SUNDOG NIPPING AT MY HEELS

I think it has been ten years since my friend Boo took this photo of me. We had driven out east, seeking the plains, and some decrepit old house or factory, on a quest for photographs. It was a common activity back then. Nowadays, I just pull my little digital camera out my pocket.

Ross and I spent my birthday and Christmas in Denver with my family. My mom cooked up a million tasty treats, including a cranberry birthday cake. My camera battery had run down, and I kept forgetting to charge it up, so I took a few photos with Ross' camera. The result of being camera-less was that I ended up in more photos than usual.





Anni is so sadly excluded from the holiday meal, left to languish in the kitchen. (She's not allowed on the carpet.)



But Anni was not excluded from the snowshoe outing with my mom, dad, Brigid, Ross, Georgina and Shelly. We drove to the mountains west of Boulder. Anni went swimming through the snow, and her webbed feet froze with her toes spread, but she didn't care.










I met George through my sister five or so years ago. We snowshoed together that year, too.


Soon Ross and I set off across the wide state of Wyoming where the landscape is dotted with refineries and Adult XXX shops, but we had some great tunes to listen to.


And TS and Jerritt came to town for New Year's. We went cross-country skiing.









Jerritt demonstrated that his face was frozen by the end of the expedition, but it was a gorgeous day, and really not that cold.





A sundog floated across the clear sky, then dissipated.



The trail we chose was trampled by snowshoers and sledders, and quite busy, but we had a good time anyway.







Ross and I were catsitting for a friend. Genghis is the strangest little monkey of a cat.

He is full of hugs and aggressive nuzzles. TS was his favorite.

Ross grew up in Colorado, but his mom was from North Carolina. I had never tasted a grit before college, but Ross' family ate them, and okra, cornbread, black-eyed peas, and pecan pies. Our New Year's Eve dinner was in his family's tradition--black-eyed peas and collard greens, mac and cheese, fried chicken (we cheated and got this from the store), and ice cream topped with pecans and caramel. Nothing like bidding the old year adieu with a little, or honestely, a lot of bacon grease.






Happy 2010!