In case you forgot to mark your calendar, tomorrow is the “Annual Blessings of the Animals” at 2:00PM at St. Francis of Assisi Church at 1066 26th St., Sacramento.  If you don’t have one already it almost makes you want to get a dog doesn’t it?

Our family has a lot of “dog people” (and I mean that in the nicest way).  We had a miniature daschund for a lot of years and she left little surprises on the carpet regularly.  Maybe if we had taken her to church for a “blessing” we would have received a few less of those little surprises.  It probably couldn’t have hurt because those puppy classes at Petsmart sure didn’t do the trick.

Bruiser at Sacramento SPCA

If you really are motivated to get a pet, a great place to visit is the Sacramento SPCA; they have lots of pets that need a home.  Just click on this SPCA link to find out how to adopt.  If you can’t bring one of the little guys home they really need volunteers so if you have some time here’s a good way to spend an extra couple of hours.  If you don’t have any time they can always use your money, those kibbles aren’t free you know.

I’m at Panera Bread having coffee this morning……..A great way to start your day.  Actually it’s not just a today thing, it’s almost a daily ritual.  The coffee is good and even better, the refills are free!  They have 4 different kinds on their self serve coffee bar, as well as cream, sugar, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, and all the blue, yellow, and pink packets of stuff you are brave enough to add.  I really like that it is self-serve and I can just get another fill-up whenever I want without having to feel guilty because the waitress gives me that “are you still here look”.  They also have tea and those fancy lattes and frozen drinks as well if you aren’t a “do it yourselfer”.  And if you don’t know a foreign language or you haven’t caught on to that “tall is small” thing you can just order small, medium, or large……..Quite a concept, huh?

Morning Coffee

 I have a special mixture; first I fill the cup half full with decaf, (I always strive for that half full not half empty attitude), then I add a few sprinkles of cinnamon, next I fill the rest with the hazelnut blend, leaving plenty of room for cream.  The decaf makes me feel better about all the stuff you hear about caffeine, the cinnamon taste makes me think it’s not decaf, and the hazelnut coffee just because I like it.  And the cream, I’d like to tell you I just add that for the calcium, but the truth is I just like coffee that tastes creamy and besides if it was for the nutrition I would just drink skim milk.  But I have to tell you that some of those health gurus say that cinnamon will lower high cholesterol, cure arthritis, diabetes, and maybe even cure cancer and besides that it’s a natural food preservative so it could keep bacteria down and if you smell it your memory will improve.  So even if you don’t like a little sprinkle of cinnamon in your coffee it might be smart to have one of those great cinnamon rolls they make at Panera Bread, you know, just for health purposes.

Besides the coffee with free refills, they have free wi-fi too.  Several tables have outlets by them in case you stay longer than your computer battery lasts.  Sometimes students come to study, or at least pretend to study while they surf the internet.  What a better place to study, free wi-fi, free refills for your coffee, food you don’t have to cook yourself; and you don’t even have to clean up before your study group comes over.

They have a basket by the fireplace where you can recycle your newspaper for someone else to read or you can usually find one there if you didn’t bring your own, (something else for free).  I’m starting to sound like a commercial for Panera Bread, maybe I should buy some Panera Bread stock.  I’ll check that out later, right now I think I’ll just have another cup of coffee.