return

We got back yesterday evening. There was snow over all of upstate New York, and a light covering here, just enough to turn the lawns white. Very pretty.

We had a lovely time in New Jersey - saw lots of family (some people several times, which was a real treat), ate, drank, hung out, told stories. The large gathering was also a little bittersweet, as we won't all be together again any time soon. With my mom spending the winter in Florida, two nephews and a niece living in the western US, and my sister touring universities with another niece, there isn't a lot of family visiting on the horizon. All the more reason to enjoy it when it's possible.

Cody is the perfect traveler - easy-going, well behaved and always up for a road trip. That's a little bittersweet, too, of course, since traveling with her is made possible by Buster's absence. Although Buster was extremely well behaved, his anxiety and aggression issues made traveling with him impractical. And even without those issues, I'm not about to invite myself to someone's home with two dogs. But one quiet dog, without her playmate, is no trouble to anyone. She was a big hit, everyone really enjoyed her. So it was great to have her with us, but also tinged with a little sadness. As the cliche goes: such is life.

I was only able to briefly skim comments while I was gone, so I'll be reading through them more thoroughly today. I look forward to catching up with y'all. Check out our sweet Canadian Cody.

canadian cody 002

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

not so fast

Not everyone thinks the Conservative government is a lock. Canada's opposition Conservative Party, which is set to bring down the minority Liberal government later this week, was hit by a new opinion poll on Monday that showed it was trailing in the country's most vote-rich region. The Leger Marketing poll for the Sun chain of newspapers put support for the Liberals in the powerful central province of Ontario at 43 percent compared with 31 percent for the Conservatives. Ontario, a Liberal stronghold at the federal level for the past 12 years, accounts for 106 of the 308 seats in House of Commons, and no party can hope to form a government without doing well there. . . . Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals have been badly hurt by a corruption scandal and Conservative leader Stephen Harper says the government must be defeated as soon as possible. The Leger figures, however, suggest there is no guarantee Harper can end 12 years of Liberal rule. Thanks, ALPF! I must say, I...
Read more

dipstick

So there won't be an election yet. Talk about a squeaker . Feel free to tell us how you feel about this, unless it's all been said already, then feel free not to. ALPF mustered his courage and sent more links, so I have some good commentary to post. I found this Macleans story on the Conservative party's reaction to Stronach's decision - and public reaction to that reaction - very interesting. Canadians seem almost universally turned off by the name-calling and sexist slurs. On the other hand, when a certain governor made his "girly men" pronouncement, his constituency howled with glee. (Which is not to say the rest of us weren't appalled.) The Macleans article also notes that not all the sexism came from politicians: Some of the most sexist characterizations of Stronach didn't come from her political adversaries, but from media. Montreal's La Presse newspaper ran a cartoon of Martin leaning out his car window to solicit a street-walking Stronach...
Read more