A hard rain's a-gonna fall

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that those of us in the DC metro area experienced a severe storm last night. It was all very dramatic, and there was a possible tornado up by my kids' daycare. When I saw the sky turn dark, I bolted from work, knowing that if I waited too long, I could be stuck in traffic for two hours, but if I left too soon, I'd be stuck in dangerous weather. In retrospect, I probably should have just stayed at work.

But I made hit home eventually and the kids were fine, and I even had enough time to make us vegetarian sushi for dinner. The kids were into the idea because they've had sushi before, at a place that has plates that go around on a conveyor belt, which made it a lot of fun for them. My sister got me a book on how to make pretty sushi rolls, I gave them juice in sake cups, and we told them that seaweed is what mermaids eat; how could any kid resist that?

In between episodes of torrential rain, we let the dogs out to romp in the yard, as we do every night. Only this night, we had forgotten to close the gate, so their romp went further than the yard. When I found out that the dogs were missing, I have to admit, I panicked a little. I think I'm still traumatized from when I was a kid and saw my dog get run over in front of me while we were at a park near my house. I expected the worst.

But as I was freaking out on the front lawn, I saw a woman across the street who looked like she might be looking for someone. Not sounding at all like a lunatic, I screeched at her "Do you have my dogs?!!!" She replied, "A hound dog and a smaller one?" and I immediately burst into tears.

Todd went over to the nice lady's house to get our pups. He said that Tina was ecstatic to see him, and that Hank was more blasé, kind of "Oh, hai, howzit goin?" They made it home not 30 seconds before the rain started again. The lady who rescued my dogs is my hero. She didn't have to take them in, then go looking for their owners with the threat of downpour imminent. In fact, I don't know that I would have done the same. I'm totally making her brownies and getting her a Starbucks gift card or something.