AIN'T NO STINKIN' SNOW GONNA STOP ME AND MY JOY

My dog Lillie is one of the happiest dogs you'd ever want to meet.  She's a lesson in the joy of life, and a tonic for a grey day, whether of the soul or the outdoors.  So yesterday, when about the snow kept falling and falling and falling, it wasn't stopping her!  No way!  She LOOOOOVES to be outdoors, and she LOOOOVES to run laps around the yard.  The fact that she's only about 15 inches high at the head, and that the snow in the backyard was 17 or so (and I'm not talking drifed - I'm talking legit falling snow buildup - it was seriously crazy), was not enough to slow her down.  Nope, Lillie's like an optimist in the center of a disaster - keep your head down and just keep moving forward.

Which is exactly what was happening in the shot above, taken with the Retro Camera app on my phone.  You may note there's a relatively clean line in the snow which can be followed from the back left of the picture, ending in the front center-left.  At that end, you note a poof of snow?  A burst, a froth?  And below it, perhaps a bit of black?  That's my Lillie!!  On one of her greyhound-like runs.

GO LILLIE GO!!

Slacker

So I'm a slacker.  Seriously - it's January 7 and I'm posting the Christmas picture of the dogs!!  Anyone other than me see something wrong there?

And my last posting was THANKSGIVING.

Good grief.

Lots is happening.  I think this year will be a year of positive change.  I'm a strong proponent of sharing plans, desires, hopes and dreams.  After all, if you don't know what you want, you won't be able to get to it.  And if others don't know what you want, they can never help you attain it.  Sometimes, it's the smallest actions that can assist - even just a kind word.  I think it's a good idea to blog some of this.  So I'm committing to blog at least once a week.  I would commit to more, but my hope is that I'm going to have enough other stuff going on to make it difficult to blog more than that.

So, I hope you enjoy the dogs' picture.  Talk to you soon -

Thanksgiving Trepidation

So it's Tuesday before Thanksgiving, which I'm hosting at my house this year.  This will be the first time since, I believe, 1989, that I've cooked for such a large group of people, so it will be interesting.  Thankfully, turkey-making duties are going to the Fiance's sister, whose house we normally go to.  She volunteered, and I JUMPED at it.  So I'm doing sides and desserts, and turkey will arrive with the bulk of the guests.

The dogs are usually amazingly good with groups, so we will hope that holds true with them at this gathering, as well.  I especially hope this holds true with regard to bodily issues, but I'm placing no bets. 

This morning I awoke at some unknown time because Peanut was whining, which generally means she wants off the bed (the bed is far too high for such a short girl to be jumping off herself).  But when I awoke to this, things happened too fast - the whine, then Daisy awake, Daisy growls, Peanut growls...my foggy little brain can't figure out what came first or what's causing what, so I told everyone to shut up, patted some heads, made sure all were separated, and went back to sleep. 

Then Peanut whined again, I have no idea how much longer after the first, with no reactions from other dogs.  So this can only mean that she needs to go out.  So I grab her and put her down, Jasper down, and grab Daisy (Lillie can make it down on her own), and we head downstairs.  By the time I get the alarm off and get to the solarium door to let them out, WHOOOPS, big ol' pile of poo.  Right on the rug.  Which of course I step in (thank goodness for slippers!!).  And very stinky, loose poo, too.  YAY!  5:30 am on Nov. 23.  YAY!  So, dogs go out.  Poo gets cleaned up as quickly as possible, sprayed with de-scenter stuff, and dogs let back in and we head to back to bed for an hour.

All of which is a rumination of one of the many things that can go wrong on Thursday.

But, as long as we confine bodily functions to the appropriate locations, I think we're in for a good day.

I'M ALIVE!

So someone has actually read my blog and been nice enough to comment on it.  AMAZING.  It's a woman who goes by Red Hamster, and you'd think I might've been bright enough to have followed the link attached to her blogger name to see what she has to say, but no.  I'm just reveling in the excitement at the moment.

