Guns, Germs, Steel, Eric, Lawson

When Eric first moved here, we kept him in his crate overnight. This worked for a week or so, but then he started howling when we crated him. Despite my claim that you can teach a dog anything, I chose not to teach him the art of silence at 11 pm in my skivvies. So, we let him have the run of the house overnight, and to our pleasant surprise, he went to a corner and was quiet as a mouse. Quieter, actually: mice wake me up.

This has become our routine, and most nights, it works like a dream. Some nights, however (and this is one, probably because Lawson is here), Eric is so excited at bedtime that he comes upstairs. This is a no-no. Yes, we have a double standard; Fin in the bed but Eric downstairs - wanna make something of it? So, to calm Eric down and get him to sleep on the first floor, I have to read him a bedtime story. Tonight, it's a passage from the Pulitzer prize-winning "Guns, Germs, and Steel".

P.S. Since Ralph still refuses to get his own blog, you'll have to go to http://www.worldlynx.net/j2m//fararden/DSC29536431edbf95_jpg.html to see him and Lawson.