Anatomy of a Back Ache!

First, here is where the storm finally ran out of steam:

This is not normal for Northern Virginia. Many winters we get nothing more than a dusting. I'd prefer something in the middle, say a foot. This was just plain insane!

We had A LOT of work to get my car and even worse, the driveway, cleared of snow. There is nowhere to put this much snow!

No matter how fit you are, this has got to result in a sore and tired back.....

The driveway looks great now, even fully dried from the warm afternoon sun. However, the court outside my driveway is a whole other issue....

The neighborhood Home Owners Assoc. is responsible for our little court of five houses, and the road it leads to gets cleared by the state DOT. VDOT hasn't been seen today so as a result the HOA can't get to the court. We still won't be going anywhere despite all our work!

Black and White Sunday: What the Buck?!

If you follow me over on FaceBook, you may have seen the photos I posted of a very robust buck that plopped himself down for a rest directly behind my backyard fence,. I couldn't open the backdoor to get a nice sharp shot or he would have fled. But I did get a pretty pose through the window. Then I thought he would make a good holiday prop.....Rudolf resting with his nose so bright!

Here's the original so you can see just how gorgeous this guy truly was....He wandered off before Jimmy or Wilson ever noticed him.

Trick or Treat?

Well, I am afraid whatever you pick, you will end up with the trick and no treat! I've had too much going on lately and I haven't come up with costumes for the boys nor played around on PicMonkey .

I am a bad blogger! Bad!

But I can provide some Halloween color schemes to this post. These shots are from one of our early walks last weekend. I love how the tall tree was catching the morning sun before the others.....

Getting closer......

On FIRE!

I'll share my favorite Halloween themed piece of artwork. It is by the late Charles Wysocki. My copy of this print is just from a calendar he produced back in 1994, but it framed up nicely just the same.

Artist: Charles Wysoki
Click to enlarge for all the fun details

And here she is arriving home......

Have a great weekend, Everyone! 

Don't eat all that candy in one night!

Monday Mischief: No Corgis!

I have to confess to having blogger's block or missing mojo or some such mischief. When it comes to dog pictures right now, "everywhere I went it seems I'd been there before" (to steal a line from a James Taylor song). I carry my camera as always, but I don't seem to be finding shots that interest me. Of course it doesn't help to do dog-free events on the weekends either. 'Tis the season of the county fairs right now and sadly they are not welcoming to dogs. I totally understand why, but, oh so many missed photo-ops! Let me share some sights from the past weekend.....

Classic American pastimes......

As you can see, I was facing into the sunset. The monster trucks were kicking up a huge amount of dust, and I noticed this scene playing out in the background....Dad trying to catch his fleeing little boy.....Snag!

And what is a county fair with out all of the midway entertainment?

And of course the animals....This next guy looked best in black and white.....It's a wonder he can even raise his head from the ground!

I'll leave it here since I am so far off-topic. No worries though, there is already a Wordless Wednesday post in the queue!

THE END!

100 Countries!

I am well aware that my blog fits in a small niche, one of dog topics and photos, and is even further narrowed down by being about just my Cardigan Welsh Corgis. And when it comes to dog blogs, mine is decidedly not a trend setter! But it makes me happy and that's the point, right? But, nichey or not, it is still fun to think of all the people from around the world that have stopped by to check out my blog, whether by a misleading search engine result or deliberate hit. Well, for the longest time the little Visitors widget at the very bottom of my screen has been sitting at 99 countries having visited my blog. I look at it every couple of days and there it sits....99. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when today hit the nice round number of 100! Yay!

I don't usually dig any deeper than the above little flag summary, but today I figured it was worth looking at some details.....(Click to enlarge the fine print....)

There is even a complete list of all 100 countries but I don't need to post that much detail! The internet sure has made the world a much smaller place! It was a lot of fun reviewing the information. If you want to add this neat little widget to your blog, you can get it here. The basic one like mine is free.

So, for those of you viewing this blog post....
Where in the world are you from?

Is This What They Mean.....but NCC*

*NCC = No Corgi Content

.......by the expression.....

