As I've mentioned before, our dogs have taken a hit since the birth of our children. I know this must happen in a lot of families, and that it is in some ways unavoidable, but it still makes me sad sometimes. Not that their lives are tragic or anything, just that after we've eaten dinner and put the kids to bed and are just absolutely exhausted and longing for the couch, and I know that they'd like nothing more than a nice walk, well, a lot of the time the couch wins. I was at the vet this morning ~~forking over the entirety of our financial savings~~ getting the dogs their annual checkups and shots, and was amazed by this one vet tech we've seen numerous times and the overwhelming amount of positive energy he devotes to each and every dog. I was amazed because I know he has two kids - we've talked about it before - and he still has the reserves to tell Mina what a wonderful girl she is, over and over again, while stroking her lovingly. Meanwhile, the most I can do, thanks to Gabe's 5:30 a.m. wakeup, is halfheartedly pet her on the head as she's getting her blood drawn, thinking, "But here's the thing. She's not a wonderful girl."

Truthfully though - as I'm starting to realize about much of our life right now - this is just a blip. Our dogs have had good lives and, although I know they could do with a few more long walks and less expletives directed at them when they demand things of us - say, water - they will continue to have good lives. In fact, as the kids get older, their lives will get even better. Just the other day, for instance, Nora told me she wants to take Mina swimming at the beach this weekend. I could take CeeCee, she explained. She doesn't like Cecilia, which completely defies reason but sort of makes sense if you know Nora.

Also, every once in awhile I am reminded of how absolutely loving, loyal and hilarious dogs really are. And it always prompts me to give my own dogs a little more affection at the end of the day.

Denver the guilty dog was one of those moments for me. Somehow I just saw this video for the first time. My friend Abby shared it with me the other day, although I guess it's been around a long time. But it reminded of how happy I am that dogs exist, and that as crazy as life sometimes is because of them, I feel very lucky to share our roof with two of these glorious creatures.

A month or two ago I started thinking maybe I should write a book. But, like, for real. And one of the things that's happened since then is that I take note of all the books I hear about and see, which is something I've always done, but now I'm doing it in a more thoughtful way.

Also, due to the tone that seems to be characterizing my 34th year, I do it in a very cocky way.

Like when I heard a radio piece recently about this woman who quit her job to spend a year on an oyster farm and then wrote a book about it, and I was all, "Ok. I could totally do that." Or when I bought J this gardening book yesterday, that essentially lists different types of herbs and vegetables and how to grow them, each page dedicated to a different plant, which is actually super helpful but also really simple and I said, "Nice format. I could do this kind of thing." Or whenever I think about this guy, for instance, all I can think is, "Come on, I could write a book in my SLEEP."

It's all talk, of course and, more importantly, not helpful, since the plain truth is that I haven't written any book. Kinda like how when people talk about that really abstract modern art featuring squares or circles or what have you, saying, "I don't get it, I could do that!" and J - who loves that stuff - replies, "Yeah, but you didn't."

Beyond some actual brainstorming and a few tiny steps I've taken in the right direction (I hope) my book fascination has pervaded my life in many amusing ways.

This morning while feeding Gabe breakfast I got a sudden urge to clean out the freezer, which we've been meaning to do for awhile but when it comes right down to it that's a task that usually ends up on the "not that fun" list, and thus, not completed. Sometimes though, you catch a bit of inspiration and you've got nothing big to do with your energy, so the freezer gets the benefit.

And as I was down on my hands and knees, removing old bags of hot dog buns that, sadly, are probably never to taste good again, and wiping down the surfaces, I thought about how I'd later tell J all about how I'd gotten the freezer done that morning! And how he'd probably tell me that he'd split some molecules for cold fusion, then pipetted a glucose solution and examined microbes related to pandemic fever germs. That's the kind of thing that scientists say.

So I decided maybe I wouldn't, for once, tell him about the rather mundane thing I'd done that day, then wondered what the hell I'd do with all the creativity I save for communicating the minutiae that is sometimes my daily existence. Who will I tell when I revise the laundry system? I've got things to share.

Wait a second! I thought. I've got it. I'll tell the entire world. I could totally write a book about that.