From 70 to Stormy

It has been a very strange late fall for us. Our temperatures have been warmer than Texas and Florida and extraordinarily dry. Yesterday was a record high of 70 degrees and all the days before that were topping out between 55 and 65. Not that we are complaining. The mountains have had some pretty incredible early-season snow while we have had some extremely dry months. Funny thing...water runs downhill so an ordinary state would be fearing a drought...but not us! We get the spring runoff that fills our water tables so as long as the mountains keep getting pounded with feet of snow, our summer will be just fine.

That being said, I had a couple of vacation days that I needed to use or lose before the end of the year. A month ago we planned to make our first trek to Summit County and hit the slopes of Breckenridge. And as of yesterday they are 83% open with an incredible 51 inch base (which is great for mid-December!). And with the weather we've been having it should be a great day. Maybe even sweatshirt skiing! Yeah. Not so much.

Sometime between lunch and 4:00 pm yesterday, our forecast for Thursday went from sunny and seasonal (mid to upper 40's) to this: From Record Heat to Snow Advisory Yes, that's right. We are under a winter weather advisory for 3-7 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow morning. Which doesn't sound like much until you factor in the idea that the drive from here to Breckenridge traverses nearly 6,000 vertical feet in elevation, and that's just to the Eisenhower Tunnel.

We have decided to go for it, but reserving the right to change our minds at the last minute after a little research on road conditions along I-70 first thing in the morning. And as a precaution, we will be taking the dogs to Camp Bow Wow for doggy day care with the option to stay overnight, just in case!

I think I could be OK getting stuck here! We'll pack the essentials, just in case (keeping fingers crossed! I'll let you guess in which direction!)


Merry Ski Wooley!

Quick Update

Blogging this week has been a little rough. I seem to be at a loss for words...not much interesting going on in the Rowland house. Here's the quick 10-point-update:

1. Fuzzy sheets went on the bed Tuesday night and I couldn't be happier about it!
2. Leaving my house at 5:15 for the gym is not the right time. Their parking lot holds about a quarter of the the capacity of the gym...tough to find a spot. I parked on the road. Others circling the lot left. More exercise for me that way. I had to walk a block just to get there!
   
3. Our first house party ever is on for Saturday. There will be a total of 8 of us, plus one toddler and an infant.
4. I am reinventing the Drunk Cake this week. If you've had the infamous McFarlane Drunk Cake, you know it's pretty perfect. But I am going to make a white version in addition to dressing up the chocolate version. It may be a flop, but I am thinking that it will either be like a spice cake or a coconut cake. I love the coconut idea. Are there some who hate coconut? As for reinventing the chocolate version...think mint!
   
5. We like to sleep with our bedroom COLD. I mean really cold; the colder the better. But my office is in here. I think you could hang meat in here and my hands are so cold they feel like they are about to break off. Good thing I have a fireplace! Or maybe I like to sleep really cold so that I can run the fire while I work. The jury's out on that one.
   
6. Our beagle, Abby, hates the cold. And hates the snow even more. Needless to say, we have to keep the deck shoveled so she'll "go" in the yard.
   
7. My coworker has buried me in achievable deadlines this week. For the first time in many days, my head is above water. But please don't tell anyone. I like it this way and would hate to have more work on my plate right now. An even distribution is a good thing!
8. We officially settled on the pasta bar idea for Saturday. Three sauce choices, three noodle choices and 10 topping choices-everything from capers and sun-dried tomatoes to meatballs and Italian sausage.
9. Our guests are so excited about it that they are each bringing a dish that coordinates with the theme. Who knew this would catch on so well! Pretty cool, eh?
10. I had my hair colored Tuesday night. About 6 months ago my now ex-stylist (against my request) put highlights in my hair and I hated them. Finally, the toner has come out and I looked like bad-roots-dishwater-blonde. It was awful. So, I covered it up. And it's D-A-R-K. Holy buckets is it dark. Like Lauren Graham dark. But I LOVE it! Even the 4th grade kiddos at Junior Achievement yesterday told me that I looked different...I asked how and one kid said, "different like prettier." I can live with that.
    

Dogs in the News

I remember hearing Mt. Pleasant's infamous "Barking Dog" story involving a McGuirk and his new neighbor. Something about the constant barking dog, a tape recorder and a loud speaker.

Last week there was a story on our local news about a puppy that was shot through the fence with a pellet gun. Likely because of barking. The dog had some surgery and is fine now, but the owner is REALLY mad and I don't blame him one bit.

With both of those stories, I have always thought, "jeeze, it's just a dog. It can't help it that its parents neglect it."

That was until last night. I don't know where on the culdasac the dog lived, but it was close. Probably within 2 houses close. Even closing the window didn't help with the constant bark. The dog started barking at 10:00pm and at 2:00am we were so (insert really bad word followed by another really bad word) that we got up, put shoes and socks on and decided to figure out where it was coming from so that we could call somebody to make the dog stop barking. As soon as Chris stepped one foot out the door...silence. No barking, no crickets, no cars, no breeze. NOTHING. Ahhhh...relief!

By the time we were back in bed, it was 2:30 am. Needless to say with a 6:30 alarm this morning, we are both a little cranky with puffy eyes today. And I have heard the dog barking on and off today while I work. I would never harm somebody's helpless pet. But I think I understand the motivation behind the tape recorder and the pellet gun.

Tonight I will be armed with my own weapon... a telephone with Animal Control on speed dial. I don't do well with 4 hours of sleep. Chris is dealing a little better than I am, but he's listening to Christmas music so that he's not grumpy when our friends come over for dinner tonight. It's way too early for that and hearing TSO (Trans Siberian Orchestra--a Rowland family favorite that I happen to loathe) this morning almost pushed me over the edge of insanity.

The good news: The day is half over and our good friends that took a year-long sabbatical to do mission work all over the world are back home and coming over for dinner tonight. The last time we saw them was when they we lived next door to them in our old house! Good friends, good wine, experimental dinner (grilled marinated skirt steak with salsa verde and grilled endive) and cherry pie for desert. Nothing to complain about!!

The Dark

I know. Another dog blog. But this is so cute, and has been going on since she was a puppy, so I thought I'd share.

Abby is probably part lizzard. She loves the heat. She looks for the sunbeam to come through the window every afternoon and will sit in it until her black hair is on fire. And every morning when we get up, Abby runs to the love seat for "good mornings" and waits for us to "make the dark." That's all crazy human-dog speak for "say hello then put the red blanket on a pillow on the love seat and cover up the beagle." Here's how it looks when complete:

She's really in there, on top of a pillow on the love seat. We lost the furniture battle long ago, but at least she will only be on the furniture if she's on the red blanket. When I decided to blog about this and snap a quick photo I had to turn on a light...the first photo was lucky, because here was the response I got:And finally, after she was aware that I had not only disturbed the dark, but I was exploiting her reaction, Abby decided to look for another place to take her post-wake-up-pre-walk morning nap:She's always this cute until she pukes somewhere in the middle of the night. But that was last week!