Old Man Winter

...........has finally remembered us. Here we thought we'd be lucky this year and the old grump would not lay his ice cold fingers upon us. Alas, he remembered our existence and gave us a short but fierce memory boost by sending a blizzard our way, which managed to even get the president stuck in a traffic jam. President Obama was one of the lucky ones though, because lots and lots of federal workers were said to have spend more then 12 hours trapped on GW Parkway, trying to get home. The result was a heap of abandoned cars and I am almost certain, a couple of swearing snow plow operators because of them. I had the "pleasure" having to drive to the metro station and let me assure you: It was not easy, nor was it fun. Haven driven in Switzerland a lot of times and having grown up in Germany, this driving experience brought back fond memories of winters spent there. (Just kidding - it was a MESS !! )
Last year we lost a lot of trees to the weight of heavy snow and this time I was going out, armed with a broom and a pack of dogs and took care of that problem as well as I could. So far, all trees are still standing and none fell over. Yeah !
Mr. and Mrs. Budelheimer are not thrilled about the white stuff, but Tessa is tickled pink and would stay outside day and night if it weren't for me old partypooper calling her in every now and then. Looking at her lying out there in the cold gives me the chills.
Being inside at night makes it look pretty though:



Tessa was a happy camper, that's for sure:




Here you can see some of the snow beeing blown around behind the house:



The snow got heavier and heavier as time wore on:

The Battlefields in Mannassas

...were the destination of yesterday's walk with the dogs. Unfortunately, Miss Bicalina had to stay home because she was limping and needed to rest her paws. She did not complain about left behind and was comforted by a nicely stuffed kong toy to help her pass the time.

The weather couldn't have been better and we hope it was cold enough to keep those usually very abundant deer ticks at bay. One of the reasons, we only frequent this national park during the winter months after a couple of frosty days have passed.
You can find more information about the park here: http://www.nps.gov/mana/index.htm

We started out at the old stonehouse, which used to be a hospital during the times of the civil war.

Now let me just post a couple of impressions I collected along the way:

.........and life goes on.

Walter has now been gone for a couple of days and we haven't quite found a routine without him yet. Walter and Bica had to be seperated for so long because she didn't like him, or couldn't "read" his wobbly attempts of communication. I finally succeeded in getting them back together using the method of counter conditioning and life had become less stressful for all of us, because the four dogs could be together in one room again, without the fear of Walter getting hurt by Bica.
We miss you, old boy ! Life with Walter was not easy because of his disease(s), but he was the sweetest little guy you can imagine.

Yesterday we made a fire in the reading room and Bica spent the evening on top of Walter's lambskin:The rest of the pack wasn't quite that comfortable:

Farewell, little Walter.

Yesterday we had to say our final good-byes to sweet old Walter. He has touched our lives only for a short time and will be sorely missed.

Rest in peace, my sweet little Mr. Magoo. You were loved !

Before I forget

......meet the new tile floor in the basement:

Here a couple of pictures from the work in progress:

...and we're done:

Mclean Tile and Marble did a great job ! Special thanks goes to my friend Liz for recommending them to us.

One of our New Year Traditions

.....is going downtown D.C. for a walk. Why on New Year's day, you ask ? Simply put: Less traffic, less people, more fun. :-) We spent about one and a half hours visiting some memorials and now we had our fill for the location for at least another year.........if not longer.

Jefferson Memorial

Looking at the White House. Very much to the furgang's dismay, the presidential pooch wasn't home.

D.C. Skyline

Hordes of geese hanging out in and around the reflecting pool.

World War II Memorial

Tessa posing in front of the Lincoln Memorial
Doesn't it remind you vaguely of the Akropolis ?

Now that's a scene you all remember well from countless movies.......

Good old Abe himself.

UNTIL NEXT YEAR, D.C. ! (Maybe.)