So, once again, Mother Nature tried to scheme against me.  The day I had planned to drive to Rock Springs (by myself) for part of my big Christmas vacation, it snowed.  A lot.  And the wind blew.  And the roads were bad.  Bah.  But… two days later, it was only windy!  And by that point, Tina was actually able to get out of town, so she and the pooches went with me.  She actually drove me.  Which was especially nice, cause then I could sleep past Rawlins without having to try out the Oldsmobile I-80 Auto-Pilot feature.  It’s not always reliable, from what I hear.

While we were there, my poor dad had to work on the weekdays, which left Mom, Tina & me on our own for girl time.  I had a stack of sewing questions for mom to help me with, and some jeans I was scared to hem by myself.  Not only did she help me out with all of that, but she also taught Tina to sew, and she taught us both how to make these awesome little rag quilts for the pups. 

Here is Tillie on hers, surrounded by a small number of the toys she tried to steal from Reggie:

Here’s Grover, next to power cords and feet.  He’s looking shaggy. 

And here they both are at home, in their spot under the piano bench.

Tillie was once again obsessed with my dad.  She just knew deep down that he really wanted to throw toys for her.  He had other ideas.  But she wouldn’t give up.  After staring down one toy for a while, she would just get another one to stack up on him.  He ended up with piles of toys in his lap more than once during the visit.

I took all three dogs (Tillie, Grover, and Reggie) to the school with all three nieces in the hopes of wearing out the crazy cattle dog.  The girls threw toys for Tillie over and over and over again, and the Schnauzers ran around checking out the great smells and wrestled with Rhiannon.  We played until the girls were worn out, got back to mom & dad’s, and Tillie STILL wanted to play.  No dice on the whole “wearing her out” concept.  Later that night, it was on to Randy & Kelly’s for dinner, where we made those tie-up fleece blankets, and busted out the new Twister game.

So much has happened since I last wrote.  My Grandpa John (my mom’s dad) passed away the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  It’s hard to even know what to say about it, as you can imagine.  It was sad.  He was so funny, talented, and bright, and he’ll be giving us all wonderful memories for the rest of our lives.  The picture is of Grandma & Grandpa in their backyard, on their 50th anniversary.  Grandma Hope was kind enough to honor my brother and I by letting us participate in the service – we both did a scripture reading, Randy did a beautiful and eloquent eulogy, and I sang.  Grandma & Grandpa’s great-niece did a French horn solo, which I’m sure Grandpa loved!  As sad as the occasion was, it definitely brings to mind how blessed I’ve been, with wonderful and loving family and friends.  Thank you all!

One of the funnier notes from the last few weeks (because I handle sadness with inappropriate attempts at humor)…

Last Saturday, I decided to take the dogs with me to drop off Tina at the airport and go visit Grandma.  They’ve been exceptionally well behaved and well mannered lately (except, of course, for Tillie’s unwavering obsession with getting my dad to throw her toys).  And Reggie had been a real blessing to have around Grandma’s house, and she’d enjoyed him – so much that she said if she could find a dog just like him, she would have a dog!  So, I thought, “bringing the dogs to Grandma’s house – great idea!”  Well… after they got through the first 10 minutes or so, they were very well behaved and sweet.  However – those first 10 minutes?  NAUGHTY!  We walked in , said hello, gave hugs, dogs did some sniffing, then walked out to the family room… where Grover immediately pooed on the carpet.  Awesome.  So we went outside.   Grandma and I watched the dogs for a bit, then went in to have some breakfast and left them outside to play.  Looking out the window a little bit later, I noticed that I only saw Grover – no Tillie.  So, I went out.  I called Tillie, then heard a THUD from the down-the-hill neighbor’s fence.  I went to look over, and there was my dog.  Yep, she jumped the short side of the fence (the neighbors are down the hill), and landed in the much lower neighbor’s yard.  She couldn’t jump back over, and the neighbors keep their fence locked, so at 8:30 on a Saturday morning, I got to go knock on a stranger’s door to tell them my beast had invaded their property.  It was all uphill from there.  Ha ha, literally, since we had to walk back UP to Grandma’s house.  The rest of the visit was lovely – lots of good conversation, Grover got to snuggle up to a new person, and Tillie got to harrass someone new to throw her toy.  Next time we go?  Straight outside for Grover, but with supervision for the jumper!

This is a long post!  And I still have so much more I could write about.  Maybe another day.

Here is Miss Maddie as Snow White!  I finished making it last minute, of course.  And once again, we picked a pattern that was so much more complex than it looked like it would.  But she came out cute, don’t you think?  Tina took these pictures of her – Maddie thinks she is quite the super-model, can’t you tell?  My favorite part is the detachable stand-up collar!  And the FOUR-LAYER skirt. 

On another note – I’m off to Amsterdam tomorrow to speak at another conference.  Wish me luck!

Okay, I’m about to admit (yet again) to what a big dork I am.

A while ago (a year and half ago, to be exact), I realized that I had about 9000 songs on my iPod, and I didn’t know/hadn’t ever listened to a huge portion of those songs.  I decided that I would make it my mission to listen to everything on my iPod, and get rid of whatever I didn’t like.  I started this project on April 25, 2007!!!  I know the date because of that handy “last played” feature in iTunes.  I started out listening to everything in alphabetical order by artist.  But – that got a little dull at times, especially when I landed on artists that I had 6 albums worth of tunes.  So, I built myself a playlist, of things that hadn’t been played since I started the project (April 25, 2007!!!), which I updated every few days by moving stuff I’d listened to out of the playlist. 

