You Thought The Scallion Was Boring? Here's More of It! (aka Vic's Pictures!)

You know, The Scallion only fits so much, and even though we are boring, we incessantly document our boringness in pictures, so here goes.

First, more pictures of Anna, our first foster dog of the year.

Here's Bella photo-bombing Anna:

 Here's Anna lying on me (she was not a shy dog for long) with Bella nestled between me and Vic:

Here's Anna staring out the window, which she did a lot. She really was a beautiful dog.

Next, a couple of movies of Anna. This is Anna rolling on my towel after my shower. I included this video because this is something our beloved Wags used to do, and Anna is the first foster dog we've ever had who did it too. This towel and the yellow one in the background were both on the bed. She pulled them both off and pulled this blue one halfway across the room. It was so cute!

And this is Bella and Anna playing. Now Bella, she has never played with a toy in the entire time we've had her—and we gave her every toy we had in the house. But the first time Anna grabbed one of these toys, boy howdy Bella went right after her.

Anna was a handful, but we really loved her by the time she left.

Speaking of a dog being a handful, Ollie. When we first brought Ollie home, she tried to jump our six-foot fence to get out! We thought, "Oh, man, we are never gonna get her settled down." Duh, we were wrong:

She was exceedingly cute:

And she loved treats as much as Bella did:

This one, we almost kept. But Bella really retreated while we had Ollie. She didn't sit with us in the family room while we watched TV, she didn't sleep with us, she didn't follow me around. She spent a lot of time in the basement. So in the end, we had to let Ollie go. Fortunately, she found an excellent home and is thriving there. Her new parents spoil her even more than we would have, and we are legendary dog spoilers.

And because you can never have enough Bella pictures:

We went to Nebraska a couple of times this year—once in the spring, when my dad and I wore matching shirts ...

... and I got to visit my beloved Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Jim ...

... and once in late summer for my dad's 80th birthday.

Dad and me (duh):

Dad and Norma:

Dad, Norma and all of us kids:

 And this is our whole damn family:

Speaking of family, my sister and I drove out ahead of time, and then my brother-in-law, nephew, and great niece and nephew joined us for the party. Yes, they are dorks.

Now, I'm sure the description of Vic's car accident in The Scallion made some of you wonder what actually happened. Well, Vic was stopped at a stop light when he was hit from behind (which pushed him into the monster truck in front of him). The kid who was driving seemed nice, Vic said, and the guy in the truck—which sustained no damage because, truck—just wanted to get back to work. Henrietta did exactly what a car is supposed to do—she crumpled where she was supposed to crumple and her air bags deployed before Vic even knew what was happening. The passenger compartment didn't even look like it sustained any damage. She gave her life for us. R.I.P., Henrietta.

At any rate, you'd think Vic would be pretty banged up, but this is him right after I picked him up. Not a scratch on him.

Now, in The Scallion we talked about going to the Colorado History museum. Besides Legorado and the baseball exhibit, the museum has an exhibit called Colorado in 100 Objects. It's in a fairly small room, but the stuff in there is amazing. I went to see John Denver's guitar:

But there were so many cool things. This is an old uniform for the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division:

This crazy quilt really moved me:

Love this old sewing machine!

And, being a sucker for history, I really loved this copy of the Colorado State Constitution:

But my very favorite exhibit was these pins. I don't know if you can read the card, but these pins were hand made by Japanese American prisoners at one of the Colorado internment camps. They're called gaman, which means "to bear the unbearable with dignity and patience." I can't shake the idea that out of such an atrocity grew these beautiful pieces of art. And it puts my own life in perspective, giving me the strength to carry on when my burden seems heavy.

Finally from the museum, here is another angle of Legorado:

And this beautiful display of autographed bats from the baseball exhibit:

Many of you may remember that in June, we had a huge windstorm. Then a hailstorm. Then another hailstorm. So we got a new roof this year!

When I left the house at 6:15 a.m. to go to work, I had an old roof. When I came home at 6:15 p.m., I had a new roof—and the roofers had cleaned everything so well that, had I not known we were going to get a new roof that day, I wouldn't have known anyone had even been there.

Now I want to move on to my favorite part of the blog: Miscellaneous Vic pictures. 😃

You may remember that last year, we grew an entire ear of corn. Well, this year, we really upped our game with cucumbers! I think we ate a cucumber a day for an entire month. And they were delicious. What will grow in 2019? Chocolate cake? Potato chips? (What did you think I was going to say, carrots? You should know me better than that.)

Also seen around the garden, this beautiful bumble bee ...

... this gorgeous butterfly ...

... and this cheeky hummingbird:

I really love our garden, and I feel like Vic tends it just for me. (That's right. I don't touch the garden. That's all Vic, all the time.)

Except for my pot. (No, not marijuana.) I plant a big pot every year in the corner of our yard, and I really loved this year's pot:

Now those of you who are on Facebook know that we live on the top of a hill, and our bedroom window faces west. So we see a lot of stuff like this:

And one more of my favorite kind of pictures: a Moon picture:

FINALLY, last year I created a whole blog post about how we couldn't get Bella to take a decent Christmas picture with us. Well, nothing has changed. We had to bribe her with eggnog this year. Here are just a few shots of our photo shoot this year:

 First, I bribe her by dipping my fingers in the eggnog:

Then she says "Let me smell your glass."

Then she leans in—"I'm not going to commit myself to getting in the middle—and devours her saucer of eggnog, jumping every time the camera clicks:

And maybe, just maybe, she'll stick around to take one picture with each of us.

Or maybe not:

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!

The 2018 Scallion: Look How Early It Is!

Merry Christmas, Scallioneers!

We let Bella write most of this year's Scallion, and she's a real overachiever, so we're actually getting The Scallion out more than five days before Christmas! Not like we would ever wait that long (cough last year cough).

We didn't hear anything from anyone about not being able to read the embedded Scallion last year, so we're doing that again this year! (Of course, my blog statistics tell me that no one read that blog post, so that may be why.)

But here it is, your 2018 Scallion!




Reminder: (See that icon on the right side underneath the box? If you hover over it it says Full Screen. That will open up The Scallion full size.)

One last thing. I know this year has been difficult for a lot of you—so much loss on such an enormous scale. Please know we are thinking of you and holding you in our hearts, and we are just a phone call away if there's ever anything we can do.

💗💗💗