I need a new dog (among other things)

Now, don't get me wrong. I adore Boo. I mean, what's not to love, right? I just find that as I grow . . . uuupp . . . I require a less absorbent pet. Short walks in the rain mean a long toweling session that removes some water, but still leaves plate-sized splotches of wet-dog mud all over the house. Generally I follow him around with a towel, and send him to his bed by the fire to dry. This week I am a bit under the weather (read "infected with some kind of plague, or maybe just a cold, but it's hard to tell"), so toweling the dog is shortened to "toss towel at dog and hope it makes contact" and wiping up the floor is more like "sit in chair and stare at puddles on hardwood and contemplate Next Dog". I run through the litany of Next Dog requirements: smallish. energetic. smart. non-shedding. water-repellent.
There's been some on and off knitting. I started another pair of socks for Mr. W. in Schaefer Anne. Nice color, not as dull as he'd like, but he shrugged and said he'd wear them. The pattern is super simple, making this perfect mindless knitting. It's k1:p1 on one round, knit all on the next. No creativity, no thought required. Knit till long enough, whack in a heel, knit some more. Lovely. Sometimes I appreciate his simplicity of taste. "Just something simple" he says. Ah, what a man.
I also started working in earnest on a reversible cable project for Sheep Shop. It's been fomenting in my brain for a long time, has gone through several incarnations, sketches, swatches. It was not until the reversible concept entered my brain that it became a very clear design. Thanks to Katy for getting me off the ground. See, I'd never actually done reversible cables. I just wanted/needed to for this project. So, I had to learn. Katy teaches a (highly recommended) reversible cables workshop at Webs - the next one is Sunday, March 16th...just sayin'...I'd take it but interestingly I find it difficult to take a class and teach one at the same time. There's a limit to my multi-tasking ability. I have to say I love the way this is coming along. I find that I love the technique (not surprising since I adore cables anyway), and I want to play with it more in the future. It is truly completely reversible. I actually had to attach a stitch marker to keep track of the official "right" side.
Somewhere along the line I started a Falling Leaves shawl for a lace class I am to teach sometime. Awful, I don't remember when. Fall maybe? Eh. Sometime is good enough for now. This will be a beginner lace class, everyone will make the same project and learn the very foundations of lace knitting so that they can move into more complex projects on their own. I needed a basic, simple, larger needle and yarn project to convey just the basic mechanics of lace. Katy suggested this pattern, which is hers and available from Webs. I decided to give it a shot and after about one inch it became clear that this is the perfect beginner lace project. Designed for a scarf or a shawl, knitter's choice, it can be knitted in just about anything. I am using Valley Yarn Colrain, photographed here with no flash so you can see the detail, which totally destroys the color and lovely shine of this yarn, but if I used the flash the tencel grabs all the light and it becomes one big pink blur. Trust me, it's amazing.
And, um. Listen. Don't tell Boo about what I said before, about replacing him? He's got more than enough problems without thinking momma's going to run out and get, oh, a nice little cockapoo or something.