Yes, I am posting late

and if you were wondering why (and you know you were), it's because Mr. Abby is Out of Town (in the military sense).

So I have a couple of weeks of getting to be on MY VERY OWN SCHEDULE!!!

Love my husband, but he's an early-to-bed, early-to-rise type. I normally try to conform to his schedule at least a little. Otherwise it's quite easy for us to be in the same house and only be awake together from like 1700-2100.

But he's gone - and his timing is FABULOUS. Mr. Abby is a patriotic American of the first degree, but - he DISLIKES BASEBALL. I know. I know. If I'd realized this earlier, I probably would have called off the wedding. But, as it stands now, I'm good to watch the World Series, or at least the first four games, without anyone wandering into the living room and saying, "what's for dinner?" or "can you help me find my green service cover?"

He's actually developed some sort of jealous adversarial relationship with baseball, in which he occasionally tries to tempt me away from the Tigers.

"Hey, babe - you want to go get a steak?"

I finally had to break it down.

"Babe, this hasn't happened in 22 years. I love baseball. Like 65% of my early childhood memories involve Ernie Harwell's voice. I love you, but please, GO AWAY. Or you can sit here and watch the Tigers. One or the other."

I really am a sucky wife, but I REALLY love baseball.

Crazy World...

Well, I still suck at homework. I just raced through four sections of math that were due at 2359 Sunday, trying to squeeze as many points as possible out. Of course, I could have done these weeks ago (probably would have improved my test score), but that would have been MOST out of character.

So I'm sipping a late-night cup of coffee, and listening to "Mortaritaville." It's some twisted little piece of music I picked up in Iraq (along w/ persistent GI tract issues - the music is way more fun). Another ripoff of Margaritaville, but it DOES include the line, "at least I don't wipe my ass with my hand."

One night, I sat on a plywood porch with four other individuals and watched everything we owned burn to the ground. There were Apaches overhead, the bad guys were shooting at the FOB, we had no pants, and "Mortaritaville" was playing on a laptop.

It makes me smile now. Yeah, I'm still a bad student and I probably always will be. But at least all my shit isn't on fire.

Put your dog On. A. Leash. Dammit.

OK - if you live in an urban (or, I suppose, suburban) area (read, neighborhood), you just gotta keep track of your dog.

I have the Bad Dogs, and they are indeed Bad. Casey loves to run off. Sparky loves to run across roads looking for people willing to pet him. People don't MIND Sparky, but the road is not a safe place for a dog. People DO mind a German Shepherd who loves chasing kids on bikes, so wandering free is NOT a safe place for Casey.

The solution here is simple. My dogs don't wander outside. Our backyard is fenced (a requirement when we rent). The dogs don't go from the front door to the car if we don't have a firm hold on them. When we walk, they have leashes (and they WEAR them).

I just got back from taking them for an evening walk. As we neared the house, we had TWO decent-sized dogs come running up on us from the front, doing that creepy low jackal run.

I hate that. Of COURSE they weren't on leashes (one wasn't even wearing a collar). And of COURSE they had no people.

I yelled at them (sergeant voice! "HEY! GO HOME! GO HOME!") and they drew back. I scooped up Sparky and dragged Casey on down past them. I kept looking back until I saw they'd developed an interest in a neighbor's trash.

Grrrr....

Listen - I love dogs. Love em love em love em. I love ALL the dogs. Ugly ones, smelly ones, ornery ones and hairy ones. I love my next door neighbor's pit bull, and pet her daily.

I DO NOT LOVE packs of unleashed dogs.

1. If your dog is running around the neighborhood unrestrained, there's a good chance it'll get hit by a car. That sucks.

2. If your dog is running around thinking it's part of a pack, charging other dogs, that ain't good either. I love all the dogs. I love mine best. Your unleashed dog attacks one of mine? That will go badly for your dog. That sucks.

3. Unrestrained dogs consistently attack people down here. If your dog ATTACKS someone, that's bad. For you AND the dog. Also sucks.

Keep track of your dog. A neighborhood is not an appropriate place to let your dog roam. Bad things can happen to it, and it's not fair to the dog.

I DON'T MIND BAD DOGS. I HATE BAD DOG OWNERS.