Blizzard the Pink-Nosed Rein-Dog

We got the Christmas decorations out, and were waiting for Lon to come home so we could trim the tree. Of course we had to torture the dog, ha ha! Blizzard bore it well, to Kip's delight. Looks like we'll be working on next year's Christmas card picture, eh?

Winter Concert

Kip chose Chorus this year as his elective, and they had their Winter Concert last week. The 7th graders are required to wear a necktie with their white shirt and black pants, and boys always look so nice all dressed up, don't they? Kip surprised us that evening with a certificate showing that he had made the Honor Roll for the first quarter! You can see from our expressions that this is not a regular occurrence, but we hope it becomes one. I tried to post a 20-second video of the concert, but with dial-up, it never finished loading...sigh...

More Thanksgiving weekend

Hadn't seen Norma's sister Natalie in a couple of years, so it was nice to have her and her girlfriend come by while we were at Norma's. Spent a couple of hours laughing about old times. Here's the twins together; Nat with me; and Nat & me with her girlfriend Ann Marie. Is she tall or what?!

Thanksgiving in Connecticut

The Prathers spent Thanksgiving in Connecticut with my best friend, Norma. She and I have been friends since 2nd grade! We left Tuesday night after work, driving into the wee hours and arriving about 3 or 4 in the morning. That was cool though, since that's when Norma gets up for work! (Ugh!) Her son Dean taught Kip a couple riffs on his guitar, and we all had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, thanks to the skillful carving of the expert, Lon.

Every weekend, we try to take Blizzard to the dog park for an hour or more of fun and socialization. It seems to consist mostly of sniffing the other dogs' butts, but there is some chasing involved as well. Once in awhile a minor skirmish will break out, but we've never seen anything serious. The park is an acre or two of fenced-in land in a rural area, nice for the dogs, and a great way for dog owners to get together, too. We've seen all kinds of dogs here, from the common Retrievers, Labs, and assorted mongrels, to Greyhounds, Dobermans (Dobermen? ha ha) huge Sheepdogs, Standard Poodles (not the little ones, but full-size)... Blizzard always sleeps good after a day at the dog park!

Halloween '07

First Kip decided he wasn't going trick-or-treating this year. Then he changed his mind and dressed all in black with a skeleton mask on. At the last minute he decided he didn't like how it looked, and asked Lon and me what he should do. How's this for a last-minute costume? I like how my pumpkins turned out, too. I got the ideas from the Internet, but drew them freehand.

Off to the Races

Saturday October 13th Lon, Kip and I went to the Maryland Million horse races at Laurel, Md. We've gone every year with Charlie and Ruth, for at least 10 years. Some years we do really well, and the big winner will buy dinner for everyone. This time I just wasn't feeling it, and couldn't pick a winner to save my life. I finally started winning with a few longshots I picked to show, but never recouped what I had lost. I must have been too busy studying the program to take any pictures of the horses! They were all so beautiful. Maybe next year it will be my lucky day...