Wiley Riley

I promise, I did not disappear after Christmas. I worked the day after, had yesterday off and now I'm back today. Plus we've had a sick horse here and that's pretty time consuming. Anyway, Wiley Riley...his actual name is just Riley, he's one of our blood donor kitties and he likes to lick you. He can exfoliate your skin like nobody's business with that tongue of his.

Stretch...


And stretch again.


Why are you torturing me?


I'm done with you now.

FFR

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve in our house constitutes two major traditions. For one, we have finger foods. Appetizers of all sorts from jalapeno poppers to sliced cheese to miniature corndogs and fish sticks. In all reality, this is a chance to clean out our freezer of all the appetizers we have seen in the last year and immediately thought, "Oh! Those look tasty!" Then they sit in our freezer for 8 or 9 months because, come on now, who has appetizers with dinner at home? I don't know about you, but most of the time, it's hard enough just to make dinner, let alone appetizers. We leave that to the people in the restaurants, who get paid to make us appetizers.

Anyway, last night, we completed our first tradition and had a whole bunch of appetizers for dinner. We successfully cleaned out our freezers. It's empty enough for next year's ideas of grandiose dinner nature. I don't have any pictures of this tradition. I was at work until it was already picked over and that does not make for a good photo.

The second tradition in our house is opening our gifts. We don't do the Christmas morning thing, it's a Christmas eve thing. Tonight we'll have a big dinner with Prime Rib (another tradition) but last night it was all about finger foods and gifts. It's important to note that when we have children, we will be taking over my old tradition. We will all open one gift on Christmas eve and open the rest on Christmas morning with cinnamon rolls. Messy, messy, drizzling, dripping...diabetes inducing...cinnamon rolls. Now...where was I? Oh yes, I want my children to experience the magic feeling of Christmas morning. Oh, and I forgot, we need the bacon with those cinnamon rolls. Heart attack AND diabetes. Wouldn't be Christmas without it.

This is one of my presents from MIL J. A bear hat! I like it! I feel like I'm channeling Amy from my work. She would totally wear this hat. I'm going to have to go kindergarten on this hat and put my name in it so she won't steal it.

On a side note. We had a memorable quote on Christmas Eve. Courtesy of MIL J: "Don't bite my balls!" Ah, family time. I'll leave you without explaining that.

Additionally, according to Working Man, this is when you know you are married:

Where else is it supposed to dry?

Merry Christmas to all of you,
FFR

The other ornaments

I told you I would get pictures of the other ornaments next year but, well ahead of schedule, I got them out yesterday. It's all Working Man's fault, he's the one who pulled out the ornament boxes. So here they are, starting with 2008:

This was before Working Man and I had found a common theme.


He let me pick the ornament without any input from himself.


You know how that first part of the relationship goes. It's still a little awkward and you still don't quite have all your inside jokes yet. So that's where this ornament comes from, that place where everything is still new.


This one comes from 2009, and it comes from the place where we had the chance to get inside jokes and had the chance to find a lot of common ground in western themes.


This is the one Working Man had to fix for our tree. The presents weren't hanging right or something like that, I can't even remember now.


For humor's sake, he should have buttcrack showing. That's MIL J's writing on his back.


That's my writing on the pooped-out presents.

FFR

This is...

This is Honey:

She's very cute.

This is Honey watching Twilight:

No seriously. She's watching Twilight. I tried to tell her it would melt her brain if she didn't laugh at it but she insisted on watching it. Working Man insisted we watch it to know what everyone was talking about. I've never laughed so hard at a movie. Nor has he. Honey would have laughed, if she could have. But her brain melted instead.

This is a cat at the hospital, his name if Figaro. I call him Figgy. He is one of our blood donors:

He's awesome. I love him.

This is Figgy brushing himself:

He luffs the brush. More than me. I should become a brush.

This is a sense of humor at work:

Tell me, which movie do "TPI" reports come from?

FFR

Our Christmas Ornament

Every year, Working Man and I buy an ornament together. Two years ago, we bought a snow man glass ornament with round foam balls for the snow. Last year, we bought an ornament that was partially broken and Working Man had to fix it. It was too good to pass up though. This is this years ornament:

It gets better.


Oh, oh, what's inside?!


Hey look, it's Working Man in 20 years!


I like the cow, this thing is heavy!


And as tradition, I wrote the year on the bottom of the ornament.

When we dig out the other ornaments, I'll take pictures of them too. Probably won't be until next year. We really couldn't do Christmas with the puppies. They just destroy everything.

