Birthday Party

The Black Dragon is now 25. We wish her many happy returns of the day!!
To celebrate there was a costume party.

























We went as Darth Maul and Queen Isabella of Spain.

Josh: "Darth Maul is reall scarry with a mustache."

Not a math problem

If a black Chevy Astro leaves Santa Fe, New Mexico at 10AM MST with 18 inches of snow on its roof and travels east at 75 miles per hour (and lower where appropriate), the sun is shining, and the air temperature in Texas and Oklahoma averages 43 F, the last of the snow will fall off the vehicle between Little Rock, Arkansas and the Mississippi River.

Rudy - The Life of the Family Dog

Rudy is my favorite dog. I am a softy for all the cute things he does. Like having curly hair that gets snow stuck in it and has to be bathed and dried each time he comes inside. Or tearing off the heads of all stuffed animals regardless of who owns them. One of the objectives of our visit was to ditch my old useless stuff and bring home the rest. One of my "crafts" bit the dust this visit. I had made a purple stuffed cat, it was almost formless and unredemmable ugly. The head was sewn onto the body from the outside... Frankenstein's Monster-like. I stuffed dog treats into the head, and then wrapped the cat in paper and gave it to Rudy. It was such fun to see him tear through the paper and then work the cat's head off. I suppose that this exercise was too nasty, brutish, and short (he is quick when it comes to treats) for consideration by grownups... but it was fun. And on Christmas Break that is all that counts. Besides, we were snowed in and it is rather hard to have to decide the fate of all one's old things all in one day!! And a few random executions never hurt anyone.

Snow!!!

While we were there SF got 25 inches of snow. They have not had that much since 1986 when they got 16 inches.

Ojo Caliente

One of our Christmas treats is a trip to the mineral springs at Ojo Caliente. After 30 hours in the car the hot water was amazing. You head north from SF for one hour and it is beautiful drive all the way. Then you bask in the pools as long as you want, basically until you turn into a soggy raisin. They have arsenic, iron, soda, and combinations of those three. They also have massage, mud, steam rooms and saunas. Breaking from our uptight DC life and running around the freezing cold in our bathing suits and robes was quite liberating. They also have a swimming pool. After you soak in the arsenic pool (about 105 degrees) you are supposed to go for a swim in the 60 degree pool and swim around. It did feel good when we tried it - brought out Jonathan's Norwegian roots.