Veenter Vonderland

There is a sign in the ski school yurt where I work selling lessons. My coworkers and I have debated what it could have originally been intended for, but we are at a loss. We have a very low-risk job, and most of the girls have long hair, and we've all been known to wear scarves, and I can't say that my clothing is all that tight fitting:

Mighty winter storms have been hanging out with us, which makes walks with Moma really fun, since she is a regular Snow Poodle. See if you can spot her perfectly posed body in this shot:
Her favorite thing is to run full-tilt and then lower her head and scoop up the delicious snow in her mouth. Or to bury her head under the snow and just lay there, content. We have to dust her off a lot:
Something got this Poor Coyote; we think a car hit him or some fool idiot shot him for fun. He was really pretty though, and surprisingly healthy for it being the middle of winter. We found him before the snowfall, and now he's just a lovely little outline under a juniper tree:

Epidermaly Bereft, and Happy for it.

Not only was today National Pie Day, but it was (self-declared) National Alpenglow Appreciation Day. Both holidays were duly celebrated, with a big HUP HUP HUP to Bob-my-father-in-law for the pie, and a mighty slap on the back to Taylor and I for getting up really early (and on my day off) to make it up the hill by the time the alpenglow was in full bloom.
We ran, really hard, in the -3 degree weather, and all the heaving and gasping I was doing frosted myself right up:
But all of our efforts payed off BIG time when we saw the beauty of the splendid Cascades and a full moon to boot. You can see that Moma really got into the spirit of the day:
Also today we went and saw a concert (Taylor's first one since last August! Crimeny!). A band called Langhorne Slim and the War Eagles rocked us out of our skins. I'm totally skinless right now, and I will be for a while, because of their hard rockin' rockin-ness. And if you don't go out and check these guys out, you will never know the pleasure of having your epidermis fall off out of pure musical satisfaction.

Colors!

I know it has been 13 days since I last wrote, but I truly had nothing to say. Our puppy is doing well, I am working full time at the mountain being a barista, and Taylor is ship shape as ever- but isn't writing just to say that merely being boastful? And am I being boastful right now by oh so artfully slipping in how well everything is?
In any case,I now have something to show- this picture I found of a building in Iowa or Ohio or one of those silly Midwest states, and it's beautiful, and worth a post. It makes me think of great colors, and how I should think in colors more often:

Part Three: The Grand Entrance and Exit of General George Custer.

(Read the words of General Custer first in each frame)




*Extra points to the reader who recognizes the awesome movie reference in the last frame.

Moma Hearts Nature.

Our dog has decided that she wants to be a deer. We have a resident herd of mule deer that hang out on the lawn most evenings, and Moma's favorite thing in life is to sit about 20 feet away from them and just stare- for hours. We once left her out there for two hours (supervised, OBviously), and she only moved her eyeballs. She is just about the raddest dog in the history of canines:

Part Two: Squirrel Meets Clem.

Part One: Squirrel's Thoughts.

(You might have to click on each picture to enlarge in order to read the words.)

Organland.

www.freecycle.org is the awesomeness that is the future. It is a message board that you subscribe to (through your town name), where people post things they are giving away, and things they need. And money can't be involved, it's all free stuff! Today Taylor and I picked up an electric organ from a very nice lady and her two kiddies. So great!
Our acquisition of this amazing gem is definately the best thing that has happened to us in 2008. Moma isn't as impressed, though, because the noise hurts her little thick skull:
And take a look at these buttons. We have the Wow-Wow, Manual Attack, and Add Main to Leslie buttons, among others. I'm practically melting with the coolness of this thing: