Oh smonster, the cuteness! I miss Frankie so much!!

Frankie looks so small compared to the other doggie! And so much cuteness!

good luck Barb! I would love to see photos if you are so inclined. I loved the photos from your last competition.

Ellie has seen me use Siri on my phone a few times and has been pretty impressed. Just now, she was watching a Netflix movie that froze. So she pushed the button to get Siri to appear and told her "please keep playing Thumbelina". It didn't work but I loved that she was polite and totally confident in the phone's ability to fix her problem.

Oh Bonny, I would be livid.

Barb, see F2F for Long Beach plotting.

smonster--cutest dog EVER. Except mine. When she’s not barking at nothing loudly, which she is at the moment.

Maria, wow. Good for you.

Daniel, I am so sorry for all you have already been through and for what you are still facing.

Medical~ma for Fred’s DH and coping~ma for Fred.

Welome back Erin!

sj, I meant to say last time I checked in that I can’t believe your apartment situation. I hope you either get out of there or the people upstairs actually leave ASAP.

Typo, eep! Practicing for Halloween?

Teppy, I hope your allergies are better soon.

.....

Sort of caught up, for a second anyway.

HI! I'm kind of caught up! (For values that equate lots of skimming, so I'mma point to what Pix typed and say "what she said.") I'm on a sugar and white wine high!!! Because I've been frosting holiday (Halloween) cookies all night! And watching silly horror films!! I need to invite other people over for cookie-decorating, because doing this alone leads to drinking white wine and watching Lost Boys: The Thirst. Which is hilarious, and I'm comfortable in the notion that the filmmakers wanted it that way. (Lost Boys: The Tribe was just too sad for me. Poor Corey.) I mean, cookie-decorating always involves white (or sparkling wine) and watching silly movies (one year it was Cannonball Run and Bill && Ted's Excellent Adventure), but it's better if there's more people, right?

So, who wants to come over mid-December and decorate holiday (mid-winter, take your pick) cookies with me???

t TACKLEHUGS JULIANA

I do, I do!

OKAY! Come on up! (Really, it's ridiculous that we never see each other. We're only 8+ hours away!!!)

Okay. Back to frosting. Mmmmmm, delicious frosting. I put some cinnamon oil in this time. It's gooooooood.

OKAY! Come on up! (Really, it's ridiculous that we never see each other. We're only 8+ hours away!!!)

I’m saying.

Cookie decorating for me involves eating a lot of escaped frosting and getting a cranky sugar high. Maybe I should try alcohol.

I finally managed to lure Mr Peabody inside from the excitement of having a small cat perched in a tree on the other side of the back fence. The cat was curled up in a very Cheshire cat way and didn't seem distressed, except perhaps for the annoying noise from a small dog. I don't worry a lot about cats in trees, because I used to have a cat who loved to climb trees and stay up there for hours mocking the people below.

My back is now to the point where I don't actually scream when I stand up or lean over, which is progress. I'm going to go curl up with some ice.