Well, it's all melting. The snow is slowly--and I do mean slowly--melting away. We still have pockets of mounds of snow hanging around, clearly in areas that don't get sun. Our deck is still partially covered, as are a slew of plants that I have so far left alone for fear of breaking them further. But I feel like I need to unearth them because they haven't been able to get out from under on their own (or with the aid of sun and semi-warm temperatures).

Meanwhile, our yard, like many others I suspect, is one gigantic muddy mess. And sometime during all of this, The Princess hurt herself. We're not really sure what happened, but Saturday night she seemed lethargic and uncomfortable. She changed places in the bedroom multiple times in a short period, seeming like she couldn't get comfortable. Sunday was even worse, as she wouldn't lift her tail, and when she moved, it sort of just flopped against her rear end. Additionally, she was sitting funny--like off to the side instead of directly on her rear--and not moving her tail out from under her. We began to worry she'd sprained or broken her tail. And yes, either is possible. We called our vet (luckily for us, he's family) Sunday afternoon, confirming by phone she could have broken or sprained her tail. But since we couldn't feel any breaks and she was responding to touch, our Uncle-Vet felt it wasn't a break and didn't seem emergent. He told us to rest her and update him in a day or two.

But the rest of Sunday was sad, as The Princess continued to look uncomfortable, mournful, and lethargic. By Monday morning, we'd decided a trip to Uncle-Vet was in order. Not only were we concerned for The Princess, but Uncle-Vet was due to head out of town for a week, so our time to see him was limited. So we made the trip to see him (his hospital is an hour away in non-traffic time, but it took us 90 minutes to get to him during rush-hour), and he was waiting for us when we arrived.

After checking The Princess's tail, he found no breaks and no swelling. Then he checked her butt-glands, cleaned them, and speculated that was not the likely culprit as she was not filled. Then he started messing with her legs, hips, and pelvic joints. At one point he had both legs extended backward and lifted off the exam table, and he was "steering" her from side to side like a steering wheel. It was very odd, but he said he didn't feel anything amiss. The vet tech was surprised to see that The Princess's facial expression did not change one iota during the entire exam. She is very stoic, so there's really no way to know if they've caused her pain. We had only to rely on Uncle-Vet's experience and touch, which we believe in immensely.

So after discussing how she could have stepped funny or slipped outside, we were sent on our way with some doggie anti-inflammatory pills. With strict instructions on what to watch for, and to rest The Princess as much as possible. We've had no problems with the meds--they're apparently chewable and yummy based on The Princess's response to them--except for the fact that they make her, um, gassy.

And fortunately, The Princess does seem to be wagging her tail much more in these past couple of days, though I don't think she's as active as normal yet. But Uncle-Vet said to take it slow and give her time. So we are doing both. And The Princess is taking advantage, looking sad and requesting trips into the backyard as often as possible. Which means our kitchen is getting a beating with the aftermath of muddy paws. Despite cleaning her feet before coming in, she seems able to be able to bring mud inside anyway. It's an interesting trick.

Meanwhile, in news I didn't share on Twitter (yet) but was asked about by my friend Carrie, the end of February brought us exciting news. We, along with my parents, have purchased property in a nearby area on which we will (eventually) be building new homes. We'd been looking for more than three years, and the actual purchase of this particular parcel took more than four months. It's been an adventure, for sure! But thank goodness that part of the adventure is OVER.

Here I am, over at Michelle Lauren's blog, doing a guest spot. Check out my guest blog over there and enter to win a free ebook! Woo-hoo!

Hey folks, I'll be guest blogging over at Michelle Lauren's website tomorrow. She's a reviewer and fellow author who offered me a spot on her blog where I could talk about my new Bandmates series.

Here's a link to her blog. Tomorrow I'll post the direct link to my guest blog.
http://michellelaurenbooks.com/blog

Also, wanted to thank the lovely ladies over at Coffee Time Romance & More for their hospitality in the chat last night. I had an absolute blast with them, and look forward to hanging with them again. Much love to you ladies at CTR...curves rule!

Come on back tomorrow to get the direct link to my guest blog.

I'll be chatting over at Coffee Time Romance & More's website tomorrow night, Tuesday, February 23rd at 9pm. Come join us for fun and information on Draumr Publishing!

Here's your link to the information on their chat, and a link to their chat room.
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/Chat2.html

Hope to see you there!

I know that won't come as a surprise to most of you, that it is a day. But for someone I know, it's a big day...meaning it's their birthday.

