B turned me on to Basenjis. And PUPPY Basenjis? They make me crazy with their cuteness. Just you try to resist.

Anyone who knows me knows that as soon as I saw this photograph I got all squealy and excited-- with dreams of immeasurable puppy love to be had with one of our very own.

Ann was telling me that they are in the process of adopting a dog from a shelter in Houston. She said she and Dan have never been pet people, but when their little Anya sees a dog, she just squeals and laughs and more-usually-than-not, jumps on top of him.

Anya isn't even one yet, but I think we're pretty much on the same wavelength.

I'm back and laying low. A little reading. A little letter-writing. A little Ken Burns. Not much talking. Not much television. Just quiet nights. Happy to be enveloped by fall, mostly because of the onset of cool nights which lead to luxurious, steamy baths with fun, new, Erika-provided bubble baths from Marks and Spencer.

Not to say that there aren't lots of things brewing. Plans made by B and I during our half of the NOLA vacation. A pending name change of my oldest friend, Michael, from LA Michael to Manhattan Michael. Taking on the management of another Epic-with-a-capital-E-type project at work. Lots of shifts and ideas and new goals. Plenty of dreams and adventures and wild, inventive imaginings to keep the winter fires burning.

But right now, I'm happier to dance among thoughtfully constructed sentences just before sleep. (A favorite: "Hyphens appear throughout her collected poems like rickety bridges over existential chasms; they are ledges left for us to slide along and not look down from, lest we fall.") They lead me to brilliant dreams and best of all: sweet, good mornings.