Happy Christmas 2014

Happy Christmas from us!**

It’s not that easy to set this up. I work hard for the audience

On Christmas---

 

Photobomb… 

Merry Merry to all my family and friends

 

**(Dave took pictures this year so he is sadly not in any-yet.Cody is working in Va)

Early To Rise Said No Pet Ever

So, Abby has been here for about 10 days now. Let’s see, we got her Friday the 5th and so far she’s tried to eat the Christmas tree, chewed on a couple presents and the fake present box, gotten sick (there’s a reason I bought a Bissel carpet cleaner back in the day), racked up a 170 dollar vet bill, and today chewed up my USB cord for my printer.

But she’s become quite the member of the household. Gawd. Even Beta is a little more interested in the back yard with Abby around.

And although she’s feeling better today and both the dogs were up and had a walk already (and she chewed up a vital USB cord), it’s a little early around here to really get going.

This is what the animals who live here are doing at 7:30 AM-

Hey, could you turn off that light please-It’s really annoying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dude, seriously.

 

 

 

 

 

Go bother the dogs…but do you have another pillow-two aren’t enough.

 

 

 

Let me just say the only one up was Jack-

 

I will not sit still for you to take a picture of me at the food dish for all your friends to laugh at. I will not.

 

 

 

 

 

However, I will intentionally and pointedly walk away on the counter to show everyone that I will not be controlled by you.

Is that more food over there….????

 

 

Sigh.

We went to Dave’s brother’s house last weekend for a Christmas get together. No pictures. But lots of food and good company.

Dave’s son and girlfriend were here for a few days. Again no pictures. But enjoyable visit for sure.

I shouldn’t be responsible for the documentation of Dave’s peeps. But apparently he’s not snapping up the pics either.

I did do a little late Christmas shopping and took a picture of this

Because that’s what’s really important to me.

Abby Eats the Christmas Tree

So, because I feel the need to save the world one dog at a time I sent in an application to the Beagle Freedom Project as an interested adopter of a beagle dog. (We miss Trixie Noodle) This is an organization that rescues and places dogs that are used as laboratory animals. Many labs like to use Beagles or hound like dogs because they are easy to handle and are cooperative. (As one worker told me there is a reason they don’t use pit bulls-although I have never had a problem with those dogs either). There are breeders who provide dogs for just lab work. Seriously. I hope Karma comes back at them.

Anyway,  I didn’t think anything of it because I was certain there were probably a lot of people wanting to adopt and I would be low on the list.

Wrong. I got a call about 3-4 weeks later saying there was a dog in MN available. And last Friday Abby came to us to trial, and then adopt if it all works out. She has been fostered up in Elk River for about 5-8 weeks. She did go to a house but snapped at the other dog when that dog got too close to Abby’s food. (We’ve seen that before!)

So here’s Abby. She spent 11 years in a lab in Tennessee. She was used for arthritis research but unsure what she was used for. She has a tattoo in her ear and a little scar on her leg which might be from IV’s. She doesn’t know her name very well and when she first got here didn’t know how to go up or down the stairs. Although down was way easier than up.

She’s getting it now. She’s having some problems with being house broken and likes to eat the Christmas tree. Not sure about that.

Abby with a little piece of tree to munch on later.

Beta doesn’t seem to care about Abby much.

Although when Beta thought it would be nice to eat the leftovers of Abby’s bone-well, that brought on a little skirmish. Abby spotted that infraction of etiquette from across the room and took off like a shot to bite Beta on the head (not really a bite, more like a lot of slobber) which prompted a snarly face from Beta and a stand off which ended in a draw. (Beta kept his piece of the bone). We’ve had skirmishes before with other dogs so we didn’t give it much thought. Well, what we thought was we won’t let that happen again. Maybe. Hopefully.

So, we are waiting to see how well she fits in. It’s been good so far. Some problems with housebreaking but we think that might get better with time. Went all last night with no accidents. A little accident this AM but I should have known that she was needing to get out what with all the pacing. So, I’ll be a little more vigilant.

She loves her walks though. She is a little weak in the back which I was told was common in dogs raised in the lab because the don’t use their back legs a whole lot.

I’m not sure what she is thinking-it must be all new and overwhelming. Poor old girl. But she’s free now.

And, as you can see, we have a tree.

I stratigically placed the fake present over the cat barf that I discovered when I put  the Christmas tree skirt down. Apparently I figured I’d clean it up this year.

Wrong—because that’s how we roll.

Relaxing at the end of the day….

I did not trip and fall. I attacked the floor and I believe I am winning.

It’s all how you look at it.

So, to review our last couple of years..

In Sept of 2012 I quit my job and moved to Tacoma for the worst job ever, and to be closer to my mother, who was frail and ill. Spent 3 months living at a friend’s house. Sold a house, bought a house, Dave quit his job and we moved completely in Dec 2012. Quit worst job and got much better job in March. Moved to a new office one month later and mother died two weeks after that. Father got new girlfriend one month after Mother’s death, got engaged, and married in November 2013. Dave’s son Seth was declining in health waiting for a lung transplant so we decided to move back to Rochester to be closer, and so Dave could get his job back as he had a terrible job in Tacoma. Our cat Elvin died in January. Dave moved back in March (car broke down but at least we were close) and we sold our house and I went back to the friend’s for 3 months. Trixie died. Bought a new house. I moved in July. Seth died the beginning on November.

