back in the day

Last night, in the spirit of Valentines Day, me and Q pulled out boxes of old pictures and laughed for hours. There’s not much sense in having so many photos hiding away in boxes, so we’re pulling out bunches of ‘em and making a collage to frame and hang proudly. Last night we went through about 5 years of pictures.......... our first 5 years together, and still have 7 more years of pictures to go. The first 5 years are in a different box, because after that Miss Sunshine (and a whole new era) was born. The years since then have been the best years of my life, but those first 5 years whooooowweeeeeee!........what a time that was.
There were pictures of us through every stage of our relationship. The day I proposed, the days we graduated from college, the day we got married, and the many, many days that we partied our butts off in celebration of life. We all looked so young back then. There are pictures of Skinny D, Tomgost, and the man formerly know as mothheart with skinny faces, ex-wives, goofy grins and long hair. I got to see Malcolm and Patty, Andie and Billy, beautiful tiny Katie, gclark and hundreds of people that I haven’t seen in years. I got to see pictures of Thackeriah, Skinny D and the Taylor girls long before they knew that would someday become an extended family. Of course we were all much younger, but even more striking was the looks in our eyes. They shined with the unburdened exuberance of youth. We were still at the beginning, and we were gathering the energy required to have kids and mortgages and careers. It was the part of life that defined who we were and what perspectives we would carry into the future.

To my former self: High 5 sucka!

Massacre of the Snout

The pristine blanket of snowy whiteness is now gone, all that remains is the 1 foot tall remnant of the snowman the kids made with Q, surrounded by a sea of mud.

1. My Golden Retriever, Bilbo, has his own ½ of our backyard, and like a good dog should, he makes sure that there is as little grass as possible in his area. Now of course, his yard is a nasty mud pit, so Me and Q decided that we should put him out in the grassy half of the yard yesterday to minimize the muddy skankiness that would surely ensue if we put him in the mud pit.

2. Theres a privacy fence around the back yard. It’s been there for years, and one particular board has a soft spot that soaks up moisture, and over the years has developed a hole about the size of a dog nose.

3. On the other side of that fence are 2 pit bulls.

4. Bilbo was quite excited to finally roam freely around the “human” half of the back yard yesterday. There was all sorts of new places to “mark” and grassy places to roll around in, and some fun dogs on the other side of the fence, making interesting dog smells and sounds. To top it all off, there was a fine hole in the fence just perfect for sticking his nose through to check it out!

5. He did

6. The pit bull inserted Bilbo’s snout into his giant jaw, locked down, and flailed about with abandon.

7. I then got a call from Q, who was crying and scared. She heard the blood curdling commotion and wailing in the backyard, and saw Bilbo leaving the hole in the fence with a bloody head. So I jumped in the truck and sped home from work. I was scared to death. I didn’t know what to expect. When I got home, he was OK. His snout is torn up and bloody, but he escaped from the jaws of death with only superficial wounds. I took him to the vet, who cleaned his wounds and gave him some antibiotics. Good Old Bilbo is about 13 years old now; his golden locks are turning to grey, and his teeth are getting little. I Love the old guy, he’s an awesome dog. I hate to see anything unpleasant to happen to him, but he’s gonna be fine.

High 5 Bilbo!

yeah....it snowed

Well, my wish came true. At least 1/2 true. I woke up this morning with visions of snowmen and sleds dancing through my brain. I flipped up the blinds and sure enough, the world was blanketed with the pristine whiteness of my wish come true. I turned on the TV and within minutes, confirmed that Miss Sunshines school was closed. Grinning from ear to ear, I walked to the front of the house while contemplating which boots would be the best for a day full of snow-day activities. As I opened the blinds in the living room to verify that I wasn't dreaming, a car whizzed by on the jet black street which was untainted by the winter storm. I dragged my sorry butt into the shower, got dressed and ready to go. As I prepared to leave the house, my little buddy stared out the window with glistening eyes, oohing and awwing and saying "Snow?". Miss Sunshine begged me to stay home, but I had no choice but to walk out the door begrudgingly and come to work. My little buddy got to build his 1st snowman without me, but I think Q got some of it on video.

Next time buddyman.......we'll make the gnarliest snowman ever!

Snow?

They've said it before, and they're saying it again. Tonight its gonna snow.
I wanna believe them, I really do....but I'm not puttin any money on it. So far this year it hasn't happened, and last year we got just a few tiny snowstorms that followed days of rain and just hid the mud for a few hours.
The year before that though, we got some good snow, the kind that results in impromptu days off from work and school, the kind that brings multiple giant snowmen into the yard and ramshackle igloos created by blocks of snow in the shape of a cooler. The kind that keeps people from driving up or down the suicide hill that separates my neighborhood from the rest of the civilized world and leaves the streets open for giggling kids with seldom-used sleds and saucers.
I feel lucky that we live far enough north to get the occassional snow, but far enough south to not get slammed by it 3 months straight.
Bring it on!