I know. I am a terrible person.

Ignoring all of you for weeks.

No reason, really, other than just so not having the energy to go online and read and comment and write.

And I have had things to write about...

Lets see...Finally the snow is MELTING!!! The last snowfall was Easter Sunday night, and it vanished within two days! YAY!

Although at the time, it was disheartening to walk out Monday morning to this:

Did you notice that my Suburban is standing in the driveway? I used to have a warm heated garage stall for it, but that was before this...

That's Mark's old Jeep in the top photo and his our new Honda Civic behind it, and Mark driving the new Civic home for the first time, and a shot of our car (and some snow mixed with ash. Because we did get that one time of ash falling on us, our teeny brush with Mount Redoubt.).

Completely juvenile moment...the newsreader on BBCAmerica news just called Captain Phillips (the guy who was held by the Somali pirates) the world's most famous seaman.

Say it out loud to yourself. See? Juvenile. I told you.

Also...We went to Spamalot last night. It was awesome. It was full of Monty Python humor (I fart in your general direction.) and John O'Hurley played King Arthur. Great sets, great songs, great actors, the whole thing was fun from beginning to end. I have a couple photos of Thor and Tess waiting for it to begin in my phone, now I just have to figure out how to get them into the computer. I may never manage that feat, as it would most likely involve me actually reading the damn book that came with my new phone...

Oh, yeah, more awesomeness...


This is the new Civic's radio. See what it says? That's right, it says IPOD! One of the awesomest things about having a vehicle built this century is that it comes with a built in IPod connection. A BUILT IN IPOD CONNECTION. My Suburban is so old even the cassette thingies -- the ones you plug into your IPod and then you can play it through your car stereo -- those thingies don't work in it.

But now, I plug my IPod directly into the USB hub in the armrest. So very cool.

Unfortunately for me, I drag the dogs with me a lot, because they LOVE going for a ride. They are psychodogs if you say go or ride or put on socks. (I must put on socks alot before I go places, because they get crazed when I do. Of course I put on socks alot just before I go somewhere, because I don't much wear socks or shoes at home. Hereditary hot feet.)

I gotta go get Tess. So there you go. I posted something!

Today in the snow, Now with EXTRA ZACH!!!

Today we took Zach dog sledding, Holmquist style.

Unfortunately the snow is really deep these days, and Abe absolutely loathes deep snow. Loathes it. Fortunately the street is snow-covered, so Zach got to experience dog sledding anyway.



Tor gave it a try too, and we were momentarily concerned that one of them would be damaged...the dogs were really moving out, and coming to a stop was rather problematic, since the dogs stopped before Thor and the sled...


Zachary has been living in Tucson, where it was 60 degrees last week. It was closer to 6 degrees this afternoon. This is Zach's face on cold:

And the familia, in the snow. Mark was making goofy faces when Abe was looking at me, and as soon as I got Mark to start smiling, Abe was fascinated with something behind them. Of course.

Snow Removal

Snow removal and storage is a big deal here. We get lots of snow, and they need to do something with it...so they load it into dump trucks and haul it to vacant lots, big fields, special lots designed specifically for the snow, and stash it there.

It's a big deal, because the snow really piles up. We got about a foot of snow, and they hauled ten or eleven dump trucks worth of snow off just my street, which is probably two blocks long.
In the photo above, you can see one of the lots they use for snow. It's mid-December, and there is a shocking amount of space left for snow...Everywhere we go, I see huge piles of snow, and lots that are like a quarter full of snow. I am thinking this winter has a very long way to go.

Good thing I am still thrilled to have snow!

Also, you can see the sun going down...I think I took this photo between 2:30 and 3:00. The sun sets at 3:30. Still weird, that. But there is sun sometimes, which is very important to me. It's also very important to those around me. Very very important to those around me...

We have snow.

I have been wishing we would get a little more snow...

We did. Four or five inches over night and it's still snowing.

It's snowing again!

I am still having issues with photos and computers and being able to upload them...so very tedious.

But I did manage to get these two photos from a couple days ago -- this is our first snowfall of the season. Tess made a little snowman (she also smashed it with a shovel, but I didn't get a photo of the carnage.).

The other is what made ME happy -- after the snow, the skies cleared and we had a little sunshine. That's the view out of Zach's window. (I know Zach lives in Tucson, but when he is here that's his room. And it's where his shoes are...I think one pair of shoes is about all he has here at the moment.)