My granddaughter the puppy dog

Realizing that her six-month-old might not respond to a spoken command, Maggie's mother suggested a different method. (In other words, this certainly wasn't my idea!)

Our little Rossini fan

Miss Happy Pants does her Happy Dance!

If you enjoyed Maggie's 15-second dance, here's a lovely way to spend six minutes or so on YouTube:

Rossini - William Tell Overture (Part 2)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

• Listen closely at 2:43 to see why the director grins.
• The umbrellas at 3:25 are a nice touch too.

When it's not just a cold

Crisis du Jour:

That hot-hot feeling burning inside the bridge of my nose up through my eyeballs means only one thing: My annual sinus infection.

Although these take longer to recover from with each passing year, I still avoid running for a quickie shot of penicillin in the hopes that my body will remember its pattern of defending itself against infectious disease ... and because I hate going to the doctor's office anyway. There's just something mildly humiliating about verifying whether the goo coming from my nasal cavity is clear, yellowish, or deep green in color.

So while my white blood cells are doing their thing, I follow several useful habits developed from my years of experience:

• Treat symptoms with various OTC medications, including Advil Cold & Sinus, Nyquil/Dayquil, Mucinex.
• At least one hot steamy shower per day.
• Stock up on a half-dozen or so Puff's Plus® with lotion -- no other brand, no other type of Puffs. I can typically work my way through the first Family Size box quickly, and then begin following the convenient clean-to-dirty pattern illustrated below:

Child prodigy

Musically gifted ...