Forgotten Emails and Fond Memories

I was cleaning out a Yahoo Account of an accumulation of old emails and stumbled across some old cell phone photos that made me sigh and smile as I remember the 120 pound house pony (indoor pinto) of just a year and a half ago. They made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside I just had to share.

This was his furry little butts first night home adding to our menagerie. If we only knew...

 Here we were just getting home from his first vet visit due to a GI infection and subsequent dehydration. This would have been his 3rd day home had he not spent it all day at the vet getting IV fluids and anti-emetic drugs. This officially put his price over $1500. He has since cost me near $5000 in vet bills. He's so lucky he's such a lovable big ol' soul.

And then there's now...

And we can never forget his best friend and play buddy, The Smudge. God bless her furry little soul for keeping him entertained and in all sorts of trouble.

Everyday these critters remind me to slow down, rub a butt and don't forget to let everyone k ow I'm not to busy to show a little affection. That's only one of the gifts my animals give back.

Small Steps, Frustratingly Small But Steps Just The Same

Ta Da!!!

The best yet. Despite it being a shorter staple fiber I returned to the brown fiber that came with the wheel (I was out of the peruvian highland wool) and concentrated on keeping it as smooth as possible. And it worked to a degree. The above is what I spun up yesterday and proceeded to ply it. The better quality first spin along with how firmly I spun it allowed the ply to go much better. It's even better than the white peruvian wool I had worked up the day prior. It's still not where I want to be, but a solid week into my playing with the wheel again I can't complain. It's a perfectly workable yarn, and wonderfully soft after the wash to set the twist. And even better, after I washed it, it didn't twist in on itself! Which means it's also the most balanced yarn I've made to date.

I even have a plan for this 75yards of wonderfulness. As I was spinning it up, a darker strand of color started to appear. The darker fibers were a bit longer than the lighter and stayed near the core of the yarn as the lighter fibers fluffed around them giving it a little bit of extra character and reminding me of something. There is a beautiful brown standard poodle that I occasionally share a morning walk with him, his sister and human mom with that is almost this exact hue and color combination. Brown poodles as they age go kind of brown/silver and the more I play with this yarn, the more it looks just like Jonah. And before you get ideas of the big poof ball haircut, I have to tell you his owner has taste and keeps her kids trimmed in a short single length coat. And this is a BIG poodle. He's big boned and tall, and with his little mustache of sorts kind of distinguished looking. But don't worry, I won't be getting a poodle of any size.

As chance would have it, Jonah's moms birthday is approaching and being the big 70 they are planning on having a surprise birthday party where you bring things of 70 or the date. I'm thinking a present with 70 yards of Jonah colored yarn will be fantastic. Any ideas? She's a very young 70. If I hadn't had been told which birthday this was I would have gone a decade younger, and that's only due to her being retired from her original job. Now she fly's all over the country doing education consultations. So much for enjoying her retirement by playing with her art crafts, eh?


As for the rose colored yarn I had dyed up for my nieces 8th birthday, I combined it with the previous yarn I had made from the brown fiber to make this.

She's a bit of a girly girl, and has outgrown the hat I made for her last year for Christmas. I think she's going to like it. I'm considering getting her an IPod for her birthday as well. In fact, I was considering IPod's for her and both her older brothers for all their birthdays this year. They're all starting to form their listening preferences and I figure Mom and Dad would probably enjoy their kids growing music interests a little more if they had headphones. It would also make Christmas a little easier with Apple ITunes gift cards. Does that make me a bad uncle?

Well, I guess I'm going to go up and get the spinning wheel and pull it downstairs so I can get a couple of hours of spinning in before bed. I return to work tomorrow night so this is my back to night shift flip around night. Really, it's just an excuse to play with yarn while listening to an audiobook on my own IPod in the man-cave downstairs. If man-caves have sewing machines, ball winders, yarn swifts as well as the flat screen TV exercise equipment and what not. It's an eclectic man-cave.

Plying Troubled Waters

Well, just plying troubles... I need help, so any spinners out there feel free to share insights. I know a lot of it has to do with experience which I don't have. Yesterday I finished spinning up the "Tye-Dye" fiber and tried plying. Yep, that's right, I tried.

I know part of my trouble may be due to the bit of felting this roving had done in the dying process, but I truly doubt it. Mainly as I began plying I had trouble with the pre-spun fiber just shredding apart in places. Very frustrating as I tried to reconnect the torn fibers and continue. In my frustration I started treading the wheel faster and faster and I found that it actually helped keep my plying a little more firm.

