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Lately Tyson has been one happy baby beagle. Hip2bDad and the girls have been taking him for walks every chance they get. Hopefully that’ll get him to work off the excess energy which he’s been channeling into chewing up the few measly roses and destroying what’s left of our little garden !

Here he is with his newfound friend who lives down the road. This Labrador is the only one in the neighborhood who would actually kiss Tyson.

The others, they just either stare as Tyson walks past or they get all upset because they don’t even come close to being the lady’s man that Tyson is !

Here’s dear Tyson, victorious after an evening’s adventure. Isn’t he absolutely gorgeous? By the way, those dark circles around his eyes aren’t due to lack of sleep ‘cos he’s one sleepy baby.

Busy as I am, I rarely get the chance to socialize with our neighbors. Those who are just as busy tend to keep to themselves and those who love to gossip for hours, I just don’t have the time for them.

Having said that, we do have a couple of darling neighbors. The lady who lives on our other side is in this wonderful habit of passing us barbecued pork and other yummies across the fence. Her husband takes it upon himself to water our plants and warns us if it rains and we still have our rugs hanging outside to dry!

The lady who lives across the street from us knows all my favorite foods, and whenever she cooks them, she always makes extra and brings me a bowl or sometimes, even a pot of it!! She sees me rushing about all day and she pampers me with her delicious herbal soups and comfort food. How sweet is that!

Twas a stormy evening when I got home from sending Raine to her tutor’s house. A short while later, Hip2bDad went to collect his golf shoes from the top of my minivan where he’d set them to dry earlier… and they were GONE!! His new shoes, gone!

Of course! I’d driven into the storm without realizing they had been sitting on top of my minivan. How was I to know? Mind you, the roof of a minivan is pretty high up and it’s not as if I were born with a periscope on top of my head !

The only thing left to do was to keep an eye out for ‘em errant shoes on my way to pick up Raine later. Easier said than done. Ever tried looking for a brown shoe on the road in a torrential downpour? Not easy, I tell ya! I felt like Cruella de Vil cruising at snail’s pace, peering out of the window, stalking a brown puppy shoe!

I spotted what looked like a shoe on the ramp leading onto the highway. Steev confirmed it was but there was no way I could stop the car on that busy ramp! OMG! I guess that’s it, it’s probably bashed up anyhow though Steev said it didn’t look like anyone’s run over it – yet!

I drove on and on the way back, we spotted the other side of the shoe a couple of corners from the tutor’s house. That road was pretty quiet so I pulled up alongside the shoe and Steev hopped out to retrieve it. Is it Daddy’s shoe? Yep, and it was still in good condition.

Now for the other shoe. I had to make a turn and head back in the opposite direction to get back to that ramp where we’d seen it earlier. I was in two minds whether to attempt the dangerous feat of stopping on a busy ramp in pouring rain to make a dash for the shoe!

Luckily when we got there, there was no traffic. at. all. On that usually busy ramp? Wow, someone must be looking out for us! I quickly put on my hazard lights, stopped as close as possible to the shoe and with both Steev and I keeping an eye out for approaching traffic, Raine hopped out and in a flash was back in the car with the other shoe!

What an adventure! The most amazing part was that no one had run over either of the shoes. They’re good as new after a day out in the sun!! Hip2bDad is smiling again. And this story definitely deserves to be a chapter in The Adventures of The Hip Family to be handed down the generations !

Our resident Miss Party Planner is hard at work planning our school break agenda. That would be Raine. Right now, she’s making movie ticket reservations and a list of our favorite places to eat.

My 3 teens specialize in different things. Miss Pizza Order-er, Skye does all our calls for pizza delivery. It just took her 2 calls to become a pro. Both the girls help me do research on various topics like fashion, dog food and hemorrhoids treatment for articles that I write.

Mr Techie, Steev takes care of the technical side of things around here, including organizing our family movie nights. And guess what? He’s just gotten his driver’s license and he actually drove us home from our grocery shopping this afternoon. Cool, huh?

Okay, so we’re a family of picky eaters. There’s just certain foods we wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, and there are certain foods we just can’t get enough of.

We’re guacamole freaks and I’m to blame. I discovered this yumminess when my girl friend and I were on vacation in San Luis Obispo, California. It was my birthday and she’d secretly told the motel people who promptly showed up at our door with a huge bunch of flowers. How sweet!

Later we discovered the terrace cafe downstairs was serving free chips and guacamole. Loved it so much I made several trips down there to harass the good-looking guy into refilling my bowl . Or maybe it was just my excuse to go check out that hunk a few more times .

Anyhow great stuff, the guacamole, not the guy. No fat burner needed either, no guilt. And now my girls love it too.

What’s one food you can’t get enough of?

I’m sitting in my mechanic’s office one morning waiting for my car to get fixed. It’s usually pretty quiet in there with just one or 2 girls working. But then, a woman walks in, plops her bag on the table, sits down and starts telling the clerk how her car’s battery had gone flat while she’d been away on vacation for over a week.

Then she goes on to relate her travels in great detail followed by tales of her children’s lives, where they are, what they do, things her grandchildren do, the number of cars each of her children owns, her only daughter’s boyfriends, the new business she’s starting and that she’s on apidexin to lose weight… on and on she goes.

I confess I’m not the most chatty person. I’m just content to sit there staring at the walls. But since I have ears, I’m privy to every word she’s saying to that poor girl who clearly is very busy but has to look interested somehow. First chance she gets, she bolts out the door on the excuse that she has something to discuss with the mechanics downstairs.

The minute she’s out the door, the woman turns to ME! Yes, innocent little me, the quiet mouse sitting in the far corner, minding my own business. What you here for? she starts and I’m going OMGosh. Frankly I don’t think she’s interested in me as much as she’s interested in recounting her entire life story. Stories I’ve just heard. Stories I don’t want to hear again. H-e-l-p!

I’m sure she’s a nice person and means no harm. Still … anyhow, what would you do if you were in my shoes?

What do you with a puppy that’s too smart and active for his own good? Well, that’s Tyson, our baby beagle who isn’t such a baby any more. He’s turning into quite a terror, chewing on slippers, tearing around the garden, eating up flowers and plants, breaking stuff …

When we’re around, he’s on good behavior, sitting there quietly like a doll. The minute we turn our backs, he’s up to no good. Sometimes I feel like giving him natural sleeping pills to keep him from being such a pest.

Come to think of it, I haven’t been to the gym for almost 2 months now. Time flies when you’re slacking. I can still fit into my jeans so I guess I’m still good except if I flap my flabby arms now, I could probably fly across the room.

I went there this morning half expecting that the renovations would be going on still. At least that’s what happened when I happily went there last week only to find the place a mess with cardboards for flooring and no equipment in sight. I was only able to use the treadmill at the temporary area so I didn’t stay long.

Well, the new and improved gym is much bigger and more posh than it used to be and best of all, it’s packed with equipment and even has funky lighting. Happiness! I spent over an hour there jumpstarting those lazy muscles. Love it when the place is not crowded. I think I concentrate better and put in more effort. Can’t wait to go again!