming day. And that's where we've been. I'm guessing I'll try to keep up with blogging more often. I want to remember these little moments...