Normally I wouldn't have any conversation about this, but in this instance, I'm reporting on it because this person is a dear friend with whom I no longer have contact. It's an unfortunate situation, but it is what it is.

However, I do want to wish this person a happy birthday, and let them know that I think of them often, and wish them nothing but the best in all aspects of their life. Even though we're not in contact at this time, they are still important to me, and I hope someday our situation might change.

And so the day goes on, as they do every other day.

Hunh. I was googling myself last night because I was waiting for an anti-virus program to finish scanning my laptop before I turned it off. And as we all know, a great way to waste time on the internet is to Google yourself. Among other things, I found this:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rida_Allen

And for those of us who don't speak Spanish, here is the translation:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...le%3DRida_Allen

It's kinda cool, but a little disappointing to note that there's no entry in the English version of Wikipedia for me. But hey, I'll take what I can get, baby!

Meanwhile, enjoy the translation...it's a little off, but amusing nonetheless!

I don't have much more to say except that I've been following this with interest. Both on Smith's blog and twitter account, as well as on SWA's website.

I couldn't say anything better than this article, written by Kate Harding, author of "Lessons From the Fatosphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce With Your Body." (which I have never read, nor do I know anything about...I'm just trying to give this author her credits) I think Kate speaks quite eloquently, and makes very excellent points. Kudos to her for her great article.

And I feel great empathy for Kevin Smith, and I'm glad he spoke up.

We got absolutely smothered again yesterday in the blizzard. I suspect we got close to another 18" of snow during this second snow storm...basically undoing all the work The Giant had done after storm #1.

We have a roof over our garage that sits in front of our bedroom window, and the window was completely covered up by snow drifts. It was quite bizarre to try to look out the window and see a wall of white. Also, at some point last night, I saw that the gutter hanging over the front of our house is cock-eyed. Instead of sitting flush against the roof, it's leaning away, which means we're probably getting melting snow going in between the gutter and the roof. Can't be good...it just can't. So we're diligently watching for water coming in. Joy.

This morning, The Giant was out again to re-dig the path he had dug previously between the front door and to the driveway, then down the driveway. Unfortunately, the SUV was still in the same perch as yesterday, and the way it was looking it was going to stay there. But The Giant continued to dig out the driveway, and some areas around the SUV, with The Princess supervising. I was in the house cleaning up after lunch when The Giant returned with The Princess, requesting her collar (we don't leave her collar on when she's in the house or in the fenced backyard). He told me that our demure and lazy Princess had bounded her way over a snow bank to play with a neighbor's lab puppy, Jake (our Princess IS a flirt). So The Giant wanted to put her collar on so he could catch her if he needed to.

So I tossed him the collar, then suited up and went out to join them. Jake is all legs and gigantic head and jowls. He's cute as hell, but filled with lab energy...and he ran like a wild-dog. It was a ton of fun to watch him and The Princess bounding around our driveway, even though we didn't have a lot of cleared space. A couple of times Jake fell into a snow bank and chomped on snow. Jake's owner told us that is Jake's way of taking a break. Jake would roll over onto his side and just chow through the snow in front of him, in big huge chomps. I requested that Jake stay so he could eat his way through our snow. Jake and The Princess ran around a lot, Jake doing most of the actual running over snow banks out onto the cul de sac and then back onto our driveway (over the mounds of snow on the side of the SUV that hadn't been shoveled yet). The Princess just chased Jake around the driveway, skidding and barking at Jake. Finally, we thought, we sent Jake on his way back to his owner, Mike, and I ushered The Princess inside to rest.

The Giant continued his quest to free the SUV, and tried to move it. After his unsuccessful attempt, Mike came over and offered to help, which he did. He helped The Giant dig out the truck, patiently waiting as The Giant moved the SUV backward onto clear pavement a little bit at a time. Then he hung around and helped clear out a little more before heading back to his own house. With Jake and a second older lab in tow. When I went to the front door and saw the SUV was free, I clomped into my boots and whipped on my jacket to go out and celebrate. I was able to squeeze around the SUV and see the street again! Of course, the street is unplowed and looks terrible, but it's the first time since last Thursday that I was able to step out there! Woo-hoo!

