My new lap buddy. Pepe's lower left fang juts out at an angle, which causes his upper lip to curl inside his teeth on that side when he closes his mouth. The end result is that he's locked in a sort of perpetual Billy Idol sneer. Makes him look pissed off, but he's very friendly. Throw in the small dog syndrome and it's downright hilarious.
Pepe is a bit older than Tara so he's correspondingly a bit slower and a bit more likely to curl up and sleep. That is, when no one in the immediate vicinity is doing anything that might involve food.

I'm really digging Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The first MGS was a genre-definer for the Playstation One, however my thoughts on the series were dimmed a bit by the sequel, Sons of Liberty on the PS2. For one thing, you played the vast majority of the game not as the series hero Snake but as some snot-nosed blonde-haired dips@#$ named Raiden. The story made no friggin sense whatsoever, and the gameplay was interspersed with intolerably long cutscenes and communicator conversations. It's almost-saving grace was that it was very easy on the eyes. The new chapter takes Snake back to 1964, where he has to eliminate his mentor who has defected to the Soviet Union and is backing a faction who have developed the first Metal Gear. Unfortunately it continues the tradition of mind-numbingly long cutscenes (Veronica had to wait 25 minutes for dinner the other day while i waded through one of them). However the improvements are bountiful. Most notable are the survival and stealth systems, which have been expanded to bring the game closer to reality. Snake must continually eat and heal himself to keep his stamina and life meters full. Since he's in the field, that means catching all sorts of things to eat (fruits, mushrooms, plus less palatable dishes like live snakes, frogs, birds, and rats). Also, he must tend to broken bones, cuts, and gunshot wounds or his life meter will go down, down, down. The in-game radar has been removed and replaced with more realistic devices like a motion sensor, removing one of the big crutches from previous versions of MGS. I'm only a couple of hours into the game, but it's playing great so far.

Chelsea line up for the first leg of the Carling Cup quarterfinal against Manchester United today. The Blues have been in stellar form of late, emerging from the mess of holiday matches with a perfect 12 points and a seven point cushion at the top of the table over second place Arsenal. Our squad has gelled into a powerful unit, spearheaded by Frank Lampard and captain John Terry and getting regular brilliant performances out of Arjen Robben and Damien Duff. Didier Drogba is back, and our defense continues to complete clean sheets. Nothing's won yet, but that doesn't change the smile on my face. The media is now hyping us for the quadruple, that is pipping us to win the Premiership, Champions League, FA Cup, and Carling Cup. That's a tall order. To be honest, the Carling Cup is the lowest priority, and part of me may actually be relieved should United (suffering through a rough patch the moment) manage to knock us down. I think Chelsea coaches José Mourinho and Steve Clarke have rightfully placed the emphasis on winning the Premiership, which would be a huge accomplishment for a club that last championed the English league in 1955. Inevitably, the club's gaze must also turn to the Champions League two-legged clash with continental noisemakers Barcelona beginning in February. Behind Ronaldinho, Deco, and Samuel Eto'o, the Catalans have been playing wonderful football this season and sit 7 points in front of Real Madrid in the Spanish Liga Primera. They knocked us out of the Champions League in 2000 during a fierce comeback at the Camp Nou in the second leg. But as i said last year, to be the best you've got the beat the best. And this will be a good test.