That, or she plans to take up horseback riding and is trying to get her legs used to the feel of straddling a saddle.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, full of food, family, laughter, and lots of goodies from Santa!

I find myself smiling every time I drive past that house. Not because I’m glad they say “MERRY CHRISTMAS” and want to be sure everyone who drives by knows it. No, what makes me smile every time is the house right across the street with the small, understated sign that reads simply, “Season’s Greetings!”

Kinda makes you wonder how well those neighbors get along…

We didn’t want to have to subject him to wearing the Cone of Shame, but he left us no other choice. There’s little doubt in my  mind that if we didn’t break out the cone we would come home from work today to a bandage-free dog. Lucky for Ben, he should only have to endure eight hours of extreme cone embarrassment. We’re going back to the vet tonight to have his paw re-checked, and hopefully the stitches will come out and the bandage will stay off. And thank goodness, because I’m not sure how much more of this pitiful face we can take!

Our poor little white dog stepped on something sharp in the yard this morning and had to get stitches in his paw. He’ll be fine in a few days, but in the meantime, he is milking the club-foot limp for all he can. And I have to admit, we are totally falling for it. Just look at that sad little face!

This past summer, after Michael Jackson died, we spent a couple weeks in Jazz class learning the “Thriller” dance as a sort of tribute. Lisa, our teacher, found the choreography at Thrill the World, a project seeking to break records with the world’s largest simultaneous dance of “Thriller.” We learned all the steps, from Zombie Booty Swim to Oh Snap Rock On. We had a hell of a good time lurching around the studio like zombies in the middle of the summer.

Last week in tap class, someone mentioned that she’d heard on the radio about a Thrill the World event happening at a local bar. The event here in town was just one of 400 simultaneous performances of “Thriller” in over forty countries, and once again the goal was to set a new world record.

And so last night, I went downtown with a few of the girls from dance, and we Thrilled the World.

Since we already knew the dance, we skipped most of the instructional time in favor of having a few drinks to improve our zombie skills. Since we’d only be doing a condensed, three-minute version of the dance rather than the full fifteen minutes, however, we did jump in for a few practice runs between drinks to learn the modified sequence of the steps.

When the clock struck 6:30, it was show time. We pushed away all thoughts of what might be lurking in the cracks of the bar parking lot we were dancing in, laid on the ground, and waited for the music to start, signaling us to rise like zombies from the grave and get our undead groove on.

It was awesome.

(Check out the full video from the people who sponsored the event. Occasionally the camera pans over to the right where we were dancing.)

I don’t know yet if we actually helped break any records, but I do know that we all had a blast shaking our zombie booties. And I’m pretty sure this was way more fun than it would have been back in college on the rec center gym floor.

Hello, fabulous new (to us) couch!

And comfy new (to us) chair!

We love you so much! Even the dogs have given you an enthusiastic stamp of approval.

We were so happy when we found you on Craigslist, and even happier when we saw how incredibly affordable you were. All we had to do was write a relatively small check and pick you up, and you were all ours!

Sure, you’re not our dream furniture or anything, but you are pretty darn great. Your khaki cushion covers don’t show too much dog hair, and they’re made of durable enough material that we’re not terribly worried about wear and tear. Plus they’re so easy to pull off and wash when the dogs manage to jump on you before I clean the mud off their paws.

You’re neutral enough to fit in just about any room with the addition of a few coordinating throw pillows, and even if we decide to buy our dream couches in a few years, you will definitely be excellent basement furniture.

Let’s talk size. You’re definitely bigger than the last couch, but still not too big for the room. We love that the chair allows us to have multiple guests over without cramming everyone side-by-side on the couch. And your deep, comfy seats simply beg for quality snuggle time with husband, dogs, and blankets.

Welcome to your new home, couch and chair. We’re so very glad you’re here.

What, exactly, to do, however, is what’s causing the current conundrum. Last weekend we went couch shopping while Labor Day sales were still going on to assess the situation: What’s out there? What can we afford? Can we possibly fit both a couch and a loveseat in our living room so we’ll have more seating when friends come over?

What we learned was this: There are a lot of couches out there, most of them ugly and/or uncomfortable. We can afford a couch/loveseat set we like, but we’d have to spend more than we were planning…the furniture would probably end up being our Christmas present to each other (admittedly, not such a bad Christmas present). And no matter how many different layouts we try in the online room planner, there’s just no good way to put a couch and a loveseat in this room without making it feel too crowded.

So we moved on to option B: slipcovers. I’ve heard all about how ugly slipcovers are, but somehow I convinced myself that everybody was wrong and a slipcover would be just the thing we needed to spruce up our poor little falling apart couch long enough to tide us over until a couple of years from now when we can better afford new living room furniture and have a house with a more appropriately sized living room for the furniture we want.

Off we went to Bed Bath and Beyond, where we selected a camel-covered slipcover and marched it up to the register with a 20%-off coupon lovingly donated by Tim’s sister. We felt good about our purchase. We’d looked at our options online before buying and had seen several examples of non-hideous slipcovers, and we were confident we’d picked a good one. We took it home, put it on our couch, and…

…and our couch looked like a big lumpy piece of poo.

I’m sorry for the vulgarity, but that’s the only accurate way to describe the crappiness that was our couch in that slipcover. I’d choose frayed cushions over the poopy slipcover look any day.

Here’s where we stand right now. The slipcover is in its packaging waiting to be returned for a full refund. Craigslist has some non-hideous couches, but they’re not much less expensive than the brand new options we saw on our shopping trip last weekend. I’m tempted to buy the couch and matching chair (smaller than loveseat and therefore more likely to fit in our living room) we found last weekend but still hesitant about dropping such a substantial chunk of change. I’d rather wait and buy something specifically for our next house, but we don’t intend to move for a couple of years, and I’m not sure the current couch is going to last that long.

So what do we do? Do we go ahead and invest in some new furniture? Do we get something used and less expensive, but still drop a sizable sum on something we don’t love? Or do we just buy a few more throw blankets and strategically place them to cover our ever-disintegrating cushions any time we have company over the next few years?

Help me out, friends. Your input and ideas are much appreciated.