A friend of mine posted this video on Facebook, and it was so cute I had to share.

Right now everything here in Kentucky is pretty much encased in a thin layer of ice. And, when I'm not worried about the dangers like road conditions, loosing power or falling down and breaking my neck, I have to admit it can be really pretty.

I snapped these few photos as I was leaving work.

It sure is much more fun to build a snowman than it is shoveling the walk.

A dachshund's odyssey

Last year a dear friend gave me this book. I'd thumbed through it several times but never took the time to sit down and read it. So on this quiet Sunday, I did just that.

Spoiler Alert * It turns out Lump had once belonged to the photographer, David Douglas Duncan, who was a good friend of Pablo Picasso. On one of his many trips to Picasso's home, he brought Lump along. Lump surveyed the home and decided that it would now be his home too. The rest of the book is comprised of domestic photos of Picasso and his beloved dog.

hmmm Does this sound like anyone else we know?

With that in mind here is the latest video of another lovable dachshund. PS It was just one month ago today she had her surgery.

The highs and lows of the week

This week has simply been a roller coaster of emotions. It started out on a high note with Bianka making some significant progress toward her recovery by standing and walking a little more with each passing day.

Then all of that progress came to a screeching halt on Tuesday, when the Little Dog took a tumble down a flight of stairs. Although she showed no immediate signs of significant injury, the next couple of days were spent in a perpetual state of worry and trying to assess if her behavior was normal. But at this point how does one gauge normal? After two or three days of quiet cage and bed rest, Bianka started becoming a little more active again.

Today being the beautiful day that it is, I decided Little Dog deserved some time in the great outdoors, carefully observed of course. She was outside less than two minutes before she started her search. I knew exactly what she was up to.

Yes I think things are getting back to normal around here.

You know, I'm always amazed at how much I can out-nerd myself.

Here is the latest in Bianka's road to recovery.

One step closer (pun intended)

It isn't very pretty and we still have a long way to go. :-D

Physical Therapy

I now find myself anxiously waiting to see when not if Bianka will take her very first "post-surgery" steps. One week ago I wasn't sure if she'd ever walk again, so this is incredibly exciting. I'm really amazed at how fast I'm seeing new signs of the Little Dog's recovery. She gets a little stronger each and every day. I know this because she and I do a little bit of physical therapy each night. Here you see us doing B's exercises. (If you managed to sit through the first two minutes, there's a tiny surprise at the end that I don't think either of us were expecting.)

By the way, I want to send out a big thank you to those of you that been kind enough to watch this progress with me and have cheered the little dog along. We're getting really close.

A tiny milestone.

To most this video would be dull as dirt, but but being able to scratch her ear with her own foot is a big step toward recovery. I never thought I'd be this excited over such little things.

Excited Dog

Happy Halloween

I know. I know. It's not right, but I just couldn't help myself.

I love my little Franken-Dog.

Play Time!

Bianka is a little fed up with this cage rest business.

It's hard to keep a good dog down.

I made this little video to document Bianka's recovery. She cannot walk, but she seems to be moving her left leg to help push herself around the floor. (PS the video is a mirror image of reality.) Plus the tail still wags and there is seems to be some muscle contraction when I scratch that special spot on her chest that used to make her leg "thump."

recovery - week one

When the vet first brought Bianka out to me, I saw her little tail wag and I burst into tears. I felt such a relief...so did she. When they handed her to me she ended up peeing all down my side. Luckily I was wearing a raincoat, and really I didn't care. I had my dog back.

After six days in the hospital Miss Bianka Dog is finally home, and her spirits are good.

She has a incision that's about 10 inches long running down her spine, and she cannot walk or stand on her own yet.

But this isn't what she's the Little Dog is sad about. No. She's not happy about the 2 weeks of cage rest.

It'll be okay Bianka. Just rest for now.

PS Bianka is still working on her "self-control" and in the mean time I continue to wear my raincoat when I take her out. ☺

Here we go again

A week ago Wednesday was just like any other fall evening around the Heis house. Before the sun set, Bianka and I took some time to play in the back yard.

We had a great time. We played fetch for a while.

Bianka rolled.

And rolled....

... and shook. She was living it up, until....

Actually, I'm not sure what exactly happened. All I know is that all of a sudden was acting "off." I'd seen this behavior before and I was pretty sure I knew what the outcome was going to be. Bianka had injured her back....again. You may remember I just went through this last Thanksgiving.

I was hoping I was wrong with my prediction, but after another sleepless night monitoring and worrying about the little dog. I found myself driving at dawn to the emergency veterinary hospital.

The surgeon confirmed that she had ruptured another disc. This time higher up toward the mid-back. This is apparently a more common location than her previous injury. When I had left my house she could still walk. When vet finally saw her, she'd lost most of the function in her legs. Paralysis was setting in.

One saving grace of having just gone through this, was that this time I knew what to expect in terms of the procedure and the recovery. Although, as I have learned the location of this injury put more pressure on the spinal cord, and recover will take longer.

Even though I wasn't nearly as scared to leave her, it is never easy having to say goodbye to this little face.

She was at the hospital for almost a week. Now she's home and we're starting recovery. I'll keep you posted on how that is going.

Something to think about.

I recently watched one of my favorite films, Lost in Translation. In this one scene, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) talks to Bob (Bill Murray) about feeling "stuck."

