Lazy Sunday

Happy Monday.  Or not.  Yesterday was a fantastic day.  I got to wear flannel, hang out with my dogs and my mom, and I saw some friends I hadn't seen in forever.  There is just something about Sundays that makes me lazy.  The dogs were even lazy, which is not unusual for Penny, but Sniper was lethargic, too.  Weird.  

Seriously, she didn't even move when I sat on the floor.  Usually she knocks me over and licks my face.  She did do that later to my friend Katie, but I decided not to share Katie's humiliation.  It was hilarious, though.

She snores.  Seriously, SNORES.  I can't sleep with her in the room, she snores so loudly.

Sorry for waking you, Sniper.  Stop licking my friends in the mouth.  It's gross.

She did move to wedge herself between the couches.  I guess it was cozy or something.

Penny was pretty lazy again, even when she wanted to look outside.  She likes to bark at birds and small children that walk in front of our house.  It's a bad habit we never cured her of.  Yet another reason mom is moving to a house with an actual yard and no neighbors.

She's clearly excited about something.  Her eyes are open.  Don't mind the dirty window.  It's just nose-prints from the pups.

Lazy.  Until she noticed my camera was reflecting on the floor.  Then she perked right up and I had to leave I was laughing so hard.

This was about as alert as she got, though.  She lifted her head once or twice, but still super lazy.  You're an awesome dog, but sometimes your wrinkles make you look dumb.  Just sayin'.

I hope your lazy Sunday adequately prepared you for the week!

-Erika

Signs of Spring

Well, it's too soon to be sure the snow is done for the season, but there are some definite signs of Spring hanging around.  Most of the snow is melted, leaving everything muddy or swampy.  My dogs love to share the mud with my jeans.  I think mud-brown is in this season, as far as accessories go.  

I decided to take a walk with the pups, but I couldn't find Sniper.  I'm sure she was up in the neighbor's shed.  Penny was being helpful while I looked for the little one.  After about 30 seconds of looking for Sniper, Penny needed a break.

Standing up is hard work, I guess.  

I wanted to see if I could get out of the yard without the dogs noticing, so I climbed over the fence and went up on the deck.  They objected to this maltreatment.  Loudly.  Seriously, Sniper barked and whined and tried to jump over the fence.  When this failed, she tried to crawl under the fence.  This also failed, since we anticipated her escapism and built the fence close to the ground.

Sorry, pup.  I didn't want to open the gate.  I can't reach the latch on the outside.  Also, you're cute when you're needy.

Ok, so Penny didn't exactly object to being alone in the yard with that annoying dog.  She just looked confused, which is her usual state.  She's either confused or asleep.

After I messed with the pups I realized that Spring is actually trying fiercely to break out into the world.  There are actual green plants!

I like the pine trees we have.  They're great opportunities for pictures.  They're kinda bare right now, but they're still amazing.

The other trees in the yard are starkly beautiful.  I'm going to climb this tree tomorrow morning, I think.  Sometimes the absence of leaves is just as wonderful as a tree full of 'em.

I don't know what this tree is, but it has pretty red berries.  It's the only tree with any real color on it right now, too.

My mom sent me downstairs to put away some construction thing in the cellar.  It will eventually be a wine cellar, but it's full of paint cans, tools, and other construction-type things that I have no idea what they are or do. 

This is the only hint to the cellar's real purpose, and it's empty.  Empty is the usual state of bottles of wine in our house.  

Winter has been too long, yo.

-Erika

Swamp Thing

Here's a quick update on the flooding.  

The soccer field is no longer a part of the river, but there is still standing water on it.  

The little island is visible now.  Yesterday only the trees were above water.  The bike path is visible now, too, but the river is right at its edge.  

Other than the river, my day has been full of canines and coffee.  I'm slowly acclimating myself to dark roast coffee instead of super sugary things that make me twitch, like lattes.  Enough about coffee, though.  I like puppies more.

This dog is hilarious.  Trixie can't sit still.  I had to bribe her with a stick to make her stay in one spot long enough to take a non-blurry picture of her.  I have a lot of pictures of her tail and the back of her head.  I think she has something wrong with her jowls, too.  

After my encounter with Trixie I went to my mom's to let the dogs out.  Her backyard is a swamp.

