Post exchange: I still don't know exactly what "cricket" is as a sport.

I'm not going to lie. When I first found this cricket blog, I thought perhaps it was an auto-generated blog. It's not that there's anything especially wrong with the writing; some of the sentences are a bit run-on, perhaps, and the syntax is structured oddly. But there are also an inordinate number of links, as well as running news feeds pertaining solely to cricket. So I looked into the author's profile.

The differences in language structure were quickly explained. The blog is written from India, and is written quite well, when you take into account the vast disparities in language between English and Hindi. (In fact, the author writes English as second language far better than too many Americans do their primary.)

The other thing which is very obvious from the author's profile is that Pramukh loves cricket. *They have two blogs, both about the sport, discussing such intricacies as after-match interviews with team captains and batting line-ups. (Is cricket like baseball? I HAVE NO IDEA.)

And I find all of it fascinating. As Americans, we love to razz our European friends about their devotion to "football" (soccer) "clubs" (teams). But at least we have a pretty good handle on what soccer is, even if we don't know all the more minor rules.

But cricket? I could explain curling to you better than I could cricket. But the author of this cricket blog is crazy about it. Which kind of makes me want to watch a game (match?) just to see what it's all about.



*Forgive my ignorance, but I have no idea whether Pramukh is a traditionally male or female name, hence my use of the gender neutral "they".

Post exchange: Insert dog-related pun here

Sorry, but saying "8PP is going to the dogs" seemed way too easy. Something about me possibly catching fleas? No? Eh, I'll come up with something good as soon as I hit the publish button. That's the way it always works.

Anyway, I want off by revealing something a little personal and embarrassing (but in a cute way.) As those who know me in real life can attest, I love aquariums, and my husband and I have been keeping many for years now. One of the things he does to crack me up is to provide dialogue for our fish's "conversations", often with different voices and accents based on the fish's appearance. (At one point, we had a french rainbow shark, and a puffer with a lisp.)

That was why I had to laugh out loud when I stumbled across Fluffy's Day Off. It's a blog written by a stay-at-home shih-tzu. Alongside complaints about cats are lamentations about getting fat and needing a bath. It's very cute stuff.

Also, my son is at the age where he has major puppy love. This weekend we visited a greyhound rescue event, and the workers complimented us on his good manners and general easiness around dogs. (He got really happy and giggly when two greyhounds besieged his face with kisses.) Then, at our friends' Super Bowl party last night, he made fast buddies with their 6-month-old pitbull puppy. (Despite breed stereotypes, staffordshire terriers are great with kids, so long as they're introduced at an early age.)

So when I find blogs like Fluffy's Day Off, I can't help but think how much fun it will be in a few months when my son will be entertained via stories narrated by a doggy.