Two pictures in lieu of writing about those seven things I listed previously.

BB's first real walk around the neighborhood! Our new place is a duplex that has a small yard out back (albeit not fully enclosed since it opens up to our driveway), and our favorite morning ritual is for me to put my eyeballs in, stumble to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, then sit out on the small deck while I watch BB do her morning business. She's really good about not going past the driveway - and retreating immediately when she gets too adventurous and I yell at her to come back - but I would never be so confident as to let her out back unattended. Anyway, she's usually pretty happy with a few backyard visits throughout the day, but it is nice to go on a short walk exploring the neighborhood every once in a while. 

Except this time, we got to the high school that's just a block behind our house and I saw a police officer that must have just finished telling a homeless vagrant (a rare sight around here, I can assure you) to vacate wherever it was he was loitering. And then when BB and I completed our neighborhood circle and were just about to walk back down our driveway, I saw that same vagrant crossing the street just at the nearby corner! Chances are, he is completely harmless, but seeing as how I have become addicted to watching murder mystery shows on the ID channel (Keith Morrison narrating: "It was a regular Saturday morning...in the pleasant toney neighborhood. Nobody would ever suspect anything bad would happen in this quiet, peaceful enclave. Especially not.....murderrrr."), I obviously did what any paranoid, murder-conscious young female would do and immediately back tracked out of our driveway and milled about on the sidewalk while keeping a wary side-eye on the poor guy just to make it as un-obvious as possible that this was where I lived. And then when his back was turned, I dragged BB quickly back inside our house. And then hightailed it to the front window to keep a lookout and make sure that he wasn't staking the house waiting for the perfect time to kidnap BB. Ah, it's good to be paranoid. Maybe less ID channel and more Food Network for a while.

Anyway. I like our neighborhood a lot. There are quite a few convenience stores and coffee shops within a mile from here - if only BB were capable of walking 2 miles round trip on a regular basis (and by "BB" I mean "Ysabel") - and even a weekly Sunday farmers market and organic food co-op!

In other news: What in the hell are BB's front legs doing in this picture?

This is what we call BB "cooling her walnut." Her favorite post-walk position.