vote for bowser '08

even though we all know little man oliver is the cutest puppy around town... this one comes in a close second... and he's entered in the spaydayusa.org contest for cutest puppy. since oliver decided not to compete this year, please show your support for bowser by voting for him at spaydayusa.org by searching under his name or under owner name 'farrell.' it will make him very happy.

SUNday

finally, a sunny day that melts the snow! not all of the snow mind you... that would take a much hotter sun... or longer day... and as i type, a 'weather alert' for madison pops up on the screen. i think it might be about.... snow?

in any event, they are referring to tomorrow... a pleasant monday of flurries. today though, i got to wear my lighter winter jacket and take ollie over to the dog park, which inevitably tires him out.

here they all are... post dog park...

you can see roo is giving ollie the stink eye which worries ollie... was it smart to sit this close to her?

eventually, he and mrs go to comfort greg who suffered through the nice weather with a cold/flu/sinus something or other... =(

oliver is much more comfortable in here...

as is rabbit when she gets the couch all to herself...

stretchhhhhhhhyawwwwn........

i was going to post a picture of week 35.5 but decided not to as the photos merely alerted me to the fact that the maternity sweatshirt i'm wearing is now too small. so the pictures just looked goofy.
perhaps in a few days when i'm full term (i.e. baby won't be considered premature if born anytime after that date and we have the thumbs up for a home birth!).

winter of '78-'79 has nothing on us

is this what things have come to? snapping photos of a sad dog who says it's too cold to go out on a fun, long walk, even with a coat on?

so madison officially broke its 29 year record as the snow piled up to the height of a rather tall nba guard (or short forward)-- 6 feet 7.2 inches. and winter still has 38 more days until it's due to leave. (as a side note: this baby has 42 days until it's due to arrive.)

according to the mayor, the city is looking into making "I plowed through the winter of 07-08" t-shirts for city employees in the streets, engineering, and parks divisions. what about all of us who didn't have plows rigged to the front of our vehicles? i drove through it, mulled, and stewed over it, all while quite pregnant.

okay, i will get over this winter, i promise, and i won't feel sorry for myself any longer, but i can't guarantee it won't continue being a topic for some discussion, no matter how redundant.

and that's the weather update from madison.

snow snow winter winter

...essentially, that is what defines madison at this point.

you know how some winters are kind? they touch down because they have to, because the midwest demands its change of seasons to feel fulfilled, but they make as little noise as possible while they're settled in and then happily pack up and make room for spring, not even insisting on a goodbye, just quietly moving out in the middle of some night? a reassuring midwife saying it doesn't have to be all bright lights and strapped down to machines to happen.

well this is not that kind of winter.

this is an egotistical winter. the kind that wants to prove its dominance over all of the other seasons, that's embarrassed to be associated with those self-effacing winters of the past and so seeks to distinguish itself. the kind that seems to harbor a resentment toward its recipients who, it knows, are helpless to do anything about it beyond moving it to the side until the next big storm or little fury.

here was one such little fury... just a small annoyance having seen it so many times already...

this, the same setting, after the most recent big storm that shut down the schools, the courthouse, the buses, the entire county, and stranded thousands of people on the interstate for 12+ hours (although the governor is looking into the disorganized response to that one)...

though greg keeps his own spirits up, mr. puppy isn't sure he likes this overabundance of a white wonderland...

he gets cold... and, he's short, and gets shorter as the snow gets taller...

so, i guess it's just a wait it out kind of winter. it can't last forever. spring may not be as powerful, but it is persistent. in another month it will begin to make its entrance... a little tug boat slowly pushing winter out of the way.

a few pictures

okay, to cut out the anticipation, here i am at 31 weeks. i'll be 32 weeks tomorrow. that means 8 weeks to go (until my due date... which means i could have more like 10 weeks to go... in any event... time is shrinking!)

next, a few photos of our uneventful life in madison...

an afternoon prairie walk a couple of weekends ago, when the weather was nicer. today it went from 43 degrees at 7 a.m. to 6 degrees at 7 p.m., which does not take into account the wind chill which is somewhere below 0. it's now 3 degrees at 9:00. tomorrow a high of 8. aren't we lucky!?

gregory

ollie-man

later that weekend... some of us needed a nap...

close-up of the mrs...

and that's all from here from now.

p.s. happy birthday to two brothers!

poor, neglected blog...

a week of lots of work and then another week where the computer was mostly out of commission.
no pictures to share for now.
it's cold in wisconsin these days... lucky when we get into the positive numbers on the thermometer. oliver even refuses his walks when it's not above 0. he needs some good boots.
baby is scrambling about with only 9 weeks left before it introduces itself to the world and its parents and its pets.... and it's hiccuping... all the time!
that's the update in brief!