This is actually her yard.  It's covered in leaves, water, mud, snow, ice, and who knows what else.  It's kinda smelly, and I can't wait for the ducks to move in.  Yes, I let the dogs run around in this mess and then let them back in the house.  Sometimes I'm a horrible daughter.  I'll make it up to her sometime in April.

Penny actually had some energy today.  I got the dogs riled up so they would actually go outside instead of looking at me with a "you've got to be kidding me" look.  The only way to get them to go outside is to mention squirrels or rabbits.  I forgot that this usually leads to the dogs staring at the tree for like 10 minutes before they figure out that there are no squirrels and rabbits can't climb trees.  

Sniper thinks she can climb trees though.  I think she could if the tree wasn't so huge.  She's ridiculous.  

I got cold watching them, so I told them to get back inside.  Usually they jump up on the couch to take a nap. Not today.  Today they decided to be UFC fighters.  

Both of them started it, too.  Usually it's Sniper biting Penny's feet until Penny decides to put the hurt on her.

They're having fun, and I had nothing to do with this.  I did have to curl up in my chair so they wouldn't knock me over, though.

They still ran in to the chair.  No collateral damage occurred, but I do have fur all over me now.

After they settled down, Penny couldn't get close enough to me.  However, she still wouldn't look at me.  She's clearly judging me for making weird noises to get her to turn around.  Whatever, dog.  

Oh, wait.

She is looking at me.  Except I was petting her.  That's when she loves me.  The rest of the time she is aloof.  And I shouldn't take pictures with my left hand.  It doesn't work well.  

This one is a little better.  I love this dog.

This one, too, if she weren't looking at me like I'm dinner.  Yes, this is a half a second before she pounced on me.  She also doesn't sit still at all.  

Happy Soggy Spring!

-Erika

Water Water Everywhere!

It is March 23rd.  It has been raining for four days, and the rain turned to snow early this morning.  Fantastic.  This is unacceptable.  I planned on moving some things from my mom's house to her new house, because I'm a good daughter or something.  I wasn't sure if I should (ok, wanted to) move stuff in the slush.  I'm a klutz and would probably fall down and drop everything several times, but I did it anyway.

This is the view from my car.  Snow, slush, and my windshield wipers were a slightly stuck to the car.  Whoops.

The snow actually is really pretty, when it isn't March and everything is soggy and gross.  Oh yeah, I have a hula-girl on my dash.  She has a hat and a cape now.  

Sniper didn't mind the snow at all.  She followed me in and out of the house on the several trips I made moving things into my car.  

This one, however, was having nothing to do with the snow.  She just looked at me (yeah!  Way to go, Penny!  I didn't even have to make a fool of myself to get you to look at me!) and wondered when I would pet her.  

  

This was not the dresser I moved.  I can't move this dresser by myself, and I wouldn't even if I could.  It is evil.  EVIL.  When I was a senior in high school, this dresser decided I no longer needed a toenail on my big toe.  Yeah.  That kind of evil.  My dad was called home from work, I went to the hospital, saw a podiatrist (because the ER was too busy, we just made an appointment), and learned how to soak my foot properly for 8 weeks.  Oh yeah, this trauma happened about 2 weeks before prom.  I hate this dresser.  And it's ugly.  

This little girl was waiting for me when I got to my mom's new house.  Her name is Trixie, but apparently it should be Houdini.  She's my aunt and uncle's dog, who were over installing the hardwood floor in the living room.  It's looking good!  

On my way home, I noticed that the river was a little higher than it was on my way to my mom's.  A lot higher.  The path I walked on last Friday is now completely under water.  Probably 3 feet of water.  

Here's the river today.  This is not good.

The path is on the left side and is usually visible from the parking lot where I was standing.

Yep.  No more path.  Just water.

This is usually a soccer field.  Now it is part of the river.  I can't imagine how this would look if there was no flood control in Rochester.  

See you after I dry out!

-Erika

Spring is here!

Well I think Spring is finally here.  It's raining, and the snow is mostly gone.  The grass is still that ugly shade of green-brown with some road sand mixed in for something different.  Yuck.  

I went for a walk yesterday with the dogs.  It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and the empty field next to the house was begging to be explored.  I left with the dogs, who were excited to get out of the yard.  Sniper was jumping all over me, and Penny actually got up from her spot by the door.  That's excited for the big one. 

