Furry fun

I'm currently dogsitting 2 of the cutest labs on the planet, Winnie and Maddie (oh, yeah, there's a cat around here, too somewhere... as evidenced by loud meows at all hours of the night that sound like a small child who's very cold, hungry, or in pain though clearly this obese feline is none of these...but I digress from the protagonists of the story, the dogs and yours truly). Winnie and Maddie are 3 year old litter mates and cute, cute, cute, dontcha think???

Here's Winnie:

This is Maddie

This is "We're sitting for a cookie, why is that camera phone in our face?" pose

These wonderful creatures (and me until tomorrow) live in Ballard where, like everywhere else in the Seattle area, "SNOWSTORM 2008" hit last night. This storm-- which has been over-predicted for several days-- actually happened (!) and snow fell last night until past midnight.

I was scheduled to work this morning at the 12 K's of Christmas Fun Run in Kirkland with an arrival time of 5:00 a.m. After a beer and dinner with my pal, Lisa, at the 74th St. Ale House last night, I came home and attempted to crash early. This was unsuccessful for several reasons: (1) my head was way too busy, (2) 2 dogs in the bed leaves less-than-optimal space for a human (this does not help my body image, suddenly I feel too big for a bed?!), and (3)the snow/road conditions + alarm set for 4:00 a.m. I got up at 11:00 to watch the news, the snow, and a bit of SNL while the dogs didn't budge out of the bed (after all, why should they?). I think I finally slept from about 12:30 - 3:30 and then was UP again. I fed the dogs (who were like, "Food at 4 a.m., cool, you can dog sit anytime!") and enlisted their help for a quick walk and road condition assessment, trying not to think about how wacko it is to be walking in the freezing cold at 4 a.m. on a Sunday. Things weren't too frozen, so I decided to get out there and go to Kirkland with my biggest ski coat, toe and hand warmers, lobster gloves, boots...and a marginal attitude. The drive was no problem and I got to the site to meet up with my friend, Karra, and the other race prep peeps.

We set things up for the race for an hour or so at which time the Race Directors said that the Kirkland police might cancel the race due to slip 'n slide ice conditions...we had to wait till 7:00ish for a decision, during which time we idled at least half a tank of someone's gas blasting heat in a truck to sauna level temperatures. The cops cancelled the race and I was free to bail at 8:00 a.m....let's just say I was not disappointed.

I got home and took the doggies to a local school ball field for a little illegal off-leash action. On the way there, I did a little impromptu skating as 2 energetic 70ish pound labs pulled on their leashes in anticipation. They are really good on leash, but get pretty excited before a play session. Fortunately, I stayed upright, albeit leash tangled here and there. After some swearing and near misses of my butt-on-pavement, we arrived at the field to find at least 10 other outlaw dogs playing off leash in the snow with their humans. Good times. They are a blast to watch as Maddie will fetch endlessly as if impersonating a cheetah (ok, that's an embellishment, but she is crazy fast), and Winnie chases Maddie, never the ball. Yesterday we were at Golden Gardens where they turned into 4-legged mudballs, but today the grass and snow prevented a chilly post play hose session.

Not sure what's on the schedule for the rest of the suddenly free day...perhaps a nap or some studying. This week is finals week and I have 4 to go including one big one on Thursday. I can't believe the first quarter is almost over already!