I was shopping at Michaels with Rerun and Thumper, when I came across cute little sandwich-sized ziploc bags with Valentine print designs on them.

They even had spots for the “to” and “from” printed on the bag.

It was then that Rerun and I had an epiphany.

Elementary school kids do not care about stickers, pencils, or cute Valentine cards.  This is all about cold, hard CANDY.

So we’re cutting out the middleman this year and just doing bagged candy, because it’s what the public wants.

Plus, we’re cutting out having to seal down an envelope to hold candy, which is also a win.

This is Russell.

He belongs to some friends, and I’ve had the fun of “puppy-sitting” him a couple of times.  Mostly I come over, let him out of his kennel for a potty break and lunch, let him stretch his legs, and then I have to kennel him back up.

This is Russell, knowing he has to go back into the kennel, and not wanting to come out from under the dining room chair.

I finally had to pick the chair up and carry Russell back to his kennel, but he knows it wasn’t personal.

Excuse me, I did NOT order another round of winter.

Fortunately, the snow took the hint and didn’t stick around.

The game was good.  The commercials were mostly good.  The halftime show was boring.

But the credit for the best commentary on the halftime show for the Super Bowl this year goes to Rupert, who is now 11 (I can hardly believe THAT), and, as we watched J-Lo swing her way around a pole, asked, “Is she going to use that to pole vault?”

So every time another pole dance showed up on screen, we all yelled “POLE VAULT!”

Hey, it lightened the mood considerably.