Black Friday to Blarg Saturday.

Was planning to get up early Saturday to tend to the pups before an eight o'clock meeting down at the church -- alarm set to 5:15. But I was awakened an hour before that by the long-suffering Mrs. Key, who'd been up all night with junior varsity dog Nipper.

Nipper had a case of the runs, the trots, the flux, the loose bowels, the Aztec two-step, or I suppose four-step in his case. She'd taken him out any number of times and he was clamoring to go out again and she was completely shot.

I looked after him and senior varsity dog Tralfaz, who was and appears to be his normal healthy self, although also wiped out from all the commotion that I had slept through. The time was drawing nearer to my meeting, and I already figured I couldn't even take a shower; they might have to show true godly forbearance when I showed up unwashed. I defrosted a chicken breast in the microwave, boiled it, cooled it, made some rice, cooled that, and gave Nipper chicken & rice, Nipper's favorite when sick, or any other time. He ate it like a champ. I texted my buddy, who was expected at the meeting, to tell him I might be late. Then breakfast came back up on the office carpet. I texted again to say I would be missing the meeting.

Pro Tip: If you have pets and carpets, Bissell's SpotBot can't be beat. The place he threw up is now the cleanest spot in the office.

My wife woke up at noon and tagged me out so I could take a nap. This kid needed adult supervision.

As I write this draft on Saturday afternoon, the poor pup is still sick and we don't know why. He hasn't been around strange dogs since Monday, and that would be a long incubation period. He doesn't grab food off counters and is suspicious of all new foods; he seems to instinctively know when something is bad for him (grapes, onions) and rears away. He also is not a poop-eater -- well, not much -- noshing on whatever is on the grass or along the sidewalk, like other dogs in this house I could name. And Tralfaz is fine -- they use the same water bowl, so if it's contagious, wouldn't they both get it?

Maybe not. I just don't know. Anyway, it was a day of minor issues on the verge of major ones. I scraped my thumb badly fetching something off a store shelf and had to walk around the store with it stuck in my mouth like Wee Willie Winkie lest I bleed all over the place. Ultimately I wrapped it in a plastic produce bag until I could get to the first-aid aisle. I was hanging decorations that required thumbtacks and spent twenty minutes searching the entire house for thumbtacks that I knew we had. I hung four light-up swags on the porch to find out later that only three light up. (Changed the fuses after a frantic search for fuses and no dice.) I mean, nothing horrible happened but there were nuisances at every turn.

And poor Nipper is still sick. Keeps making little tiny poops, and threw up again -- on the lawn this time. Usually the vet says to keep him hydrated and wait 24 hours, but of course 24 hours from onset of signs the vet will be closed for Sunday. Not to mention that a snowstorm is bearing down on us, with accumulations projected to be anywhere between 0" and death. (You know what that means!)

So that was Saturday. And how was your day?