To celebrate the end of a very long year, the Mrs. and I headed out to watch the Lady Dogs play their conference opener. Women’s basketball draws a much smaller crowd, but the security staffing seemed pretty high.

Duncan, due to his hypoglycemia, gets to eat five times a day – every four hours, like clockwork, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Licorice, a perfectly healthy (if somewhat itchy, of late) dog, only eats twice a day. She is still occasionally curious about favoritism.

The Mrs. and I did a run to Birmingham to have lunch with some cousins. The city is visually loaded, a classic industrial city where much of its character has survived.

Also stopped at the Alabama Dish Outlet (twice) to look at more Fiesta Ware pieces. While we appreciate Fiesta Ware, I’m hopeful we will not be assimilated into its cult.

If you tip over your pressure washer, it’s not going to work, folks.

Iron grates to keep people off and out, I suppose.

A gray day inside.

A team effort on the traditional Grandma Johnson Christmas Cake – I did the dough, the Mrs. did the rolling with much more folding, giving us a much flakier cake.

Mmmmmm ….