it's new year's eve, and there's still a ton of snow outside

christmas spirited sophie!

surprisingly, the snow is still here--usually it is gone in a day or so, but this is sticking around. we have some giant old cottonwoods in the back that are dropping enormous branches full of snow (fortunately not on the house) and creating an obstacle course for gus. all of our neighbors lost power yesterday, yet we are still okay--we had to buy a ridiculously expensive transformer for our house when we moved in because the electrical system here was way inadequate and out of date, and i have complained mightily about it, yet it seems to have paid off!

rich is up at his call clinic, again, and hopefully there won't be anything too bad later--tonight is the night that people come in for putting champagne bottles in the freezer that then explode in the eye. september is when people come in for putting beer bottles in the freezer (to sit and watch football with a cold one) that then blow up in the eye. what's the lesson for the day? (email me if you need a hint.) i need to ask him how many enucleations he has done because of that. pictures today are from the last couple of weeks--since the holidays are almost over i thought i'd get these on while they're relevant. i hope everyone has a happy, safe, healthy 2007!


gus picking out our tree in the cibola national forest (yes, we had a permit)


gus with the conquered christmas tree


you can take the boy out of iowa...sophie looks totally frightened


gus with his first new mexico snow angel--this is what snow usually looks like in albuquerque

an iowa day in new mexico!

a familiar winter sight greeted us this morning--massive snowfall! and that sight was followed by another familiar one: rich trying to get to work, in a car he is still not used to driving, because the poor guy is on call. and not just the Corporation's call, but citywide call. so you can imagine the unbelievable stress he is under...and now he is out driving in a foot of snow. that much snow in iowa might not be so bad--the city would plow the streets and salt/sand the roads--but in new mexico, where this much snow is an anomaly, it is a rather scary event. but look how much fun gus is having! more pictures to follow...





UPDATE: rich made it back from the call clinic, and got to spend the rest of the afternoon doing this:



...and a little of this:



...and right now he is building a lego imperial starship destroyer with gus (i was told no photos until it is finished) and hoping that he doesn't have to drive anywhere else tonight. blindness having been abated in albuquerque for one more day...

and so it begins...

...we are now part of the blogosphere. i really just wanted to post cheesy, snapshot-type photos of the family in a blog format (without updating my OSX, buying ilife '06 AND subscribing to .mac), so let's see how this works. let me know what you think!