Meet Traveler, a pure bred, female, tri-color Cocker Spaniel. She waits not so patiently on my wife's knee for something to happen, anything - This is her usual position this time of the evening. Traveler looks especially melancoly, so I thought it appropriate to share her with you.

Last night's New Years Eve the indigenous population let go with the fireworks. But out here in Hawaii, it isn't like you can go across the border to get any M80's or even pop bottle rockets. We just have thousands of miles of the Pacific. These poor folks are stuck with those one inch long little snappers. You've heard them, kinda like pumped up popcorn snapping in the microwave. Well, our next door neighbor had a million of them all in a pile on the pavement of the parking lot. I thought it reasonable that by its end there would be a puddle of bubbling tar to stare at for the rest of the evening.

Well, back to Traveler. She didn't sleep normally last night, having just seen that afternoon a History Channel rendition of the Bombing of Pearl Harbor. She wants to go back to the tornado belt on the mainland. Stopped her from placing herself on eBay.