I guess she picked me  up off a blog I often read, called BADGER MEETS WORLD.  I love that blog - the doings of Badger and the Badger-ettes.  She's a heck of a writer.  I often comment on her blog - after reading her and her family's exploits for a year, I feel sufficiently involved in their lives to offer my two cents occassionally - and apparently my new friend Red Hamster followed me back from a comment.

Ah, the excitement.

I mean, I still don't have a follower, but at least it's not like I'm yelling into an empty room any more.  Now it's just a mostly empty room!  ;-)

Blogging is weird.  In part, it's like a diary of your life, where you have a place that you can put all these hopes and dreams and concerns and events.  And in that way it's exceptionally personal.  But the reason you're putting all that into a blog as opposed to heading your thoughts with Dear Diary and keeping them safely in a locked journal hidden under your mattress is that you want to share these things, know there's someone out there, know that others are experiencing like things (or, know that others are experiencing things unlike anything you'd do, at times).  So it's nice to know someone looks occassionally.

Red Hamster, if you happen to read this, THANKS!!

bad week, good weekend

So it was a bad week last week, with a good weekend.  Sound just like everyone else's week?  Well, mine was worse than usual, at least for me.  And better than usual, at least for me.

Last Tuesday the Fiance went into the hospital.  Heart pain, pressure, shortness of breath - sound familiar?  If not, you better look it up, because it can happen to anyone!  But for him, it meant a trip to the emergency room.  They did an EKG, and no heart attack, so they stuck him back in the waiting room for another four hours.  Finally we actually got into the ER and all their nice drugs and care, and 12 hours after his arrival (and four hours after my departure) he was actually in a room all his own!

So there was much humming and hawing on the part of the doctors.  Tests were run.  He was finally released at noon on Friday.  He's been diagnosed with small vessel disease, and has significant damage already, so while it's not like he has three months to live or whatever, he does have less time than the average bear.  So, we are coming to grips with that, and what that means to us.  Thus far, we've simply decided that a) no, he doesn't want to get any more medieval on his diet, and b) enjoy each day (the sung title of the Tim McGraw song, "Live Like You Are Dying" keeps running through my head).  We've also cried a little, but not too much.  Not yet.

But now the weekend has begun, and I turned 50 on Saturday!  Which I find unimaginable -- SOOOO old -- but it's true.  I do the math, and it's right. 

Friday night we took a wine sampling train ride, which was fun.  Saturday afternoon at the spa.  Saturday night having one of the best dinners of my life.  AND I got an iPad from the Fiance.  What's not to like??

So, I will see the good.  I'm so lucky to have found this guy.  Anything's possible.  Keep rolling along, enjoying the days.

waiting

This shot beautifully illustrates two things: 1) I am apparently completely convinced that a chair is a valid clothing storage apparatus; 2) that Jasper is completely adorable.

He follows me around as I get ready to leave every morning.  Though this morning, this pile was just too comfy, I guess - he sacked out.  So I say we focus on the latter of those two items - if I wasn't clothes-folding challenged, I'd have no moments like this.

why did i get dogs again?

So I love my dogs.  I love my dogs I love my dogs I love my dogs.  I am certain if I repeat that enough times, it will be true.

No, seriously.  I do love my dogs.  But sometimes, I want to kill them dead.

Times like today, where, once we got past the dishwasher repair person, we seemed to be okay.  But then the bug guy showed up, and we were over the edge.  As I often say, my dogs bark if a bug farts in the backyard, and this is definitely proving to be one of those days.

Or times like last night, when we got home late and the dogs were so happy to see us.  We fed them, and then a bit later I took them out again for a trip to doggie potty-land.  And then, right before we went to bed, as we headed out on 'last time out', I found the presents they left for me.  At first I thought it was only a couple pieces of poo, but after cleaned up those and took them out, I discovered the piece of toilet paper stuck to my shoe.  Stuck with poo.  Dog poo.  Which I'd now tracked around, because apparently all the poo was not together (cause what fun would that be, to poo all in one place?) and I'd stepped on a turd.  Yes, nothing quite so much fun as being on hands and knees, scrubbing the grout of poo at 11:45 at night.

Yes, I love my dogs, I do.  Even though I think Jasper just hacked something up on the carpet.  Yup.  They're great.