So I tried once more. I took the last of my bare roving, broke it up and spun it up as consistently firm as I can manage... again, I know my consistency will get better with more time and practice. Well, I hope it will. Though, I was fairly happy with the end results.

It was probably the most consistent and high quality spinning I've done to date.

Then this morning after much balking, I decided to try plying once again. Mainly I was afraid of ruining the best spinning experience I have had thus far. But, I bucked up and got to it.

I know this shouldn't surprise me, but my plying with more consistently spun fiber gave me more consistent plying results. Still, not the quality I want, but it was better. I'm hoping I'm getting better. I didn't shred wither of my bobbins once and ended up the nicest yet of my skeins.

And there wasn't ANY cussing! I swear! The poor dogs didn't have to run for cover once! And the guy didn't make snide comments regarding relaxing past times.

Not that the cat ever worries much over my outbursts. Or much of anything for that matter.

It still has it's trouble spots and I would appreciate any tips. In fact I plan on contacting a local who offered me assistance here to at least watch her technique and see what I can glean from her.

As for the household illnesses, Sullivan seems a bit perkier this morning, but still hacking now and then and not quite back to normal.

And last nights dinner was quite delicious. I'm looking forward to my leftovers for lunch.

Cold Winds Require Warm Hobbies

And the Wyoming Winds have returned with more gusto than ever. Last week they swept into the Casper area with a small yet beautiful break Thursday morning. Then they blew back in and brought a bit of rain and snow with them Saturday night. One must love horizontal precipitation no matter it's make-up when living in Wyoming. This morning as I took a hacking Great Dane to the vet I watched with dread as the wind whipped our snow into blowing clouds that struck with the bite of a hundred little frozen needles on the short dash from the parking lot to the waiting room. An hour later with antibiotics and a confirmed kennel cough diagnosis we went home long enough to vaccinate the other kids and take them out for a walk where we wouldn't run into other dogs before going to the grocery store to buy the ingredients to battle a winters cold with some home baked warmth. Nothing like homemade chicken pot pie to sooth the goose bumps. Especially with a sick boy friend and Great Dane in the house.

I found comfort from yesterday's breezy chill with continued practice in spinning and dying.

After the dyed skeins dried the color was easier to photograph. This picture is still a bit bright in the color. It's not quite a true wine but a bit rosier. It's actually quite a pretty color. I hope my niece who is a pink girly appreciates it. I fear it will be too dark for her, but I unfortunately don't care for true pink myself. That includes to knit with. I have about 60 yards of this stuff and a hoping it's enough for a simple hat for her. It's a bulky weight 2 ply yarn and I think I'll squeeze by with enough. Otherwise I'll have to spin a complimentary color to add to it. Let's face it, I won't be able to get this color again if I tried.

Today I plan on finishing up the fiber I started to work on before our nightly before bed walk with the critters last night. It's the fiber I took to last years MWK Rocky Mountain Retreat. Thank you Bradley for teaching me how to dye fiber even if I didn't use those skills again for six months.

This fiber was actually supposed to be a black, but the dye broke. And for those who aren't dyers, that means the dye broke down into the component colors that it was made up of to get the desired color. As you can see, a boyesenberry'ish pinky purple color and green were two of the color components that were involved. This fiber also felted a bit in the dying process due to us trying to get the color to take better, so it's been a lot of fun pre-drafting to try and get it to play nice. In other words, this is practice fiber. Just something for me to continue getting used to the drafting technique and will probably never get used unless someone falls in love with it's Tye-dye look and wants it.

As far as the actual spinning process I seem to almost have it and do really good for a bit, then I lose it. I end up with big whorls of fairly unspun fiber that then shreds when I go to ply it. But I do feel as though I'm slowly getting a little more consistency. And perhaps there's a bit less cussing involved... perhaps. Thank the knitting and fiber deities that dogs don't talk.

The Industry of a Sleepless Night

Friday Night/Saturday Morning was one of those nights wasted in tossing and turning. If it wasn't the guy snoring (and why does he have to cuddle up right next to my ear before starting in with the tonsil tango?), it was the 60+mph plus winds rattling the windows or the dear old girl doing her own snoring. It truly started Wednesday since I only slept to about one thirty in the afternoon and went in to work early at three and worked a 16hr night shift. I came home Thursday morning to walk the muttley crew before laying down for a nap that lasted about five hours. Then sleeping that night seemed to have thrown my entire sleep schedule off. Come Friday I slept only about thirty minutes between all the snorers and other distractions before getting up and wandering downstairs in and effort to not disturb the other members of the household.

