Lucy will you be my valentine?

Okay, so it's been a few weeks since I've last posted anything. I guess it's been busy for a February: there was Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, President's Day...

The roses Jerill got me for V-Day

On Valentine's Day, Jerill cooked me a made-to-order breakfast (really, I asked specifically for this). Fresh strawberries and pear with fresh vanilla-whipped cream atop belgian waffles and breakfast sausage. Delicious. That really made the whole day right there. Then, we drove off to pick up my Dad and took him to the Lucy: Human Origins exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. You may know that I majored in physical anthropology in college - I LOVE FOSSILS and the greatest, most significant, coolest, and literally THE mind-blowing fossil of all time is Lucy, the most complete Australopithecus afarensis fossil ever found to date.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afarensis

I seriously got a little choked up when I saw Lucy, her actual fossilized remains, because of how imporant she is to the field on Anthrolopogy, science in general and in some respects, theology. She is probably the most important figure we have for human history. My dad kept saying to me "look, there's grandma." And indeed, he was right. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed in the exhibit and I wasn't about to get out the cellphone camera either considering the armed guard was sitting right there!

Then, for Valentine's Day Dinner, we planned a fondue night, at home. Jerill went to Whole Foods Market the day before in order to purchase the "correct" ingredients for proper Swiss Fondue. Below is the photo-story of the Fondue Dinner...

The proper Swiss white wine and bread cut up just-so

Secret Ingredient: Kirsch (cherry brandy)

A little garlic rub in the pot, combine, melt gently, stir, viola! Fondue with bread and apples. Totally delicious.

Diane sent me some pictures of me and Scott at our last trial we ran on 2/21. All I can say about that trial is that I learned a lot about my shepherding-skills and my dog. To all those who think Scott is winding down at age 9, think again. He was ON FIRE with those sheep last weekend, running them so strongly that we put sheep all over the field. It was not pretty but now I know I just need to calibrate my voice to get a little more animation into my dog.

In trials, I think of Scott like he is car - on a "slow" day Scott runs like a Cadillac Escalade - very stylish, pretty to look at, but runs out of gas quickly. However, on Saturday, after getting him too excited about running for the woolies, he was running more like a Chevy Corvette - super powerful and capable but had a lot of play in the steering and fishtailed all over the place. So, I'll try to strive for an Audi quattro in my next trial - he'll run pretty, powerful yet stay in control.

Here is Scott and I heading to the post for our run. I'm actually smiling (yes, I can smile).

See, I told you my dog could run... look at him go!

He's smiling here... as you can guess, this is after our run when he was totally impressed with his performance. I could only laugh!

I call this shot "Just Chillin." This is what Scott looks like the night after a trial. He is totally relaxed and asleep, in his new doggie-bed. Sometimes, he will stretch and put all four feet directly up in the air.

This is my welcoming committee when I get home from work. Mattie is scared of baby-gates falling on her, so she steers clear of the gate - in this shot you can see the look of worry in her eyes that I'm going to knock the gate down on her when I step over it! The boys are just "de de dee" and eagerly wait for their dinner to be made.