They took off across the field, smelling everything they could and generally ignoring me.  I tried to get them to look at me, which if the neighbor had been home would have been slightly embarrassing.  

I might have been talking to the dogs the entire time.  Might have been, but then I also have been trying not to sink in the snow.  Sometimes I get too excited for Spring, and I forget that snow is cold.  I end up wearing not-so-weather-appropriate clothes and shoes for what I'm doing, and I end up doing something like this:

Stupid.  Yeah, that snow is now large ice crystals instead of snowflakes.  Ice hurts when it scrapes your legs. Whoops.  It reminded me of walking on a giant snow-cone.  

The dogs were really interested in ignoring me and finding imaginary rabbits and woodchucks.  I swear they didn't even know I was there even when I was standing right next to them.  

She's frustrating when she's ignoring me.  Penny!  Look at me!  I promise I won't take your picture since you clearly hate it.  She's slightly passive-aggressive.

Sniper, on the other hand, is just crazy.  I think she got stuck under this tree for a while, so I took pictures instead of trying to help her.  Whatever, she knocked me over when I opened the gate to let her out that morning.  

I didn't know there was a sand dune next door until yesterday, and we've been working on the house since November.  That sand was a pain to walk across.  I'm not very coordinated normally, but put me on sand and I can barely walk upright.   

The dogs didn't even seem to notice.  They just found some more snow to run across and eat.  

It's a giant doggie snow-cone!  They seemed to enjoy eating the snow I was trying (and failing) to not sink into.

We got back to the house and I found this in the yard:

It's a leftover from the previous owners, and it was whole when we moved in.  Sniper found it and is slowly demolishing it.  She also found a two-liter bottle of RC Cola.  Usually we give her empty bottles to play with and destroy, so she saw this one in the snow and decided it was hers.  (Note to my mom: don't put things in the snow if you don't want Sniper to eat them)  She discovered the joys of carbonated beverages.  

It's no surprise she was hyper when I came over.  That bottle was mostly full that morning!

Penny just ignores that silly little dog's antics.  Clearly Penny is much more mature and intelligent than that little dog.  Or she's just lazy.  You decide.

Happy Spring!

-Erika

P.S.  This is what happens when you use a saw in your brand-new kitchen.  It throws pieces of wood into the ceiling.

The First Robin of Spring?

Well, I thought it was Spring.  I took my new shoes on a walk this morning, and it was kinda ok.  I definitely should have remembered to, I don't know, go outside before I decide I don't need gloves in March.  I did see a robin, though.  It was standing on this little stump, looking all smug at being the only robin amidst a flock of chickadees.  Of course, since I'm not the quietest or sneakiest of people, I failed to get a picture of the robin before I scared it away.  I'm awesome like that.  I think it was taunting me, because I heard it behind me the entire time I was walking.  Good for you, robin.  You succeeded in making me just a bit more aware in the morning.

This is the stump.  Just imagine it with a smug little robin on it.

Trails by the river are not maintained in the winter!  I walked anyway, since there was no snow left and the trees blocked the wind.  It's windy today, folks!

Yeah, not maintained.  Also, this trail was under like six feet of water in the fall.  There's still debris on it from the massive flooding SE Minnesota suffered through in September and October.

Yeah, it's kinda messy.  I didn't mind, since there were no other people on it.  I'm claiming that's from the messy trail, not the sheer idiocy of being outside, freezing your fingers off, for fun in the morning.  I'll learn one of these days.

There's GREEN poking through all the flood-nastiness!  Sure, it's minimal, but it's just the hint of Spring that makes the freezing fingers worthwhile.  

And then there's the remnants left on the trees from the flood.  Still hanging in there in March.  Oh, yeah, the top of the crap on the tree was at least a foot over my head.  I'm 5'7".  The bottom of the tree is three feet above the river level right now.  I forgot how bad the flooding was last fall.  Here's to more in April!

The river is already super high, and there's still snow to melt and rain to fall in the next couple of days.  Did I mention how much I love (loathe) Spring in Minnesota?  

In spite of the cold and my own stupidity, my morning walk was fantastic.  I'm excited for this weekend when I actually have time to spend outside.  This Spring is going to rival last Spring's epic hikes through Ireland.  I hope, anyway.  

How's your Spring looking so far?  

-Erika