Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

It's raining, it's pouring, the Emma Dog is snoring

Toby wants to play outside but it's raining so I won't let him.

He's not too happy about that; voicing his protest against the weather by pressing his little hands and face against the window and saying "no" repeatably.

It's a pretty funny sight.

Negative Three Degrees - Dead Cold

I almost got rid of my pajamas in a fit of de-cluttering this last week. I'm always so hot in Santa Barbara, it seems like it never gets cold enough for PJs --- but...

Last night was one of the few nights in the year where I was actually pretty cold. So cold, in fact, that I had a dream about being cold.

I went to the hospital in my dream last night. I thought I had a really high fever because I had the chills. They took my temperature and it was negative 3 degrees.

"Well, it's not a fever," the doctor said in my dream, "but it's not good either."

When I woke up, my husband was on the other side of the bed with ALL of the blankets.

Gone to the Dogs

Gone to the Dogs, Dog Tired, Doggonit, Girls gone Wild and take a Toddler along for the ride... I'm not sure what to call this post --- there are just too many fun cliches to choose from.

Toby's canine cousin, my brother's dog Gracie, is visiting us for the week - so the usual chaos that is our house, is even more so. My normally mellow dog, Emma, gets all crazy giddy when Gracie comes over, and it looks like she has that effect on my son too. It was like supervising three toddlers today.

I wasn't able to catch much on film, but I thought I'd share a few images from our day together.

Toby, wants to be just like the dogs and imitates everything they do - right down to pretending to drink from their bowls, after, of course, he's dumped all the water out all over himself and the floors.

Yeah, sometimes it's very cute, and sometimes it's not so cute.

Here they are being really cute, Toby pretending to be a dog:

Toby and the Emma Dog:

Toby and the Gracie Grace:

Gracie really is a sweet and beautiful dog

But...

When the three of them get together, mayhem and foolishness follow.

Girls gone wild.

The two dogs were wrestling on my mom's bed. On top of her white, or, rather, formerly white, bedspread. My fearless son was trying his best to get in to the middle of it all.

I chase the dogs out of the house and run back inside to find Toby, flopping around on the bed laughing - like he's fighting an imaginary dog, a canine version of the Fight Club's Tyler Durden.

We all go outside again where there are less things that can be broken.

Gracie is digging an impressive hole in the mud. Toby runs strait for her. Gracie covers her in fresh soil.

"Gracie! Cut that out." I yell.

She stops.

What does Toby do?

He crawls in the hole that Gracie just made in our garden and claws at the dirt with his hands!

Out of control I tell you! Out of control!

Fire in Santa Barbara

We are all doing well here in Santa Barbara. Sleepy from staying up late watching the news of the fire, but otherwise, we are doing well.

Here's the current update taken from the KEYT website

Fire Status
•2,000 – 2,500 acres burned
•Approximately 100 homes damaged or destroyed
•5,446 homes evacuated
•More than 500 firefighters
•10 injuries from smoke

Laughing Baby

It's been an exciting week around here

We had an earthquake. 

It was a small one but we were at the epicenter, and I felt it for once. 

Yesterday, an armed, American flag-and-gun waving, 28 year old veteran of the Iraq war, held up traffic on the freeway for HOURS. 

Today we voted for the next president of the United States - and Toby napped for over 3 hours. 

Halloween Surprise

Toby likes to collect rocks from the garden. 

Yesterday he picked up, what I imagine he thought was a rock, and it MOVED! 

And it was slimy. 

Poor thing was very scared at first.... 

...by a snail. 

Is it bad that I laughed at him?