It is Simon’s fourteenth birthday today. He was a very good boy all day and we let him walk around outside on the leash for a while. Brian used our awesome camera to make a movie of that adventure, which will be put online soon.

We met the little black puppy today also. She was so cute and bouncy and adorable. And sweet and affectionate and curious. She’s also quite skinny — she was rescued from the streets of Taiwan — but will bulk up soon enough. As far as her size and breed, she has a very small lean body, big pointy ears and a curled tail, smooth black coat, kind of like an African wild dog. She will probably grow up to be mid-sized, maybe 40 pounds tops.

We have not made a final decision yet, but we have time. Her appt to be spayed is in a week. Her foster mom will hopefully come visit our house tomorrow, to make sure we aren’t living in squalor or hoarding animals, I guess.

Brian and I talked about names in the car on the way home. He actually suggested Juneau, which I love, as long as it is spelled like the city, of course. It also fits the two syllables, ends in a vowel rule. I also like the name Angie, because I am fond of giving people names to pets.

So what do you think?

In other news: this was my first ever trip to Bremerton, which is the place where the main character in my book is supposed to come from. As has happened a few other times since I started writing this thing and visited Alaska, etc, Bremerton was much like I imagined it to be, at least his neighborhood; very drab and filled with bleak, nondescript ramblers with overgrown lawns and old faded curtains in the windows and peeling paint. Almost exactly the way I pictured it, in fact.