winter blues

I hate winter. Have I mentioned that? I love the look of snow falling. I love the snow on the trees. I love the beauty of it. I even love the fun (sledding, snow ball fights, snowmen, etc). But even all of that love isn't enough to make me want put up with this. I can't stand the cold. It makes my fingers ache. I feel like I haven't been warm in 3 months and like I have Raynaud's Syndrome. Although, there are 12 other serious health issues that have cold hands as a common symptom. The interesting ones are Marine turtle poisoning and Naked brimcap poisoning. Since I haven't eaten any turtles or wild mushrooms lately, I've crossed those two off of my "potential disease" list. But I digress... Winter and I don't get along. It makes me hurt, and I make cruel statements about it for 7 months. So here I am in January, getting bitter about the negative temperatures (today's high is 14... the low is 4... and it's been much lower than that recently), and still having 4 more months of this.

Other than the temperature and ice, I'm doing well. The puppy (henceforth "Tequila") is growing fast. And she's quite a fiesty little one. She is in the process of learning (and relearning and relearning...) not to bite or growl or bark at us. She wants to play all the time (and particularily at 5 AM).... we're teaching her to "sleep in" till 7 as well. Chief has finally come around and has begun to play with her, which is adorable. But when he barks (playfully) she gets scared and runs and hides, only to stick her head out from under the chair and growl and bark at him... as long as she can get out of his reach quickly. But she's mine, and an adorable little ball of fluff and energy. I love her to death.

Last weekend we went on a wine tour with Guy's family (mom, sister, cousin and cousin's bf). It was an ice wine tour... I'm not a huge fan of ice wines. It tastes a little bit like drinking honey. But it was fun (and cold!). Guy and I got stopped at the border (we were in Canada) on our way home and they searched our car. Fun times. This next weekend my company is having their winter party. I'm trying to convince Guy to wear his kilt for it, but I'm having a hard time being persuasive enough... Although he has promised to wear it to our friends wedding in March that he's DJing (and I'm photographing).

Other than work and sleep, life is slow here in the Arctic. We're working on our summer travel plans, which I'm pretty excited about (July = wedding in PA, then NC for a week to check it out, and back home - hopefully incorporating visiting some friends in there as well). Until then, I think life will continue to be pretty slow...