Knick, Knack, Patty Whack...

Give the dogs a bone...

Sarah kept offering me her prized bone throughout the evening. How sweet of her! (How gross!!)

Thankfully, she changed her mind and decided to keep it all to herself!

Wanted

Caitlin has been receiving a lot of college invitations lately. Dozens come each day. Here's a snap of today's. I guess these institutions have also been hit by a tough economy. But I suppose the loggers are doing well.

Happy Ness!

Ever had Diet Coke Gummi candy? Neither had I until Miranda brought home a variety pack with a lone one in it recently. Cait found these for me and gave them to me for Valentine's Day. Happy cola? Happy Ness!

Favorite Munchkin

Emily and Nathan joined us for Beef Stew, Biscuits, and Cheesecake (Emily made a Turtle Cheesecake) this evening. Adam had his first pureed banana. True to Summers tradition, he loved it. It was indeed a moving experience for him.

Carl trained Emily in being his teaching assistant at Strayer.

Nathan coached me through adding a calendar archive to my blogs.

We all discussed prototypes for electronic medical records.

Adam enjoyed watching "The Wizard of Oz" for the first time tonight. But we had more fun watching our own little munchkin!

Underdog

Ground Hog day yesterday reminded me of my mom's dog, Boscoe. Boscoe was given to my mom by her friend when she could no longer keep him. Here he is with my mom celebrating my brother, David's wedding in August 1987. We had the reception in our front yard of our Maryland home and Mom dressed him up in a bow tie.

I don't think we would have ever chosen a long-haired daschund but he was adorable and a wonderful dog. Irreplaceable.

Boscoe loved to dig ground hogs out of our yard. He would literally pull them up from "down under" and have his way with them. We intercepted when we could since it wasn't always a pleasant outcome. As much as we loved Boscoe, we always rooted for the under dogs. We hoped they'd run away before he could start shaking them.

Boscoe was sometimes even smaller than his unearthed "friends." Small dog: big ego: huge heart.

Shadowlands

Thinking about the groundhog and his shadow made me notice and want to photo shadows that I encountered today. I started seeing shadows very early in the morning when I took Chase to Seminary (Caitlin was sick). I only took an opportunity as I returned from lunch to capture a few shadow photo ops.

The gentleman walking under the flags chastised me for not wearing a coat. "What would your mother say?," he teased. Shadows. Shadows of people, shadows of former times, shadows of current times, shadows of former conversations and advice.

Yes, the groundhog saw his shadow today -- and my world was filled with shadows.

Muddy Paws

Cait, the dogs, and I traveled to John Brown Lane to bring an outside replacement light to my tenants. We then went "next door" to a favorite walking spot - the C&O Tow Path, just outside of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

57 degrees seemed like a good bet for the path. But notice the mud and slush. Oh my! We only spent a few minutes here before we realized that it wasn't working.

We all tracked muddy paws into my fairly clean car. And then found a dry neighborhood to walk the canines before we headed back home to Purcellville.

Oh, well, my car needed a spring detail anyway. And speaking of, see you in the spring time, Tow Path!