Xmas Blizzard!

Gina and I took our annual trek to visit her family in Batesville Arkansas. We've had white Christmases in the past, but nothing at all like this one! I always got excited to see the snow fall and actually stick on the ground. But I never thought that I would witness an official blizzard!

Here's how I looked when it first started snowing about 3PM on Christmas Day. I was all decked out in the warm scarf, hat, and gloves that Denise gave me as a Christmas gift - good timing!

The next morning I made a foolish mistake by not getting fully dressed before I romped in the snow. I fell into a snow bank that went all the way up to my thighs! IT WAS FREEZING COLD!!!!!!!

It was so exciting to me to see actual tracks I made in the snow!

 
The prediction was 100% for snow on Xmas, with early estimates of 2"-3" but it turned out to be 15" in all! Plus a hard freeze that night (18 degrees!) and most of the state lost power. Fortunately we didn't. Stayed an extra day to let the snow plows do their work on the streets while we stayed indoors warm and toasty.


This is how Gina's Mom's back yard looked from multiple angles on 12/27.

 And here's what it looked like from the front and side of her house. 
 
 
 
 

 
 Just like a picture postcard!
 

Snow plows came and cleared the streets, but you can see that many cars still had a LOT of snow on them!
 


 Unfortunately, I had no idea how to drive in the snow and got us stuck in the driveway! We had to call a tow truck to get us out so we could get to the street and back home. How embarrassing!

Eye Has Healed and Halloween Dog Costumes

First 48 hours was crucial for healing. Now it's just a matter of time (as Visine would advertise) to get the red out!

As you can see, my dogs were thrilled when I showed them their new Halloween costumes.

Here's Porch Boy, the Lil Taco from all sides.

He really did hate wearing the hat!

Tater was a convincing stegosaur, but she kept tripping on the legs which were just too long for her short little weenie dog legs.

And the whole T-Rex outfit was too small for Trip. He reminds me of that weird character that Kristin Wiig played on SNL with the tiny little hands.

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!! My Eye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

11:15 pm Wednesday night. In bed with the dogs, when one of the little wild rabbits that inhabit our neighborhood hopped into our front lawn. The dogs, of course, went berserk with excitement. One of them (not sure which one since I was awakened by the barking) ran across my face in his/her efforts at a better look at Peter Cottontail. An errant paw scratched my eye!

Needless to say, it totally freaked me out. Gina rushed me to the ER and I was there until 2AM. Will be going to Berkeley Eye Center this morning for follow up. Have to use antibiotic drops every 2 hours and ER doc gave me Vicodin for the pain. Here's another shot of the eye with me pulling down on my cheek and opening wide. OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Videos from 2012 Root Reunion

Sorry this one is crooked. I didn't realize my new camera wouldn't compensate for me holding it vertically.

Isn't it just too cute the way Kaden says the town we were in?

This next one is two cutie-patootie and rather patriotically clad ghosts!

Finally, here's the birthday girl with her 'booty'!

TATER WINS!

I entered Tater in the Dachshund Rescue of Houston Weiner Dog races, and she won 3 races to make it into the final championship race! Here's what the starting booth looked like.

They had bandanas for all the racers and you matched the color to the slot for your dog. This was very much a do-it-yourself deal. Not like Buda at all!

The rules I received prior to the race said one owner was to be at the starting gate and one was to stand at the finish line. Since Gina went hiking instead of with us, I was very grateful to Kelly for coming to be the starting gate owner. Kelly is the woman who runs the rescue group who gave us Tater, so she was her owner! Here they are - and you can see that Tater was in the first racing lane with her orange color bandana.

Kelly had a flat tire on the way to the races and another on the way home! But she made it on time to be the chute owner on the first race. I asked the guy who was at one of the vendor booths to take the videos. The very first race found Tater a bit too eager to start!

I got the guy to come down toward the finish line for the re-start of the race. And as you can see, TATER WON!

Tater dominated the next 2 races as well. Nothing could stop my little girl! But by the time we got to these races, it was getting loosey-goosey with the rules. You can see the people were running along with the dogs (and messing up our video!) Kelly took these videos as she was no longer required to stand at the starting gate.

But when she made it to the championship race, someone distracted her in the starting chute. Right before they raised the doors, she turned completely around and was looking behind her. She never had a chance.

Still, it was a lot of fun. And we did get into the championship photo, even if we didn't get one of the nice gift baskets like the other 3 did. My little Tater was also the cutest one of all!

When we got back home I let her kill the little stuffed toy I'd used to entice her in the race. Once she finished it off, she was wiped out from her busy, busy, busy day!

Cat Pictures

I just received my new Kodak digital camera and plan to figure it out this holiday weekend. Thought I would go ahead and post photos that I had from my old camera that I just never got around to posting. Enjoy!

Zip and Code cuddling in the Mega Spiral

Poor Stamp had to cuddle with the post on the nearby cat tree

 Zip really knows how to s-t-r-e-t-c-h on that cat tree, huh?

Here's an oldie but goodie - Gina and Timitu

And this was one of many Xmas shots that our friend Debbie Chapman took last year.

Tater - Not the Big Winner I'd Hoped

Well, at least we tried. You'll see in the video how the official kept pushing me back and blocking Tater's view of me. By the time the race started she had no idea where I was. Still she came in 4th place.