Ollie is a little bitty weiner dog that thinks he’s a great dane and hogs more than his fair share of the bed. I’ve woken up more than once to see Mike clinging to the side of the bed because Ollie won’t make room for him to get comfortable.

Besides buying Ollie his own queen size mattress, the only solution to a good night sleep for Mike and I are large dog beds so that Ollie can sprawl out like he’s accustom to doing.

I’m partial to the Harry Barker dog beds because they come in simple shapes and colors that match our apartment, but the Bowsers dog beds, especially the Bowsers Ball, look awfully comfy, too.

So, if we do ever kick Ollie out of bed in favor of a peaceful slumber, don’t feel sorry for him, because he’ll be relaxing in his own designer dog bed.

Mike and I set out this evening for the most spectacular Christmas light displays in our neighborhood, and saw the same two houses we always see decorated.

This house in the old historical district really upped it’s game this year by adding Santa and his reindeer to the roof and blindingly blue lights to all the evergreen trees.

The angel house is a family favorite and I’ve been going to see it every year since I was a kid and every year we can’t figure out what street it is on, but we only took one wrong turn this year.

We took Ollie with us, and you can hear Mike and I start to argue the last few seconds of the video over who had a hold of him since the window was open.

Are there any over-the-top light displays in your neighborhood? Are you the Griswald family? I hope to be when we finally get a house. I want to be the brightest house on the block from November through January!

I think the little boys downstairs have been playing too much Grand Theft Auto on their xbox 360 because yesterday afternoon when I went to take the dog out, I saw them playing in their dad’s car with the engine running!

I asked them what they were doing, and of course, they both said “nothing”, so I asked where their parents were and the little one pointed to his front door. I knocked to let the them know that the boys were playing in the running car, and when I looked over, the littlest boy was standing on the sidewalk with his head bowed and hands together praying! It was so cute and so sad at the same time.

The dad thanked me over and over again and got the boys out of the car right away, but this is the third time we’ve seen them playing in the car unsupervised. The other two times, they were beeping the horn to make Ollie bark and thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Mike and I recently drove to Indianapolis to take care of some business, and took Ollie for a ride. Before driving home, we parked in my old neighborhood to take a walk and get something to eat, and I had the feeling that Ollie knew exactly where he was at. He confirmed that feeling when we walked past our old apartment building…

Today is our crazy dog’s second birthday and he’s still acting like a puppy. Snooping around looking for trouble, pooping on the carpet, and hogging the bed. We love him anyway and wouldn’t trade him for the world. Unless that world was a modified parallel universe where Ollie let us sleep past 5:30 am and didn’t hump pillows.

We didn’t do anything extravagant like puppy massage therapy, but Ollie did get a new bag of bones, a long walk, and a piece of steak for dinner. Okay, maybe that is extravagant for a weiner dog, but he makes us happy, so it’s the least we can do for him.