Charlotte: I tried taking pictures, but they were so mediocre. I guess every girl goes through a photography phase. You know like horses... you take dumb pictures of your feet.

I watched this scene and then thought to myself. "Oh my God. That's my life. Horses...photography...dumb pictures of my feet. Am I just a cliche`?"

I guess that's something interesting to think about and in the mean time, I'll still share this.

It's the Great Pumpkin Chuck Taylor!

Got Margaritas?

I saw this as I was leaving work last week.

Horse Shoes

Still Free Range

Tuesday as I left the office I was telling a co-worker about my father and his "free range" cow.

Wednesday morning this came through on Facebook from my mom.

Well, Steve has another free range cow on the loose. This one is hanging out near the New Life Penticostle church on Trebein Rd. Although we don't have 10 inches of snow on the ground and it is not 12 degrees outside, it is still a pain in the neck trying to chase down a stupid cow. I think we need prison high fences to keep this suckers in.

When I called home to talk to Dad, he sounded tired. Chasing cattle across the county 8 weeks after a hip replacement will take it out of you. I asked how he was doing, he said "Well. I have another flyer." Interestingly this cow came from the same original herd as the the first escapee. We're thinking it was a co-conspiracy or ... a cow-conspiracy. ( I know...I couldn't resist)

I found this article yesterday and thought it might be appropriate given recent events.

The Kentucky Gazette October 24, 1789

Sandcastle Art

Who knew Kentucky had a Grandmaster Sand Sculptor? It must be because we have all those beaches. ;-)

I saw Damon Farmer working on this when I popped by Lexington Green last weekend. I stopped back by this evening and amazed at how quickly everything has progressed.

Check out more at Sandcastlecam.com

Happy Belated Birthday Pierce

My dear, sweet friends Ashleigh and George welcomed their son to this world early Tuesday morning.

Happy (belated) Birthday Pierce!

Happy Equinox.

little bits of gratitude

Tonight I've been thinking a lot about the word "gratitude." There are so many little things in my day to day life that I'm thankful for.

For example, over the past few weeks I've come to realize how much my little yoga practice means to me. There are times when I've taken a break from yoga and I find my body crying out to me to go back. Then there is the mental component. It gives me that small window of time where I can tune out the noise of my life and just...well...be present.

So tonight I thought I 'd say thank you to all to of the teachers at Barefoot Works Yoga Studio. Almost all of them you see here in these photos from Sarah's wedding.

Plus, congratulations Sharon on Barefoot Works' Four Year Birthday!!! YAY!!!!

Sept 7

One more of Brandon and Sarah

sneak preview from the photog blog

I had so much fun photographing Sarah and Brandon's wedding, I thought it would be appropriate to have their sneak preview be a few fun images.

Come on. You know I love fun shoes.

Congratulations Saran and Brandon!

Sept 5

Sarah and Brandon are getting married today!!!

ABC-- August Break Continued...

Aug 30

Just one more cute sequence with Ashleigh and George.

I Joined - Have you?

Aug 26

Another image from Ashleigh and George's maternity shoot. Hop on over to the photography blog to see a bit more.

Aug 25

When Ashleigh and I first talked about what she wanted for her maternity shoot. She said, "Do you remember the final scene in the movie Notting Hill? I want to do something kind of like that. "

Since it has been many, many moons since I recalled watching that movie, I actually had to look it up and I found this...

Oh yeah...It all came flashing back to me Julia Robert, Hugh Grant. American movie star falls in love with an Englishman that owns a bookstore, or works in a bookstore, or maybe just frequents bookstores. Something like that, but the plot of the movie really doesn't matter. These final minutes of the movie are all that were really relevant to me. We can definitely do something like that.

So here is our version of that final scene.

There is actually more to this story, but you're just going to have to wait until tomorrow for that bit. Ashleigh and George week continues. Stay tuned...

Aug 24

I wasn't sure how this would out, but I have to say I kind of like it. At first I though the sun would ruin it for me but the more I look at it the more I'm thinking it works.

(PS. I think Ashleigh's shirt is too cute.)

Aug 23 -- Win Some Loose Some

So the results came out around 3 o'clock on the Pioneer Woman Photography contest.

Sadly my photo was not chosen by Ms. Drummond as the winner, but I have to say I that if this had been judged by the audience, say like American Idol, I think I might have won. No hard feelings though. I'm just thrilled that my photo was even chosen and the feedback I have received has been amazing. The narcissistic side of me kept checking back and reading all the comments and replies to the post. I'd sit in disbelieve of all the wonderful things being said about my work. I almost felt like Sally Fields, "You like me. You really like me."

Thank you again Ree Drummond for picking me as a finalist. It was a honor.

August 22 | Ashleigh+George (+Peirce) |

August 20 --feeling famous

If you've looked through the past posts of this blog you already know I love this photo. I entered it in a contest on the Pioneer Woman website. PS I love Ree Drummond.

The theme of the contest is Love. I made it through the first round, and so many lovely people have said such sweet things about this little of photo of mind. It's a nice way end week.

Here's a link to the rest of today's photos. About 20 are chosen per day for a week. I'll keep you posted if I make it to the finals.

August 19 (a little early)

Bianka 5 Snakes 0
Correction:
Bianka 7 Snakes 0
It's a good thing I have this blog or I'd loose count.

August 18