Everyone is on “snow alert.” No snow yet at 8:25 a.m.  Schools are closed, flights are cancelled. All this in anticipation of what is to come. But will it? I’ll keep you posted!

10:01
A few little flakes are starting to fall now.

Update 11:10 a.m.
It’s snowing!

bella: what is this stuff? i try to catch them with my mouth.

mom says i’m starting to look like a sheep ...

The weather forecast calls for snow tomorrow. Quite a lot if they prove to be right, and that would really be nice. But please let it snow and not that other wintry mix stuff (ice/sleet). Please?

I now have a full blown case of laryngitis. I hate it. It hurts to talk and my tonsils are still swollen. Aspirin does help the swelling some. If I try to yell at the dogs a very strange croaking sound comes out and they tilt their heads and look at me oddly. What is the matter with mommy’s voice? At least it gets them to stop whatever they are doing that I am yelling at them about. Mostly barking. Anyway it’s a pain.

Two nights ago we had some snow that turned to sleet and then froze. As the trees warmed up and the ice melted I took these photos. I hope to be taking snow photos tomorrow. Bella will love it!

Our tree is up and decorated. We cut our own tree this year—a lovely blue spruce—at the local tree farm. Bella thinks she is a present and likes to lay underneath it.

So the house is looking festive, I have more cookies to bake and we are expecting SNOW. Here’s hoping my blog will be decked in white tomorrow!

All three of us in this photo are wishing and hoping for snow!

The weather is confused. We’ll have a really warm day, say in the high 50’s like yesterday,  and then the next day will be in the 30’s. You’ve all heard, no doubt, about the ice storms last week. We barely escaped the onslaught of nasty weather by being a few degrees too warm. “Up the mountain” (as they call is around here) was a different story with downed power lines and trees, just a few miles away.

Not really knowing this, we took a drive on Saturday morning and were greeted by a beautiful sight: tree branches coated with ice, glistening in the sun. Of course there is a power line in my photo! It was like driving through a sparkling Winter Wonderland as the trees at times made an ice tunnel for us to drive through. I got out to take a few photos and and could hear the snapping and cracking of the ice sloughing off the branches. Ice crunched like big shards of broken glass under my feet. Very strange but also very eerily beautiful. I haven’t seen anything like that in years.

Days start out well enough, but they soon turn windy and grey with a smattering of rain. Other than hoping it was snow falling from the sky, the weather suits my mood of late.
capricious |kəˈpri sh əs;-ˈprē-|
adjective
given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior

I wonder if this word has any bearing on my astrological sign: Capricorn? If so, I think it sums me up pretty well!

Sunday’s sunrise

I’m not sure what it’s doing out there this morning. It’s still so dark I can’t tell a thing. When I let Bella in a few minutes ago she had a few fluffy flakes stuck to her fur. The sun should be up by now (7:13 a.m.) but it’s not obvious. I haven’t even opened up the curtains yet. What’s the point if you can’t see anything? I don’t like letting the dark in.

In other news, I think I’m coming down with something. My throat has been feeling swollen for a few days now, but this morning it feels like I have golf balls in there. When I was a child it was all the rage to remove children’s tonsils. Almost everyone in my class in school had tonsilitis at one time or another. I clearly remember that they even had a children’s book of Tommy (or whoever) that had a tonsilectomy and how he got to eat a big bowl of ice cream in the hospital. I was envious and wanted to be like those kids.

But, lucky for me (or unlucky) I still have mine. I never notice them until times like this when they are trying to ward off infection. By the feel of them they are really working hard in there. Ugh. Swallowing is not pleasant. But, like the strange weather, this too shall pass. At least I hope so!

What I see out my window: grey, gloom, rain. Rain. Not the wished for snow, but rain. Don’t get me wrong, I love rainy days but I prefer them in Spring and Autumn; not December. My yearly lament for snow starts about now. Last year we had several nice snows before Christmas which made it feel more festive. Not so this year. (Those sprinkles of snow a few weeks back certainly don’t count as “snow”.) I guess I have to move to Texas where it is snowing today. Or maybe Louisiana. I heard they were getting snow too. But in New Jersey where everyone talks about how horrible the winters are—we get rain. And it’s 33º F outside right now.

Yesterday morning it was 55 balmy degrees when I got up. What a shock to open the door to let the dogs out and be hit in the face with warmth! So strange. It rained all day yesterday.
Baby Bella is getting cabin fever. Yesterday she tried to go outside and play but was not happy when she did. She likes to sit and look up at the falling drops of rain and tries to catch them in her mouth making cute little smacking noises.

I don’t feel very much in the spirit of things this year. Not quite sure why. So, to get myself out of this non-festive rut I’ve been in I guess I’ll haul out the decorations and start to decorate the house today. I’m sure Bella will be more than glad to help. I have visions of her chewing on the lighted garlands, eating tinsel and anything else she can find to amuse herself with. I don’t feel like decorating. But an undecorated house without a Christmas tree doesn’t do much to get one into the mood either, now does it?

I’ll let you know how it goes!

What is it? Can you guess?

It’s a fuzzy puppy head, that’s what! Miss Bella of course with her puppy hairdo. Before too awfully long her puppy fuzz will begin to fade and she’s start looking like someone with a receding hairline. Oh boy, the geek stage is soon to arrive.

I have new videos of her to share but Rick has them on his computer and we just haven’t had time to sit down and edit them so he can send them over to my computer. I hope you won’t be bored with them.

She is a joy! Even though she cramps my style a bit (I am bound pretty close to home) she is worth every second. As time goes by I’ll be able to leave her for longer periods of time, but right now a little over three hours is her limit. Considering that I live about 45 minutes from almost everywhere (except the grocery store) that doesn’t leave much time for whatever I am doing once I get there. Yesterday I took her and the big dogs with me on my shopping errands. We stopped in and visited Daddy Rick at work and she got to walk around and see everybody there. She was a real little trooper and just slept in her crate while I went into stores.

Tomorrow night we have tickets to the opera at the Met. We’ve engaged Luke (who watches the kitties whenever we’re gone) to babysit for the evening as we’ll be gone a long time. I’ll worry a bit like any new mother, but I know she’ll be just fine.

We have heavy frosts every night now with temperatures dipping down into the 20s. We’ve enjoyed seeing the moon with Venus and Jupiter by its side, but alas when I finally realized what I was seeing after three or four nights in a row, last night Venus and Jupiter were nowhere to be seen. So, no photos but many other bloggers managed to get good ones. The first night I only saw two bright points of light and thought maybe they were UFOs or a radio antenna I didn’t know was in that position in the sky. duh! I think I even asked Rick. They were so bright!

doggy paw prints on the frosty deck

I just can’t seem to get into gear for Christmas. I used to love it so. These days not so much. I guess I’ll have to force myself to start doing Christmas-y things. I need to be baking cookies, playing Christmas music, decking the hallway and all that jazz. But instead all I can think about is the drudgery of un-decorating and putting it all away. What’s the point? I’m totally disgusted with myself. bah humbug.

Okay. Stop. Enough mindless rambling for this morning. New Bella videos coming soon!