President at SungloBostons@netscape.net

or the

Secretary at ApogeeBostons@hotmail.com

Could you always think I look great, no matter what I have on?

You know how a used dryer sheet will cling to the clothes you take out of the dryer (What's up with that? Aren't they supposed to STOP cling?)and invariably find it's way to the floor while your struggle with over-laden arms to the next room to dump the pile? We dump ours in a chair that should have been designated upon purchase as the "Clean Laundry Chair". No one ever sits in it. They can't. It always has clean laundry in it waiting to be folded. Tell the truth...you have a "Clean Laundry _____________" (fill in the blank) at your house too.

It doesn't matter that the chair was made to be sat in. It's perfect for clean laundry. And, it's just far enough away from the dryer that the used dryer sheet WILL work it's way out of the pile I'm carrying and float to the floor on the way to the chair. Once on the floor, it magically becomes a Dryer Treat.

This is where Maxi-Pup comes in. He knows...KNOWS, I tell you, when clean laundry is ready. Could have something to do with the buzzer, but I prefer to believe Maxi has ESP. He will stalk me and my pile all the way to the Clean Laundry Chair. I look over my shoulder and see him (he's not very stealthy about it) behind me, lurking, waiting for the dryer treat to drop.

Once the prize is in his grasp, Maxi-Pup will grab it up and begin the run. Imagine for a moment, a 5 pound black dog running with an oversized dryer sheet, ears flying. He would look like he's waving the surrender flag if it weren't for that smile on his face. He never ingests it. He just teases it for a time, throwing it up in the air with the shear delight of having "won" the hunt. He beat the pile of laundry at it's own game, he did.

Yesterday, as I was positioned in a cross-legged position directly in front of the Clean Laundry Chair and was folding said laundry, I had my back turned to the coffee table. Apparently, lost in the concentration of folding (ok, so I'm a little scattered), I failed to notice that the Dryer Treat had not fallen out on the way to The Chair (curses!). It had come out with a shirt or some other unsuspecting article I'd pulled from the pile. Alas, I didn't realize that Maxi was on the other side of the coffee table waiting, watching, until...out of the corner of my eye I see a tiny black head SHOOT out from under the coffee table, grab up the Dryer Treat and dart back under the table like a turtle going into it's shell, but at lightening speed.

I did see him again. A few minutes later, Maxi was running around the kitchen, Dryer Treat waving in the air, laughing with the sheer delight of it and I was left with just one question: You think there are Dryer Treats in heaven?