While down in the pseudo man-cave I pulled out the spinning wheel. Yep, that thing I haven't touched since my one lesson last May. Why would I do such a thing to myself? I don't really know, but amazingly it went better than I expected.

I cleared off the one bobbin I've managed to fill and started again filling it with the "scrap" roving that I was given when I bought the wheel. Yes, it took me two hours and there was some frustration, and possibly a bit of cussing. Okay, there was some cussing, but I got one bobbin done. At that point it was breakfast time for the kids so I fed the monsters, took a shower in an effort to relax and tried the whole sleep thing again.

Notice the word tried. I dozed for another thirty minutes and gave up before pulling the spinning wheel up stairs and filling a second bobbin. And since I have only three bobbins, I figured I might as well look up a tutorial on plying and trying my luck there.

So, whatcha think? I realize I have some BIG tension issues in the drafting process, but it's my first true attempt at spinning and I'm quite proud of it. Even a bit smug.

So this morning, I decided to pull out some of my good bare Peruvian wool roving I ordered last summer and preceded to ignore. I have to say, it is much nicer to work with than the other stuff I was given and actually lets me spread my hands out and lean away from the wheel a bit. I may have even relaxed a bit while spinning, and in the process, I believe I'm hooked. Even now my hands are itching to get back to the wheel despite this mornings three hours at it. This afternoon I dug into the supply of Kool Aid that the guy keeps stashed away and dyed this mornings product.

Sorry, the picture sucks and makes this appear more brown than it truly is. It's more of a wonderfully dark rose color. I plan on knitting a hat for my nieces birthday out of it and hope it's going to continue my newest addiction. You see, I have a goal of utilizing my own spun and dyed yarns for at least a good chunk of my knitting within the next few years, and maybe down the road, most of my knitting.

So, this afternoon I will continue playing and hopefully improving. I know it's hard to tell from the pot of worms but I do have fewer tension issues with the bare roving and in the areas that are problematic, I know what I did wrong, which is the first step in fixing them and improving my end product.

Speaking of it being a new addiction, I will be trying to stay away from ordering more stuff. Yesterday I spent another hundred dollars on more fiber and a nicer niddy noddy. My Niddy Noddy came with the wheel and is just the little sample one that comes with new Ashford Wheels (my wheel was bought cheaply used). I would like to buy the jumbo flyer for my Ashford Kiwi wheel in the near future, but I have to budget that into my spending money. Maybe that's what the dogs will get me for my birthday this year...

Addictions are a bitch, but oh so fun.

Oh, and the poor Sullivan has a bit of a cold. So since he's feeling kinda cruddy, it's the perfect time to pester him like he does all of us.

A New Year, an Old Resolution

Last year I was asked if I could provide some knitted baby hats to one of the county hospitals in our area. I gladly said yes and dug through my stash to find baby hat acceptable remnant yarn and got to work with the goal of 5 hats a month. Well, I didn't hold up to that goal when push came to shove over holiday knitting time. Sorry, family and friends won out. But this month I decided to readdress my missing charity knitting time and pumped these ones out for the month of January.

I'm really quite happy with them. The yarn is left over from a knit picks kit that I purchased. It was for the tiddlywinks jacket and sweater. I really liked the jacket but could care less about the sweater so I used my remaining yarn for the hats. The jacket is for a soon to arrive nephew of my partners. The yarn is the same companies Comfy Fingering which is a 75% Pima Cotton and 25% Acrylic blend which is very nice once knit up. It makes a wonderfully soft product for baby skin.

As per my usual, the hats follow no particular design or pattern other than that which I can dream up as I knit. I just have a "grapefruit" sized head in mind as I find gauge, cast on, and go from there. Some are more successful than others, but each is unique. And I never fail to find a new way to do something. I just discovered with this batch a new way to do my decreases that I like the look of better.

It's nothing amazing, just a little something different that my K2tog decrease that I think gives the crown a little nicer finished look. But I find often on these projects that you know well and feel comfortable playing with that you find your favorite ways to do things.

So, with the new year, I'm going to once again strive to get a little more knitting done for others. Well, I regularly knit for others, but I'm going to focus on little ones that require a little extra warmth. And maybe, just maybe, some new parents may appreciate the work that went into a hat for their little ones baby memories.

