How I Spent My Winter Vacation

Boy, what a night. The boys are spoiled and convinced that they just can't live without their mom or dad or nanny, so I expected them to come unglued at the prospect of spending most of a weekend alone and for their heads to explode when I got back home. But apparently at least one of the cats took my absence a bit personally as well. Somebody had cleaned my table right off, including my one and only kerosene lamp which miraculously did not break on contact with the floor. When I opened the door to the lair I was immediately assaulted with a most vile smell, which turned out to be coming from the place where somebody, probably Click, had copiously crapped all over my sitting bench. Thankfully I'd covered it with a towel months ago to help deal with dog hair, but since she or Butch had first gone to the trouble of dumping a good many of my worldly belongings off the table and onto the bench before defecating, that precaution wasn't as effective as it otherwise might have been. I just wrapped everything in the towel and dumped it outside, but I've got quite a cleanup job ahead, I'm afraid.

The boys didn't settle down until well into the evening, and then the fair started right back up again this morning so I could expect to accomplish nothing whatever until taking the boys for a special walk. Butch went along until he saw how special the walk was to be, and then peeled off and went to do his own thing. But more about that later, maybe.

Oh, yeah! The trip. Well, that went well. There's not a lot I can say about it, as the privacy of others is involved. I went to a place:



And I did a thing, for which I was awarded the Order of the Cunning Hat with Orange Tassel - a signal honor:

Er...yeah. Guns and alcohol really don't mix, it's true.


Actually it was a get-together of friends, one of whom knitted me this most cunning hat, which I appreciated a lot more than I think she thought I would. Maybe it isn't exactly in my normal color palette, but what the hell. A man walks down the street in a hat like that, you know he's not afraid of anything. I received another wonderful gift I'd love to describe, but unfortunately that would be telling too much so I cannot. But, as Jayne would say, "I will treasure this."

I'd agonized over whether to bring one of the boys with me on my trip, but upon arrival was instantly glad I hadn't. Our hosts' yard sports a couple of young cottontails who clearly had never experienced predators and who kept us entertained quite often, and none of the dogs could have allowed that situation to continue for a moment. Rabbits! Standing still! Must! Eat!! No, that wouldn't have done, I'm afraid.

A wonderful time was had by all, and the physical damage was kept to a decent minimum.