"If you want a friend in Washington...

...get a dog." - Harry S. Truman

Okay, I promise, this is the last of the election-related commentary, because I know I'm driving my conservative mother crazy (hi, Mom!). But I read this on CNN.com today, and, well, I couldn't resist...it was an article about presidential pets:

"Thomas Jefferson kept two grizzly bears in a cage on the White House lawn, while John Quincy Adams is said to have let his alligator use a bathtub inside. Calvin Coolidge walked his raccoons on a leash. Theodore Roosevelt's sons escorted their pet pony onto the White House elevator to cheer up a sick sibling. And perhaps the strangest of all: Martin Van Buren briefly owned two tiger cubs, a gift from the Sultan of Oman."

Okay, first of all, how are tiger cubs stranger than raccoons on a leash? Or grizzly bears? Lots of people have exotic cats (okay, maybe not lots), but, leash-trained raccoons?

It also makes me wonder a little bit about the levels of things in the White House water...

Get a Britta, Barack.

Now, as I've mentioned, Maggie is excited about the incoming First Beagle. She's followed the Bush administration pets for several years now, and I have this suspicion that while I'm at work she reads Barney Bush's website for all the puppy political news. Maggie may be a Democrat, but she can remain fair and non-partisan on the important issues. She, of course, is too young to remember Buddy Clinton, or for that matter, my favorite Bush, Millie (Barbara Senior's dog during the first administration). Barney holds his own, though, and even has his own appearance schedule and Q&A column. Plus, you know, he's quite the dignified old boy.

Maggie says, why not a First Coyote?

(Speaking of which, make sure you all get over to The Daily Coyote and check out Chloe the Hound's appearance in the photos. She and Charlie are a sweet pair. This one is my very favorite picture of them, ever.)

Anyway.

So I stayed home sick today. I don't know if I'm finally catching whatever my office mates had, or if it was something I ate yesterday (I started feeling crappy about an hour or so after lunch). I went and got my fasting labs drawn this morning (I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to see if I can figure out why my joints hurt and I'm disproportionally tired, and I haven't been to the doctor in...um...three years now? So we're checking all the routine things as well. You'll all be happy to know my LDL is 85 and my HDL is 49. Can't ask for much more than that) and then Mags and I had a full day of napping, snoozing, and watching House and Bones on the DVR. I keep feeling like I should've done something more productive with my "day off" (like, reading), but I do feel considerably better than I did at 6:30 this morning when I called the ACTT office and said, "Hey. It's Kate. I think I'm coming down with the plague."

Maggie's finally over being worn out from the party Tuesday night. Did I mention that Maggie got to go over and watch the returns with us? Little Maxine was way stressed out Tuesday night; Mags was just giddy. People! Food! People with food! Blankets to lie on! Me! Sparrow! Peng! Chef, who smelled like bacon! Matt, who rubbed her tummy and taunted her with cupcakes! Rene, who's really tall! Wow!! It was an exciting night for my little girl. Little Maxine, however, got so anxious over all of our babbling and bantering and yelling at the TV and banging on the floor that she had to go outside and throw up. Maggie was nonplussed by all of us...at one point she decided it was bedtime so she wandered off and hopped up on Sparrow's bed. We still wore her out, though.

Maybe we just wore me out, too. We're not as young as we used to be, me and Mags...