My dog has recently taken to fancying himself a horse. Well, a racing horse at least. Mornings and evenings, if you fail to pay full attention to his Awesomeness, he decides to have a little fun with you by sneaking into the family room, picking up one of the remotes, and tiptoeing into another room. The problem with this is that when you hear the click-clack of his nails on the floor slow to a creep, it’s fairly obvious what he doing. And thus begins the Chase of the Idiots.

1. Latex paint - There are few things in life I hate more than painting. A colonoscopy is not one of them. But latex paint makes the crappiness of painting a tiny bit less crappy. Because instead of creating a gigantic uncleanable mess, it just creates a giant smeary mess!
2. The Office (US) - Holy smokes, what I’ve been missing. After catching one episode of the US version years ago, I gave up hope on this show, chalking it up to it simply “not being up to par with the genius that is Ricky Gervais’s UK version.” However, after having watched most of season two, all I can say is that I have indeed been a fool. Where my nights have gone this week…(thanks Hillary!)
3. This article on depression - One might not think this could qualify as something I’d love this week, but New Orleans columnist Chris Rose writes with such incredible sensitivity and insight. A position so close to mine it’s frightening.
4. Having a heater that isn’t broken - Most of the summer we were plagued by a lazy AC, which would cut in and out on us. Though we never got it checked out, we had high hopes for the heat. But when it came time for that (about 3 weeks ago), we were less than thrilled to find out that we had none. But after three weeks of no heat, it’s back! Guess checking the gas valve should have come before disassembling the furnace, eh?
5. TSP (trisodium phosphate) - This stuff rocks. Though somewhat caustic, this is an incredible cleaning substance. We’ve used it to scrub our walls to prep them for painting and it took off layers of grime and adhesive. I also have mixed it with Oxyclean (sodium percarbonate) to clean the crap out of my fermenting equipment. Is there anything this stuff can’t clean?!

‘Round and ‘round the first floor we go, both parties slipping at each turn on the hardwood floors. Kitchen. Family room. Dining room. Stop. Reverse. He ducks under tables and I fling chairs. Out of breath and miffed at his insolence, I grab him by the ruff and put him in his crate, only to be suckered into Round Two ten minutes later. I’m pretty sure he looks forward to this game all day.