Snow!

I call my father every week. Mostly on Sundays, but sometimes just out of the blue to see what he is doing. Winter in Minnesota can really get to a person. Especially someone like my Dad who likes to be outside all of the time.

This year is especially frustrating for him. He has been cooped up more than usual. I watch everyone's status updates on Facebook and there seems to be a lot of bitching about snow, wondering when snow will come, shoveling of snow, blowing snow, accumulation of snow, when will the snow stop, who does Mother Nature think she is.... pretty much anything and everything related to snow. I have snickered a bit to myself because I don't live in a place where it snows much. Granted, it does rain a whole hell of a lot and the grey skies really get to you.......but I still am glad I don't live in a place where it snows.

A couple weeks ago he told me he was looking at getting a new snowblower. It was taking him approximately 3 hours to blow the snow from the sidewalk and driveway. He has a really long driveway and the county does not plow it for him. He said he wanted something large, powerful and enclosed so that the snow wouldn't blow in his face. I had no idea really what he was talking about but he sure was excited about the prospect of getting a new snowblower. This is what I recall him telling me about why he needed something so large:

"Ann" he says in his Dad tone, "Most people around here have half-million dollar combines that only get used once a year. I want to get a new snowblower so hopefully it won't snow anymore. It can just sit in my garage." I really love his logic. Makes perfect sense.

Much to our surprise, it took a lot less time to get the new snowblower. It arrived last weekend and his neighbor sent me some photos of the big unveiling. He probably is the talk of the neighborhood. Actually, he only has two neighbors so I'm sure he is the talk of the neighborhood.

There it is. Looks more like a lawnmower to me.

There he is sitting on it. He is almost smiling!

The enclosure. Looks more like a golf cart.

The snowblower in action. Watch out for the Prius!

He is practicing here. Looking good!

I talked to him today about whether or not it would snow anymore. Much to his dismay, New Ulm is expected to get between 11-15 inches of snow. I guess his theory of buying a new snowblower to hold off winter did not pan out. On the bright side, he will now have something to do tomorrow morning!

France? Yeah, I'll do that.

About two weeks ago I got an email from one of my best friends Hillary. We've been friends since 5th grade where we met in Mr. Bloomquist's class. We've had a lot of fun together growing up. I'm going to   name just a couple adventures/memories that come to mind when I think of Hillary.

1. Senior graduation party at Hillary's parents house. Let's just say I have a nice barbed wire scar on my thigh from my adventures and Hillary will never live down the fact that she was on the ground biting at people's ankles. It sounds weird, but yes it is true. 
2. Raspberry Schnaps and lemonade. The drink of choice for these gals! The thought of it now literally makes me gag.
3. Our code names, Chester (Hillary) and Bessie (me). Why did we have code names? I don't know but it was definitely a junior high thing.
4. Hillary's highschool car, the Honda. I crashed into it one day when I was trying to park in the school lot. I felt bad, but the truth was - the dent really didn't detract from the overall condition of the car. I do feel remorse though, I am very sorry Hillary.
5. Tennis, tennis and tennis! We played tennis from 7th grade all the way until we were seniors. We even went to tennis camp. Hillary still plays today. I'm pretty sure she'd kick my ass at this point.
6. Rhonda and Kim - Hillary's parents. When I was growing up, I always thought that Hillary had the coolest parents I knew. They are still great!

Hillary and I a couple of years ago at Sarah's house.

Well, as I said, I got an email from her about 2 weeks ago asking me if I wanted to go to France. Not, just any old part of France, but Cannes. Like the Cannes Film Festival, France. She said she was going there for a conference in March and was going to have an apartment all to herself and wondered if I wanted to go with! It took me about half a day to come to the conclusion - France? Yeah, I'll do that. Why wouldn't I!

We leave on March 4th and return on March 12th. I am super excited! Both she and I have never been to Europe. We have been emailing and texting about all of the things we need to pack. I've decided I'm not going to buy a bunch of clothes before I go because I am excited to see all of the fashions over in Europe. 