As The Giant was doing a little more digging to widen the exit path so he could take the SUV out (either this afternoon or tomorrow), Jake came back to play. The Princess was in the house, but I petted and played with him a little, basically just giving him attention. I'm such a sap for a dog. And apparently Jake was a little in love with me, too, because Mike couldn't get him to come home. I kept trying to send Jake away, and he'd run a few yards away, then come back! LOL It was cute. But finally the promise of a ride in the truck sent Jake running home. Before Jake could change his mind, The Giant and I retired to the house to rest. The Princess got some banana flavored doggie ice cream, and now she's snoring on her bed. I suspect she might not move for the rest of the day. But I was glad for her to get some exercise, since she's been pretty cooped up for these past 8 days. And it was nice to meet Mike and his cute dogs.

And I send my many thanks to Mike for coming to help. He certainly had done his own share of digging for his cars, but I appreciate the time he gave in helping The Giant. Despite having waving familiarity with our neighbors, most of us are busy with our own lives and don't spend time chatting or hanging out. So while I'd say we're all fairly friendly, none of us is really "friends." But it's nice to know that in a pinch, some people do step up to help.

Hopefully soon we'll see a plow on our street (crosses fingers), and The Giant will be able to get out tomorrow to get to work.

Now, if only the snow in the forecast for Monday would disappear... (and sadly, I'm not joking, there IS snow in the forecast again for Monday/Tuesday)

That's not a plea FOR snow, it's a plea for it to STOP. Sheesh.

It's a snowin' and a blowin', that's for sure. Watching the swirling snow can be a bit hypnotic, and at any other time I might even say pretty. Today, I say no mas... All I can think of is how long this is going to take to clean up after. We have an appointment on Monday for The Princess to get some bloodwork done, and I don't want to miss it. And if you can believe it, the weather guy on channel four just had the balls to say we might see "a little more snow on Monday." Are you shitting me?

I can't takes no more! As it is, we haven't been out of our driveway since Thursday afternoon when The Giant got home from work. We're almost out of bread, we have less than 1/2 a gallon of milk left, and we're going a little crazy! Even The Princess is running outside to do her thing and immediately coming back inside...then going onto her bed and sleeping. I suspect she's dreaming of green grass, a free fence-line to prowl, and sunshine. Maybe even bunnies to chase across the lawn.

Meanwhile, the wind has been whipping up, which is a little nerve-wracking. With every gust, I wonder what tree might come down, where it might land, and what limbs might be causing damage we don't know about. Also, this morning, they said to watch for flying limbs and icicles if you have to be outside! If you've looked outside, you KNOW there are icicles hanging EVERYWHERE...how in the hell can I send The Giant and The Princess outside into the white abyss without worrying about flying icicle projectiles?! And there's no getting around the fact that The Princess has to go out every now and then. Those of you with dogs, you know what I'm sayin'.

Sheesh, I'm ready to be done with this. I'm ready for this recording-breaking season of snow to be over. OVER. Hear me Mother Nature? O-V-E-R.

Well, the plow finally came through late last evening. I'd like to say WOO HOO, but I can't, because the snow plow pushed a wall of snow up against the end of our driveway. We were left, unfortunately, with what looked like a 5' high wall of snow. The driver pushed away snow from almost everyone else's driveway (several people went out to give the guy drinks and food but we couldn't get anywhere near the street, so we couldn't do anything), but actively pushed the snow in front of our driveway and our neighbor to one side. Our driveway wasn't shoveled to the end (the county said NOT to do that), nor was our neighbor's, but everyone else's was. So we did what we were told and were penalized for it. It sucks.

So The Giant went out first thing this morning to try to shovel out the 5' high by at least 8' long (between the shoveled area and the street on the other side of the plow-leavings), but the stuff was hard ice. (sigh) And beyond that, our street looked like an ice-rink. So we're still stuck. The Giant did do a lot of work this morning, but our vehicle is now stuck on top of a snow mound, unable to move...we were attempting to get over the remaining snow the plow left behind (after The Giant worked for several hours to clear the mound), without success. I have no idea how we're going to get the car out at this point. It's just perched there...

Stuck stuck stuck. It's been dark and dreary out all day, and now the second storm is setting in. We have snow coming down, no way out (or in), and it's getting disheartening. I know the rest of the world is still out there, but I feel very removed from all of it.

On the up side, we've had our electricity the whole time, so we're warm and safe. We have food and toilet paper, heat, water, all the important stuff. The Princess is miserable, but has figured out how to do her thing outside (as seldom as possible). She's now sitting at the window upstairs and watching the snow fall, looking forlorn. I try to explain that someday it will melt, but I can't promise it'll be anytime soon. I think I might go join her at the window with my own forlorn face.

(sigh)