It's National Dog Day!

And Ripley is jumping for joy!

National Dog Day is celebrated August 26 annually and serves to help galvanize the public to recognize the number of dogs that need to be rescued each year, and acknowledges family dogs and dogs that work selflessly each day to save lives, keep us safe and bring comfort.

Thanks to Mayzie for helping us remember the date!

Catching up on the classics

I spent most of the summer reading science fiction and fantasy. I read the entire Thursday Next series: "The Eyre Affair," "Thursday Next: First Among Sequels," "Lost in a Good Book," "The Well of Lost Plots" and "Something Rotten." (They're all available from the library.) They are literary-geek, time-travel-twisty, science-fictiony fun.

I also read (on my niece's recommendation) "The Hunger Games." It's a YA book, a quick read and a lot of fun. Then I read "Small Favors," a Dresden Files book (I do love my Harry Dresden). Which, in case you don't know, are kind of noir detective novels with a wizard as a private investigator -- more geeky fun.

So, after all that geekery, I figured I should build up my brain with some classics. Over the weekend I read "Animal Farm" and finished "Jane Eyre." I do hate to admit to never having read "Jane Eyre" before but I have a good excuse. I always mixed it up with Jane Austen and I really don't care for Austen. OK. Not a good excuse, but it's an excuse.

I also downloaded some classics for the Kindle app on my iPod touch (there are a lot of classics available for the Kindle free from Amazon): "The Age of Innocence," "The Wizard of Oz," "Howard's End" and "Middlemarch." What I really like about the Kindle app is I can just sort of keep those books laying around, but they don't take up much space, I can take them all wherever I go, and -- best of all -- they were free.

To cap off the weekend, I watched a couple episodes of "The Angry Beavers" on Netflix. That's a classic, right?

Dee-sgust-ting

You know what really, really sucks? When you think your significant other has canceled your home milk delivery -- which comes Thursday mornings -- only to discover Sunday evening that he hadn't. Sunday evening -- after four near-90-degree days -- you find that not only does milk not keep in a non-iced cooler, it will actually turn to cheese and blow the top off the jug.


WARNING: If you are drinking milk or eating cheese right now, look away!

The orange juice wasn't disgusting, just an additional loss.

The whole thing smelled like feet.