A Tale of Two Quills

Okay, so up until now we've been pretty lucky with the dogs and the wildlife they encounter in the forest. Well today that ended.

On their run through the woods with Rich today, little madam, a.k.a Razzy, managed to spook a porcupine and get two quills in her snout for the effort. Of course, from all accounts Bo reacted exactly as a big, scary dog should -- cowering behind Dad for protection. Well, shouldn't complain -- it could have been much worse. On Christmas Eve the dogs actually found a porcupine nest. (I guess the porcupine was sleeping off too much Christmas egg nog to care about two dumb dogs.

Here's a pic of the two dogs yesterday posing before the Christmas tree (before it was unceremoniously ripped down and tossed on the curb.)

In other news, today was the first day of my new job -- I've accepted a position in our policy branch to to provide communications advice related to the assessment of our enabling legislation. As dry as that may sound, I think it will be interesting from my perspective. Much more hands on and writing. I was needing a change, and I hope this is a good one. It's a 6-month assignment, so if it's really not my cup of tea, back to the web advising gig.

New Year's Resolutions

Okay, so I'm technically 2 days late in making my resolutions ... so, obviously resolution number 1 is "don't procrastinate". And the rest:

2. Stick to my eating and exercise plans (2 days in and check, and check!)
3. Work on training my dogs to be good canine citizens (sigh! always a challenge) Most importantly: stop their darn barking at everyone who walks down the street, and greet people on four legs (must remember to read animal farm to them -- but stop before the pigs start walking on two legs).
4. Remember Roxy in only happiness.
5. Take more photos of the dogs, especially when they are playing like fool animals (currently, they are both working on old socks of Richard's... too funny!)

All right, I realize these are some pretty basic resolutions, but they always say to have achievable goals. Number 2 and 3 will be the hardest to stick, so will rely on the support of friends and family.

Most importantly, I resolve to treasure every day I have with my family (bipeds and quadpeds) and friends (who we are lucky to have in abundance), and to enjoy life.