How about you guys? Do you do any charity knitting and if so, please share.

A Return to the Baby Hat

It dawned on me the other day as I sat tediously knitting on the sweater sleeve that I had gray burnout. Not knitting burnout mind you, just gray. Don't get me wrong, I love gray. It's one of my favorite colors to wear, but I had knit two fairly substantial projects recently (a sweater and a pair of socks) in it, and my eyes were craving color. So, I returned to this.

This past year as some of you may recall, I took up the call for charity knitting. Well, this last fall with Christmas fast approaching I dove head first into knitting for the holidays and forgot all about my charity knitting. So, before the first month of the enw year is up, I have reinstated my minimum of 5 baby hats a month for one of the local county hospitals. I have more coming soon, I promise.

And Kim, thank you so much for taking these in for me. I appreciate it immensely.

The other night I pulled a yarn harlot. For all of you who don't know what I mean you can find her blog here. You see, I was expecting a friend to pick me up for a High School Choir concert and I realized that I did not want to drag the sweater there to work on so I quickly dug out some yarn, a set of size 2 needles and cast on the ribbing of a baby hat so I could work on it during the concert. The thought of sitting through the concert without my hands busy working on something was terrifying! I chuckled about it later when I realized what I had done.

I hope you are all doing well this week. I'll keep you posted later in the week when I finish up this set of shifts on.

Today While Surfing the Wonderful Digital Information Highway

Today while surfing the wonderful digital information highway, I stumbled across a disturbing yet inspiring discussion thread on ravelry. Of what spawned this thread can be found here.

Now, this discussion was taken up by mostly females that as far as I could see were Margaret's fans, and their gathering and defending her stand is what I found absolutely inspiring. I myself am a HUGE Margaret Cho fan and have been blessed to have seen her live twice and actually to have met her once. She is a Beautiful, Courageous, and Inspiring woman. And dammit, like all of us who have run into societies road blocks; entitled to her anger. I don't personally approve of her underwear choice for the tattoo flashing shot, but that's just my own personal fashion issues. Not that I'm a fashion maven of any form, they just look uncomfortable. I can't imagine a thong being as comfortable as they say, and it appears to have little bows attached by rivets along the sacrum. I can't imagine that feeling good sitting, but hey, that's not the point. The point is the lovely inkwork she wants to show off. My eye just got distracted as did my train of thought obviously.

What I found disturbing were the stories that were shared of family members and total strangers being complete twunts to others regarding their general appearance, weight, or facial structure. I'm not naive, I didn't grow up in a fashion that allowed that, but God Dammit people can be cruel Son's of Bitches. Now I will try to stop cussing to get my point across.

I by no means am a perfect person. Especially not in looks but what I want to focus on are my personality flaws. I can be mean, petty and just plain nasty at times. Usually, it takes prompting to bring that side of my personality out but occasionally I find that person a little to close to the surface for comfort. In my past, being the one to make someone not want to make eye contact after a verbal beating was a coping mechanism and at times a political play when dealing with bullies that were bigger than me. It did not always work and at times I had to physically defend myself, and I will admit that I went further than was absolutely necessary to make an example of someone more than once. As was just discussed last night, due to this I grew up being one of those people that though of only average height, bigger people don't necessarily intimidate me. Accordingly, it took me some time to realize that this "tool" was not always needed and could and very well should be put away most of the time. With that being said, after I had made that cognitive leap, when I was being such, it was with intention. My actions were typically thought out. But there were times from either exhaustion of just frustration that something mean and sometimes even cruel, would spill out. I am not what I would call a nice person, but am nicer than I used to be after quite a bit of introspection and recognition of who I want to be compared to who I was and am.

Now with a bit more of my personality explained, let me state some personal thoughts. Cruelty has it's place in the world. Sometimes you are unable to get a point through to someone elses head with out being a little cruel. Sometimes a situation has gotten to a point that you either can't de-esculate it without some cruelty, or you need to push it past the point of no return just to clear the air. My point is, cruelty should only be used with intention. It should never be used carelessly. Our words have weight that can physically hurt and we should be aware of this as we wield them and in cases where we must wield them we have to be willing to pay their price by making amends on the other side or accepting the harm they caused.

