Snow, sweet snow.

I took Piper and Violet outside for some nice, afternoon light, winter wonderland, maybe zoomie pictures.

Yeah, right.

They just wanted to eat the snow.

She bites the ground so hard her nose wrinkles.

Sisterly bonding.

Our dogs are freaks.

Especially her...

There were some lackluster zoomies, but really nothing to write home about.

I was standing in the doorway with numb fingers, beckoning them to come inside.

Nope. Never coming in.

So much for that whole plan.

Return of the...

1. Dewey (still Dexter)

2. Prodigal Blogger

3. Picture Taking

When Dewey, who we shall continue to call Dexter for the duration of this post, went to live with Allyson and her family, I made sure to let them know that they had lifetime tech support for him, in the sense that I would take him back if necessary, answer any training or medical questions to the best of my ability, dog-sit should they ever need to go somewhere that they couldn't take him, etc. They had the opportunity to take a little vacation for part of this week, so I was more than happy to have him here for the duration. It has been uneventful. He thinks we're lame now, and is continually looking at me with his paws over his face like "I just got outta this place, when are my people coming back? They're a lot more fun than you losers." Soon, Dex, soon.

"I'll just chew my foot until you get the point, then."

In other news...

Violet likes to zoom.

And yell.

The girls are both doing amazingly on stay, which makes picture taking so much easier.

Eric taught Piper "bow," complete with a very elaborate and fancy-looking hand signal, in under a day. Unbelievable.

First week of school is done. I like all of my professors, and I more or less like my classes. Classical Mythology...eh. The lecture is interesting and the professor is good but the amount of homework is astronomical. Eric spent a solid eight hours just reading the assigned chapters, which I also have to read. I started on them yesterday and let me tell you, it is not interesting reading. You may think that it would be (I thought it would be), but it's not.

Wedding planning is coming along. The venue, catering, DJ, photographer, and officiant are more or less done and dealt with. It's clear that I'm just going to have a "Forgot something for our wedding and it's the day of," "Walking down the aisle in a sheet," "No one shows up at the wedding," "Every vendor completely screws up their role" dreams every single night, now. They were alarming at first, now I just expect them. Last night it was rings and the dress that I'd forgotten. It's new every night, and I assume it'll continue for the next 10 months.

The Christmas camera had a defect called "won't turn on," so it was sent back only to turn out to be backordered. My camera is half dead, so I figured I'd just not take any pictures until the new one came. Yeah, right. Violet and I headed out to the yard this morning, gimpy camera in hand.

Violet was not interested in participating. She wanted to talk instead.

(You may have noticed that she does not have the correct blaze on her nose. You can see, here, that she in fact just has it on upside down.)

I couldn't help but think of Two Collies and a Mutt's recent post as I reasoned with her that I had gone too long without taking any pictures, and if she'd just cooperate, it'd be over soon.

Reluctantly, she acquiesced.

For a few minutes, anyway.

I brought Piper outside, but she was far too preoccupied with the regional delicacy, Poopsicles, to participate for long.

  

Moments before they reversed course and barreled into my legs.

They paused to eat snow, and it was time to go inside, before Piper found more than just snow in there.

Roots.

The Collie's color is changing. Now she has dark roots and long, black hairs poking out everywhere.

She looks like she's let her dyejob lapse.

A Sorry-For-Being-A-Bad-Blogger Post In Pictures

The reason I've barely been on Blogger this week.

My grandmother watching my mom help me into the 1956 wedding dress that my stepmother so, so, so sweetly offered to let me wear, which she and her mother both wore.

Part of the dress that I love and may or may not be able to wear. When my stepmother wore it in the 80's, she had it altered from a smaller size to fit her - and she weighed 130lbs or less. I'm doing some pretty heavy work in the diet and exercise department but let's be real here, I don't weigh 130lb and probably won't in the next year. It can probably be further altered, but the lace sleeves are also shorter than my arms (in this picture they're not all the way up onto my shoulders) and the bodice is also shorter than my torso - I have long, lanky arms, and I just don't know if it can be altered all that much.

We'll see.

School starts tomorrow, and in preparation for my first math class I've done 200 algebra problems in the last two days. It's only just beginning.

So, I apologize if I'm a bad blogger in the coming weeks, but I won't be altogether absent, just frequently tardy.

Wild Piper, Pretty Piper

Peep is doing awesomely in her training. It's been such a day week that this will be a short post, but Eric took her outside to proof her training tonight. Eric ran across the street with neighbors outside talking, walking around, getting in and out of cars, and big shadows all around (she gets a little freaked out by shadows), and she remained in a stay. Her heel is gorgeous, really gorgeous. I'm jealous. Violet's heel still sucks.

Peep is good.

Good old-fashioned zoomies.

The Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day.

We took the Smooth Operator to Martinsville today, and brought Violet along for the ride. This was them all the way there.

When we got home, I took her out to the field to do some low-medium distraction proofing. She did phenomenally on heel. I have little confidence when it comes to heel, so I was very, very happy.