Menagerie

This weekend, I had a breakthrough in canine relations. You see, there's this Rottweiler that lives across the alley. Stuart is stocky and brown, tough except for an incongruous set of sweet floppy ears. I mostly see him when he's in his enclosure keeping an eye on everything around. His Rubbermaid doghouse is shaped like an igloo, and he spends most of his time standing on top of it, surveying his domain and barking like a militant Snoopy (as someone much wittier than I suggested). Nothing gets past Stuart; at the slightest crunch of gravel, he's boisterously on the alert.

But this weekend, I walked past him four times with nary a bark. I think he's finally accepted the bond that I have forged by saying, "Stuuuuuart," in a goofy voice every time I see him. Now, if only I could get the little dogs to stop yapping when I pass...

In other animal-related news, there were monkeys aplenty at the Class of 2000 five-year shindig. And by "monkeys", I mean "hayrides, musical spoons, potato salad, married folk, and polka music". Also "Jacque's parents" and "the requisite bonfire". Our activities coordinator (a.k.a. Jacque's dad) pulled us behind his John Deere tractor in a hay wagon around his farm (the site of the reunion), uphill and downhill and through the river, while classmate Steve played polkas on his concertina. Copious amounts of things were spilled near me (not by me, you know, but near me), especially when we ran into the same sapling four times in an effort to turn a corner. 'Twas fascinating, really. See y'all in another five, eh?

And to round out the menagerie, there is a horrible buzzy flying thing that has set up camp in our upstairs bathroom. It is not a bee. It is not a wasp. It is black, mostly, with a little bit of tan or yellow, and it has the tiniest middle body segment I have ever seen - it's literally a stick, with a head and torso on one end and a bulb for a bottom on the other. It tried to dive bomb me, and I had no Mountain Fresh Glade with which to attack it, so I ran away. Twice, because I forgot it was there after the first incident.