other people's puppies

Here is a little dog that looks so cute and fluffy, you just have to wonder what kind of terrifying alien creature she transforms into if fed after midnight. I met her this weekend, however, and if she's not a genuine terrestrial canine species, her perfomance was utterly convincing. She loves to chew on things that are normally not considered edible and hasn't decided whether she really likes going outside to pee. Can't blame her, it's been raining almost continuously since she arrived at my friend Lisa's house a week and a half ago. I'm sure the pup will be fully housetrained in no time, probably well before she comes to visit at Auntie Em & Celia's house. If not, maybe some dog pee would help neutralize the cat pee in our living room. I've heard from people who have first-hand experience that it doesn't usually work that way, but I bet it would work almost as well as some of the pet odor removing products on the market.

Speaking of products on the market, I was at the medical clinic on Friday and saw a little anonymous photocopied clipping on the bulletin board re: Airborne. Not very positive. Said each tablet contains 1g of Vitamin C and if you take as many as suggested on the box, you are overdosing and could give yourself kidney stones. Hmm, common cold vs. kidney stones...I don't know, it's a toss up. I also think that everything I was taking to fight off the viruses was starting to attack the ol' stomach lining. Either that, or stomach pain was a symptom of the bug itself. I was up at 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning ransacking our condo for Tums. Couldn't find any, finally resorted to 1/4 tsp of baking soda in about a cup of water (whatever it said on the baking soda box). Not tasty but I felt better instantly. It made me think of my great-grandma Winnie. Once when I was about ten, I was staying at her house and had an upset stomach, and she tried to convince me that I should drink baking soda solution, and I flatly refused. I was afraid it would taste so bad I would gag on it which seemed to defeat the whole purpose of stomach-settling. Saturday afternoon I restocked the Tums supply but haven't needed more than one since then. Feelin' fine. Ready to start up work again tomorrow. Legal Services has a benefit 4-mile run in mid-February so it's time to crack down on the training again. I have dreams of placing in my age group and for the last two years of running the event I have thought, hey, if I had actually trained for this....