We got another gas bill yesterday, and in the month since we got the first one, we've managed to get the bill down from $183 last month to $102 this month. Not bad. I congratulated Bob, and told him that it was thanks to his efforts, but he said no, it was thanks to me, because I was the one having to endure the cold nose and toes, although this picture would seem to indicate that he's been having the same trouble. Of course, he does have Pyewacket to keep him warm.

I keep thinking I should take the camera up with me when I go to bed some night so that I can take a picture of them in the morning. Early in the morning, around 5:00 or 6:00, Pyewacket will go up by his head and crawl under the covers, then turn around and come back and lie down beside him with her head on his pillow, just her little ears sticking out of the blanket.

He went out to the car to bring in his golf clubs last night, and when he came back in, she escaped out the front door.

He was inclined to leave her out there for awhile, but I made him go get her--she makes straight for the bushes near the house, so she's usually easy to find, but I didn't want to leave it too long, since she's not used to being outdoors.

I held the flashlight for him and he waded into the bushes to get her, and came out holding her by the scruff of her neck. She has such short little legs that they were sticking straight out in the air, and looked so funny that I probably should have taken a picture of that, too.

She's quite a character.

I was in the kitchen yesterday, microwaving a bowl of soup for my lunch, and one of the programmers came in and got his lunch out of the refrigerator. He looked inside, and said, "Ah. Tamale pie," and I said, "Is your lunch always a surprise?" And he said yes, it was, although it tended to be something left over from dinner the night before.

He also had a piece of pumpkin cheesecake and a bag of strawberries.

His wife stays home with their two young children, and packs his lunch every day.

Michelle's husband--I share an office with her--makes her lunch because he has more time in the morning than she does. He sends her lots of little things--half a sandwich, a bag of crackers, a container of yogurt or pudding or apple sauce, cookies.

My dad took the same lunch to work every day for years--a tuna salad sandwich and cheese puffs, except for the days when the cafeteria served scallops, of all things.

So I was thinking about lunches. I go through periods where I take my lunch every day, and periods where I buy lunch every day. For a long time I've been in the buying lunch mode, but I've recently--since the first of the year--gotten back into the bringing lunch mode.

I have a few stand-bys. Rice and beans is a good one. Soup is usually good--Progresso Minestrone is my favorite. That, a few saltines and a cup of yogurt is a good lunch. This week I'm taking tuna salad sandwiches. With Wow Doritos, though, instead of my dad's cheese puffs. And yogurt and a few Teddy Grahams. Chocolate chip ones.

Leftover pizza is good. Rice is probably my favorite, and what I usually fall back on--rice with some kind of vegetable, usually brocolli or frozen green beans, and sometimes a little chicken.

I just went upstairs and asked Bob if, hypothetically, I asked him to make my lunch for me, what he would make. He said it depended on what we had, and I said not to worry about what we had, just go for it. He said probably a cheese sandwich, a little bag of some kind of snack crackers, and a yogurt. Pretty much what I'd make for myself.

Having someone else make a lunch that you take with you somewhere and open up to be surprised is kind of cool. Box lunches are always fun in meetings, I think--opening up your own box or bag and finding a nice sandwich, a little bag of chips, and a cookie. Meiner's, the grocery store on the Plaza where I sometimes get lunch, has a deli counter and a "Brown Bag Special"--a sandwich, bag of chips and can of pop. The cookie is extra.

I've always thought Lunchables were cool. When Julia and I were in Meiner's one day last week, we found a little "Lunchable" sort of thing of the gourmet variety--a container of hummus and some cut-up pita bread, packed in a cardboard container for lunch on the go.

And lastly, I remember my mother packing little lunches for us on summer days to take out in the backyard and eat, and pretend we were on a trip, or a hike, and pick out a place to sit down and have a picnic. I don't remember school lunches very well--I think we always liked the food in the cafeteria and generally ate there rather than taking our lunch, but I sort of remember bologna sandwiches on white bread with mayonnaise, but maybe I'm just making that up.