Returning to my neighborhood following an errand yesterday, I was surprised to see a single woman walking an entire pack of dogs down the street. As I approached, I noticed that two of the dogs were standard poodles, one white and one black. Those sure look like my dogs, I thought. It turns out that they were.

As I stopped the Jeep, I could see that the woman was walking her black Labrador on a leash. Following her were several dogs of various sizes. All wore collars, but none wore a leash. And all of them belonged to my family. I asked the lady, "What are you doing with my dogs?"

Her response was simply, "I figured they must belong to somebody." Unless she knows some way to teach poodles to groom themselves, that's a pretty safe assumption.

My July and Victoria quickly recognized me and willingly jumped into my car. (Although I think they probably would have jumped into just about anyone's car. They love car rides.) Leslie's two dogs were next: Charlie accepted my help up into the Jeep, but Rudy, recognizing my intent, sprinted back home at top speed, refusing to surrender his new found freedom.

I eventually returned home and wrangled the mass back into my yard. It turns out that my mother and brother had put the animals in the yard mere minutes earlier, unaware that the gate to the driveway had been left open. They both got a piece of my mind -- a loud, angry piece.

At least no one was lost or hurt. And the dogs got a taste of adventure. Hopefully, it was enough to last them a lifetime, because I don't plan to duplicate that mistake.

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This is the last post of Batman and Football Month, and it hasn't come a moment too soon for the Miami Dolphins, who have opened the season 0-3 and are facing the chip-on-their-shoulder San Diego Chargers this weekend before heading into their bye next week. If the Dolphins can't pick up a win before the bye, I predict very bad things for head coach Tony Sparano next week. It seems very likely he'll soon be joining the 14 million currently unemployed Americans. I'm not too upset: odds are that at least one of those 14 million would make a better coach than Sparano.

Meanwhile, this weekend will mark the third football game I've missed in Sanford Stadium since 2002. In recent weeks the Georgia Bulldogs have pulled out of their nosedive and look not half bad at 2-2 heading into this weekend's SEC contest with Mississippi State Bulldogs. Unfortunately, work calls, and I've been forced to give my ticket to Trey's girl Leslie. I'm sure she'll have a good time at this week's dog fight. Not as good a time as I would have had, but a good time.

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I recently watched Seth Rogen's Green Hornet with Trey and his girl, Leslie. Leslie noted with surprise that Trey, who generally likes movies, hated it, while I, known for hating everything, enjoyed it. No one could adequately explain the personality transposition, but for several minutes afterwards I felt like doing math problems while Trey read my Justice League comic book. Go figure.

Part of the issue may have been that I was familiar with the Green Hornet and his sidekick Kato from their interaction with Batman and Robin in the Adam West television show. As a result I was willing to give the movie bonus nostalgia points. Trey was less familiar with the Green Hornet and therefore may have been expecting something more... good. Rogen's movie may not have been good, but neither was the 1966 television show.

Then again, last week I also watched John Saxon's 1978 B-movie The Glove. To phrase it as an SAT analogy, The Glove is to good as Batman is cheerful. You may remember Saxon from such films as Enter the Dragon starring Bruce Lee, television's Kato. If I can stomach two hours of John Saxon's comb-over and uncomfortably inappropriate love scenes, I can handle Seth Rogen's implausible Green Hornet. What I'm trying to say is that Trey, a more discerning movie watcher, is probably more qualified to offer an opinion on the movie than I am.

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'Twas the night before Christmas, and I finished my book: Murder in Coweta County. (I personally like a little light reading before my holidays with the family.) Fortunately for me, it was replaced Christmas morn with a new Amazon Kindle.

The Kindle was purchased for me by my brother's girlfriend. My gift to her this Christmas was a box of Q-Tips. Not even a full box, mind you, but one of those half-sized "vanity" boxes. So I gave the gift of clean ears and received the gift of a very disgruntled glare. That's a pretty fair trade, if you ask me.

Last year I think I gave Leslie a bag of candy, and she gave me a video game. There must be some law of inverse exchanges between Leslie and me; the cheaper the gift that I give her, the greater the gift I get in return. Next year I'll try buying her penny candy to see if I can get a new car in the exchange.

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