Brown Bears

Today I blinked and this squishy guy was doing some serious and old-school research into brown bears, and why our own brown bear is so defective.

Who knew puppy bellies are so sensitive, and who knew babies grow up so fast. (The real question is who knew that there are creatures in existence who eat things that taste like Vaseline??) With the life and the business and dentist appointments and new products and moving to a new location and copper-orangey things, sometimes I get caught up with all the hustling around. These days, the days are long and full, but the years seem to fly by, and already I can't believe how long ago it's been since I was in school and without a care in the world. This "community" - our local community of bricks and mortar shops on Dundas West, the online community of people who email and follow the blog, and especially the people who take the time to write letters and postcards to us, this community is what keep us in business, and keeps us excited to do what we do everyday. And it's these two, the pup and the babe (and the hairy one at the shop right now) that are the centre of what we're moving towards: that archaic and almost-but-not-quite-obsolete family business with a baby in tow and the dog keeping the sofa warm. Every once in a while I think about whether or not I'll go back to teaching. I loved teaching, although likely more now that I'm a step away from report cards and staff meetings and early morning yard duty in January, but then I see these two and I think that for right now, this is okay too, this is where I'm supposed to be. Until one of these two needs to poo.