We're getting hopeful

It's been a week since we have seen snow, the forecast for the coming week gives us temperatures on the plus side some even into the double digits. We are beginning to think that we may survive winter after all. We can see more and more of our flagpole, the front lights are beginning to show and we can see the almost a foot of the side window on the garage.

Odo's surgery went well, he is now wearing a gigantic wrap-around bandage to keep the pressure on his stitches and he is almost back to being his normal self. We'll see how it goes but we are always relieved when he comes through, surgery is always risky but there was no acceptable alternative to dealing with this particular cyst. Keeping Jake off of Odo's back during the last couple of days has been a chore. Loki has been very understanding for the most part. Jake continues to grow at an exponential rate and has really outgrown the bowl we use for feeding the dogs, his daily intake is way more than his brothers so we are going to have to get him a bigger bowl or feed him three times a day which won't go over well with his brothers.

We are all looking forward to having the fence line back to its normal state so that we can use the new dog door. Putting three dogs out manually throughout the day is a royal pain. If I haven't mentioned it before, I will now, stay away from High-Tech pets electronic dog door(hitecpet), we had nothing but trouble with the dog collars and when that wasn't a big enough hassle the door itself became possessed, opening and closing all by itself, to the point we had to shut it down. The companies answer to our problem was to ship them back the door...that's right...remove the door from the wall, pack it up and ship it back. Needless to say we were not impressed. E-mails to the president of the company, who apparently welcomes emails, did not return any of ours. Needless to say, we are not happy customers and will be more than happy to chat with any other dissatisfied customers or potential customers if they want our opinions of this product.

Musical Hops

Funny how American Idol can spark your curiosity about music. David Archuleta sang a song the other night; "You're the Voice", which I had not hear before. Turns out that it was made popular by an Australian singer John Farnham, it has also been covered by Heart and others. Farnham also played Jesus, in the Australian production of Jesus Christ Superstar. So now I have three versions of this song on the ol 'puter, and a new musician to explore. David Cook, also sang a version of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", that I had never heard before, which led me to that versions creator Chris Cornell. Even though American Idol is an overhyped reality show, it does have unexpected benefits, such as this. If you want to hear the songs, I have included their links here: You're the Voice and Billie Jean Admitting to liking American Idol is akin to admitting you like Abba but what the heck, I'm retired, I'll do what I want :)

Here we go again

They're predicting yet another 20 to 30 cms of snow thursday and friday. Just when we thought it might finally be over, apparently not. It could be worse, we could be getting 50 cms like Newfoundland did so I am really only complaining a little. Jake is growing by leaps and bounds and now weighs almost 25 pounds. I got a couple of snaps of him looking regal and aloof on his mountain of snow but of course that is all bravado, he likes to know where his brothers or Lynn and I are. He is doing well in the housebreaking, he has learned on his own to use the dog door and has now taught his brothers how to use it. Now we have to keep the bathroom door closed otherwise they will escape until the snow has melted enough that the fence can keep them in. Jake is also getting good with his commands, sit, down, come are all excellent, "watch me' works most of the time, he is figuring out upstairs and downstairs, up and off but is still particularly stubborn with "no".

Snow n Dogs Part 2

Snow n Dog n Puppy pics

An assortment of pictures showing our snow and our dogs.

Two weeks until Spring

I find myself having the strangest fantasies lately, no, not those kinds of fantasies, the kind where the sun is shining, birds are singing and most importantly the snow is going, going gone. However, reality intrudes heavily on most fantasies and here we have been digging out of yet another snowfall of 45 cms which came only a few days after the last snowfall of 35 cms and a few days earlier as you can tell by the blog another snowfall. It just doesn’t seem to stop. The snow is over the top of the six foot chain link fence surrounding our property and obviously over the five footer at the front of the property. Lynn has been digging along the fenceline like a whirly dervish trying to keep the snow below the fence. Odo and Loki however, have been like the characters in the Great Escape and have been jumping the fence and visiting the neighbors, much to ours and their surprise. The mountains of snow surrounding us are simply amazing, I have thrown in some pictures for you to peruse. As you can see the top of the backyard fireplace is almost gone in one picture, one of the front driveway lights has disappeared and the other isn’t far behind. Jake has been happily exploring this winter wonderland, his brothers have been teaching him how to properly climb mountains of snow, where to pee, how to burrow in the snow and he is taking to it like a champ. He’s over 21 pounds now and if we let him eat what he wants to he’d be over 50 for sure

It’s nice to see that the folks back in Alberta have had it pretty easy so far this winter, we saw pictures of Calgarians playing golf last night on the news...ah life in Shangri-la. Actually, I think that I am in the land of many wonders, I just wonder when I’m going to be able to see them again, Spring is around the corner, so they say but we have another 10 inches of snow coming, and that makes seeing what’s around the corner that much more difficult!

Well, back to the grind, oh wait, no grind, just shovelling...heh heh...

Podcast software

If you are interested in watching podcasts, and who isn’t? Then you will really like this program. Nimiq, a simple install, imports your old podcast feeds if you have any and efficiently gets your new podcasts for you. Give it a try, it’s free and well supported by its authors.