Kennesaw hike

Yesterday I got a few messages from Darcy and Chris, who were at the Moat and sent me pix of snowdrifts (12') and beer (mmmmmm!!!). Made me kinda homesick.

Today, I couldn't resist the irony and the temptation to make use of the 72 degrees and sunny here in Atlanta... so I went for a hike with friends up Kennesaw Mountain, a short hike less than 15 min north of my house.



Moose did so well!!! She was tired, and we went slow, but she made it all the way to the top and back down. The hike is about 3 miles total, with an elevation gain of a bit less than 700 feet. She is no longer the young pup who hiked Moosilauke and Chocura with me, but she got it done and by the look on her face, had a fantabulous time. She is currently crashed out downstairs. I don't expect I'll be able to get her to climb the stairs for a few days!

Yeah, I should'a spent my day studying for boards. Oh well. I still have six good hours this evening.

Temperature fluctuations....

i THINK spring is here. The pattern lately is a week of 50s or 60s, then a day or two of cold (it was 24 degrees this morning and snowed the day before that) then back to warm. The snow around here is funny, it's this granular stuff. Wierd texture.

Well, at any rate, my daffodils think it's spring:

boards, part deux

To help you all feel a bit better about living in cold yucky climates (and to offset my slightly gloating last post): guess how i spent my weekend? In a review course for national boards, part two!!

8am to 5pm yesterday and today. Yes, I was in CLASS on sunday morning at 8am (where were you, you lucky dogs??). Next weekend, fri-sat-sun, same deal. Then, midterms (weeks 5 and 6 of the quarter), boards (week 9, weekend - March 14-15), and finals (weeks 10 and 11), in a quick 1-2-3. Smack, smack, smack.

Did I mention a few times already that my family's Bahamas trip, planned for the week after finals this quarter, is a GIGANTIC carrot? Because hell knows i need something to look forward to!

So what's boards review like, you wonder? Imagine being barraged with concept-based (as in, "thought" questions rather than knee-jerk responses) multiple choice questions for sixteen hours (it will be total 40 when the review class is complete) on ALL of the material you have learned in the past 2.5 years, and imagine the questions being phrased in tricky ways that make you have to qualify or disqualify each of the four options. Essay exams would have been a hell of a lot easier. Especially when you take a mildly analytical brain like mine, that is trained to find the exception to EVERY rule.

Boards part two (of four total, part 3 will be in sept, part 4 in nov) will be six exams, 100 questions each, of the same material, over two days.

My brain hurts.

not complaining

so it's early february in atlanta. can someone please tell me what these things are that are sprouting all over my yard? :)

not to gloat, but.... i just spent a while looking at online pix of a sloppy snowstorm in milwaukee. hm, shovel snow or watch daffodils grow... hm that's a tough one...

no inga, yet

sunday as i was heading for my car to meet my cousin in SC, she called and said that her daughter, my cousin Heather, wants to try to take care of Inga. so, for now, moose and billy have their peace and quiet. i have left the offer to my cousins open, so if Heather feels that she cannot handle Inga, she still has somewhere to go.

and so my trio remains as is. Moose is back to herself, even doing her little puppy-hop to greet me as i come in the front door. and her little puppy-bark when i don't feed her quickly enough! like today, when gasp, i fed Billy first. Moose did not like that. what a princess :)

Inga

I have long spoken of the idea of being caretaker to a second pup. It seems the time has come.

Inga is a 3 year old German Shepherd, raised by my cousins' stepdad Bruce. Bruce has not been well of late. Inga will be coming to Atlanta from Florida on Sunday or Monday, depending on my cousin Terri's schedule.

My house will soon have a whole lotta ears!!

oh, my neighbor who hates dogs is gonna be a bit peeved.....

It's snowing in Hot'Lanna

and you should see people on the roads. Hilarious. I'm so, so, so glad I live less than 2 miles from school. That said, it took me an hour today to drive 3 miles to my chiropractor and 3 miles back. :) i really should have ridden my bike.

It's supposed to sleet and slop and ice overnight. I'm hoping classes are cancelled, that'd be sweet!

Zooey playing with Moose and Billy

The following videos are of Baby Zooey, Brie and Seth's 6mo daughter. We had scrabble night a few weeks back and Zooey had just started to crawl... much to the chagrin of my cat. Moose, on the other hand, didn't really seem to mind :)

One reason to love Georgia

is something that many of you will be a little jealous of: lax inspection requirements for car registration.

Now, you all know that my car is safe. There's nothing *much* wrong with it, except that it eats fuses frequently when I shift into reverse. My friend Dave thinks that this may be a fairly simple problem, gunk buildup in the socket causing a short, but I just haven't gotten around to taking the light panels off yet to check - esp when swapping in a new fuse fixes the "problem" just fine (the "problem" being not a lack of reverse lights, per se, but a lack of dashboard/odometer lights, and the inability to start the car. I like to call it an anti-theft mechanism: If you REALLY want my car, you'll have to figure out how to start it when the next fuse blows!) So, yeah, nothing that's a safety issue, much, you just have to stay on top of it and keep extra fuses around.

In many other states, Mass being at the top of the list, my car easily would have failed emissions/inspection today. But not Georgia. They gave me a "pass" with a smile.

Do any of you remember in 2002, when my truck "failed" Mass inspection because the frickin windshield wipers didn't work perfectly???

So, it looks like I will be keeping my car registered in GA until I feel like fixing its little "character" issue. Well, the good thing about that is, since I was 2 months late re-registering and getting emissions inspected, the emissions test will still be valid *next* november, when I go to renew my tags. Not that I've used THAT one to my advantage before.

This brings the sum total of things that could have caused me great inconvenience had I driven north for the holidays to: very sick dog (who is now MUCH better), sloppy snowstorms en route from Detroit to Ct (which might have left me stranded in PA for xmas eve, with afforementioned sick dog), nail in tire (found that when I got home; easy to fix, but that would'a put a wrench in a 2000 mi road trip, eh?), registration expired (oops), license missing (tho fairly speaking, that may not have happened had i left earlier). As frustrating at it was to have not been able to spend some time up north in Dec and over New Years, I think it's safe to say it was for the better?

Ms Cayla Dean and the Moooonkey