monday walk in black and white...

 thought it would be fun to just take black and white today.  thought a few turned out nice.  karen snapped this one of blossom and i.  was going to say me and blossom, but my mothers voice made me change it up.  of course growing up it was always marie and i.  she was the neighbor kinda next door.   our backyards were next door.  the house was actually around the block.  we met before kindergarten started and i think we argued over whether we'd be in the same class.  i believe we were.  hard to recall as we spent so much time together over those next many years.  jr high saw us kinda doing our own things.  we'd talk from time to time, but i think we really didn't reconnect until the 10 year reunion.  that is the only one i've attended.

 it felt so much warmer today than yesterday.  when i left my house it was just 2 below zero F.  so a very comfortable walk.  we did some loops and turns to make it fun.  still probably went 4 miles.

 the dogs have a great time chasing each other around.  just 3 dogs today.  manny, kenai and blossom.  she took very good care of her beloved tennis ball, which was white, and we never lost it...until we got to the parking lot and i totally forgot about it.  another donation to another happy dog.

 baking cookies right now.  that does help with the possible decaying corpse under the house.  well, i don't believe there is a human corpse under there...god i hope not!  that scent i smelled last week that i called out the gas company for is still lingering.  seems to be more over the back left part of the house.  it occurred to me the other day that perhaps a cat or squirrel had gotten under the house and died.
the smell does remind me of the smell at the old house before we figured out it was our missing cat, smokey. not something you forget as a kid.  do remember another corpse as a kid.  it's a vague memory.  now i wonder if it was real at all.  i have a memory of a body being dropped within a block of the house and riding my bike around the chalked outline...memory or real?  seems like a real memory to me.  there was also a stabbing that occurred in our back yard.  well i think the stabbing happened at the bank a few doors down, but the guy that was stabbed ran through our yard cause i remember seeing all the drops of blood.  i actually grew up in a pretty nice part of the los angeles area, south pasadena.
exciting things happen in every neighborhood though.  well, super exciting when you are a kid anyway.  burt reynolds filmed down the street from us for a few days.  i had to go to church so i missed meeting him.

 a few cracks spotted out there on the lake area, but we didn't hear it crack so seemed pretty dang solid.  they all have cracks in em.

 always fun to watch the dogs run about

 had a fun little photo op with kenai.  great face!! thought they came out pretty nicely.

 tiffany, her cousin, jessica, lena, karen and i enjoyed a day out in the park.  speedy joined us at the coffee house.  i had started baking the cookies the other day, but i was out of ingredients and too chilled to want to go back out in the subzero temps for brown sugar.  went shopping tonight after meeting friends for dinner.

 gail, sharon, sandra, lena and i all met for dinner at sorrento's.  we got some solid laugh time in.  i really hadn't eaten much today so i pigged out on my chicken parmigiano.  okay, no idea how to spell that right now and way too lazy to look it up.

 blossom was less cooperative with her photo ops.  she had a good day out there though and is totally happy.  i was debating taking a run out to eklutna today and even loaded the dogs up to do just that until i realized that by the time i got there it would be getting dark and picture taking would be less than optimal.

 perhaps i can make a run for it at some point tomorrow.  it was starting to snow tonight so i'll just wake up and see how the world looks in the new day.

 cleaning, doing laundry and dishes...the rest of the day was so exciting, right?

 thought this was cute of tiffany.  below is manny.  hard to catch him stopped for pictures as well.

 these two had a great time running around.  lots of dog wrestling.  blossom was happy to pretty much stay out of this and chase her ball and let the boys romp how boys like to romp.

 i came pretty close to nailing lena on the head with the tennis ball. i think it passed within an inch or two from her head once.  if you don't throw it fast the spit coated ball freezes into the chuck it, sometimes it starts to freeze and so when you throw it, it doesn't sail the way or direction you had hoped.  it's a dangerous game.  we should probably all be wearing helmets.

 todays walking buddies.  jessica, lena, tiff and karen.  a fine group of walkers indeed!!

watched, "the lives of others" last night.  forgot to mail it today i just realized.  it had the actress i liked in the german movie, "mostly martha"...which was so much better than the american attempt.  anyway...it was set in the time when i believe the soviets occupied parts of germany after the war?  the history is a bit confusing for me i will admit.  anyway....this writer and his girlfriend, an actress are being watched. mostly because the actress had been force to be with a certain official due to threats by him. when she decides to not comply with his demands he puts the couple under surveillance in hopes of digging up some dirt and causing them trouble.  sadly for him, the official who is in charge of the surveillance becomes enamored of the pair and doctors his reports to protect them.  it's an interesting story, with some twists and unexpected outcomes.
on that note...i shall retire to my bed.  fresh sheets, cookies in my belly....sweet dreams!!