A candid conversation with the woman from online banking, demonstrating the current zeitgeist
"Hi, i'd like to add my husband to my savings account, and i'm doing it online. What is this contributed-gift column?"
"That's if you'd like to give him money."
"Oh no, i don't want to do that."
"You bet you don't! Husbands are for giving YOU money!"
"You got it."
"Anna Nicole Smith had it right. She did it the right way."
"She was an inspiration to us all."
skiing the dog
It finally snowed here, on Valentines day in fact. We only got about eight inches, but it's thick and heavy enoughóand with quite a crust from the ice pellets that ended the stormóthat when we tried to walk Rascal in the woods the next day, it was a bit more effort than we like to put in when we're not at the gym (which means ever, for me). So the next day we did things right, and brought out the skis. Then we could glide over the snow with ease and comfort (relative comfort for Leah, who needs new ski boots); even better, we could finally almost keep up with Rascal! Without having to wait up for us as much he was able to run even moreóadd to that the fact that he doesn't have skis and so puts his feet through the crust with every third step.
Actually, it's kind of funny to watch: he's just light enough that he can stay on top of the snow if he treads lightly, but if he runs, or tries to traverse a sunny spot where the snow is softer, he drops right through. This gives him kind of an ungainly motion, as you can imagine. And then the crust itself is pretty slippery, so he has his problems up on their too. I thought it might sour him a little on snow, heretofore his favorite unusual thing to appear covering the ground, ever, but it doesn't seem to have at all. So much the better: we like our puppies tired!