Should I a) Leave Frankie inside and plan on cleaning up a mess when I get home or b) leave him outside (with access to shelter, a bed, food and water).

That's a long time for a doggie to be on their own. I would say leave him outside if the yard is secure--oh, and if he has a shady place to hang out. You might also want to put lots of ice cubes in the water to keep it cool as long as possible. If you have a kong, stuff it with treats and peanut butter to give Frankie something to do while waiting. If you don't have a Kong, you could hide chew toys or snacks around the yard, so he can hunt for them.

I hated the Braxton-Hicks contractions and was constantly sidelined by them. Probably means I was doing too much, but oh well. Drink water, Kate! I remember that being well hydrated helped a lot with the B-H.

I'm a slow reader too Allyson.

I'm generally a slow reader, and easily distracted to boot. However, Hunger Games is a really easy read, and very compelling. I think I was done with the trilogy in just over a week, with very little downtime between books. I'm really glad I held off starting until the last one came out, even though it meant squinting at Literary a lot, and wondering what people were talking about.

in not at all new to anyone - Scrappy is wise.

So part of the fun in maintaining 4 department heads' calendars is finding out that the travel itenerary emails are only being copied to me about half the time. Good times discovering the schedules being wrong is NOT AT ALL MY FAULT!

Thanks, Scrappy. He can get into the lean-to on the back of my house, which has a cement floor that stays cool. I appreciate the suggestions on treats and stuff - I'll leave one of his favorite toys out with him, and a monster ball with treats in it. The yard has a fence all the way around, and he's neither a digger nor a jumper.

I don't think I'm going to be able to do this extra thing for too long - it stresses me out (and them) to mess with the animals' schedules too much, and it certainly isn't paying me enough that I can afford paying someone to come walk him and feed the cats. IDK.

I used to be a fast reader. Now I'm old and tired and fall asleep after about 15 pages, so even though I can read pretty fast, it takes me forever to finish a book. (I'm going to have to renew 1Q84 a bajillion times, I can tell already. I wish libraries had a way of accounting for word counts when setting due dates!)

Are the Hunger Games books available in mass-market paperbacks?

Now I'm old and tired and fall asleep after about 15 pages, so even though I can read pretty fast, it takes me forever to finish a book.

Me too, except Wind-Up Bird Chronicles.

hats? tons of you crazy people think you look silly/bad in hats and YOU DO NOT!

Depends on the hat. I like hats, myself.

Hunger Games

I've considered reading them, but I can't handle things that make me cry. I want my entertainment to make me happy, damn it.