The Holiday is Ending

Just Finished Reading: Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

Back to work tomorrow. It's hard to believe I'm already at the end of my vacation. Seems like just yesterday I was rushing to get out of the salon so I could start the break as early as possible. And now it's almost over. It went by too fast. I never even had a chance to get bored.

I do have some pictures though, which I suppose is what you're supposed to have at the end of every vacation. This first set, I think everyone is going to enjoy. It's from Sunday. No, you're not imagining things. That is a poodle with a mohawk! And yes, I'm the one who did it. There I was on Sunday afternoon, pretty tired from the usual work when this woman walks in with that little poodle. New customer, just moved here from South Carolina I think it was. Anyway, after doing all the paperwork I asked her what kind of cut she wanted and without any hesitation she said she wanted a mohawk. Apparently this is the normal haircut her poodle usually gets and I have to admit, he looks pretty damn cool.

This particular mohawk came out MUCH better than the one I did a few months back for the maltese. Poodles have really good hair for this kind of work. See how nice and full it is? And you can make it nice and wide so there's no doubt of what you're looking at. That is a poodle with a mowhawk, no doubt about it.

The owner, incidentally, really liked the cut so there's a good chance I'll do this again. This marks the THIRD time I've been asked to do this sort of thing and so far this is the best it's turned out.

So, what did we actually DO on vacation? Nothing much really. I'll skip all the details and give you the highlights because, let's face it, it was a pretty slow week, which was WONDERFUL. We did clean the carpet in the aprtment though, which REALLY needed to be done, especially the heavy traffic section in the hallway and the spot where Jack likes to pee when he can't hold it in until the morning walk. It looks a LOT better now.

I also managed to trim the boards on CC's desk mat thing that we made. Everything pretty much lines up now. I'm sure she'll be posting pictures of that for you to see when she gets a chance.

Probably the BEST thing we did this week was go and have a massage. CC got a gift certificate for us for a day spa for my birthday and we went over and did that Friday at around lunch time. We got a full massage and lunch. Oh MAN that is something everybody has to do at least once. It's a requirement, like going to Disneyland. You MUST have a professional massage at least once. Seriously, go and do it because I just can't describe how relaxing it is. There just aren't the right words :-)

Now, as we were heading out for the massage, it started to snow. It was still pretty warm out though so the snow would just hit and melt. No big deal. By the time we were finished, the snow was coming down pretty heavy and the winds had picked up. It was a LITTLE bit colder but the snow was only sticking on metal things or maybe patches of dirt. Nothing was building up in the grass. By the time we got HOME, the snow was sticking pretty much to everything. The wind was blowing it in all over and we had our own little winter wonderland.

This morning, I woke up and it was like January. Full blanket of snow, about 6 inches I think. The parking lots and all the roads in the apartment complex were covered in a sheet of ice. Everywhere you walked you made a crunching noise. The doggies were NOT amused by that. Katya actually likes the snow. She tends to bound through it and take little bites of it as she goes along. Jack, well let's just say the snow makes him even grumpier than usual.

Our morning walk was actually pretty funny. Katya was enjoying herself until she got to the street and had to deal with walking on ice. She managed to stay on all fours most of the time but as we were coming in, she came around a corner a little too fast and did a belly flop. Jack was having a hard time finding a place to go to the bathroom. Every time he assumed the position the snow reached his belly and he did NOT like that at all. I finally got him to the top of a small hill where the snow had mostly blown off. 2 inches he can handle. 6 inches is not fun.

I didn't realize how much it was blowing around out there until this morning. I was out on the back patio taking pictures when I saw that the snow ahd reached the forrest. In fact, there was snow pretty much all over the patio in varying depths. Over by the guard rail it was thicker of course and it sort of blended in from there. A nice winter storm, something we haven't had here since February 2007. And so late too, that seemed a bit odd.

The snow's already melting though. Tomorrow it'll be in the 50's. Later in the week, probably the 60's. Spring will arrive quick.