July 2, 2012 - Lazy(ish) Day

After driving over 1500 miles in less than two days, with little sleep, we didn’t do a whole lot on the 2nd.

You may have heard about the massive and destructive storms that hit the Washington DC area. (You also may have forgotten about them by now.) We were there just after those. Luckily, the friends we were staying with had their power restored just before we arrived, though a lot of people weren’t so lucky, and were without it for days longer.

We slept pretty late, and then hung around the house for a while. I found this cute little bug flying around the house:

I know I found some of these guys when we were there a couple years ago, and I think they were called grapevine beetles, or something like that. They’re related to June Bugs, but bigger and a little more interesting looking.

And we spent time with the dogs:

This is Orion, one of their two dogs. He's a super sweetheart.

And here are all three dogs waiting at the door. Orion, Raki, and Cy. I like this picture of them.

We spent some of the day driving around, and some of the day sitting in a Starbucks enjoying their AC and wifi. I’d be content to just drive around for a long while out there… It’s shocking to me how green everything is. It’s beautiful.

Later that evening, Alex and I went riding. It was pretty late though, so it got dark before we got to do much. I rode Bebe, who is… a cylinder. Seriously chunky horse, haha. My hips and inner thighs were feeling it for days. The saddle I was using also kept slipping me to the left.

Del got this one picture of me on her, and you can see the moon rising behind me. It was a little dark, so the picture isn’t super great, but I like it anyway. And Alex rode Lasair, though we didn’t get a picture of them.

After that, we just spent time around the house.

One of the cats, Electa, came up to me this time, which surprised me. She was disinterested in me last time.

This is a better picture of their new dog, Raki. He’s a “border-hound” they think; border collie and unspecified hound. He’s also super obnoxious and attention seeking, but sweet.

The moon was either full or near-full:

And this is what happens when you try to use my camera’s lowlight setting without a tripod:

This is a little exaggerated, but yeah... I need a tripod.

As always when I get to stay someplace at least sort of rural, I love checking out the bugs that come to visit the light at night. We didn’t get any super astounding visitors, but we still had a few worthwhile guests.

My little grapevine beetle (or one like him) came back to visit.

And this cute little stripey moth.

And then once we got inside, we found this guy patrolling outside our door:

I love praying mantises.

And Cy always has the ability to act long-suffering and exhausted, even when he’s gotten to spend the whole day doing nothing.

Alex was tired, too.

Sleepy dog.

I was a little sad that we didn’t do more this day, since we had so little time to spend there, but I think it was for the best. I think we would have been too tired to really enjoy doing anything too involved. But starting the 3rd, we were a lot busier each day!

February 3rd: It's snowing! Again!

This time around, local news is making a Big Deal out of the snow. I'm not really sure why... it's a pretty big storm, and it's dropped a lot of snow and hasn't stopped yet, but... well, it's winter in Colorado. And it's not like we've gotten six feet or something.

But still, it's quite a bit:

Our back patio.

And OH YEAH. The other main news that's tangentially related to this blog: we got another dog! Chai, the husky, is really my dad's dog, and will probably eventually move back in with him. But Alex and I recently adopted a pit bull from a local shelter. His name is Cyanide. (Because pit bulls are so deadly! Get it?) And he's super sweet.

This is Cyanide.

He and Chai have had fun playing in the snow. These aren't the greatest pictures, as they're actually screengrabs from videos I took of them, but:

Play-bowing.

RACE TO THE DECK!

"You have snow on your nose."

Rearing dog!

And if you'd like to see the videos these were taken from, I'll stick them in below. It's just a pair of videos of the two running back and forth and playing.

Despite the media's claims, I don't think this is quite Snowpocalypse or Snowmaggedon. Still glad I had the day off from work, though. :P

December 22nd: Let it Snow

So we're coming to the tail end of the largest snowstorm we've had yet this season. At least it's coming rather seasonally right before Christmas? So hey, internet! Let me show you pictures of snow! And my dog! My dog in the snow!

We made the... questionable... choice to go meet some friends for dinner last night, despite the weather. Getting home afterwards was all kinds of exciting on the slick and untreated roads.

Reflections doing something odd with that light.

The flash shows how much snow was coming down.

Though the Christmas lights look very festive in the snow.
(The green and red window to the left is ours.)

And then we got up this morning:

The snow piled up around the back door.

This is how much snow we got, as viewed on our back patio.

The street in front of the house.

Alex's car. (Don't think we'll be going out today.) Fortunately I have another ride to work.

But at least Chai likes the snow.

Shovel it with your face, dog.

Playing snowplow.

And action shots as he runs!

These are my favorite shots:

 

And here's a video of him running:

October 26, 2011: And then it snowed

So my last post was in early October, at which point it had gotten rather suddenly cold. And I complained. We actually did get a light dusting of snow a couple days after that. But then it went back to really being very nice out, and we enjoyed a couple more weeks of pleasant temperatures. It was a nice fall, which is something we don't always get here.

And then it really snowed. I'm pretty sure it's the same storm system that's now assaulting the east coast, but it came through here and dumped a fair amount of snow on us. This is a lot of snow for us in October; the temperatures and snow in general aren't unheard of, but this is more than usual.

Click to embiggen pictures.

Our back deck area. And still snowing!

The neighbor's tree leaning over our fence (and the stupid little sumac we can't get rid of, which broke under the snow.)

The tree in the front. The branches aren't normally anywhere near the ground.

Those branches from underneath.

Our husky, Chai.

He looks a little terrified here, lol. He absolutely loves when it snows, though.

Chai expresses his love of snow by shoveling it. With his face.

And it's awesome.

We want him to make snow angels for us.

The snow has mostly melted, now, but is still clinging in the shadows. And we're supposed to get more next Wednesday. I can't wait. (Except it's that other thing, where I hate snow.)

I do have some nice pictures of the autumn color to post though, so I'll try and do that soon. :)