Snow Covered Clematis Trellis

The arrival of Spring took another step back when we got a foot of Springtime snow on Monday/Tuesday. The kind of heavy, wet snow that sticks to everything and makes for unique and very interesting photos.

This is the clematis trellis on the East side of the house.  I made this trellis a few years ago with concrete re-mesh leftover from making DIY Heavy Duty Tomato Cages.  It's kinda crazy that in a couple of months this will (hopefully) be full of Jackmanii Clematis, overflowing with green vines and billows of blueish flowers. 

Thundersnow!!

We're in the midst of a late season Spring blizzard here in North Dakota. We might be mildly dreading all the shoveling and snow hauling that we'll be doing over the next few days, but for now we're enjoying our snow day.  The dogs are tucked away in their heated beds and the people are hunkered down on their couches, plugging away on various computerized work tasks.  Not bad for a Monday. 

The weather reports have indicated that there is a chance of a very rare weather phenomena - Thundersnow!! (yes exclamation points are required)  It's been reported to the Southwest of us and The National Weather Service predicts there's a chance that we'll get thundersnow here.  

I've heard thundersnow before when I lived in Connecticut many years ago. I distinctly remember thinking how cool it was to have a thunder cell embedded in a snow storm.  The convection that you need for thunder and lightning is almost always associated with warmer storms, the typical tropical summer thunderstorm, and pretty rare for snow making systems.  We're on baited breath here hoping for thundersnow.  Intrigued?  NASA has a pretty great article if you want to learn more about Thundersnow. 

End of March Blizzard

The headline from the National Weather Service says - End of March Blizzard...No Foolin'. 

If the various weather experts are to be believed, we're in store for 10 to 20 inches of snow starting early tomorrow morning and all throughout the day.  No promises, but we could have some "Puppy playing in the piles of fresh snow" movies by tomorrow.  You can hope for that, I'll be busy hoping for a snow day, or two.

More Talking Dogs and Talking Titos' Tax Tips

When Alycia sent me the videos of talking dogs while she was on Spring break last week, I naturally did my best to take it to its fullest logical conclusion.  It was a busy weekend of chores, outings, watching March Madness Basketball, and lots of grading tests/assignments for work.  I did manage to make the following Tito video. It makes me laugh.

Then I got to thinking - "What would be the funniest thing that I could get Tito (and the other dogs) to say?" The best idea I had was that Tito could read from my Income Tax textbook.  But that quickly lead me to realize that it doesn't have to be funny, my students could totally learn tax stuff from a talking dog!!! If just once while they're working during tax season, or taking a test in my class and they remember one of Talking Titos' Tax Tips, well then it has all been worth it. 

We thought these were so informative, that we created a separate page here on Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes.  You can see all of Talking Titos' Tax Tips for yourself. And yes, I've made all of these videos available as a resource to my students. 

Professor Cummings on Spring Break

What does a high level academic like Professor Cummings do on Spring Break? Are you envisioning thoughtful Ivory Tower contemplation?  Data analysis with scientific looking computer graphics? Grant writing?  Scientific examination of complex brain wave patterns of language development?  Or this...

This was one of three videos that Alycia/Professor Cummings e-mailed me the other day while I was at work.  Proof positive that she was hard at work with high level academic matters.

I was quite impressed that Alycia was able to teach all three dogs to talk in only a matter of a few days.  This is all courtesy of an app from her iPad called My Talking Pet.  It's highly entertaining, but maybe not the high level stuff you'd expect from a college Professor.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  There won't be any corned beef, or cabbage, or green beer, but Shadowfax the deaf pittie celebrated anyways with a few things green.

She played with her green stick, the awesome and very hardy Goughnuts dog toy. 

Then heartily napped in her green slumber ball.  OK, so she might not have even understood that it was St. Patrick's Day today, but to her each and every day is a holiday and that's just one of the many reasons we love her. 

Camry Update - It Lives!!!

The hero has just stabbed the creature from the deep/crazed psycho camp killer and breathes a sigh of relief that the ordeal is over, only to have the creature lurch back to life once again.  Why on earth these movie characters don't decapitate, hack, chop, mince, puree, and set fire to the creature to make sure it's dead has always troubled me.  Horror movies aside, the Camry that we said farewell to lives on like a horror movie creature.  Well a tiny little piece of the Camry lives on...the license plate. 

Unbeknownst to us (and poorly communicated to us by our local Subaru dealer), we were supposed to keep the license plates from the Camry before we traded it in to the dealership.  Miscommunications and non-hilarity ensued and we ended up having to request new license plates from the North Dakota Department of Motor Vehicles, but these "new" license plates were actually the same ones as from the Camry.  There's some manner of bureaucratic issue here where it's easier to keep the same plates and switch the car that they're associated with than to request new plates.  I don't pretend to understand the mechanations of the North Dakota DMV.  

The vehicle that replaced the Camry (a Subaru Impreza - more on our new car in a later post) will now proudly carry around its' license plate, so a tiny piece of the Camry spirit will live on in infamy.  If the new car doesn't feel like starting or begins leaking various fluids, a vehicular exorcism may be in order to expel the Camry demons from the new car, but for now we'll just assume the best.

Slushy Snow Playtime with Shadowfax

It was 40 degrees outside today, the first tangible and credible evidence of Springs' arrival.  The snow was soft and slushy, perfect for getting some fresh air and sunlight on our winter weary skin. 

The dogs were all exhibiting Spring fever and we happily obliged them with some time outside.  I had on shorts and a sweater, Alycia had her more typical pink jacket and track pants.  Alycia's outfit was more about puppy-splashing management than being cold though, so don't judge her.

Alycia is utilizing the unconventional "two-handed" throwing method for tossing deflated basketballs to Shadowfax.  The deflated basketballs are one the best toys we've ever purchased.  Not only are they less than $1 at a local thrift store (or free from Freecycle), but Shadowfax loves them.  They have just enough give but still offer chomping resistance and haphazard bounces when thrown.  She's a happy little pup.