I don't know a bit of French. I've started to panic about the fact that I'll be on my own in Cannes without any ability to speak the language. I'm hopeful that the city is big enough that I'll be able to figure my way around and get by on words I pick up along the way.

It is going to be a blast! I really can't believe the trip is coming up in about 3 weeks. I'd better start packing!

A New Chapter

We've gone back and forth for months wondering if we should get another dog. At first we decided we were absolutely not getting another dog. We'd just cherish Spencer and let him ride out in style.

Then Spencer's personality dramatically changed. I was reading a Cesar Millan book and something clicked with me. The concept of dogs needing to know their place in your "pack". The fact that dogs don't feel bad when they are not alpha. In essence, they need to "know their role" and we had not been teaching that to our dogs. We took control of Spencer by doing a few small things. Not letting him pull on the leash and just being an all around leader to him in our home. He absolutely thrived and completely changed into a calm, even tempered 12.5 year old dalmatian.

Inevitably we then started talking about getting another dog. I know I've lectured many people that having 1 dog is ideal and 2 dogs is a bad idea. I will say that if you get a second dog simply because you don't really want to deal with your first dog and you hope another one will take that burden off you - this is a very bad idea. But, if you feel as though you have room in your heart, family and lifestyle - a second dog can be a good thing.

So we started our on again off again search for a new dog. We looked at pit bull rescue, dobermans, austrailian shepards, cattle dogs, dalmatians, french bulldogs, boston terriers to name a few.

I filled out applications to adopt a foster dogs. No one ever responded back to us.  I called a couple of people who had listings on Craigslist, no call back. It seemed as though we just were going to have to be patient. I kept thinking that at some point, the right dog will come into our life.

 And then we did the most logical thing that you can do. We went to our local animal shelter. It is amazing how many dogs they have that need home. Why not give a dog a chance that might otherwise be euthanized? (These were Brian's wise words to me)

We went to see a 7 month old female cattle dog/austrailian shepard mix. Everyone described her as being "sweet." Before we went, we called the shelter to make sure she was there. To our disappointment, someone had just put her on a 3-day hold. We were sad, but felt happy for the dog that she'd found a home.

Then I got a text from my friend Larisa who told me the dog we were looking at was still available. So we went to check her out. She was little, shy and seemed sweet. She followed me around the visitation room sort of just looking at me wondering, "what is next?"

We decided to bring Spencer back the next day to meet her. They met and it didn't go horribly so we thought, what the heck?  Of course she had to be spayed first and that wouldn't happen until 2 days later.

The next 2 days, I was nervous and probably very annoying around the house. I kept asking Brian, "what if she is too shy? what if she is a problem? what if it doesn't work out?" I'd never had a shelter dog and thought that it might not be a good idea to get a dog we knew little to nothing about. All we knew is that she had been hit by a car and consequently lost one of the toes on her front paw and that the previous owners did a night drop with the reasoning, "needs a new home" on the paperwork. Nice.

But I picked her up and away we went! She was groggy but so incredibly calm and sweet.

I wasted no time making sure she was comfortable on our bed.

Saturday morning was very exciting. She slept through the night and didn't make a peep. She slept in til 7am. We got up, went for a short walk and went about our day. She really just fit into our lifestyle. She followed us wherever we went and seemed genuinely interested in everything we did. We kept asking ourselves, "why would anyone want to get rid of this dog?"

Sunday was even better. She began gaining a bit more confidence on the walk. She is very timid around other dogs. We will have to begin socializing her as soon as her stitches heal. I taught her to sit and we are currently working on down. She really is the sweetest dog I've ever met.

One problem though - we don't have a name for her. On her paperwork, they named her Dixie. She answers to it, but I don't really like it. We have tried a lot of different names on her:

Lizzy
Trixie
Murphy
Laddy
Tidbit
Crummy
Fitsin (this one was a suggesting from Jane. It is because she just fits in!)
Fitsie
fixie

Oh, and the first name we thought of - Doggie. Totally original I know.

Anyhoo, we don't have a name yet. I'm leaning towards Crummy. I really liked Trixie but Brian things it sounds like a prostitute. We will figure it out. Soon I hope. Until then, she will continue to be a great new chapter in our lives!