The One Where Dogs Laugh

Scientists recently discovered that dogs laugh. When they are lightly panting, not tired or stressed, they are actually laughing. Apparently, they played this sound in kennels all over and 100 percent of the time, when the dogs heard the noise, they all calmed almost immediately and began to join in. Several dog trainers on my lists reported that they tried it with their dogs and saw them calm and join in as well. I haven't tried with my dogs because they're sleeping, but I have seen them start panting after a stressful event in a way that you can clearly see they have relaxed. And I can tell by looking at my dogs eyes if they are happy. So I can remember several times when I bet my dogs are cracking up about something. I think that's neat.

Speaking of dogs, I had a good experience with Muggsy today. A neighbor was shooting off fireworks and he barely reacted. I was able to calm him easily by having him look at me while I petted him. Pretty soon, he was coming to me for pets every time he heard the noise. I can't even explain how much he has improved in the last six months. It's amazing.

Weekends are so great. I feel so much better than I did last week. I can't wait until the week after Christmas -- I have the whole week off. Greatness.

Ross and I reached a compromise on the Rose Bowl. I've been offering to drop $1200 or whatever it takes to get him to the game. I just think it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience to have your team playing for a national championship nearby. It's fun. Even though it ended poorly, I wouldn't have traded that trip to New Orleans with my college roommate and her little sister for anything. Sitting in the rafters watching Kansas beat Marquette by 40, running from McDonalds to the stadium in the pouring rain to get to the championship game, getting caught sneaking into the Texas private room to get our picture taken with James Thomas, singing the Kansas fight song to some Arizona fans at 5 a.m. on Bourbon St., not sleeping for 24 hours and then sleeping until 6 p.m. with 10 people in our hotel room...all things I will smile about when I'm old and don't do fun things anymore. I can't imagine why Ross wouldn't want to go to the Rose Bowl. He keeps saying that it's not that important to him and he'd rather just watch it at home with me. With me? As much as I try to be a good girlfriend, I probably won't even be cheering for his team. At the very least, I don't care. I won't even let him cheer because it upsets Muggsy. I even tried to convince him to let me buy him a plane ticket to Dallas so he could watch the game with his friends. Hey, you're talking to the girl who bought airplane tickets to St. Louis in December last year because she was convinced her team would be there. It's important to me to watch these games with my closest friends. I don't think I'll ever outgrow that.

Anyway, after much arguing about this, we decided to hit the official Texas Exes Bar, which just happens to be a mile from our house, around lunchtime and watch the game there. That way, he can celebrate with Texas fans who are actually as excited as he is that his team is winning -- or cry in his beer with people who are as depressed as he is. I think that will be much more fun than sitting on the couch with me in our quiet house.

OK, guess it's time to get myself ready for another long and painful week of work. Good-night.