Looking forward to the weekend!

Pat, my brother, called me from work today and began our conversation by saying, "You know you are my favorite sister."

(I am his only sister.)

"Thank you!" I said brightly. "You're so sweet. And it was so nice to talk to you. 'Bye!"

"Ha ha. Very funny, " he said.

"Okay, so what exactly do you want?"

(He has no bargaining points with me right now because I was able to figure out the flash drive all on my own and he didn't have to come from work and get the knees of his suit all linty and dog-hairy from my carpet by crawling under my desk in search of a USB port on my CPU.)

"We-e-e-ell," he said, "I was hoping to take Angie to the antiques auctions this weekend..."

"And you want us to keep the kids?" I cut in eagerly. It's been too long since they've come to spend the night with us and I adore having them here. I'd keep them if I could. (Plus, I can totally understand why Pat and Angie wouldn't be excited at the idea of taking a 13-year-old, a 6 -year-old and an 18-month-old to an auction of antiques. Phew.)

I feel very lucky because I even managed to snag the new beagle puppy, Louie, for this overnight. Wimzie and Hershey will be quite excited to have a house guest of their own. All of Wimzie's mothering instincts come to the fore when she meets a new puppy and she all but puts on an apron and a ruffled cap and heats up baby bottles whenever she sees one. I don't think Hershey actually knows what puppies are, but he doesn't react to them the way he reacts to cats, squirrels and rabbits, so it's all good.