doggone...

i miss my dogs.

i know this because occasionally i get all mushy thinking about them. this unwelcome occurrence doesn't even have the decency to announce its arrival. it sneaks up on me and covers me with emotional goo.

yuck. frickin' emotions.

a couple days ago, in the park with the children, another family came along with a golden retriever puppy. she was amazingly well-behaved and affectionate and endearing. and i immediately flashed back to my dogs. how they were different, how they were the same.

the pup leaned up against my legs and insisted on a good scritching, just like my dogs...

stop it. go away, good dog. i have no time for you or your puppy kisses or your happy grin or your big ol' goofy paws.

later i was driving along, minding my business, listening to a cd in my car...and stumbled across this lyric...

I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
But though you're still with me
I've been alone all along

boom. thinking about my dogs again. frickin' song lyrics. why do they have to annoy me so. no more songs for me. from now on this a song-free zone. i can't hear you, la la la la...

so anyway, it's occurring to me that i might entertain the idea of another dog. some day. i don't know why.

frick. frickin' dogs.

why do they have to stay with me this way?

reconfiguring

we're in the throes of remodeling our life.

which is to say, in this instance, that our living room now features a fireplace. with a new tv above it. kinda like the picture here, except totally different.

imagine our space without the cut stone surround. or the corner placement. or the knotty pine paneling. or the naughty movie on the tv (as far as you know).

aside from that, it's identical. squint a little...you can see it, right?

anyway, it's an HD tv, and it's mesmerizing. almost like watching real life, except in HD. in high definition you can see things onscreen that you've never seen onscreen before. some of which you could probably do without. unruly nose hairs. scars. makeup. it's like getting right up in somebody's grill with a magnifing glass. sometimes up-close is just too close. sometimes aura and mystique can't stand too much scrutiny.

anyway, we weren't going to get caught up in the whole huge flat screen tv thing. we were quite happy with our 10-year-old-school 32-inch model. the picture quality was perfectly fine, and it was way paid-for. but with the installation of the fireplace it was either go with the flat screen or go sans tv in the living room.

and while our viewing commitment has diminished over the years (we only went dvd last christmas), we weren't prepared to cut it off entirely. so we went flat, we went big, and we went lcd.

it's all relative, i know. we have a 40-inch display, which is much smaller than some in-home family theater multiplex cineramas. but it holds a dominant position up there above the fireplace, and damn if it doesn't get your attention. if you pay attention to such things. if only the available programming was as HQ as the HD.

ah, well.

our ongoing, big-picture, life reconfiguration continues. we can't wait to see what happens next.

blame it on bing

colorado will be having a white christmas.

probably a white new year, too. meanwhile, our seattle christmas just went south.

it was all gonna be so perfect.

my parents were flying in from denver for the holidays. the children were going to be doted on and spoiled with grandparent presents. my wife and i were taking time off from work, and we had sly plans to take advantage of some free babysitting.

win. win.

notice: perfect plan cancelled on account of blizzard.

as of today, colorado is closed. no driving to the airport, no holiday flights, no more fun of any kind. and the forecast for tomorrow doesn't look much better. so flights are stacking up, everything is booked for days, and no one's going anywhere any time soon.

my mom is beside herself. my dad is beside my mom. my family is beside our new gas fireplace, upon which stockings are hung with care.

the weather channel just filled those stockings with coal.

humbug.

could be worse. could be raining. wait...it is raining. and thousands in the puget sound region are still without power after our 10-year storm of 6 days ago. this on the heels of a major snow event in november.

thank god global warming is just a hoax. no telling how crazy things might be if it were real.

so, here we are. the guest room is set up, the fridge is stocked, and we have several bottles of cloyingly sweet white wine for my mom. who's gonna drink this stuff now?

we're dreaming of a dry christmas.

bugger off, bing.

woof

well, come on over here baby
'bout to gimme a heart attack
wanna wrap my lovin arms
around the small of your back
yeah, I'm gonna pull you, pull you, pull you
pull you right up close to me

--don henley

company christmas party last night.

the guys, predictably, wore suits and ties.

the women made more of an effort.

one, kinda like this...



career-limiting move, or brilliant stratagem?