FFR

Wanna go for a ride?

The simplicity of a dog's world. Or at least, Lucy's world. She is a great dog. She had a rough start (we got her from the shelter, they picked her up in the hood) but now she's got an easy life. She has her own bed, she gets to eat as much manure as she wants. As a bonus, she also gets to chew on rocks...a strange pastime of hers. I think her absolute favorite though, is going for a ride. Be it in the golf cart, the car, the truck...she'd ride a bicycle with you if she could, Lucy loves to take a ride. Unlike the small dogs who will claw you to death trying not to get in, she'll bowl you over for the chance to take a ride.

So Wednesday, when I had to take her to the vet for a blood draw, there was no hesitation for her. There was no second thought or wondering why she was going to the vet, or even if she WAS going to the vet, she just went.

And although it was rather chilly, I let her hang her head out the window on the side streets.


On the highway, she had to stay inside but it didn't mean she stopped looking where she was going.


And eventually, she always lays down and takes a nap.


She hates her picture being taken.


What a happy happy face!

Loving Lucy,
FFR

Road Trip

No really, that's where we stopped for lunch. See?

It's a very tasty and fun little biker bar/grill.


Most people think of biker places as dirty but this place is beautiful.


It took us ten minutes to get our freeze protectors off.


Once we got inside, it took another ten minutes to take off our coats and vests. Those were our cold protectors. Our freeze protectors were helmets, ski masks...sounds like we're vigilantes. Where's the uzi?


Then we went back outside and began putting back on all of our clothing.


Let me just note, this was my chance to put on big fat gloves with lots of padding.


Just like MIL J is doing here. But I didn't for two very important reasons. 1) If I had, I couldn't have taken anymore pictures. Seriously. I can't feel the buttons on my camera with fat gloves on.


2) Working Man here needed them more. He has to feel the clutch and throttle after all and frozen fingers don't allow him to do so. I told him, worse comes to worse, he stalls the bike but he didn't think that was a viable option. Plus, we thought we had a second pair of gloves and we didn't. They were here. Safe and sound. In the house, where it's already warm.


All in all, we probably spent more time trying to get warm enough to get on the bikes than we did on the bikes. Not really, but it seemed like it.

FFR

Our New Friends...

We joined the local HOG chapter here in our city and we've all made some new friends. For this ride, we invited a couple of our new friends to come along. Everyone, meet Norm and Dori. I really enjoyed riding with them and I hope we get to do it again soon. Actually, I'd love everyone who went on this last ride to come again and would like to add Aunt J and Uncle G as well. It was very unfortunate and Uncle G was sick. Otherwise, we would have had five bikes. Next time I hope!

Anyway, I promised Norm and Dori that I would get pictures of them on the bike. Every rider knows that you rarely get pictures of yourself on the bike. Most people can't contort themselves on the bike to do it. That's why it should be a test for photographers...that and not feeling your fingers. That's a very important detail.

I love Dori's face in this, she looks like she's having so much fun.


I believe she's telling him that we're coming up on them for the picture.


And now they look over at us. Happy smiley faces. I wonder how Dori managed to smile when she can't feel her face. I'm presuming she can't feel her face...she claims she could but I just don't think it's possible.


Hang loose!


Foggy mountain background.


Round two of the photos. Norm likes to hang loose.


Even better. Isn't their bike beautiful?


I carefully edited this one to have extra in the front. It's like you're running right through the picture...

Or something like that.

I can't explain my artistic designs,
FFR

My In-Laws

Working Man's parents lead the ride this weekend. My FIL D knew where he was going...the rest of us did not. That might have had something to do with it. My MIL J really wanted a picture of the two of them on the trike.

Wait...what?


A peace sign? Really?


Thumbs up, this one I know. Was this thumbs up, yay you're taking our picture? Or thumbs up, yay you're about to die? Working Man and I are in the opposite lane running against traffic after all.


I think she's either waving to us...or trying to tell us to get behind them before we do die.


Or maybe she's trying to feel her fingers. I know I couldn't. Did I mention it was cold?

I think that every photographer should be required to take photos from the back of a motorcycle...and without the ability to feel their fingers. And I think your subjects should be so confusing that you have no idea what they're doing and you struggle to get a picture because you're afraid they're about to flip you off and you don't really want to see that. Additionally, having succeeded to take some pictures, you should have the added pressure of possibly running into a car going the opposite direction. Then let's see what kind of grit photographers of the world have.

On a side note, I can feel my fingers again. And I don't believe MIL J flipped me off.

FFR