My Dog Policy

I love dogs, I used to own two dogs, both of which were rescue dogs. That said, I don't think the time is quite right for a dog. Now, in our house, I am severely in the minority with that position. Basically everyone else wants a dog, attributes human emotions and personality traits to dogs and gets very attached to dogs in general.

So my policy has been to actively encourage dog sitting at the house. There are a few dog owner friends who travel enough that we generally have a dog over once every couple of months. This seems to hold the waters back somewhat (though I do feel like the boy with my finger in the dike) on us getting a dog. It also re-affirms my belief that we are not ready since I am generally the one to walk the dogs (the kids will go when prompted) and feed the dogs. In fact we had one this past weekend. A BIG mutt named Fargo. Fargo weighs something like 120lbs but looks bigger. That is because he has a full blown long winter coat of fur which makes him seem truly enormous. He is one of those dogs that give you pause when you see coming the other way, particularly when he is being walked by a child that he would surely drag if he really wanted to go somewhere. Turns out Fargo is a gentle giant, 7 years old and very mellow. He is a really great dog.

So for now that is my policy, dog sit when ever possible and stall on owning one ourselves.

p.s. (and I know that in her heart of hearts Melissa knows we are not ready, but that does not stop her from REALLY wanting one.)

Snow Camping - Extreme version

A friend of mine, Jason Kuo, loaned me much of the equipment I used when snow camping last week including the tent, sleep bag and many other things. He is major outdoor enthusiast and limber so he had real high-quality gear.

He just got back from a trip to British Columbia where he did some hard core back country camping, hiking and climbing and he sent pictures. I thought they were so cool in light of the trip I just went on that I would post the link.

Here is his note about the trip:

"Hey Y'all,

I'm in Vancouver now. Just got back from a three day ski and climbing trip with my buddy Aaron. We're in the backcountry mountains behind Whistler.

http://flickr.com/photos/jjkuo/sets/72157604237578919/show/

• Day 1 - Travel to the backcountry via the Blackcomb ski lift and a 6 mile up and down high mountain ski traverse.
• Day 2 - Climb Mt. Patterson via short, scratchy mixed route and snow scramble. Bit of skiing too.
• Day 3 - Dig ourselves out of an intense, short storm and head home. Skies cleared for the final shot.

Happy times!"

Enjoy!

Unfortunate knowledge for a 3 year old

Nicolas is a really sweet kid, playing the part of the 3rd child and often the peace maker he is kind and wonderful. He also has eczuma which is a general term for a dry skin disease that results in very itchy and irratated skin. It is also the common cause of him waking up each night and coming into our bed complaining from the itching.

The result is one of us getting up, finding his special cream, and smearing it on his most annoying spots, usually on his legs or arms. This is of course after we generally lather him up before putting him to bed. So most of our nights are interupted by the little man who needs our support.

Julia had it too, though not as bad. Hopefully he will grow out of it like Julia did.

The unfortunate knowledge is that he knows what he has and what is condition is called. When he comes into our room in the night he says "my eczuma is itchy!" He also knows what foods seem to irritate it so he avoids those as much as possible (which is tough because he likes gold fish for example, who doesn't!)

Happy Birthday to Lea!!

It's birthday season Chez Kreisa and today it is Lea's turn!

On this day in Neuilly-Sur-Seine France Lea Rose came to us!

Happy Birthday Lea!!!



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Melissa get's her mention

Melissa just sent a link to a Valley Catholic Newspaper article about the joint efforts between Sunnyvale Prebyterian Church and Catholic Charities to help refugees in the local area. She is quoted in the article and I think this is her first official press hit!

Enjoy!

http://www.dsj.org/_082006site_backup/community/valleyissue.asp?id=45&story=2255

Snow Camping

Generally the first question I get when I tell people I went snow camping is "were you cold?" which I guess makes sense but to me also indicates a latent fear that many people seem to have about freezing to death.

The answer is no, not if you dress appropriately, which we all did thanks to great preparation from the group leader Steve Harrington. Steve is a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) instructor as well as a wilderness first responder and member of the US ski patrol so we were in very good hands during the entire trip.

We had a nice eclectic group of 7 folks on the trip and we had many laughs and a lot of fun. We were out for 3 days and 2 nights in the snow.

We snowshoed about 3 miles back into the mountains in Bear Valley CA.

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There was about 6-8 feet of snow on the ground when we went in and found a campsite. We were on the southwest side of the lake you can see in the map above. If you put it into terrain view you can see Inspiration point - we hike up to that ridge on the second day.

The first day we spent most of our time making camp which involved clearing and stamping areas for our tents, digging a nifty snow kitchen complete with cooking area and bench seats all made of snow, and digging a snow cave. There are pictures of all of those things as well as the Igloo that was start and finished on the second day.

When one is active it actually does not take that many layers to stay warm even in the snow. So we became practiced at layering down for activity and layering up for times when we were sitting around. Steve guided everyone to think 30 minutes ahead in terms of managing layers because it is much easier to stay warm than get warm again and this worked very well.

Probably the biggest issue for everyone was hands and feet or the extremities in general. When cooking or doing other activities it was often necessary to take your hands out of your gloves and that was when they started to get cold, touching cold metal of the pans, stove or other things.

There are many more details regarding the mini-classes Steve gave us as well as the hikes. I will fill in more details in my next blog entry as I have to cut this one short at the moment.

In the mean time here are some links to some of the pictures from the trip, enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/Sheueling.Shantz/SnowCamping20080315?authkey=9hEI3LoFBiM

http://picasaweb.google.com/scottp100/2008SnowCamping

Obsessed with time

We gave Julia a watch for her birthday and and she has become somewhat obsessed with expressing the exact time for something to occur. For example when we ask her to do something she will either look at her watch or the nearest clock and say "OK I'll do it at 8:20" or if we tell her we will be up to tuck her in she says " how about you come up at 7:45". She will even bargain with you on the time of an event down to the minute! Funny.

I guess that is good because we want her to become more aware of time. It is just a funny little obsession.