Happy Birthday Musher Mark! - Bet

Today Musher Mark turns 50, and the Musher asked me to make up a "normal" card for him... this is about as normal as it gets around here.

Happy Birthday Musher Mark!

They're Coming - Bet

Howdy ho everybodies, it's your Auntie Bet here!

I bet you're all wondering what I'm wearing. No, this isn't one of my new fashionable ensembles, although I do make it rock. This is for protection... MY protection.

No, it's not for the roving scary thingies, or bands of slathering coyotes, it's for something even more sinister and evil... something that is so scary that I dare not mention its name for fear that it will bring swarms of them upon us....

They are...

Hummingbirdus Pokeyoureyeoutus

I hate them!  I really, really hate them!

They're on their way, and the Musher insists on putting food out for them!  It's like she has this crazy wish to have her eyes poked out with their sharp beaks!

If you think she's crazy, check out this guy that developed a one of those evil beady eyed things feeding helmet!!!

Can you imagine having that thing so close to your eyes!  Its just a matter of time before they poke one out, flitting around like that!

Those THINGS ruin everything for me!  They ruin my time out on MY deck.  They ruin my FUN.  Not to mention that Tic hasn't been the same since they held him for ransom.

Thankfully the strange winter and the wacky weather has delayed their migration somewhat, otherwise we'd be swarmed by those dangerous flitty pests already.

I'm trying to figure out how I can keep them from invading us next year.  My latest plan is to take the shedded fluff from the Pretty Curly Tails and having Tic and Bait knit together a protective bubble that we'll cover the entire North Wapiti compound in.  I haven't figured out how to keep it from sagging onto us when it rains... and I can't imagine that smell. 

I also had a plan B, where I made Tic drink all of the evil beady eyed thing sugar water.  No sugar water, no dive bombing and missing eyes!  I thought that was a brilliant secondary plan, except for one thing... apparently sugar water packs on the pounds and now Tic can't reach the feeders.

It's so hard to find good help around here.

- Bet

Bring The Team Home Winner - Bet

Some of you may have seen my picture on the Facebooks today as we went to visit Grandma.

Notice my lack of fashionable ensemble... well, there's a reason for that... its because today we did the drawing for the winner of the Bring The Team Back Home contest!

There were so many peoples that helped the Pretty Curly Tails, Richard, and my wonderful Musher back home.  We were overwhelmed with your support and generosity and humbly thank each and every one of you for your wonderfulness.

There were so many of you, that all of the names wouldn't fit into any hat we had in the house.  We thought about putting them in the planter (aka Richard's bed), but it was filled with mud and icky dead flowers.

We thought it would be really cool if we had one of those baskets they use to call bingo games.  You know, spin it around and one of the little ball things would flip out and we could make a huge bigey big production about announcing the name on video or something really cool like that... but we don't have one of those spinning bingo baskets.

Sigh...

But then I had this fantastic idea!!!  We do have a large spinning thing that we can put all of the names in, but we don't have a way for the winning name to pop out so we could announce it... hmmm

I KNOW!  We'll put Tic in the spinning thing and whatever name sticks to his fur, that's the winner!!!

So, we threw Tic in the dryer with the names **.

The most disturbing thing was that each time he smacked up against the glass, it made him look like gigantic floofy cat... or it could have been that we didn't put one of those fabric softener sheets in there with him... but then none of the names would have stuck.

It did seem to take a long time for Tic to let us know that he had a name stuck to him... it was so hard to tell the angry screaming from the "I have a name" screaming....

But we have a winner!!!!

Congratulations Mary Atkinson!!!!

Please contact Heather Minion so we can get your prize to you jiffy quick!

And that's why I had to go to Grandma's house only wearing my collar... we have to scrub out the dryer because apparently it was a bit of a moving experience for Tic.

- Bet





** please note, we didn't actually throw Tic in the dryer.

Training Begins - The Cartoonist

Now that the word is out about the 2011 schedule, and that Richard will be running in some of those races, we've been given permission to release this one photo of Richard in training.

I'm sure a lot of you are speculating, and perhaps even placing bets on which dogs Richard will be racing this year.  As a novice musher, Karen is entrusting Richard with seasoned veterans and even allowing him to use one of her finest sleds for his training to make sure he gets the most experience on the trails.

I'm sure we'll have more exciting pictures as Richard's training progresses.

- The Cartoonist -