Da Chimpz are finishing their showers... Alane decreed earlier as she passed them in the living room and announced that they smell like dog. Could be from the wiener dog they and the other Cub Scouts were playing with at Settlers Landing today. Cookie's den took them all out there as a Go See It event -- rode the RTA trains, explored the river's edge, played with a couple of dogs out for a run, and read the bronze plaque that explained how Old Man Cleaveland landed there in 1796, hung around for a little while, then wisely headed back to Connecticut from which he never returned.

Could he have suffered from the Connecticut Malaise?

It's possible. Alane is out of town for the next few days and she has composed a veritable user manual meant to guide me through the care and feeding of Cookie and Mojo. I had planned to wing it -- I'm pretty sure we can get by smashingly using just our male instincts. We've got plenty of chips. And firewood.