Sittin' On The Fence

Last weekend, I got a taste of 'nature' and 'wildlife' right in my very own backyard. An uninvited guest showed up on my backyard fence and he was driving the dogs NUTS when I got home from Bunco last Friday night.

I went to the backyard when they weren't waiting at the door for me......and this is what I found!

A nasty, disgusting possum sitting on my fence - and 'securing' himself with his tail wrapped around a branch on a small tree. GROSS!!!!

Here is Maggie, giving him the evil eye.....

Owen was bothered more than Maggie, but he's just more aggressive and feisty about foreign people or animals. Owen was making all kinds of weird noises and jumping on the fence. Good thing he's short so they didn't meet up with each other!

I tried walking close to the fence and yelling at him to go away - didn't work. I went inside to get a broom and try to shoo him away with that - didn't work. I was afraid to get too close because I didn't know if he was rabid or angry. I did NOT want him to attack me or the dogs!

You almost can't even see him from far away - but Owen somehow spotted him in the dark up there while I was gone...

I think it's the tail curled around the branch that creeps me out the most! Oh, and I was panicked that he would come down from the fence into my yard and come in the doggy door after Maggie and Owen! How disturbing would that be to have a nasty possum in your house! I guess it's better than a skunk, though.......

Here's how Owen sat for about an hour and a half - until I grabbed him and made him come inside.

Here's my little watchdog, Owen!

List Friday

Biggest Pet Peeves!

1. Slow drivers in the left lane (or just drivers who aren't courteous in general)

2. Bad listeners (verbal pukers)

3. Screaming kids in restaurants (and negligent, rude parents who won't shut them up)

4. Waiting in lines

5. Fake small talk

6. Arrogance/condescension/bragging

7. The sensation of thirst

8. Humidity

9. People who have an unwarranted sense of entitlement

10. Home improvement projects that I cannot figure out on my own

Thankful Thursday

This week, I am thankful for SNOW DAYS! Although I worked from home on the snow days we recently had, it still allows me to spend a lot of quality time with the dogs at home. They like to either sleep on my lap or sleep on their favorite blankies at my feet. It's so sweet!

About a week ago, we had a terrible ice/snow/sleet/cold spell come through Dallas - and it was a very bad week to happen since it was SuperBowl week! But, because I am very fortunate, I was able to work from home and avoid the very dangerous roads (they don't treat their roads with salt or really plow anything - it's just a waiting game and they throw a little sand down).

Here's the view from my home office: (reminds me of home!)

People who have pools down here don't empty and winterize them in the cold months, because it just doesn't get cold enough to matter....and I guess there's some other reason, like the lining cracks if you don't have the pressure of the water against it when it gets cold or something like that. At any rate, it still is bizarre to see a pool full of water and snow surrounding it! This is the neighbor that lives in the house that butts up to my backyard.

And two creatures that are very happy it's snowing are Owen & Maggie. For some reason, they like the snow.....and they also like that I'm home and they get the full run of the house!

Here they are wrestling......but it looks like they are hugging!

Miss Maggie is monitoring the snowfall......

And then she retreats to her favorite blanket on the floor to take a nap.....

She is showing Owen how to monitor the backyard - he's in training........

My little baby Owen!

And here they are, romping in the snow - it's crazy that they like it since their tummies are pretty much bare - just peach fuzz!

I find it amazing that my little tiny backyard looks so big when you have such small dogs - perfect size for the two of them.....

The detectives of the backyard - sniffing for who-knows-what!

Are they making 'crop circles' in the snow?! Heeheehee

And after the snow romp, they came back upstairs to keep me company and both passed out.....

Such sweet babies.........Here's Maggie, trying to hide.....

And here's Owen in the 'doughnut' position.........

I'm so lucky to have my fantastic pups to keep me company on these snow days!

Birds Eye View - SuperBowl Style

Well, up until now, I haven't posted any of the pictures of the view that we had up in the air on my WWII plane flight......

Here I am before we boarded...

And a mechanic doing last minute adjustments......this makes me very nervous........

And we're off! Here is downtown Fort Worth - looking east towards Dallas and Arlington.

Another one looking east.........

It's so surreal to be in a plane that is using propellers!

Checkin' out the view.......

And here's Cowboys Stadium in Arlington (only about 6 miles from my house)!

This plane ride happened on the day before the SuperBowl, so all of those structures right up against the stadium are temporary things for the big game.

That stadium is such a beast!

That big white structure on the bottom left of this picture is just for the SuperBowl.

Really cool views from the air!

And here are the Steelers and Packers on the side of the stadium....

And here's me, trying not to get motion sickness up in the air...It was a great time!

And after they put us back on the ground in Fort Worth safely, I had to get a picture of the pilot! Nice job, gentlemen!

Southern Cross

Yesterday I mentioned that I bought a Groupon for a plane ride in a WWII plane over the SuperBowl festivities.....well here it is! It's a Douglas C-47 Dakota (Southern Cross).

Here I am walking out to the plane for our ride! There are only 16 seats on the plane, so it was a small group of people on each flight.

The Southern Cross logo is on the nose of the plane....

I was wondering what these circles on the windows were....turns out they are gun ports - so they can shoot things out all of the windows!

And these skulls represent the 5 jumpers that didn't open their parachutes (this was a paratrooper plane)......3 of them left behind suicide notes and the other 2 are a mystery.

This was our 'docent' if you will - he explained the whole history of the plane. It was commissioned in 1941 by TWA - as a passenger plane, but due to the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, it was pressed into military service.

After the war, it changed hands many times - even once being owned by the President of Mexico and he turned it into some luxurious bachelor pad with a full bathroom, couches, etc. Then it was a commercial plane and finally it became a skydiving plane, so they stripped everything out again to make it as light as possible for jumps.

All aboard!

I decided to sit in the front row - here was my view.....a direct line right into the cockpit!

Here's the co-pilot, getting ready to take off!

This was the view behind me.......

It made me kind of nervous because the plane was super loud (they gave us ear protection) and it vibrated quite a bit...Also, I saw all of this exposed wiring above the cockpit.....scary!

It was really cool to see what people wrote on parts of the plane's interior - all servicemen wrote where/when they served. It was so neat to read that!

And we were honored to have a veteran on our flight that day - he was in the Army in WWII. He said that he flew in planes just like the one we were in - he made 92 successful jumps! WOW!