No, my dryer is not broken

I have two stories to share.

One is sad. The other is mildly amusing.

THE SAD: I am a bad dog mom.
I got home late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning and gathered up a load of laundry to wash as I got ready for bed. Evidently, when I went into the laundry room, both of my dogs followed me in and then went out the doggie door in the garage. But I only saw Lulu go out. So when she came back in, we both headed back the hall to go to bed. I noticed Gracie wasn't in the bedroom, but assumed she had gone into the living room and gone to sleep in her crate (which she does on occasion).

I didn't sleep well, but I thought it was because I'd had an eventful day. But when I got up this morning, Gracie still wasn't in my room. She wasn't in her crate, either.

And what is a good dog mom supposed to do then?

Panic.

So I panicked. I ran out into the back yard looking for her. She wasn't there, so I ran into the garage, where the happiest dog ever (also possibly the wettest dog ever because of overnight rain) bounded through the door. She had evidently spent some significant time outside this morning, but I could tell that she'd slept on her pillow out in the garage at least part of the night.

No wonder I didn't sleep well. My baby was in the garage, wet and cold.

At least she didn't threaten to call the ASPCA on me.

That was the sad. Now on to the amusing.

Photo Editor Jeff Melton and I have been working on an illustration for my column on Sunday (which is about finding the right pair of jeans to fit your body). After a few minutes of brainstorming, we decided it would be cool to string up a makeshift clothesline in the studio and use clothespins to hold the jeans on the line.

But after stringing it up, one pair of jeans made it sag so far that we quickly realized the studio was not the right spot.

A day later, Jeff and I found ourselves outside, at the very front of The Star. The line fit perfectly between the columns at the front of the building. (Jeff's idea, by the way) The sun was shining perfectly and the wind was blowing (an added bonus we hadn't expected). As we were hanging the jeans on the line, one woman going through the parking lot asked what we were doing. My explanation: Sunday Lifestyles.

Moments later, a police officer came rolling through with a prisoner in the back of his car.

"You know, my dryer works at home," the officer yells from his window.

We cracked up.

Because before then we were so focused on what we were doing that we didn't notice all the people driving up and down the road staring at us.

So, if you were one of those people, I have an explanation: Sunday Lifestyles.

Better than a vacation

I don't think I've had a better weekend than this one in a long time. I'm usually out of town on the weekends, but ended up staying in Shelby. My intentions were to work on some minor house projects, do some much-needed cleaning and maybe cook a meal or two.

Instead, I watched two Netflix movies Friday night ("Bounce" was absolutely wonderful, while "Dog Park" pretty much took a nose dive). Then Saturday I slept until lunchtime then cruised around the Internet for a while, made a few phone calls and discovered that there's a watch-it-now feature that comes as part of my Netflix subscription. So... continuing in my laziness, I watched "A Good Woman," (also a wonderful film) then two Ron White comedy shows (both were quite funny), then completed the first half season one of "30 Rock." (Here's the show's Web site) The incredible laziness continued on into Sunday and I finished the rest of the season.

For those of you who know me, the fact that I watched that much TV will probably come as a shock... and an even bigger shock is that I'll probably start watching "30 Rock" episodes regularly.

So, with all that said, my weekend was better than a vacation... though I do feel a little guilty about slacking off...

Just in case you're wondering, I did get a few household tasks done... and I blogged.