It broke my heart to read these stories of taunting from other kids, or worse, from ones own parents regarding their physical appearance or less than expected behaviors. Children are our responsibility, and as such we should raise them to up, and teach them to recognize their own beauty, not bury them in thoughts and words of hate and ugliness. I guess I always want to think the better of people and seeing this many people on this one site sharing such stories though inspiring as they find the truth, scares me in the volume of careless and needless cruelty to not only another person, but to a child that knows no other truth.

The point is, we all have our flaws, and we all have parts of us that have been harmed and maybe even broken by others. Sometimes it's so minor we don't even recognize it for what it is. Sometimes the damage is so drastic that others can see it just by looking at you. But we all have those hurts, bruises, cuts and gashes on our souls. Every single damn one of us. Here's to finding the a way to fix what needs to be broken, shining the tarnished spots, and learning to let the parts that maybe be flawed yet make us who we are shine in all we do and say.

I read as many of these postings as possible, but won't be able to read the entire thread. I simply won't have the time, or the heart. But I wanted to respond to the discussion, and to Margaret Cho's comment makers and her response as a whole. So here it is... Remember, each and every one of us is beautiful if only we would truly open our eyes and see it. I swear, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. If you can't see it yourself, let others see it and tell you. But more importantly, remember that those around us are beautiful to, you just have to allow yourself to see it and don't let careless words or actions trample on it.

Meet Neville

Isn't he cute? It's good that he's cute, because he's insane. Not insane as in he'll trip you up and eat your heart out as you thrash to get free of the leash. It's that, I'm a puppy and the world is an amazing place and I have sniff, chew or play with EVERYTHING kind of insane. And although it can be downright amusing to watch him explore his world, he also makes you want to throttle that darling little neck of his until his eyes go buggy and he goes limp, even if only for a few heart beats.

Neville is an older (I hate to say old, although she is up there in age she in my mind is quiet young) friend of mine's newest hand-me-down dog. You see, my truly sweet friend never intentionally goes out looking for an animal, but she always seems to inherit a troublesome critter somehow. Since I've known her she has had 2 cats that have now departed to kitty heaven, an ancient schipperke that has had both eyes removed due to infection yet rules the house, a neurotic yet sweet schnauzer that is as crazy as she is cute, and now Neville. Not a one has she purchased or adopted of her own accord. God Bless Her...

This dashing young lad is a 5 month old Decker Terrier. A What? I hear you ask. A Decker terrier. From what I have been able to find, that is basically a giant rat terrier hybrid. He actually makes me think of a kelpie in many of his mannerisms.

Yesterday we began the process at the request of my friend of finding out where we were in the world of training this fella. And we're at ground zero let me tell you. My God does this little monster have spunk and attitude to spare. But, by the end of today which was him and his new Mom's first true lesson day we had this little bugger healing, sitting on command and waiting with his butt on the ground (that was the biggest challenge) for a treat, and settling (belly to the floor) and the beginning's of the "leave it" command started. As I was giving homework assignments for the next two weeks, he crashed in the dining room and had to be bodily moved from the walk way. All in all, there's hope out there for young master Neville.

With that, anther training session, and seeing the sunrise with my own kids on our morning walk and then our before dinner walk, I think I may have blisters. I should by one of those pedometers for days like this just to see how far I end up going. So now I sit here in my chair as I tell you of my day with a fire in the hearth and awaiting the forecasted snow.

The Grand Dame is in her spot.

The boys have been run ragged, or so they will tell you for the next hour or so. I only wish I recharged that fast.

And we are all being regally ignored in style. And I think they're all tired of me playing with the camera, but darn they're getting good at staying when told so I can set up the picture in the dim living room light.

The last couple morning's here have been absolutely beautiful. Yesterday we even saw the muskrat on the river but of course, I didn't have my camera. I took it in hopes of a second siting this morning, but no luck. The sky and waterfowl were abundantly available for photographs.

 

One of these kids is not like the other ones

I found it someone humorous that as I was setting up the last of these photos, I failed to notice the owl in the tree in the background until after I had taken the shot. When I tried to get closer though he decided he'd had enough of my nosing around and took to the wing. I also had dismal luck trying to get good pictures of the golden eyes. They are just to skittish in comparison to the geese and I didn't have a big enough lens for their comfort distance. Maybe tomorrow if the snow never amounts to much.

I hope you all have a good night. I'm off to find myself some dinner and find interesting ways to stay awake. Hopefully the dogs don't get to disgruntled with the flash.

To Torrington and Beyond!

