Getting on with getting on...

Walter got his stitches out last week. He did not like it. It took two of us to hold him down and a third to take them out. He got more and more nervous as the vet tech got closer to his winkie. To make up for it we went on a small stroll at Dishman Hills. Nothing extreme, just a short loop but he was very excited and soon forgot about the trauma he had just been through. It is going to be at least another week or two before I can take him out for some serious walking. That was major doggie surgery. I measured his incision and it was 18 inches long!!!! I know, how cracked am I to be measuring my dog's scar????

I have not been doing too much outside of the house. First, it was colder than the proverbial well digger's ass, then we started to get tons of snow. I am not sure my car would even make it to the end of the street right now. As of this afternoon there was 54 inches of snow outside of Nancy's cabin with more to come soon.

I finished my last and final internship the Friday before last. I showed up in the morning to the school district being in a state of emergency. When they announced a lock down and that we would not be able to use the bathrooms or leave our office, I took off out the back door and went home. I was not alone. That evening my buddy Gar and I went up and spent the night at Nancy's cabin to celebrate my being done. Aside from waiting for my temp license, then taking my national certification exam, and then waiting for my regular license, I am done with the more than two and a half years of educational hoop jumping/occasional voyages into academic hell. Gar and I excavated the fire pit which was under 20 inches of snow and then set out to burn three huge palates we picked up on the way there. Oh, and we also consumed some beer. We sat out there for a least 4 hours. It was nice.

I have been up to the cabin a couple of times in the last week alone as well. The wood stove is finally in and I just about cooked myself out the other night.

One big thing I have been doing the past few days is sewing. Now, I don't really sew. I had one or two lessons from my mom when she brought me her old sewing machine but that is about it. All right, just to show how entirely sick and twisted I am over my dog, most of the sewing has involved him. It started out with hemming up curtains for Nancy and then morphed into a removable double layer of polar fleece insulation for Walter's red coat, then a polar fleece pad for the top of his backpacking sleeping pad (who wants to sleep on nylon??), and then a lovely draw string bag for his rolled up pad. The bag turned out really good, hell, as good as store bought ones made by 8 year olds in third world countries!!! I made it out of an old wind breaker. I have a couple of other projects planned as well...a new bag with loops and a spot for a caribiner to hang my food away from the bears when backpacking, some stuff sacks...made out of the sleeves from the windbreaker...and a couple of pillow cases for Nancy. I have found that sewing is actually kind of fun and relaxing.

I start work at my official place of employment tomorrow. I will just be working as a rehab aide until my temp license comes in. Then I can actually do OT work. I am pretty excited about it. I did my first internship there and enjoyed it quite a lot. I will probably have to walk since the snow is so deep and mucky, but I don't mind.

Pictures: Walter in his stylin' red coat; Gar by the fire; the sunset on the way to the cabin; Sophie (in front), Lily (behind her) and Walter (way in the back on the left) chillin' in the living room during the snow storm.