Okay, now that you're back ... we had a beautiful sunrise at the ranch yesterday morning.

And we had another this morning. I was sitting at the dining room table, reading the newspaper around 7:30, looked up and saw a brilliant pink spot in a rich blue sky. I went to the utility room to see a better view of the whole sky. It was gorgeous. I retrieved my camera on my way back through the house, when out the front door to try to get a view with fewer trees for my picture this time, and all the pink was gone. Time elapsed, less than 15 seconds. You gotta be quick on your toes to catch the sunrise at the right time.

I took Angel with me on my chores around town yesterday so that I could take her by Barking Hound Village to make a reservation for our Savannah stay and let her get a look at the place before it's time for me to drop her off. Remember how she horked in my car last time? This time I was prepared. I got a dog pad, which is sort of like one of our bed pads, but smaller, and they sell them in pet stores for dogs to pee on when you're house training them, or if they have to stay in the house all day, and they're marketed under names like "Home Alone" or "Your Sorry Owner Is Too Busy To Take Care Of You".

Anyway, we'd gotten to town but hadn't reached our first destination yet when Angel threw up, but we were prepared! Until she threw up a second time on the dash board. Driving around town for a couple hours with a floorboard full of puke wasn't too bad. Lucky for me it wasn't stinky. Lesson learned: The Road is not Angel's middle name.

Then it was home to clean up a little because the Rancho had SPECIAL VISITORS last night. Yep. Zenslut and her boi Clay were THE FIRST Badsnake readers to actually visit the ranch (well, the first who didn't already know us before I started the diary).

As you can see, Zen was elated to have tromped all the rest of you on her way to victory. After we got her to stop dancing around the living room yelling "We're Number One! We're Number One!" we had a really nice visit. She and Clay are tr�s cool and excellent dinner guests. Good conversation, and they brought a truly yummy dessert�apple crisp. All of you hoping to be future Rancho guests take note.

I imagine Zen might have noticed that while Badsnake is eloquent and witty on the web page, she's not much of a conversationalist with people she's just met (that's why Sara was intimidated by me when we first met�I just sat there and didn't say much). Luckily, Sara and Deb held up my end of the conversation as well as their own. Jake was out of town and unable to join us. We had the turkey soup that we all raved about after Thanksgiving (not the same batch), and all was lovely.

Because we liked them, we gave Zen and Clay a lovely postcard as a parting gift. See how appreciatively they admired it? Again, take note.

Appreciation

Lovely Parting Gift

That's about it for me today. It's 6:30, and I haven't taken a shower yet. Nobody wants a funky butch at the dinner table.