there's too much good stuff on my Netflix queue for brain melting. The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner should be arriving today!

There's also a nice B&B in Waterbury proper called the Stagecoach Inn; the advantage there is that you could elope and then go down the street a few blocks and eat at my bro's restaurant. (Not that his place needs my pimping; they're still always busy.

I am definitely trying to figure your brother's restaurant into the plan.

There is a water dish (actually, it's a rectangular glass dish that I normally put leftovers in....never again) in the tank for the iguana, so she can either sit in it, or sit on the dry "carpet"

Phew. I had an knee-jerk "I know an iguana that hates water!" response. Nice that she has lakeview property.

(it's special reptile-tank carpet -- for real; I saw the box it came in).

Sheesh. Just goes to show...there is a product and trade magazine for EVERYTHING. I'm sure there is a copy of "Reptile Tank Interiors Today" lying about somewhere.

As for the Dalmatian's stress level...poor boo. I know you mentioned her normal anxiety before. This can't help.

I will say to you what my first trainer said to me..."If you don't see blood...they're just talking." The less stressed about it you can be the better off she'll be. I was so freaked out about Bartleby's on-leash aggression until I realized that he was reacting to me reacting to him reacting to me!

I hope, for everybody's nerves, she calms down soon but no blood probably means she's okay.

I don't know if I posted this here before, but when we were in Dallas there were certain toll roads that worked strictly on an easy pass, there was no place to pay. We checked with our friends there and they confirmed that you either pay by the easy pass or you get a bill in the mail based on your license plate. Our rental car didn't have an easy pass, so we mentioned it to the rental agency when we dropped off the car and they said no problem, when they get the bill they would bill us.

We get the bill last week, and for every 25 cent or so toll charge, they charged us the toll plus a $5 fee. When TCG called to complain he was told that it didn't matter that there was no way to pay the tolls and we are lucky that they didn't charge us $50 per toll. TCG is going to try to try to fight it with the credit card company, but I'm not sure they're going to back him up.

TCG and I need to get up to Vermont soon and start looking at possible elopement places, if only so people will stop asking me if we still plan on getting married.

My closest friends got married in Stowe, VT and it was just lovely. Not an elopement, but definitely a wedding for them and their friends, and family could show up if they wanted type of thing. Granted, the place they had it at may be pricier than you'd want to go.

If they'd had the wedding in MA, they wanted me to perform the ceremony (since in MA you can get ordained for a flat fee). They were going to get me a monk's outfit and a tankard of ale for the ceremony. Oh well, I'd have felt awful if I'd screwed up the vows. It was one of the best times I've had at a wedding (of course, the other would have been the bride's first wedding on Nantucket).

I loved eloping. Since it was a second marriage for both of us, the thought of our far-flung families trying to coordinate coming to a wedding and the expense and trouble that would be for all of them was horrifying to contemplate. It is nice to celebrate publicly, though, especially when it is someone's first marrriage (and by "someone," I totally mean the mother of the bride, of course). An elopemnt followed by a shindig sounds like the best of both worlds!

"If you don't see blood...they're just talking."

Uh, yeah. There was blood. The dalmatian got a nip taken out of her ear (not *out,* like now the ear is misshapen; like a cut on the furry surface of her ear, maybe as big as a human's fingernail clipping).

We're keeping them WAY apart for now. Like, *rooms* apart, with gates between them.

You could stalk me! Is it stalking if I *want* you to?

Whoo hoo! I actually don't think we've been back to Vermont since we saw you last. Gimme a heads up when you guys decide on a date so we have a chance of getting a reservation someplace close by...

Uh, yeah. There was blood.

This would be a good time to have a talk with The Boy about about how dogfighting in your living room stresses you out.

There was blood.

Oh NO. What a mess. I'm so sorry.

It sometimes seems like a trial when I take care of our two shih tzu buddies...and I actually LIKE them. I can't imagine how uncomfortable, inconvenient and generally vexing this must be for you.