We have an It’s Pat who works on the same floor. It's always slightly unsettling when she comes out of a bathroom stall.

For some inexplicable reason, I always get big ideas about all the homemade holiday gifts I'm going to craft each year. This year, it's homemade soap. It took me awhile to hunt down pure lye to use with the soap making materials, but the experiment begins this weekend. I will likely be distributing these cherished bars of lavender and citrus scented works of art to all available friends and acquaintances, so if la complains about a skin rash in early 2009, you'll know why.

Hanna is hanging in there, even though she is losing interest in her peanut butter bone - a rubber bone with slots at each end that I stuff with baby carrots and peanut butter. This is one of her favorite toys, and customarily, she gets two in the morning and two at night. This morning, after she turned up her nose, Noodles got the extra goodies. Here's Hanna this morning, showing she can still do the regal look.