What a difference in the weather over the week!  We went from 50s to single digits.  I hate winter.  Unfortunately, you have to have a real winter to enjoy a nice spring and summer.  I just don’t have to enjoy the cold and snow, do I?

This week, I was in class for two days.  It was for Microsoft Project, which we use as our main delivery tool.  I have to confess that I didn’t understand a lot about the program.  It’s always a little strange the first day.  You don’t know the instructor or the other people taking the class.  I try to be friendly and talk.  It’s hard sometimes.  I go blank and can’t figure out what to say in reply to things.

What do you know?  Project is just like a database.  You have your view of the database and then the tables that contain all of the information.  Duh!  No one ever explained it like that before.  I get it now.  So I need to convert all of the information in my head into tables of information.  Then I need to ask the different groups of users to do the same.  Wow, this wasn’t so hard.

As everyone knows, Sascha is a love bug.  She just wants to be petted and sit in your lap.  Rich started this saying around the house.  It goes something like, “I need to go to the doctor.  I have this heavy weight on my chest.”  This, of course, is Sascha trying to snuggle up to you.  That’s about 52 lbs. of dog on you.  I decided to capture pictures of Sascha cuddling at different times and string them all together into a collage.  So far, the pictures are cute.  We’ll see how this progresses.

We woke up to snow on Saturday.  It wasn’t much for us, but about three inches covered the ground.  Sascha was very happy to go out and roll around in the white stuff.  At least it was light and fluffy.  Rick had an easy time of cleaning off the driveway, patio, and the deck.

On Saturday, Free Spirit Siberian Husky Rescue did their annual sled demo and chili dinner.  This is the rescue where we had gotten Sascha.  She was Holly back then and was the lead dog on one of the sled teams.  It’s amazing to watch her run.  She puts her entire heart into it.  The snow meant that they could use the real sleds and not the wheeled sleds they use when there is no snow.

So Rick and I took Sascha out for the fun.  I had bid on one of the sled rides and won.  So I got to ride in a real dog sled.  Sascha was put on the team as well.  She didn’t get to be lead, but she was putting in more effort than most of the dogs.

There is a photographer who is part of the volunteers with the group.  He takes all of these wonderful pictures of their events.  I got pictures of me in the sled and he got a great shot of Sascha doing what she loves best.  I just have to say, it was too cold for this.  I think it was 11 degrees with -15 wind chills.  We managed to survive and Sascha got to run with a team.  She was tired the rest of the day.  I swear I saw her smiling in her sleep though.

It’s been way too cold to work out in the garage.  With the single digits and the wind chill, Rick has gotten somewhat of a reprieve from putting up insulation.  The ceiling is mostly done and one wall.  That leaves two and a half walls to go.  There’s probably some patching here and there to ensure that everything is all sealed up.  We hope the temps cooperate this week.

Rich has been telling me that our TV in the living room is slowly dying.  It appears to be getting darker and darker.  I know I can still see the shows as they play.  Rich says the bright is up as far as it’ll go.  Rich has been doing the normal research to figure out what he can buy to replace the TV.  He came up with two possible replacements.  This meant that it was time to do some in person investigation.

We headed out to H.H. Greg.  First stop was the refrigerators.  I’m looking, but I’m still not sure what I want.  Then on to the TVs.  We know what size we need to fit into the entertainment center.  That tells what we need to look at.  We find the Samsung and the Toshiba that Rich wants to see.  There’s a big difference in the screens and the quality.  Then there are the features.  So the Samsung is winning so far.  Then we see that they have one that got returned for a bigger model.  That makes the price enticing.  Rich wrangles a little bit.  Yep, the Samsung won.  We pay and head home with the spoils for trade.

The old TV has to come out of there first.  Rich get is out and we clean up the spot.  There are cables to move and rearrange.  Then there is the dust to get out there.  The new TV fits in nicely.  Rich gets it all cabled up and we turn on power.  Wow!  That’s a gorgeous screen.  Now we have to learn the remote and all the steps to get to our favorite things.  We can stream directly from Netflix, get onto the Internet, and even get to the hard drive on the network to view pictures.  This is going to be fun.

It’s time to start the food line.  I make up cheese dip with sausage.  Rich starts working up his wings.  These things are awesome.  They go down fast.  Spicy, sweet, and crispy.  Delicious.  The game starts up and we move on to sliders.  This is one of Rich’s specialties that we have for occasions, like Super Bowl.  I share one of mine with Sascha.  I think she’s a fan as well.

Besides the food, there is still Zurekbrau in the keg.  We’ve been enjoying Husky Paws for a while now.  It’s got such a great flavor.  I’ve had one while I was doing some work to prepare for some meetings in the morning.  A good way to work.  Too bad I can’t do this while I’m at work.  I get another one for dimmer and to complete this blog.  I’m enjoying the evening.  Come on, Ravens!

So the game plays in the background while I’m typing up my blog.  I guess I should finish up and get back to the game.  My team is winning.