My sister and brother-in-law made it back from their 10th Anniversary adventure, and their dogs were alive and the house hadn’t burned down, so I guess things are OK.

My mom still has her backache and it’s going on two weeks now. It’s gotten worse and moved around since she’s seen the acupunturist. I’m not sure why I’m mentioning this now, except I went to the gym earlier and I’m about to fall over.

It was a weird night and oddly crowded. The Chinese-Canadian woman who is the post-doc in molecular biology is still not speaking to me. I was greeting her with, “Ho say guy,” which means good fortune (literally good world) but she was unfamiliar with the phrase and thought I said something else very close which would have been calling her a deadbeat whore (literally, though, a dead chicken). Another woman who usually chats with me has found a new beau and wouldn’t even say hello. Life at the gym is so very much like middle school.

OK, so it’s not that early. It’s 8:18AM, but it’s Sunday and I should be sleeping in my bed. But it’s also the weekend of my sister’s 10th wedding anniversary (how time flies!) and I’m watching their dogs while they go off to some weird pseudo-result. Since they’re dogs, they’re very uncommunicative and so I’m not sure what they want, but I had to get up and let them out so they wouldn’t poo in the house. Now they’re asleep and I think I’m supposed to be walking them. Heck, they’re not real clear about the whole thing.

My sister left me some very clear instructions written in a stream-of-consciousness sort of style. I bet if I asked her for a numbered list it would go something like:

1. Feed the dogs the stuff in the pantry.
2. Before you feed the dogs, remember to mix in pumpkin.
3. Walk the dogs on the colored leashes.
4. Remember to mix in the joint medication to the food before you feed them.
5. Oh, the dogs are walked twice a day. Dede on the black leash (which is actually red) and Barkley (who we now call Berkeley) on the green (which is really blue and green).
6. Don’t feed the dogs before you walk them.

I think you get the idea.

It’s up to 30 degrees now so I think I should take them out so that I may have the joy of picking up dog poo once again.