Events

It's amazing how long the hand puppet has survived, despite Parker's best efforts: Yes, it's still around, but completely emptied of Hollofil and turned inside-out. This has the interesting side-effect of exposing the squeaky part. Maybe "interesting" isn't the right word, as I didn't feel "interested" in it after Parker spent ten minutes wandering the apartment chomping on it (squeak squeak squeak). Parker still has some anxiety about the new place, which manifests in an inability to be alone for more...

It seemed like the perfect toy: a hand-puppet with extra padding and a squeaky, so that Parker could play with our hands and (a) not really compute that hands are involved and (b) not bite our hands to shreds. When finished with the toy, we put it back in Parker's toy basket. Well, last night, Parker decided to play with the toy, and as is his wont, he disemboweled it: Maybe if it had a Kevlar coating it might have lasted longer...

It turns out, despite a brief plateau in January, Parker continues to grow by about 600 g per week. He's now up to 22.4 kg: I feel much better now about getting him the "large breed" puppy food. But he still seems so small next to the labs at the play group...

Ordinarily I would not be happy to wake up at 5:15am. Today, however, I was overjoyed, because except for a brief moment around 1:30 when I had to shove Parker's fuzzy butt out of my space (he was laying across the bed almost completely), we both slept through the night. My hypothesis from yesterday confirmed, I will now spend at least an hour a night running him ragged. It probably helped also that everyone—and I mean, everyone—was at last night's play group: Boo, Scotchie, Hannah, Dexter, Buck...

I love Parker. Who wouldn't? I mean, look at him, sleeping so peacefully: But last night around 2:30am he was neither peaceful nor adorable. In fact, from 2:30 until about 4:30, he whined, chewed my comforter, squeaked a toy repeatedly, barked at random intervals, and went outside twice—without actually descending the stairs into the yard. By the way, this is the second night in a row that Parker has confused 2:30 with 6:00. If he does it again tonight, I don't know what I'll do, since killing him seems...

The smartest person in Texas, Molly Ivins, died yesterday at age 62. She knew Dubya better than he did. She will be missed. If there was one thing Molly wanted us to understand, it's that the world of politics is absurd. Since we can't cry, we might as well laugh. And in case we ever forgot, Molly would remind us, several times a week, in her own unique style. [T]here was more to Molly Ivins than insightful political commentary packaged in an aw-shucks Southern charm. In the coming days, much will be...

The President (for no more than 721 days and 13 hours more) signed an executive order that puts a political office in each executive department for the purpose of clearing what the department publishes. In other words, factual reports generated by the government will have to go through a political hack for approval before publication, instead of just being published by the generally apolitical civil service as they are today: In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush...