In case you were wondering how cold it was in Livermore this morning, might I offer the following pictures as a response.  =)

Crazy right? I have the faucet set to slowly drip into the water bowl to keep it full for the dogs. Guess it was slow enough to create this reverse icicle. =)

And just in case you thought the above picture was of water splashing up from the bowl, here's a closer look. Yeah, that's cold!

Sierra shown for scale. Oh and check it out, you can see the start of another drop of water that will ultimately add to the growing icicle that has formed.

I’m going to have to get a jacket for Lotus since her fur is so short and it’s so dang cold outside.  Sierra has a nice fluffy coat right now so I think she’s fine.  Isn’t that right Muppy.  =)

A couple of weeks ago Heather stopped by the house and happened to have her camera on her.  The following events captured on film (well an SD card) show the evolution of Lotus and Pig-Pig’s dynamic from alpha pig and submissive dog to best buddies for life.  =)

Don't look now Lotus but there is a pig on your shoulder. I think it wants your bone!

He's getting closer. Watch out Lotus!!

Oh it's on now. Lotus, you know what you have to do.

Aw, that's right. Snuggle up with Pig-Pig. Lotus and Pig-Pig: Best friends for life. =)

Two days later Pig-Pig had been reduced to piles of stuffing strewn around the living room but it was nice while it lasted.  “Pig-Pig would have wanted it this way…” – (sort of Homer Simpson)  =)

A couple weekends ago Sierra and I went over to my sisters to do crafts and watch Halloween movies (cute spooky Halloween movies, Sierra and I don’t like scary movies).  =)

Heather likes to get costumes for her doggies so in between “The Haunted Mansion” and “Clue” we played dress up with Sierra.  She wasn’t digging it to much but I thought she was a-dorable!  First she was a friendly moo cow.

Wait, is that a cow? No, it's Sierra! =)

What a silly cow. Sierra, take that off. =)

Next Heffies dressed Sierra up as a good witch.

Sierra was refusing to look at the camera. Hmm, maybe she was more of a "naughty puppy" witch.

Look, I have no makeup and greasy hair so we both look ridiculous so SMILE Sierra. No? Well you still look cute. =)

From Sierra and me, Happy Halloween Everyone!!  =)

Ok, so I just made a reference to the Wizard of Oz.  Sue me. 

Using my new camera and the PhotoStitch software I was able to capture this full rainbow right above my house.  Unfortunately I wasn’t familiar enough with how to take the pictures that I didn’t get as much of the house in the picture and you can still see a seam.  Still, not bad.  =)

Thank goodness I forgot my badge on the way to work otherwise I probably would have passed up the opportunity to head back and take a picture of this amazing rainbow. Oh and that's my house underneath the rainbow BTW. =)

So about this time of year when my joints become increasingly creaky with the threat of rain in the distance (yep, I’m so old my joints can foretell storms), I feel a tinge of guilt for neglecting my yard knowing that soon it will be too late to do anything once the rain turns it into a swampy mess.  So in the wee hours of a what would have been a lazy Sunday I lay in bed making a plan of attack and psyching myself up for the intense physical effort this would take.

First on my list was the front yard.  I knew I wanted to trim back the shrubs, cut down unruly branches from the birch that has taken over a corner of the yard, mow the lawn and generally tidy things up so it looked nice.  As I was working on trimming back the shrubs I realized I should also cut back the oleander that separates my driveway from my neighbors.  We have to back the Freestyle in so you can get out since they take up so much room and I’m constantly driving the car into the scratchy branches (eh, it’s not like it’s the Jetta or anything). 

Here’s what it looked like before.

I mean it's not so bad to look at, it just seems to cause more problems than it's worth.

As I was working to trim back and thin the oleanders, my neighbor Rob opened his garage door which happened to be right after I had over thinned a section of the hedge nearest the garages.  I said hi and then leadingly asked, “Hey, so what do you think of these oleanders?..” Rob said, “I don’t really like them.”  To which I responded, “Me neither!  I hate them!!  Can I cut them down?”  =)

I barely waited for Rob to say “Yeah!” and 30 minutes later I had cut down every branch.  Ah, that felt good…  =)

Totally demolished with one pair of extra heavy duty bypass loppers. Ah, so satisfying... =)

The easy part was cutting this down. Now we had to haul it to Rob's backyard. 5 truckloads!

After clearing out the oleander branches (Rob was nice enough to let us put the clippings in his side yard until we could figure out how to dump them properly) I went back to the shrubs, tree and moving of the lawn.  Here’s what that looked like before.

What a mess. The large shrub always scratched my arm going to the backyard and the tree branches nearly broke our fence. I need to whip (wHip) this yard into shape. =)

And after.

Now that's better. Behave, behave! =)

I also cleaned up the area between the garage and front door so I could finally setup the waterwheel my dad had made for me last Christmas.  It looks amazing!

