Our Dog Is Famous!

So sometime last year I got an email from a random person saying she was from a publisher who was putting together a book of funny dog pictures and she wanted to use a picture of Abbey that I had up on Flickr. I looked up the publisher and it seemed to be real and they weren't asking for money, so I signed the release and said, "Sure! Why not?" I didn't get paid or anything, but they said they would send all of us contributors a copy of the book. Well, when we got back from our New Orleans trip, the book was waiting for us in the giant pile of mail that had stacked up! I had pretty much forgotten about it, but I must admit I'm kind of excited now. Does this make me a published photographer? I don't think it is at all related to the official Lolcats or Loldogs people (hmmmmm, "official" doesn't seem like quite the right word to refer to anything related to ceiling cat, but you know what I mean) but I have been browsing through the book and it is quite funny, if you're in to that sort of thing (which I TOTALLY AM). So it was this picture that they used and they captioned it, "Sumone took mai staplr agin." HAHAHAHAHAHA. If you happen across a copy or are in the market for a book of humorously captioned dog pictures, Abbey is on page 77.

In less awesome news, Rob is out of town again. He is gone to a conference in Florida for everyone who has the grant that he got to pay for his fellowship. He had a bit of apprehension about going because this is the grant program he is leaving and he foresaw some awkward conversations with the higher-ups about why exactly he was turning down their money and leaving the academic career track. I've talked to him a few times, though, and it seems like everyone has been really positive and understanding and supportive, so hooray for that! He was home for only one day between the conference in New Orleans and this trip, and weirdly enough, this happened last year too, although the two conferences were switched in order. He went by himself to both conferences last year, leaving me on my own with the two small creatures for much longer than this time around, but still I eagerly await his return, despite the not-too-long trip. Not least because...

Grace is sick. AGAIN. And so am I. AGAIN. We have just been a mass of disease over here at our house, since Christmas, I think. None of it has been serious, thank goodness, but it has been cold after cold after stomach virus after cold, passed around between the four of us. I need to take some drastic immune-system-boosting measures or something. This particular upper respiratory virus hit me as we were leaving for New Orleans and then Violet while we were there, and now Grace has gotten it and is coughing and full of snot and running 103 degree fevers when I let the ibuprofen/acetaminophen regime wear off. The poor thing gets all flush-faced and wan and feeble; I am ashamed to admit that I kind of thought she was exaggerating until I took her temperature and saw how high it was. And then last night I started throwing up. I am hoping against hope that it was something I ate and not another virus and/or that Grace and Violet will not get it. Yesterday Grace kept saying, "I don't like this", and boy, do I share the sentiment. Also, she has somehow decided that because she is sick, she can only eat "healthy" foods, which apparently means only fruit. No vegetables, dairy, grains, protein sources-- no, no, they are not "healthy". Oh well, it won't hurt her for a few days. And hours and hours of television for a few days also won't hurt her either, right? Time to go start another episode of Ni Hao, Kai-lan...