I needed a break from writing this afternoon so got the camera out.

And a couple cookies.

I’ll be gone for the next five days on a family trip with my daughter and son, my sister and her husband. Dogs are staying home with hubby Kim, so I’m wondering…

• Will Sampson and Winston give me their sad puppy dog eyes from the back of the car as I wave goodbye at the airport, and then unleash their inner party animals, dancing to “Who Let the Dogs Out” and bingeing on snausages til I get back?
• Will they think I’m never coming back? I mean, obviously I’ll tell them… but will they believe me?
• Will they so love sleeping on my side of the bed (my husband spoils them a smidge), that they’ll passive/aggressively roll their eyes at me at bedtime when I come home?
• Will they think that I’ll be gone for five days every time I leave the house from now on?
• Will they call and leave me voicemails?
• Will they walk around with really sad expressions on their faces? (oh, the irony)
• Will they stow away in my luggage and jump out and surprise me at the hotel? Or maybe – gulp – they’ll stow the cat away in my luggage so he jumps out and surprises me…
• Will they place an ad for a new mom? “Wanted: lady who loves us, gives us c-o-o-k-i-e-s, and lets us kiss her face. And never leaves.”

Well, one thing I know they WON’T do is be my guest bloggers while I’m gone. All they ever write about are naughty cat jokes and the tragedies of bath day. And also? Terrible spelling. So this blog is going quiet until next week… in the meantime, re-watch this video, Linus the Boxer Loves His Baby. I’m pretty sure you’ve seen it before, but it’s so dang cute, and such a good example of the sweetness of Boxers, don’t you think?

Sometimes I let the dogs lick the leftover peanut butter off my apple-and-peanut-butter breakfast plate and then I put the newly-cleaned plate back into the cupboard for tomorrow morning.

No, I don’t really put the plates back in the cupboard like that – I was just kidding. Unfortunately, I grossed my own bad self out, and now I feel a little barfy.