One of the many reasons I enjoy working at home – my lap never gets cold.

The Law of Panda is that you do not get up from your chair, disrupting her laptime, until she is ready to get up. Only then can you move about the house. Fortunately, she’s a benevolent ruler.

Today is a day for very special pet pictures, the less perfect ones.

Pippin makes a sour face.

Murphy relaxes, in true dingbat dog fashion.

Panda sleeps the sleep of the just.

Do you have any blackmail pictures of your pets to share?

Our dogsitting service took the puppies for a spa day, with baths, nail trims, vigorous brushings and cute little bows all around. Yeah for super soft fluffy puppies!

Panda in watchdog position, on the back of my loveseat.

Murphy sitting at the foot of Bryan’s recliner.

Panda, a sober, dignified, noble dog, is hard at work protecting us from pygmy marmosets and Comcast repairpersons.

And shedding all over our dark red couch.

Today we had a birthday barbecue, with family coming over for great food, good company and Wii Rock Band. Here are pictures of some of the attendees:

Gus spent much of the night under Zach’s chair.

Zoe, the friendly doggie cop, herded us all where she wanted us to go.

Sadie and Murphy are best buddies.

Panda is not very sociable – although she is the alpha dog – and spent most of her night like this.

The dogs did bring their parents. And the parents did get to eat at the tables. We had salmon mousse and crackers, smoked brisket & chicken, enough potato salad to cause a 21st century Irish potato famine, calabacitas (grilled squash, corn, onions & peppers), fresh-picked green salad and cake. Lots of cake. See the next post for more on that!

It’s not so bad turning forty-mumble mumble. We still feel young! Sort of.