Meggapalooza 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEGGIE!

Today Meg hits the twelve year mark. We first got Meg in the pre-digital years, so I don't have any little puppy pictures of her on this computer. I'll have to find some and scan them in. All I could find was the above picture, taken when she was probably a year old, or so, before the long hair kicked in and her head fell into proportion with the rest of her body.

Apparently Meg partied hard in celebration of another year gone by. When we got home she was all tuckered out and laying almost comatose on the floor. Ummm... OK. She always looks like that. But I'm sure she did something to celebrate the day. She got some extra treats from yours truly. It was too late for her to do any snowboarding, as the snow has pretty much passed into oblivion. I did notice all of the girls' "Buddies" movies laying out on the floor around the TV set. As you might know, the "Buddies" are those little Golden Retriever puppies that keep showing up in their own movies. "Air Buddies", "Space Buddies", "Snow Buddies", "Santa Buddies", "Secret Agent Buddies", "Political Activist Buddies", etc., etc. I can't watch them. Why would I? I have two "Buddies" in the house with me now. Granted, they're Australian Shepherds, and don't seem to get along much of the time. More like fightin' friends. Plenty of action, what with Abbey jumping over Meggie. That's their act. Abbey is the daredevil, and Meg is the stageprop.

Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! Prepare to be amazed! Abby the Aussinator, three time world jump champion, will now leap over Meggie the Napinator! Ohhhh!! A flawless jump! Now, prepare for the thrill of your lives, as Abbey now prepares to make the Flaming Death Jump! Please wait while the stage team sets Meggie to flame...

Ok. Maybe not the best stage show. I'd better make sure Abbey doesn't get hold of any matches. Enough picking on Meg. She's a good girl. If ever you need fuzz therapy, she's there. She doesn't get dirty (at least not since her 6th birthday), she doesn't chew the furniture (outgrew that by her 2nd birthday), and she's quiet, for the most part. She does get excited and barks when Abbey is jumping all over her. And sometimes she just starts barking and gets stuck and needs a little help stopping. Then there's her mood swings, the crabbiness, and the sudden violent attacks on Abbey. We just chalk it all up to Aussheimer's Syndrome, which strikes Australian Shepherds in their later years. So, although you might not remember it tomorrow, Happy Birthday, Meggie!!

Reign of Fire

Once again I am still awake and kicking at 1:30 in the morning. Night seems to be my best time to get studying done. I get a lot of practice with the AutoCad and Revit software. Cool stuff. I need all the practice I can get right now, especially since Midterms have snuck up on us and start in just another week.

Meg is sleeping just outside the door of this room. I can tell she is in a deep sleep, as she seems to be chasing someone or something. You only see this kind of activity when she is asleep. When she's awake she is much less animated. Dude! Now she's growling and showing some teeth! Still asleep, though. I'll have to make sure not to startle her when I leave. Here's a picture of her from the last snowstorm. That is one miserable little dog, right there. I think she would have loved snow when she was younger, but now she just hates it. Heather informed me that Meg will hit the big 1-2 on Monday.

The Pinchbeck Elementary Second grade classes celebrated Chinese New Year, today. We went to the school for the parade of the dragons. All of the kids made dragon heads to wear out of cardboard boxes. We spent the last week working on Emily's. It turned out all right. Had to modify the box a bit, and I painted the scales on it. Emily cut out all of the details and we glued them on.

They had to hold me back. Dragons breathe fire, so I was all set to hook up a propane tank to this bad boy until I realized that it is, after all, only made of cardboard. Yeah. That would not have worked very well. Not to mention that if Emily is anything like me she would have left a trail of fiery destruction everywhere she went. Visually awesome, but would probably have gotten us both expelled from school.

Some pictures of the parade. This doesn't show all of the kids. It was quite the parade.

Ok. A picture of me from the last snowstorm. I look almost as miserable as Meg. I know you're asking, "Why is Ed shovelling the driveway when the roads aren't even passable?" To which I reply "I needed the exercise." Well, not really. The idea was that I would keep shovelling it as it snowed so that I wouldn't have to work really hard when the snow finally stopped. It did work. During the snow it was much easier to remove two or three inches at a time than the final 14, or so. In fact, when the sun came out on Sunday it all melted off where I had already shovelled, so I didn't need to go out and shovel again. It's all finally melting off, now. Still a lot of it around, but I'm ready for it to go. I love the snow, but only when it first comes down. It's fun, then. Once it gets all slushy and dirty it's no fun, anymore.

I don't know if my yard will every dry out. It's already so soggy it's difficult to walk on. It still has about two or three inches of snow on it, in some places. It's almost time to start planting bulbs for the spring, but I think if I do so the bulbs will end up rotting since the soil won't drain. I may just have to pot them, for now.

Cabin Fever

It has been quite the week. Last weekend we got 14 inches of snow. That was fun. Here are some of the pictures of the girls sledding down the hill in our back yard.

They had a blast.

Obviously, the new toboggan was a much more thrilling experience than the trash can lids of last year.

Ever vigilant Abby, wishing she could run free. Unfortunately, we have to chain her, given her tendency to jump the fence and run the neighborhood for hours.

Meg in her usual spot. She doesn't like to venture into the snow. Too deep for her, I guess.

Amanda making the first solo run after we packed down the snow. It still needed some more packing. She sank a little and slid right off of the toboggan.

Abby after a hard day of snowplay.

The cedars in the back yard, taken yesterday.

The front sidewalk, after the second shovelling of the weekend. It's a sunny day, today, so whatever fell onto the walk after I shovelled yesterday should melt off.

Now, about the cabin fever part. It's been a long week, since last weekend's snow shut down the schools through Wednesday. Emily got to school on Thursday, although the schools opened two hours late. School was then cancelled on Friday. The dogs, especially, have been taking it hard. They haven't been able to spend as much time outside, so they have been closed in the house. Meg has definitely lost it. We had to shoot her with a tranquilizer dart after she started to chase Abby around the house with an axe. Ok, that didn't really happen, but I couldn't resist "The Shining" reference. The dogs certainly have a lot of pent up energy. Abby has been running around the house and yard with a head in her mouth. I couldn't figure out what she kept playing with, but apparently she beheaded one of the Barbie Prince dolls. Thus perished another girlie man. That's a topic for another day.

Coughing, Sneezing, Stuffy, Achy, blah, blah, blah...

What a week, so far. It's the first week of February, and we've just finished up another snow storm. It started to snow on us last Saturday, and according to the measuring stick I had in the front yard, we had about 14 inches fall. This was the first snow that we had a real snow toboggan. It worked great. Unfortunately, I was sick. The crud is still with me, but I'm better. Heather has come down with it, now. The schools have been closed for three days, but they should be open tomorrow. My classes started up again tonight. They're talking about more snow this weekend, but I'm not sure that it will come close to what we just had.

Bundle up, everyone!! Stay warm, and steer clear of the yellow snow!!!