No, not a new infectious disease borne by canines. It seems Veronica and I are surrounded by friends and family with new pets. And they're making us jealous. We're planning on getting a furry companion when we return to the bay area, but these developments are making us quite impatient.

First there was Rudha and Rob's adoption of an Ibizan hound mix from a rescue mission. Her name was originally going to be Isobel, but her resemblance to The Other Reindeer clinched her name to be Olive. Haven't met her in person yet, but she looks like quite a charmer.

Then a few days later I get an email from my sister Emily, with the title "it's a BOY!!!". Potential bombshell there from her and her fiance Jared. Not quite. She found someone in Michigan with a Basenji that just had puppies, so they drove up from their house in Chicago to buy one. As the Basenji is an ancient Egyptian breed of dog, they've named him Tut. He's too young to leave his mom yet, so they'll be heading back to Michigan in a few months to bring him to his new home. Quite a looker, eh?

In other news, Veronica is ill, but I made her laugh for a solid fifteen minutes yesterday. How, you ask? Well, I'd been doing laundry and went down to check on how it was drying. In keeping with the typical impatience of our neighbors, someone had taken my clothes out of the dryer and put theirs in to dry. But mine were still damp!!! It's not like I left them down there for hours after the drying cycle stopped, either. Well, I just lost it. Took my clothes upstairs, but on my way out of the laundry room I pulled their clothes out of the dryer and threw them on the floor. Veronica found this incredibly funny. My dad has his "pancake story", will this be my "laundry story"?