Evan and Renee came by for a visit on President's Day Weekend. They came with Isaac and Elena (I guess they felt like having all blonde dogs). Gogo loved having everyone visit. She wanted to show off her tennis ball catching skills, but when I threw the tennis ball, Isaac appeared out of nowhere and snatched it in mid-air while Gogo was patiently waiting for it to come right to her. I gave a chew treat to Isaac after I got him to speak. I got a chew treat ready for Elena, and when I asked, "What tricks does Elena know?"

As fate would have it, in the summer of 2005, we adopted little Isaac, Gogo's younger half-brother. He was raised in the city, and seemed to enjoy coming back after living at Renee's place for a few weeks. We re-christened him "Oz", since that was the name we were going ot give Gogo if we had gotten a boy. We've since discovered that it's a good name for him, because he's got the courage of the Cowardly Lion, the clumsiness of the Scarecrow, and he's as squeaky as the Tin Man. He whimpers at just about everything.

The past two years, I've rented a place on Fire Island for a week - specifically, in Cherry Grove. Previously, I had taken the pups out, got a 2 bedroom unit, and attempted to get work or writing done.

In August of 2006, my sister, Christine, came to New York for a conference with my five month old nephew, Lorenz. We got him to ourselves over the weekend, so we hired a baby-sitter: the sitter of a friend of ours, Rhonda. And to add to the excitement, Gogo and Oz's breeder came to town on Saturday with her husband and their 8 month old baby, Ian. It was to be known as...