Out on a Limb?

He's level with my second floor window.

The close-up....That squirrel isn't sitting on much!

Moments before I snapped the photo, this squirrel was dangling from his hind feet, stretched as far as possible to get one of the last few berries on the tree. He saw me in the window and sat back, ruining the real shot I was trying to get (of course!). This is an ornamental pear tree and it gets covered in miniature "pears". They must be tasty because Jimmy and Wilson scour the ground under the tree for them. Or maybe it's just bunny poop the boys are eating, left by the bunnies that were scouring the ground for the little fruits.

Fortune Cookie Wisdom.....but NCC*

* No Corgi Content

I'm not a big fan of Chinese food, but of course I do eat it now and again. And, of course, it always comes with a fortune cookie as dessert. We all know the best part of that is the fortune inside. Now there's a chance you've heard of the game kids (teenagers I hope!) play where when you read your fortune out loud you add the words "in bed" to the end of whatever is written for the fortune. This always adds a lot more giggles to the meaning of the fortune.

Well, being agility obsessed as I am, I read fortunes for how they can relate to the journey Jimmy and I are on to our agility championship. I then save the ones that I feel are inspirational. So, while not giggle-inducing, they still have an effect on me. I was cleaning out my wallet the other day and here are the ones that I felt were worthy of keeping.....

Click to enlarge for better readability

I am not sure which one is my favorite. They are all meaningful to me or I would not have saved them, but I think "Do not let ambitions overshadow small success" is a very relevant one for agility. It is so easy to leave the ring disappointed when you don't qualify and completely disregard the fact that some other challenge in the ring was met with perfection. There is quite a mind game to agility for the human team member and it's funny how these little pieces of paper can raise good points!

Oh and it's also funny if you add "in bed" to any of these. "Your dearest wish will come true in bed". LOL! See how that works ;-)

Which One Is Not Like The Others?.......but NCC*

*NCC.....No Corgi Content......

I thought I'd spare everyone more of the old header photos (at least for this morning!), and share a sighting that really amused me.

On one of my walks down by the neighborhood lake, I saw this scene at a distance. It was across the lake on the other shore. The photo is not the best as it was at the limit of my 70-200 telephoto lens. Be sure to click to enlarge so you can really see it.....

The funny thing is, the turtles are so paranoid that movement from me, even all the way across the lake, is usually enough for them to all scatter and head under water. But that Canada Goose doesn't bother them one bit. They almost look like friends!

A Dose of Vitamin D...but NCC*

*NCC....No Corgi Content

I don't think we've seen the sun in my area for about a week now. It hasn't been very cold, just constantly overcast or raining. It might snow this afternoon and then the next three days are predicted to be cold and sunny (Yea!). But, to get through the last of the cloud cover, here are my last three beach pictures until our next trip. I absolutely LOVE being on the beach as the sun goes down. The light is just so beautiful!

Washington's Not Just About The Politics....NCC*

*No Corgi Content

Before I launch into a week's (or more!) worth of beach posts, I wanted to share a couple of photos I took back in early September. Living as I do in the Washington DC area, politics are an inescapable fact of life, Presidential election year or not. There's always some hub-bub or scandal afoot, but that doesn't mean you can't find a peaceful moment. For my birthday, we decided to take in a change of scenery, and headed over to the National Harbor . It's a relatively new commercial/residential/private marina development on the Potomac River. While technically it's in Maryland, it's just across the river from DC. We wandered around the shops a bit and had dinner with a nice view of the water. Afterwards, we strolled down the main dock to ogle the many large yachts moored there. The day was just about over and the sun was setting across the river. Here's how it looked.....

 

 Too bad Washington isn't always this calm and peaceful!

Road Trip, Day Two...but still NCC

We had been warned that this was the absolute peak of the tourist season, what with Canada Day just past and Independence Day mid-week. While there were plenty of people sight-seeing, it wasn't the hordes I was expecting from reading reviews. Our plan was to do the Maid of the Mist boat ride first thing Tuesday morning to beat what I read was hours of waiting. As it turned out we were able to walk right up and buy our tickets, get in line with what looked like lots of people, but board the very next boat headed to the Falls.

