OK - maybe it's not technically illegal, but sending FISH in the mail, when you know we have a dog should be ILLEGAL.

We signed up for a monthly dog treat a few months ago, and ever since then, he's been dutifully inspecting every piece of mail to see if it has food. So what did our match send us? Fresh, wild Alaskan salmon! If you're wondering if Bear (our dog) noticed, the answer is a resounding yes. He dragged the box over to his mommy and sat - staring - waiting for one of us to open it for him.

Our match lives in Seattle. I took a trip there a year or so ago and it was amazing. Once the waitresses saw my (Texas) ID, they resorted to calling me "Darlin'" and "Honey" throughout the meal. That was entertaining. ;) .. but I'm getting off track. Oops.

So Bear is sitting there, patiently waiting for a human to open "his" box. He's having a hard time sitting still - he wants to rip into the box, but knows he's not allowed. So he waits.

Mommy opens the box, and he waits patiently next to her. He knows there's food in there somewhere.

The first thing out of the box is "Raven's Brew Whole Bean 3 Peckered Billy Goat Blend" (dark roast). Mmmmmmmmmmm. I used to live on Monster energy drinks, but my wife thinks they'll kill me, so I started drinking Coffee. But I want a coffee with character - and this one looks amazing. I'll be taking it to work with me tomorrow. I might have to hide the bag; if I leave it out, I'm sure my coworkers will slurp it all, and I don't blame them -- who wouldn't want to say they've tried Peckered Billy Goat coffee? I can't wait to try it.

Next up was some Almond Roca. I would love to tell you what it tastes like, but I have no idea - my wife ate the whole bag before I got home. She assures me it was amazing.

Our match sent us a beautiful set of Seattle postcards. One of them is a picture of the Pike's Place Market. I walked through there during my trip - it's huge! I really enjoyed the whole vibe there, and seeing the postcard brought me back. The other two depicted rain (surprise!) and a pretty pastel drawing of Seattle. We like them all - thank you.

Our son (4) found the Seattle magnetic puzzle and wanted to try it out. We stuck all the pieces to the side of one of our filing cabinets, and he spent an hour dragging the pieces around and assembling the puzzle. It's still up on our filing cabinet in the study, and will stay there indefinitely. Thanks! :)

The rain globe made my wife laugh. She lived in Seattle for just a little while, and commented on the (constant) rain as well. We put the globe on our mantle. Our son loves to flip it upside-down and watch the rain.

At this point, Bear was losing his mind. If he could talk, he'd probably say something like "yeah yeah, enough with all that. SHOW ME THE FISH!"

So we did. And he, predictably, turned into a hog and shoveled as much fish into his mouth as possible. You'd think we don't feed him, the way he was eating that Salmon. I don't think I need to tell you he LOVED it.

We haven't tried our Salmon yet (the "human" version) but we'll eat it this weekend. Thank you!

If it's not obvious already, our match has gone above and beyond and we really, really enjoyed our "Hometown Exchange." Did I mention our match wrote an awesome hand-written note to us? How fun!

Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are awesome :)