Isn’t that a cute book?

Kory forgot about it for a while, but he recently picked it up while looking for some new things to teach Riley. Hello, Riley.

Kory was a little taken aback, and highly amused, when he reached the chapter on How to Teach Your Dog to Detect Marijuana. Go ahead. Enlarge the photo and read a little.

The reference to the “friendly neighborhood drug dealer” and the claim that “everyone knows someone who smokes grass” were my personal favorites. And not just a little grass, either:

And then there’s the actual training:

I can’t help but laugh every time I imagine Kory out in the yard with Riley and a bag of pot, calling “Where’s the grass? Find the grass!” I’m sure the police station up the road would be enthralled. Either that or the neighbors would think my brain damaged son was trying to get the dog to identify the lawn.

I honestly thought the book would have been published some time in the sixties, but it came out a little later:

Lucky for us, Riley is not interested in becoming a drug dog.

She thought the book made a pretty good pillow, though.

My point is, I had a very uneventful trip to Louisville last weekend.  It was lovely, don’t get me wrong.  I spent some much needed and much appreciated time with my mother, my father, my sister, my niece, and my brother.  But we didn’t do anything special, other than hang out at my parents’ house.  And yet … I took sixty-three pictures.  Sixty-three!

I’m obviously not going to curb my photo-taking habit, but I feel as though it bears mentioning … sometimes it might be better to enjoy the moment, rather than take a picture of it.

That being said, my niece is as cute as ever, and I did come away from the weekend with a few lovely photos.  Thank goodness I wasn’t shooting film – I got roughly five good ones out of sixty-three.

I don’t have photos of girls’ night, but I had a wonderful time hanging out with Laura, Melanie, and Julia. I didn’t even mind the fact that they made me watch U of L play – it was a good game, and I’m glad the Cards pulled it off.

The shower was for Kory’s cousin Matara, who doesn’t much care to have her photo taken, but I told her she’d thank me later. Little does she know I’m a photo addict and can’t help taking pictures, no matter who the subject is. (Yes, I just ended a sentence with a preposition. I’m almost done with the quarter, so deal.)

Anyway, the best photo I have of Matara refuses to upload properly, so I’m using the second best.

And here are all of the lovely ladies who attended:

Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s Chip’s house (where he kindly allowed us to host the shower) but I really like that photo. Everyone looks great.

My absolute favorite photo of Riley also refuses to upload properly, so you’ll have to settle for this:

If you didn’t already know what cute looks like, that’s it. For further proof, see the following:

I would also like to point out that Riley has gone from this:

To this:

Goofy dog.

Happy Halloween!

Is this thing on?

Things have been rather busy lately, so I am just now getting around to posting some photos I took over Labor Day weekend. I don’t expect to be posting a ton in the near future, since school and my new tutoring gig will keep me fairly busy.

First, this is my favorite shot of the weekend. I know you can’t see her face too well, but in black and white Katie looks so classic, and the shot reminds me of something from a magazine.

Next we have JoAnne and John, who are such a cute couple it’s nearly impossible to be cranky around them.

Don’t ask about that last one. I said they were cute, not normal.

My favorite subject of the weekend was Sarah. I told Kory she is his future bride, but he just looked at me funny. I wasn’t kidding. She’s a very sweet girl and man, is she photogenic.

They will give me beautiful grandchildren. (Did I really just type that?)

Speaking of photogenic, here’s Melissa.

Contrary to appearances, Melissa was not sitting in the back yard naked. Sorry fellas.

No post would be complete without a Riley update – she wore herself (and myself) out running around trying to snatch hotdogs from plates and terrorizing small children.

I leave you with my second favorite photo of the weekend – I left the redeye in intentionally, because I think it’s funnier that way.

I love kids.

Normally I will sleep until 10 or so on a Sunday, just because I can, but such a luxury was not what Riley had in mind. She started making noise around 7:30, and I lay there hoping that Chip would suddenly become a morning person and volunteer to take her out. This was not meant to be either. So I blearily got dressed and stumbled downstairs to let the dogs romp in the yard. After a few minutes of reading and enjoying the cool morning weather, I glanced up to see this rising above the trees in my yard:

Which makes me wonder – do hot air balloons frequently pass over my house in the morning, and I’m just never awake to see them, or was I just really lucky this morning? I can’t have been too lucky, because I stubbed my toe while running inside to grab my camera.

And of course, since I already had the camera out I had to snap a few puppy portraits. Riley is growing crazy fast, and Lilly is, of course, as beautiful as ever.

Chip snapped this one a bit later in the morning – she looks like I felt, but I never got a nap.

Lucky dog.

Here, she is glaring at me out of the corner of her eye for disturbing her nap:

Here, I am focused on her giant, adorable puppy paws.

Some people claim that puppy paws smell like Fritos. I am not quite obsessed enough to confirm or deny this suggestion.

I can tell you that puppies are like babies – you can watch them sleep forever.