Today's blog post comes to you in the form of an email from my mother:

Dad and I had a fun filled evening last night at the Ben H*** household. We were expecting to have [Baby] while Andrew went to a new boxing gym, but then poor Dave had his traumatic experience [editor's note: Dave got attacked by a bigger dog and was mostly okay and I wasn't sure they'd taken him to the vet but then yesterday afternoon SIL Sarah called and asked if I could watch Dave because she had to leave to pick up the new puppy Jim and didn't want to leave Dave and his cone head alone but I was already on my way to Seattle], so Dad and I went to dog sit poor groggy Dave post surgery -- stitches in his leg, while Sarah had to go and get Jim post surgery -- gender reassignment! [He was neutered.] There we were with Dave with one of those plastic cones on his neck, looking all bleary eyed, and he couldn’t jump on and off anything, so Dad kept picking him up and down off the sofa, and [Baby] was as happy as a clam, keeping himself entertained with two pieces of paper that Sarah had torn from a magazine - [Baby] talked and chewed and babbled over the paper for about an hour altogether. As Dave started to get over his grogginess and actually did jump off the sofa by himself, Sarah came back with Jim - also a little drunk, but a puppy! Followed Sarah everywhere, got under your feet when you moved them, decided to have a chew on one of [Baby's] toys, and, of course, exploring everything - Dave just stood and looked at him! There were several advertisements on TV that featured dogs, and Dave didn’t even react. He and Jim had a slight difference of opinion over table scraps at one point and Dave made his superior status known, which made Jim cry and cry - reminds you how much puppies are like babies.

We took the collar off Dave because he really wasn’t touching his leg and Jim did not have one on because he seemed oblivious to what he had lost - however, I do not know what kind of night the Ben H***s had!!!!

[Baby] also decided yesterday that it was time to learn how to pull himself up to standing - he did it once earlier in the day, and he was putting some pretty concentrated effort into it last night - I know he is going to be walking before he is one!

Poor Sarah remained remarkably composed through a rather traumatic day, Dad and I went home about 8.30 and I know it took me about an hour to begin to wind down.

And you left town - these family moments can never be recaptured!

I love you.

Mom

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My mom is funny. Sounds like quite the night!

I was busy flying to Seattle. And boy were my arms tired!

But the flight path from SJC to SEA flies you RIGHT OVER my office building -- I could see exactly which one it was -- and my HOUSE -- I could see exactly which one it was too!

We were just over my house when the pilot said we could use our electronic devices so I turned my phone on but in the eight seconds it took for me to fiddle around, the plane had changed position and I didn't have my eyes directly on my house anymore but looking at this picture now, I can see my block:



When I see airplanes fly overhead I wonder about the people looking down at us and I wonder if anyone is looking at the exact spot where I'm occupying the earth. If anyone was at my house at 4:45-ish yesterday afternoon, I thinking about how much I love the people under that roof. Sounds like maybe they were all off tending to various canine dramas though, so maybe the squirrels in the yard were the only ones feeling the love.

Anyway...kumbaya, right?

And then BOOM! The next thing I knew there was snow!



And then I arrived in Seattle and we went back to this Thai place we went to last time I was in town because they have the MOST DELICIOUS crispy garlic chicken EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

And then, with the friendliness of one cocktail in me, I made BFFs with the desk clerk (who for some unknown reason welcomed us to Seattle on behalf of all asians and I responded with "My nephew is asian!" and we had a discussion about these mysterious honey donut things that I had at the last family gathering) and he upgraded us to the mac daddy suite and now I'm sitting at the desk between the kitchen and the living room: