Snapshot

Tonight, 6:36 pm. Everyone's quietly eating their spaghetti.

Hazel: "Mom, I wish we had a real dog in our family."

Sigh. It had to come up eventually, and I'm sure this won't be the last time. Best to take an honest, direct approach.

"You know, Hazel, I like dogs a lot, too. But dogs poop all the time, and I don't really like to clean up dog poop."

Especially after New York.

The girls consider.

Hazel: "How about a dog that doesn't have a bum?"

"All dogs have bums."

Ginger: "How about a cat?"

Dang. They're getting smart and ganging up on me. Time to play my only remaining card.

"Who wants ice cream?"