Here's how it went....

We looked like a bunch of blue penguins waddling down to board our boat!

The American Falls as well as the Observation Deck on the American side.

A closer look at the American Falls. The penguins are yellow on that side!

This smaller cascade is called the Bridal Veil.

At this point our boat moved in very close to the large Horseshoe Falls. We were getting drenched at this point so I didn't take as many pictures. I was using my point-and-shoot as I didn't want to risk my DSLR! It was so fun getting in this close. I couldn't stop giggling with delight!

The larger Horseshoe Falls

A view back toward the larger falls as we headed back to port.

A view from the walk back up from the dock. The water is an almost Caribbean Blue!

The Maid of the Mist area above the dock has a large gift shop as well as a fast food chain so you can get a bite to eat. The prices were quite shocking!

The prices may well have beat what I've seen in NYC! Glad I wasn't starving!

We truly had a blast riding the boat, and seeing the Falls up so close. It is totally a don't-miss-it attraction! So we had finished our must-do item and it was still just midday. We headed back to the room so we could get the boys out for some fresh air and exercise! My next post will finally include some Cardi pictures!

Road Trip!......but NCC*

*NCC...No Corgi Content

We took a short road trip over the 4th of July week. As you may have guessed from my fireworks photo the other day, we headed north to visit Niagara Falls. Originally, we had planned to make it an add-on to the trip to this year's Cardigan National Specialty. It was only about four hours from Ohio, but the unseasonably cold weather and then 10 inches of snow in Buffalo, led us to cancel that part of our trip. In hind sight, it's great we saved it for July. It allowed us to get away from the hideous heat in our area, and was a real change of pace for Independence Day fireworks. Every review I read said to stay on the Canadian side of the Falls, so we did. And of course, Jimmy and Wilson came along for the ride! My boys are now international travelers!
It was an eight hour drive due north pretty much, through pretty mountains and forests. We got to our motel and settled the boys in, and headed out for some evening sightseeing.

We decided to ride the elevators up to the top of the Skylon Tower and see the Falls from way up!

There's a restaurant at the top, and the whole thing revolves to change your view.

In peak tourist season, fireworks are shot off each night over the Falls, so we did not need to wait for the 4th to be entertained! In the tower, you are up higher than many of the fireworks.

Here's the view.....

The American Falls

In a different direction, you can see the Canadian tourist area, including a Sky Wheel similar to what Myrtle Beach has, but without the colors. Click to enlarge this photo, and you will see that apparently, dinosaurs still roam the Canadian lands......

There's a mini Jurassic Park at the base of the Sky Wheel

That was about it for the first day. We walked back to our motel that was a few blocks from the main tourist area, and hit the hay!

Living the T-Shirt Life - Volume Four.....but NCC*

* No Corgi Content

Today is National Bike to Work Day!

Today is  National Bike to Work Day. Living, as I do,  right on the W and OD Bike Trail/Park , which is a major bicycle commuter route, I thought I would participate in today's event. It was a well-coordinated effort and if you pre-registered for the event, you got a t-shirt. Who doesn't love a free t-shirt?! I often walk the dogs along the horse trail that runs parallel with the paved bike trail so I know the usual volume of bikes going to work in the morning. There was very definitely a big uptick in the amount of riders out there today! As part of the event, there are pit-stops scattered throughout the region. There was one about three miles from my house, so that's where we headed to pick up our t-shirts, etc. They were providing fruit, snacks, drinks, etc.

Pit Stop in Sterling, Virginia

Now, I work for a great company that allows us to work from home at least one day a week. Friday is my usual day, so I can't really say I biked to my office (a 17 mile ride!), but I did bike to "work" since I rode home after checking out the pit-stop.

Did anyone else ride a bike to work today?

Previous entries in my Living the T-shirt Life series:

Volume One

Volume Two

Volume Three

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, EVERYONE!