Our dog Charlie

Here is a picture of me with our dog Charlie. I'm on the left :-) He's a great dog. He is half Bassett Hound and half Black Labrador Retriever. He is very good natured and plays well with the kids (our four-year old is a little intimidated by his enthusiasm sometimes, though). I've uploaded this mostly so I can use it as my picture for the blog but it leads to a note about our new house.

The house is being built as a attachment to my mother-in-law's house and we are temporarily living with her (driving her crazy) until the new place is ready. Charlie has been sleeping in the garage at night but last week, something spilled in the garage filling it with a gasoline-like smell and we worried that it would either be harmful or annoying to Charlie during the night. So, we decided to let him sleep in the basement of the new house. It's dry and clean and has an opening to the basement of my mother-in-law's house where we've been sleeping. So, we can hear him if there is a problem.

My wife was laughing that, for as anxious as we all are to move into the new house, Charlie is the first one to get to sleep there. He doesn't seem to appreciate the great honor he has. He just seems to like the extra room he now has.