Pay back is a female dog.

We have two dogs... 

an older black lab, Beta, who is sensible, quiet and well behaved

and a younger pointer, Friday,  who is... none of those things. 

Since the very beginning of their time together, the Friday has always sat on Beta. We're not talking about a "snuggle so close she's almost sitting on Beta" type of thing. We're talking about sitting like a normal dog, front feet on the ground, but with her rear end squarely on Beta's back/head/side/rear. Like a 70lb dog sitting on a 80lb dog shaped bench.

This taken when Friday was just a pup, so take this pic and add 40lbs to her.

Everyone comments on it, we always thought Friday would grow out of it, or that Beta would stop putting up with it when Friday got too heavy. But it just kept going on. Now when it happens, Beta just growns and gives us a look that we can only interpret to mean "Wasn't I a good dog? Things were perfect before this Thing came. Why is this happening?"

Now she has a reason to be happy:

Oh, how the tables have turned

I guess now it's Friday's turn to look at us and say:

"Things were perfect before this Thing came. Why is this happening?

Easter in January

It's about time! Our new chickens started laying eggs in January. Mary, who is an Ameraucana breed lays green shelled eggs (just as we hoped). Ameraucana chickens look a little different, with fluffy neck feathers and a short, hookish beak. To me they look a little hawk like.

Not our Mary, but looks just like her!

 Our other new chicken, Shirley, is a Barred Rock and lays brown eggs.

Again, not Shirley, but a splitting image!

Our Shirley is always fluffy so she looks really fat all the time. She is such a good chicken, really personable and doesn't mind being held or petted. She is very aggressive about food, so if you have some she is your best friend!

Of course there was excessive documentation of the  first eggs!

Both a little smaller than "jumbo"eggs, but decent size for first eggs!

As usual, the yolk is proportionally bigger that store bought eggs.

Hard to see here, but after we hard boiled the green shelled eggs, the inside of the shell is a light blue. 

Easter will be interesting this year... what will the green eggs look like when we color them?

 Maybe we won't color them at all!

It's a Jungle in Here!

I've made the most of the winter break by enlisting my craftastic mother to help finish a project I've been dreaming about for a long time now... a vine covered tent for M! Originally it was supposed to be a hanging tent with a pad as a base, but Grandma Nancy thought it would be great over her bed. Such a good idea!

We've had most of the materials, but just hadn't gotten the time or energy to actually complete it. It was a lot of fun and quite a challenge, but so worth it. It was great working with my mom and "winging it". I commented that it was more like sculpting than sewing! My mom said, "At least you come up with interesting projects..", like somehow that was better than wanting help with a project that has, you know, like patterns and stuff. 

Then we really had some fun by cutting out a bazillion leaves and making vines and some flowers

When we finally set it up, Miss M wanted to 

get in right away and close it up.

The view from the inside:

 Perfect for imagining you're camping in the jungle!

Day at the Museum

Just before Chirstmas, Ms. Alicia and I enjoyed a whole day at the De Young Museum in San Fransisco. We were able to get tickets for the visiting impressionist exhibit where we saw actual Van Goghs!
We also went to the Legion of Honor which was showing a very interesting exhibit called Japanesque. Most of the exhibit was a ton of beautiful woodblock prints but there was also a  portion where they showed how different colors were laid on top of each other with the woodblocks.
Thank you A, for a great lunch, great talk and great day!

Christmas Traditions

I've been wanting to start a christmas tradition with Maryn for a couple years now, and Meeshmellow offered to help make it happen this year.

Everyday we get to open a little present! We can only fit about 10 at a time across the mantle, but it's been a hit so far! Thanks Meeshmellow!

A new interest

Some one has been getting interested in dressing up lately...

A misunderstanding

This was M's first year trick-or-treating.... and we kept it small, only a few houses of people we knew.

M played Tinkerbell (or Stinkerbell as we call her) very well.. .fickle, demanding and cute.

This is her look of : "HEY! There's CANDY in here! MOM! CANDY in this thing!"
We did have a couple of issues though..
First.. you aren't supposed to eat all the candy as you get it. According to M, it is better to shove it all in your mouth than allow it to touch the bottom of the pail. The only thing that slowed her down was those pesky wrappers.
Second... you aren't supposed to go IN the houses after the people answer.

 "GEEZ WOMAN...You mean I have to eat all this candy OUTSIDE? whatever...next thing you'll tell me is that I have to take these wings off before I go to bed...."