Shotguns and Shenanigans

I had but one request from my man on New Year's Day: to go shooting with him and his buddies. Who am I to argue with the old adage, "The family that shoots together stays together?"

So we loaded up a small arsenal, headed out into the middle of the desert, and proceeded to shoot stuff. Namely, clay pigeons, coke cans, boxes, and a Christmas bag adorned with two cuddly penguins wearing Santa hats. I had a hard time with the last target; it was strangely morbid.

This is part of the small arsenal.

Ladies, this is the equivalent of your best friend showing you her new Coach hand bag and you tell her, "How nice! You are so fortunate," while in your mind you're thinking "B*tch."

I know everythin thay is to know about shootin guns. Thay's big guns, little guns, shot guns, hand guns, guns in potatoes, pineapple guns...

We decided to take a break from shooting, and threw rocks in the river instead.

I learned a thing or two about bird dogs--when they hear a shot, they run after whatever it is they think you shot, even if it is only a clay pigeon that has been blasted into fragments. It soon became a matter of calling all the dogs back in after each shot, so we could shoot some more without shooting the dogs. 

Men do not like to wait for dogs to get out of the way so they can shoot.

This is where dogs go when they don't get out of the way so men can shoot.

Dogs do not like to be stuck in the back of a pickup while men are shooting. 

As the sun began to set, we packed up our things because the men could no longer see what to shoot anymore. Actually, I think they would have stayed late into the night shooting into the darkness, or aiming for the stars, or maybe even the moon. It would have gone something like this, "You dang star! You done twinkled your last!" BOOM!

But the women were cold and hungry.

Snow Day

Snow in New Mexico? It happens. I spent many a day in Alaska cursing the white powdery fluff, but down here, it is a welcome surprise.

We awoke to find a blanket of six inches of fresh snow. A mere hiccough in the exhalations of winter storms as far as Alaska is concerned, but down here in New Mexico, this warrants a school closure. Woohoo! And I'm not the only one who's glad about staying home on a snow day.

It was a great day to make a new friend.

As for Ranger, he had never seen snow before. He hopped up into the back of the pickup truck and required much coaxing to come down and play.

We finally convinced him that snow is fun.

Except for face shots.

 Poor puppy.

Time to get even.

Just to prove that we really are in New Mexico and not visiting Alaska. See. Ever see a snowy cactus in Alaska? 

Happy snow days all! 

Tiling the Living Room

Living in a fixer upper and not having an endless budget reminds me of an old Chinese proverb: "Starving man wait long time for roast duck to fly into his mouth." Translation: If you want something done, get off your butt and do it yourself. Hence the reason I decided to use my week off for Thanksgiving break to tile the majority of my house.

The entryway was covered in old, ugly brown mosaic. Since I wanted the new tile to be level, we had to chip the mosaic off of the entryway. It was grueling work for me.

 But not so grueling for others.

 I know. It's a small space, but trust me, this is harder than it looks. Once we removed the old tile, it was time to start setting the new tile in place.

 Actually, laying the tile was not as difficult as I thought it would be. Using a chalk line, we lined it up to the corners and made a large X across the room to find the center. We then laid our first tiles in a cross to set our rows. After that, it was just a mater of filling in all of the rows. I worked everyday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. I made the cuts on an inexpensive tile saw. When it was all said and done, my hands were cracked and dry, but I now have a beautiful floor and I saved myself five dollars for each tile I set (can you believe that's what the flooring store charges for installation?).

 I can now add "tiling" to my list of things I can do. And trust me, if I can tile a house, anyone can.