Valentine's day #9

 We were finishing a road trip, and Boomer was starting one.  We stopped in for #9.  New dress.  That didn't fair so well with the snow.

As you know we aren't the only ones to dress for the occasion!

A couple ski trips

I had a friend organizing a ski visit from England.  So I joined Andy in Jackson Hole, and on to SLC.  Scott Jones, some friends from Reno and Hoss joined in too.

 Andy and Scotty hanging out at Corbit's Cabin.  We tried the must have waffles...

A day at the Canyons with Gus as the rest of the crew drove down to SLC.  At Alta: Hoss and look who dropped in!  Rachael  Great to see you even though only in the lift line and for a drop in Apres!

Gus and Valerie were kind enough to host me in Heber!

Back to Snowbird for a great day in the fresh pow!

 Snowing all day!  This doesn't show on the way down the canyon there inevitably is a freeze point where snow turns to rain, and that is where the road is black ice.  Several cars visited the ditch very near me.

 I stopped in at Dale Boot.  I needed some service after 9 years on these boots.  New liners toes and heels.  Nice guys, they donated a boot bag for the Monopalooza raffle.  Of course Monoskiing got me into Dale boots originally!

 I did visit the house at somepoint between these pictures...  But back to SLC to ski with Gus again, this time Karyn came along (caught a flight into SLC and I drove her back).

 Mark came out to visit from California.

 This was early in the day, before we wore them out.  Cam and Alex road tripped with Mark to check out the great scenes of Utah.

 Tracy and Jim were visiting for a week, checking out the conditions all over the mountain so we knew where to ski.  Great times!

So, this happened........

So, this happened -

 

Tucker and I decided the household was too quiet/calm with Booger gone and went in search of a new kitty friend.    I had looked a couple of times at a couple of shelters but couldn't find one that stole my heart.

Last Saturday we took the day off of skiing and went to a couple of shelters.   We met 'Miss Kitty' and she was so calm and lovable that we thought we'd take her home with us.

Turns out she has been in and out of the shelter 3 times since last April.   First, she was delivered to the shelter with LOTS and LOTS of other animals from one home - we assume animal hording.   Second, she was returned because she was 'aggressive' with someone's children.   Third, she was returned due to the owner's inability to care for her....    She had been there for only 2 weeks before we found her!

She is 10 years old.  She has feline herpes (so does Handsome) and knows how to (not) use her claws.  

She needed a name though......

a name... .how hard can choosing a name be?  She already had one.

I got 'pressured' into choosing a name for 'Joe' 16 years ago.... They absolutely had to have a name to give to the 'chip' people.     I couldn't decide but his name was NOT Joe.  And I had to decide at that very moment.   And I thought back to a childhood story of Tucker's about a fire breathing dragon that is the last one on earth and must save the earth from the sun freezing over.   The dragon is young and doesn't know how to breath fire....    They give him a mirror to convince him that he is really a dragon and not one of them.   He looks into the mirror and says 'Handsome, handsome draaaaggggoooon!'
That dragon figured out who he was and I figured out that 'Joe' was really 'Handsome Handsome'!

Soooooo.... long story, I know.   Stay with me.. it's almost over.

The woman at the animal shelter left us alone with 'Miss Kitty' and we decided that we should start thinking of names so we didn't get 'pressured' into it.   We threw around a few names - Fireball.....   I don't remember what else.    I asked Tucker 'Where was the last place we skied?'   He answered 'Copper Mountain, why?'  I looked at him and suggested 'Copper'.....     And now we have a beautiful tabby named Copper (after the ski area)

Interesting where names come from, huh?

 Everyone else is still trying to figure out what this new addition to the family is even doing here.... and not very happy about it.

Espana - part 4 of 4

where we met Sarah, Jack, Idrie, and Andrew - friends from Colorado.   However, Jack, Sarah and Idrie live in Switzerland and just happened to be traveling with Andrew (from Colorado) and posted on Facebook that they were in Spain so I sent a message asking 'where' and it turned out they were 1.5 hours away from where we were staying.   We spent the afternoon in Seville doing a walking tour of the city and taking in as much as we could in the short time we had.   Amazing.   That is all.

 Dude is wearing a skirt and FMBs.   End of story.

Espana - part 3 of 4 - Cadiz

And a whole day to visit Cadiz and Seville..... 

First, Cadiz.   We could see the bridge from our hotel room....

 We had to drive across the water to get here.... apparently the gps hasn't been updated with the bridge.....

 A castle - with a re-purposed moat......

 Ruins of 'something'

 A(nother) cathedral - yeah?

 

Not sure what is up with the maple leaves....

 

Then on to Seville......

Espana - part 2 of 4 - Gibraltar (ok, not really Spain)

We were fortunate enough to take half a day and go to Gibraltar!

Proof that phones are more interesting than scenery.