In my mind's eye

Last night at the gym, I was minding my own business, running on the treadmill, when all hell broke loose outside. The skies opened, thunder rolled, and lightning lit up the darkness. Big lightning. Big. As I ran on this electronic machine plugged into an electric outlet equipped with cable television, a newspaper headline flashed through my mind, "Girl Dies in a Split-Second Mile."

Two nights ago on our walk, Abby stepped in gum. The horrible mum that I am, I laughed and took pictures of it all in between her paw pads covered in dirt and grass that stuck to it. After I took pictures of her embarrassed self, then I pulled it out for her and used mom's old home remedy for gum in the hair, peanut butter (which she thoroughly enjoyed licking the excess of).

Which brings to something I have been contemplating as of late: Do I talk to my niece in puppy-speak or do I talk to Abby in baby-speak? Because I talk to them the same.