After nearly a year I finally setup the waterwheel my dad had lovingly made and given me for Christmas last year. It looks awesome and I received so many compliments from my neighbors. Thank you Dad. =)

At this point the front yard was pretty much done.  It was about 2pm in the afternoon and I had been working since 9 in the morning.  I knew I needed to at least get the weeds whacked down and the lawn mowed in the backyard before I could truly call it a day.  I asked Marshall to move the equipment back there (I was running on fumes so I needed all the help I could get) and in an hour got the backyard done.  Hurray…  so tired, so sleepy, so sore… 

For the rest of the evening I chilled out and rested my tired muscles.  I think I fell asleep at 7:30 that night.  Seriously, that was a lot of work.  It was well worth it though as my yard looks really nice now and I can safely enter the rainy season without worrying about a tree branch taking out my fence or the backyard turning into a grass swamp mess.  Until next year!… =)

Oh yeah, and a bonus photo for ya, I also knocked down these wasp/yellowjacket nests from the front porch eaves. “You won’t hurt anyone, ever again!”

Bees!!! Yeah, I knocked these nests down too.

So after a marathon run of watching “How I Met Your Mother” I invited Heather and Winnie to stay the night as driving home at 12:30am didn’t seem like the best idea in the world.

In the morning Marshall went to get us coffee and spinach wraps (aw, so nice) and Winnie ended up earning a crown out of the whole thing.  Here she casts a disinterested gaze at her subjects (Sierra and Lotus).

It's good to be the queen...

After tiring of being lazy she discarded her crown in favor of some rough housing with Uncle Marshall.

What Queen Winnie wants, Queen Winnie gets and she wanted to lick Marshall's face as he was trying to play his Nintendo DS.

By the end of the day she was totally worn out and fell asleep like a little baby in my arms.  Until next time Winnie.  We’ll save your crown.  =)

Well I didn’t catch up on my Hawaiian vacation or Lassen backpacking trip posts but I did get through a couple so…

Until next time, here's a Jettagirl side kick for ya! =)

I’ll see if I can get through a few more tomorrow.  Goodnight!  =)

Oh man I totally freaked out with what had apparently had the misfortune of flying into the grill of my Jetta.  Yeah, it was a big-A dragonfly and being the dead animal/insect loving person I am I ran to get my camera to take pictures of it.

Busted dragonfly on the grill of my Jetta. Sorry dragonfly.

As I was taking photos from different angles and working with the aperture settings I noticed that the dragonfly’s back legs were still moving.  Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!  And then I noticed that it’s head had somehow moved and was now falling off the grill.

Holy crap! Why is his head falling off the grill? What the hey??

As I was freaking out about the moving leg and now near totally decapitated head the whole thing fell of and onto the ground.  Seriously, I can’t believe I’m taking pictures of (and now blogging about) a dead dragonfly on my Jetta.  Ok, just one last picture, click!

Hmm, he actually looks kind of cool and less freaky deaky now.

RIP dragonfly. At least smashing into my sweet-A Jetta was a good way to go.

So after my brother’s dog Foxy passed away last year my sister has been on the lookout for a miniature Australian Shepard puppy for him.  Turns out that the she found someone whose dog was going to have a litter but Jeffery ended up liking the mom more than the puppies so the owner sold the mother to Jeffery and gave Heather one of the puppies for free!  =)

I haven’t seen Jeffery’s new dog yet (her name is Katie) but I have gotten to play with Heather’s new puppy (Winnie) and she’s adorable.  She’s only 8 weeks old and is a little pipsqueak.  Check her out.

Oh..my...uh-gosh... SO CUTE!!! =)

That bone is as big as she is! What a cute little muppet head. =)

Seriously, this dog is just too cute. I can't believe that Sierra was once that small.

Ok, how about a little love for your Aunt Jenny… 

Puppy Kisses!! Aw... what is this feeling, it's like my heart is on fire. =)

Winnie had an vet appointment on Thursday morning so Heather dropped her off Wednesday evening and we had a lot of fun.  It was great having a puppy in the house again however I’m very, VERY happy with my babies Sierra, Lotus and Javy though.  Speaking of even Javy got to have a little fun with his new cousin.

Aw what a good kitty. That's so nice of you to let Winnie chew on your ear Javy Beans.

Well that’s all the time I have to post for now.  I just found out my mom’s knee swelled up pretty bad so Heffies and I are going to take her to the hospital.  I’ll write more later…

So when I came home at lunch to let the dogs out to use the backyard (Lotus is lame on her back right leg so we have to keep her indoors) I found Sierra shaking her head like she had something in her ear.  Boo…  =(

Marshall and I are leaving for Hawaii Sunday night so I couldn’t afford to wait and see if Sierra could shake out whatever was in her ear.  Fortunately I was able to take her in to be seen by the vet and sure enough, she had gotten a foxtail in her ear that had started to put pressure on her ear drum.  Aw, my poor Muppy!

I guess we got off easy. Only $180 to remove a 1" foxtail.

Well after a couple hours at the vet they were able to remove the foxtail and for the first time in a couple days, Sierra seemed extremely happy to see me when I came to pick her up.  I should drop her off at the vet more often. 

Loving my new camera (and my baby dog). She looks so much happier now that she doesn't have a foxtail poking her in the ear. Muppy!!! =)