evening walk

the prairie at night in the winter...

with a little exploratory dog...

the gardens at night during the off-season...

scroll down for yesterday's post.

post holidays

last weekend the ornaments came down...

you might notice the one in the back (a new one) came down a bit too hard, as rabbit knocked it off the table, like kitties tend to do in an effort to keep tabletops and dressers free of clutter.
in the end, saint nick was reunited with his figure as greg glued him back together in his new 'shop' in the basement.



needless to say, our pets and the borrowed pet on the couch were bustling about wide-eyed at all of de-christmasing activity....

well, i'm told again and again that i need to put a new photo up of myself. even oliver in a beret wasn't a good enough substitute.

so, ignoring the hairstyle (?) and maybe even the face, here i am at a day before 29 weeks...

i'm now 1/2way through the 29th week. feeling well. getting plenty of protein and tapering off caffeine. walking through snow-filled prairies, because what else can you do when you're pregnant in wisconsin in the winter? awoken more often by pets than because of bladder, and bugged only by one everlasting knot in my back. amazed and even jealous of those who can accomplish a feat i only remember as a faint memory of something i must have been able to do, yet (because i took it for granted for 27.5 years (less 5 months... and however many months or years it took to gain the skill as a baby)), have no sensory memory of: lifting oneself up solely by strength of the stomach muscles... you lucky ducks.
otherwise, i'm doing well, happy to be in the state that i'm in.

lastly... little mister...

oui, oui, je suis un petit chien de paris...

yes, yes, i am a little parisian dog...
je suis le mieux artiste de touts les puppies.
i am the best artist of all the puppies
mon assistant, gregorie, fait tout les courses, comme la patisserie pour les sucreries et la boulangerie pour mon pain du francias.
my assistant, gregory, does all of the shopping, like the confectionary shop for my sweets and the bakery for my french bread.
entrefaites, je peins... j'ecris... je pense sur toutes les choses de l'existence et des chats et des ossements pour le macher.
meanwhile, i paint... i write... i think about all of the things of existence, of cats, and of bones for chewing.

oui, je suis seulement un petit chien, mais je suis un chien brun, je suis un chien avec l'energie, un chien avec les idees grandes, un chien sans compromets... oui... je suis un petit chien... de paris.
yes, i am only a little dog, but i am a brown dog, i am a dog with energy, a dog with big ideas, a dog without compromise... yes... i am a little dog... of paris.

multiplicitous christmases, graduation, etc...

seems so long since i've posted photos. seems almost as long since we've had days in our state of residence, let alone our actual residence. so these are aged photos in a sense, seeing as they are from december of last year, but being as it is only the first of this year, they are only aged in that sense, and all taken within the last month... also, mostly of my little sis it seems. apologies seester if you are not too keen on all the attention!

christmas the first took place in southern arizona (a region so cold that a windbreaker was insufficient to keep me warm once the sun went down... don't pity them for their cool nights however, unless you live in mexico).

sister and sister's boyfriend, ready for gift giving and cheesecake...

early the next morning we took a trip through the desert...

to come here...

for this...

a trained eye will recognize leigh in her cap and gown above.

pomp and circumstance...

on a grand scale and jumbo screen...

siblings and significants (less greg, the photographer) on the campus post ceremony...

a picture of the arizona grads in attendance..

congratulations little leighnard!

after the ceremony, a lunch celebration ensued. leigh, showing off one of the gifts we gave her...

a picture of christmas the second which took place in more central arizona...

greg and me...

christmas the third, in blustery michigan (though much less blustery than blusterier wisconsin)...

too much gift wrap sometimes leads to a gift wrap fight... exactly what occurred on this occasion...

after the ammunition was placed in garbage bags, some holiday time... science equations...

yep, that's right... just for fun!
?

then a lovely dinner...

then, back to madison, for good, for awhile.
we have a mere three months to prepare for a complete upheaval (in a good way) of our lives. time to batten down the hatches, reinforce the roof, and just generally make haste to ready ourselves for a 50-90% (depending on which new parent you ask) change in our lives, which is 100% guaranteed to include crap loads of diapers! pardon the slang, and the pun.


anyhow, seeing as it is getting nearer, and i am getting larger and less comfortable, coupled with requests for pictures of this phenomenon, i searched in vain for a suitable update shot. unfortunately i will have to defer once more (though i suppose the shot from 'christmas the second' works just as well) and try to get one up soon. 28 weeks tomorrow.


in the meantime, dracula providing good cover, and oliver wanting desperately to be best friends with dracula...

i was going to post one additional photo of ollie to end the post in a dignified manner, but it is so cute i have to save it for its own post. so, until then, signing off...