So, on the 100 point stress scale we are now at 172.8. We think, but aren’t sure, that maybe things will calm down now. October couldn’t have been worse for weirdness and I thought that nothing else could happen till I went to Tacoma and had to come right back home because of death. This is where the medicinal drinking comes in.

I think you’ll detect a pattern here.

So, I went to Tacoma and stayed with Nina. We had about one day of hello and goodbye before she left, then I found out I was leaving. But I had a little of this--

‘

Right? That picture speaks volumes. I couldn’t even set up a picture like that. It just happened. I can’t even make a comment because there is so much happening I can’t even focus on one element. (Besides the fact that focusing on one element, for me, is completely impossible anyway)

I met up with the sissies for a Nordstrom run in which we bought all the same shirts-again.

I like to think of this as our Charlie’s Angels pose, without the figures or the hair.

A word of warning here--when searching for group pictures of Charlie’s Angels? Watch your descriptors in the search line. Nuff said.

We had dinner with gpa and the gang.

Right? I also like this one, again, it’s all in the background (Carol helping Grampa figure out his camera..I can’t even….)

This was Sunday and I got back home on Tuesday. The boys flew in for the funeral which was Nov 8th.

Blane was a little confused about funeral wear so we had to do a little shopping. (Cody was all over the snappy funereal decorum)  

Even though it was a sad event, very sad and very difficult-they did look nice.

                            

I know, right?

We managed to get through that weekend and the next weekend I was off to Vegas for the Rock and Roll half marathon. It wasn’t like I was worn out or anything. Not me.

Here’s our little group with our custom shirts-That would be Cathy, me, her cousin Jenni and our friend Randy. What a group we were.

This is a close up-it was Cathy’s birthday, although the real celebration started the following day.  (Don’t worry, I have pictures)

Here’s the rest of our group-that’s Tiff and Ali on the end. You must recognize them from many other races and, of course, Ragnar.

Yep.  The giant Rock and Roll guy. I saw him at the half way point in Seattle a couple of times.

 

Macklemore got us pumped up!

The start line. And oh, by the way, race starts at 4:30, not 4. Thanks to the random person who pointed that out to us when we expressed our confusion over no one at the start line at 3:58 when the race started at 4. Which it didn’t. Which we were told.  So I had plenty of time to get a picture at the start line….

My attempt to take a picture at about mile 10 of the strip at night. Not so good. I was in a hurry for some reason.

Did I also mention it was the coldest day of the year in Vegas? Temps in the 70’s till we got there. Then down to the 50’s with a frost warning. Because that’s how we (rock and) roll.

The next day was clear and still a little cool but at least the wind quit howling through our window. (Oh, did I forget to mention the wind-that too)

We stayed at Caesar's and spent some time at the Forum shops where, after the race, we saw a crazy show--

A statue that throws fire. Dang. I couldn’t follow the story but the talking statues and water feature and fire-Well, it was all so Vegas. Oh, and I bet on the Packer game and won 38 dollars. Wheee.

I can’t even begin to describe our Monday in text, but they say pictures are worth a thousand words…..

10 AM

 

My personal favorite

 

 

10 PM

Do you see a progression here. Yeah. That represents about 12 hours on the strip. Twelve. Hours.

Happy Birthday Cathy!!

It was so much fun that I can’t even describe it. Really, it was.

Things we learned in Vegas

You have 20 seconds to replace the booze in the fridge before you are charged 80 dollars for liquor.

It's "Fieri"-not " Ferrari".

You can't get popcorn after 9.

The use of the coffee maker is free but the coffee is not.

The race starts at 4:30.

Don't karaoke after a day of drinking vodka.

And most importantly---

           No matter who pays the bill--you will always be considered the Burns party—”Front Desk. Hello Ms Burns. What now?”

That’s really how it all went down. We came home Tuesday via Dallas. 

On Saturday, yes the following Saturday, we went to the Season’s Hospice Gala.  And what a Gala it was. Three cosmos and a couple of scotch and waters later we were ready to bid.

First we bought a mystery bottle of wine. I picked out what I thought would be a good one-a really good one-and this is what I got--

I don’t even know how that happened. My cousin Janet’s comment was “Personalized, how nice”.

We bid on 4 things, two of which we really wanted. We were down to the wire, it was a nail biter, and we were a little tipsy, but we got what we really wanted--

That is what I am talking about. 4, count em, FOUR tickets to the Packer/Detroit game, club house indoor comfy seats. Funny that there wasn’t a big bidding war on these babies. Then again, we are in Minnesota.

We also got a camping package which had a chair, blanket, and a couple gift certificates-one to the Butcher Shoppe where we bought our Thanksgiving Steaks.

Just because.

My Gala Dress!!

Lastly, I have finished all the blocks for the shop quilt. This Thanksgiving I am finishing the whole thing. All 40 billion pieces of it!

 

There are 7 more blocks done.

And I picked up a couple of yards of monkey fabric. AND there’s more where that came from!!

So, that’s the catch up blog of the month. We hope to slow down, but then of course there’s Christmas, oh and did I mention Blane turned 30 somewhere in there? Yes he did.

Jack, on the other hand, has remain calm, cool, and collected.

Happy Thanksgiving--

(Because 6 AM was not too early)