Okay, maybe just to Torrington.

Yesterday I had to go tend to a Basset Hound by the name of Moses in Torrington who is in his third home that we know of. His newest owner adopted him just shy of two months ago and he had started to exhibit some of his previously undesirable behaviors. To her credit, his new owner wanted to work with him despite some of his more aggressive displays. So, I hit the road early Sunday morning for the exciting trip to Torrington.

Truly, once you get off the interstate and head East you move from just plain boring prairie land into some more rocky and beautiful land that kind of skirts the southern edge of the Black Hills area. It can be quiet beautiful. At the Gurnsey exit you have the rest stop that overlooks Laramie Peak

And I know your thinking, a picture of the bathrooms?

But I think these nifty little buildings need a shout out for their really kinda of cool engineering. They are a marvel in passive heating and cooling. Their glass solar catchers are south facing and help warm the building and their water supply in the early morning hours, then their shutters close in the heat of the later day to keep them from overheating and at night their sun warmed earthen block construction retains the days warmth. They're really quite neat. And yes, that's my nifty little white soul. I love that little car.

From the turn off you start hitting the more agriculturally active area as you approach Torrington.

And it seemed that every time I saw a great picture opportunity and got safely stopped, a train would come through. I even had the perfect Great Horned Owl picture arranged with one of the biggest owl's I have ever seen when the train blew it's horn and caused the raptor to fly. I was very disappointed. Lesson learned, 1100 on a Sunday seems to be a busy railway time through the area.

Between the interstate and Torrington are a couple of interesting little communities. You know the kind. Those little places that pop up in rural areas that though seem to look down on tourists, still look to capture some of their dollars. That's how you get places like the Fort Laramie animal park...

That's right, you see a llama, a buffalo and a couple of emu's backed by a trailer park and a Winnebago. But hey, it made me stop and get pictures, right?

After three hours working with Moses and his adopted family where they all did wonderfully, I had to race the sun home.

I was reminded once again how much I do love the area just south of Glendo. It's a series of high rocky ridges that break up the wind just enough to let scrub pine thrive. Wouldn't that just look picturesque with a little sheep and wool mill operation in among it? Well, I guess it already looks picturesque without my additions.

If only I had the money. Why can't Publisher's Clearing House knock on my door with their one million dollars every year for life?!? I actually already have a building picked out in a little island community where the dogs and I could run a pretty little yarn shop. Hey, dreams are healthy, and a delusion is a kind of dream so let me have mine.

By the time I got home to the dogs and Bob I was beat. I ended up crashing before 8 and sleeping for almost 11 hours. I seem to still be recovering from this winters illness.

I hope you all had a great weekend and this week at work treats you well.

Oh, and what's Wyoming without some cows?

I'm not dead

Despite my families long line of pyromaniacal disasters I am here to tell you I have survived the New Years celebrations and fireworks with all arm hair and eyebrows intact. In fact, I've been so sick that risk of lighting my self on fire has not been much of a risk unless you count a soaring temperature.

I finally fought off the phlegm hacking cold that Bob and my kind co-worker gave me after almost two and a half weeks and got to feel good for three whole days before coming down with what felt suspiciously like the flu. I got the little hack back as I laid down for bed and had to take some cough syrup before muttering hateful things to germ spreading partners as I slid into sleep. I awoke with my left side of my back hurting bad enough to wonder if I had a kidney issue and that weird woozy feeling you get when your dehydrated and some incessant nausea. Needless to say I drank lots of water, took a couple Advil and made myself go to my last night of work for the week. Before long it became apparent to not only myself but my coworker that something was wrong. But I muscled through the night in hopes that I gave her back a little of the joy she had spread to me. Upon arriving home in a sheen of sweat and I swear I was burning holes in my clothing, I took a long bath, took some more Advil and some vitamins and preceded to sleep for 22 of the next 24 hours.

Now, other than a completely screwed sense of sleeping time (I awoke at 0230 this morning) I seem to be on the mend. Today I get to drive to the metropolis of Torrington Wyoming to tend to a snarly Basset Hound. Hopefully I will have some good picture opportunities on the way and have more to share other than the heralds of my health tomorrow.

I hope you have all been well this last week or so in my absence. Have a wonderful Sunday.


Q

May you have a wonderful 2012

 Welcome 2012 as we say goodbye to 2011. Whether last year treated you well or was a challenging year for you and your loved ones, I hope the new year holds joy and happiness for you all.