Weekend in MA

I'm a bit late posting this due to my wildly hectic social life and numerous charity events and all (ok, you caught me, it's just laziness). A couple of weekends ago we went up to Massachusetts. I was thinking of never stepping foot in the state again after their election of a certain Republican senator who shall remain nameless (we'll call him "Scott Brown"). But since the fam is up there, we swallowed our pride and jumped on the pike. On Saturday we met up with Steven for a ski/snowboarding trip. We did the night skiing at Crotched Mountain. Well, Steve and I were on skis and Rodney took his board. He's getting really good on his snowboard now and I figured I would need to be on skis to keep up with the boys since I am so slow on my board. Turns out neither of us had a chance of keeping up with Steven so he headed off to ski some black diamonds while the Nelsons pottered about on the green trail. This is Rodney on his bum again. :) Actually this one was not the result of a fall - he is just getting strapped in after getting off the ski lift. There were plenty of other times spent on bums but we never got any good shots of those, unfortunately (or fortunately). While we were on the slopes, Mum was happy to puppysit for her newest grandpuppy.Sophie also got to meet Grammy Kit Kat for the first time.When we got in from skiing, Mum was in bed with all 3 dogs - Petra, Steven's pooch Merlin and Sophie. I'm not sure if the Bruntons will be offering to puppysit again any time soon but Sophie sure had a good time.

Wooly Jumper

We have become those people. You know those people who yammer on and on about their pets until you want to gouge your own eye out with a rusty spoon just so that you can go to the hospital and get a break from hearing about it? Well, that's us now! It's all "Sophie this" and "Sophie that." Ugh, we're so annoying. But can we help it if ours is the cutest pet that ever lived? Here are some more Sophie photos so that you might all share in the cuteness.
Sophie has an ever expanding wardrobe. Pretty soon she'll have more clothes than her humans. I have picked her up a few sweaters, then her grammy brought down a few things and most recently, Joanie sent her a knitted jumper in the mail. We have yet to sew up the seams of that one but here is another of her favorites: Sophie loves to help mummy with her charting. Do you think this is a violation of patient privacy laws?Her agility training is coming along nicely. We keep catching her running through her tunnel when she thinks no one is looking.Time for a rest after all that working and playing. It's a tough life as I'm sure you can imagine.

The Sophisticated Snowman

Someone's dressed for a party in Cheshire. We were supposed to get a lot of snow. Some predicted 12 - 18 inches. Well we maybe got 4 inches. At least it was good sticky snow that is perfect for building a snowman. That extra pipe insulation that we had in the basement made for good arms and a mouth. A duct tape bow tie, a trash can for a hat and some bottlecap buttons and Mr.Snowman is ready to hit the town. Or perhaps he will just welcome visitors to our house with his smile and a tip of his hat.

Lillången Sink

We finally got around to replacing the shell sink. Yes, I believe it may have been one of the world's ugliest sinks, with its shell shaped bowl and gold colored taps. "Send me back to the eighties", it pleaded... so we did. The vanity was just as bad, so we built a new door, gave it a glossy new black coat of paint and added new hardware. The 1" glass tiles are featured as a decorative backsplash. The new sink came all the way from Europe, via Ikea of course. We had to jimmy the European plumbing a little to fit but it all came together nicely. On to the next project.

Sophie on the stairs

Sophie has been able to climb the stairs for a couple of weeks now. The problem was that she couldn't get down and would just sit up at the top and bark until we carried her down. Jen decided it was time for her to learn to do it herself. Now she is free to cause havoc on whichever level she likes.