In The Weeds

Earlier today I had this odd premonition that Paul McCartney was going to pass away-for real this time. I have been in a big Beatles reading mode of late, having just finished reading the 2009 updated version of Hunter Davies' excellent must-read (and only authorized)1968 biography of the group before diving into Geoff Emerick's "Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles". Maybe that had something to do with it. When I did open up the interweb news page , I did not see the death of Macca headlining the entertainment section. No, the "cute" Beatle was apparently alive and well somewhere in the world. The news was not so good for another iconic 1960's pop star. The "cute" Monkee, Davy Jones ,passed away suddenly from a heart attack at the much too young age of 66. Other than enjoying the reruns of their abbreviated show on WLVI when I was a "tween, and a couple of the hits, I never was much of an aficionado ...

This is something my daughter created at school the other day. It made me smile

Christmas eve I made what has apparently become an annual tradition: a trip to Trader Joe's for some last minute holiday treats." Those candy cane sugar cookies looked good. Into the basket! Chocolate fudgie thingies ? Into the basket! One pound bars of imported Belgian chocolate?  ( if it's half as good as their beer...) Into the basket!  Fast forward a couple weeks ...one of those hefty cocoa bars was forgotten in a bag , left on a chair , in our living room. Then it was discovered by our dog, an undersized 20 month-old black lab mix. Discovered, then consumed in it's entirety in about three minutes. An emergency trip to the vet,  $350( and many worried  children's tears ) later she is back to her old self, aside for the fact that when she does her "business" it looks more like something out of a Kingsford bag due to the charcoal gunk she has been having to take. Another Belgian catastrophe averted. Damn Belgians.