As of today (October 25, 2007!), cheers!  I have listened to every song (all 9 thousand some of them) at least once!  And it only took a year and half.  Now I can start over. 

Yea, I’m a dork.

I got my very first flu shot yesterday!  Or – maybe just the first one I’m aware of – I don’t know if I got them when I was little.  I’d never gotten one before – I haven’t gotten the flu in years (knock wood!), and I figured that if it wasn’t broken, I didn’t need to fix it!  But – because of the super awesome Humira injections I’ve been taking for RA, my rheumatologist recommended that I get one this year, since the meds suppress my immune system.

The Humira injections HURT!  A lot.  And I’m such an incredible weenie about them.  I mean, other people get shots every day!  Several times a day!  I only have to do this every 2 weeks!  I should be tougher!  Anyway… after a few months of these, I’ve convinced myself that all shots are going to HURT, so I was pretty scared of the flu shot.  In comparison?  Piece of cake!  My arm’s a tiny bit sore, but wow – it was SO easy! 

The bonus of me being immunosuppressed is that everyone else in my house had to get a flu shot too this year, to help protect me!  Special, huh?  Tina & Jimmy seem to get the flu every year, so hopefully my being on crazy drugs will help them stay healthy through the winter.  Keep your fingers crossed. 

I’d planned on posting pictures of some baby gifts (bibs and a hooded towel) that I made for a friend’s baby shower.  But… I brilliantly forgot to take pictures before I gifted them!  So, no pictures.

I’m working right now (well, not right this second) on a Halloween costume for Miss Maddie.  She is going to be Snow White, and her daddy is going to be her Two Dorks.  He was going to be Seven Dorks, but it turned into two in her 4-year-old head.  It is quite the involved pattern!  Next year – ghost.  She’s short enough we wouldn’t even need a sheet – a pillowcase should do it, with two holes for eyes!  I’m sure I could probably figure out a way to make that overly complicated too.

I just realized I need to do some additional updating on my blog!  I haven’t touched “About Me”, my blogroll, things to read – anything, really – in months.  I also need to upgrade, change my theme, update all of my little “social networking” profiles.  I’m even worse at those than I am at keeping up with a blog.  Ah, my work just never ends… 😀

Love to all!

I don’t know how easy this is to read, but I learned something new, fascinating, and rather terrifying today from my Get Fuzzy calendar:

“The oldest dog reliably recorded was Bluey, an Australian Cattle Dog who lived for 29 years and 5 months – almost 20 of those years spent at work.“

Miss Tillie is an Australian Cattle Dog.  Do you know how old I’ll be if SHE lives that long?!  (Let’s pretend and say I’d be 50.)  Do you think they’ll let me take her to the retirement home?

Tina bought Lady a new bed the other day – one of these cute little $10.00 deals from Wal-Greens.  The theory was that the hardwood floors are tough on such a big dog’s joints, and having her own bed would keep her from sleeping on the sofa (after everyone else is in bed – oh yes, she thinks she is sneaky).  She put it in the hall by her room, since Lady does sometimes like to hang out there.  Instead of Lady using it at night, we have this:

At least they’re sharing, I suppose!  Instead of hanging out with the people in the living room (or in their happy spot under the piano bench), Grover & Tillie spent the whole evening yesterday sleeping on their new-found treasure.

Here’s a picture of Mom recovering from her Breckenridge Oktoberfest adventures.  I didn’t get a pic of her carrying the liter-size mugs, 5 in each hand, though…

Thanks to Josh (Tina’s nephew) for picking up the apron.  Dad wanted a picture of one of these, and this way I didn’t have to stop a random stranger in the street to see if I could take a picture of her (or his!) cleavage.  Mom was quite a big hit at the other shops in town, though.  I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard someone tell my mom “Nice cleavage, lady!”  🙂 

Fortunately, the weather the last couple of days has been GORGEOUS.  Unlike the first day, when Tina & Josh had to (oh yes, HAD TO) golf in “hail, wind, rain, snow, and sun,” all in the space of 9 holes.  Gotta love Colorado weather.  Especially in the mountains.  In the fall.  “If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.  It’ll change!”  Don’t they say that about Wyoming, too?  Anyway – it has been fun wandering the street party they have going on here – the people watching (and listening!) has been entertaining!

In other news, I’m “twittering” now.  More ways for me to update people on the truly fascinating adventures of my life.  So far, I think I’ve posted three things.  Pretty exciting stuff.  We’ll see if get any more active with that game.  Most of what I would ever post is… “At work.”  “Driving home from work.”  “Driving to work.  Stop at Starbucks or McDonald’s?”  “Mmmm, Starbucks…..”  In theory, I’d update that more often than the blog here, since I can even do it from my phone.  We’ll see.

Love to all!!

I was sitting in my cubicle today when my friend Linda came in to tell me about her walk back from another building.  Someone stopped her, FLIPPED OUT over something she’d seen on the other side of the pond – too scared, in fact, to even cross the bridge.  The frightening thing she saw?

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