Okay, so I was listening to the BBC Download and they did a story on the Diagram Prize, a special book prize awarded yearly for the oddest book title.

Last year’s winner was:

People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead: How They Attach Themselves To Unsuspecting bystanders and what to do about it

I’m just thrilled to know there is a book out there with this title. I didn’t want to know anything about it, but, unfortunately, when I went out to verify the title, I saw at a glance — TMI, TMI!

Instead of clicking on this link and finding out what this book is about, you could just continue on your way, repleat with the knowledge that the book you imagine from this title is probably far more entertaining and respectable than the one that was actually written.

Fortunately, the judges of this contest don’t have to consider the contents, only the title.

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It’s been vet week at the manse. Both dogs have been in and out of the vet’s for the last week and a half. First, The Big Dog went in for her annual blood tests and something weird came back which required her to be tested for Cushings Disease. It turned out she was fine. But then The Little Dog’s ears developed some sort of rash and this has led to tests for endrocinological malfunction.

When The Big Dog was young, one day I was stomping through the woods in an oversized and ragged green barn coat that I had stolen from Bob, and I realized had Bob not married me, I would be a Dog Lady. Dog Ladies are marginally less appalling that Cat Ladies only because we get out more. After all, the dogs need to walk. However, I would rapidly become a person who likes dogs better than people. A lot of times, I already do. I could see me, aging, make-up less, hair in a tangle, grumpy, with two dogs who slept on the furniture and basically ran the house.

Okay. I am aging, I don’t wear make-up, I’m lucky if I bother with the blow dryer once a week, and the dogs sleep on the furniture.

But dog ownership raises all sorts of weird conundrums. Read More »