Since the next couple of things I post aren't going to be terribly positive, I thought I'd share some dog stories.

My mother in law was in town yesterday and today. My wife and I both got up before the crack of dawn for our weekly Saturday ritual--I spent a total of $4 at that 6 am sale, which was about $96 short of my goal. So while we were out keeping more money than we were spending, my mother in law was stuck with a black lab mix who's too smart for her own good.

She knows the words "Come on, get in your crate." But with my mother in law, the dog played dumb. When she came after her, she ran away. So my mother in law had to catch the dog and drag her into her crate.

She and my wife were talking about it this afternoon. My wife said, "She knows what 'Come on Angel, let's go into the crate' means." And the dog proved it, because she looked up with the oh-do-I-have-to? look.

Things got worse though. Not long after that, she said, "I think I'm going to go take a bath."

Angel doesn't know the first 8 words in that sentence, but she knows what "bath" means. When she hears running water and she thinks it's for her, she runs and hides. Not real well, mind you--she hides at the bottom of the three steps that lead up from the family room into the rest of the house, but it slowed us down for a few minutes the first time.

So I guess she had a better afternoon than she expected. No bath, and only about 30 minutes in the crate while we went to the hardware store to get some assorted nuts and bolts for some repairs I've been putting off.