us.

Here's what we were up to this weekend:

ah, exercise, how i missed you

**for anyone reading this as a facebook note, the pictures have better layout on the actual blog:www. martha-teresa.blogspot.com Go see!**

Neah is attempting to trick me into playing with her, coyly dropping tennis balls at my feet and putting her head in my lap with tug-o-war-triangle in it.

Lately we've been busy doing puppy training, trying to socialize her, and trying to break her of the instinctual drive to herd us. One night a week we shuttle her into the car (thank god we are beyond the puppy motion sickness now) and take her to PetSmart where a kind lady teaches us how to not kill her. It is a class of four: a terrier that doesn't like anyone, a pound saved sled dog that just wants to pull and hates if you touch its feet, and a german shepherd with severe anxiety. I wonder how people would describe us!

Here's Adam and Neah at our class working on loose leash walking. He does the practices, since i have all day to work on it at home with her. Some days are great. Actually, any time she isn't really interested in some smell or other is great. When there is a smell to be discovered my arms get one hell of a workout.

She's over 30 lbs now. They expect her to be just under 50lbs in the next couple of months. We are waiting for her massive coat and uber-shedding to begin :) We try to take her walking in the park--but she's super afraid of mountain bikers and cross-country skiiers....so it is a little daunting for just one of us.

Rhetorical question: How on earth did i let Adam talk me into getting this dog? For anyone debating Aussie ownership, you should know that she wants to be with us ALL the time, she sheds, and you really ought to have a good yard or trail nearby to haul her on. About the co-dependant thing, never more than 5 feet away (unless there's a yummy smell) is where she would stay at all times if we let her.

Anyways, that obviously doesn't stop us. So, we've been doing some classic cross country skiing on this trail. Well, not this section of it yet, but soon:

We used some of the wedding money (THANK YOU) to get me a set of cross country skis. The key to success with Anchorage winters seems to be to get yourself out in it. We figured having a sport we could do together, easily and cheaply, would be good both for our health and for our mental well-being. Alas, the bar kinda killed the plan temporarily, but we are back in full swing (having gone twice this week and hoping to get in one more before i head to Israel to see Bob and Lissa early next week). There are a lot of trails here in Anchorage and we have been exploring Kincaid park. Adam and I both really enjoy it, although I'm sure i need a technique lesson or two hundred. It is a great work out that doesn't leave you all burnt out feeling afterwards. Bonus that the scenery is beautiful. So, we were out on the trail and Adam whizzed down the hill and i followed, only to realize that there was a moose just off the trail. Neither of us can stop yet without falling over....so just prayed the moose was not so interested in us going by. I did get a pic of the people that came after us, so you know how close we were:

 Also, i need to tell you that, despite my initial misgivings about the plethora of mooses...there really are a ton of them. We saw this one driving out of the park. He kindly stopped to pose for us, although he wouldn't answer to Adam's "moosey moosey" call, before wandering off when the car started up again.

it's warmer here than NYC

i figure i won't be able to say that much, so i ought to take advantage of it. we went for a couple walks over the weekend with Neah. We are trying to get her more exercise to decrease her desire to eat shoes. i like to think it's working. It also gave me a chance to take some pictures of the beautiful scenery. We are always coming across views and saying that we wished we had the camera. this particular picture was taken along the Campbell Creek Trail. There's an entrance to the trail quite close to our house...lots of lovely little bridges crossing over the creek. These pictures were both taken from this little outlook bridge.... where i guess when it's warm the salmon go to spawn. According to the sign, there are four different kinds of salmon that you can see from the lookout. It is probably just less than a mile from the trail parking lot to the lookout thing. The first day it was warmer and we got an earlier start...we made it about twice the distance of the second before Neah's paws started getting cold.

i never really imagined going for walks in sub freezing weather. it's not so bad. i like it better when it's snowing for sure. Aside from that, not so much is new. There were these lovely ice sculptures in a park downtown that Adam and i went to look at on my birthday. My favorite was an enormous jaguar kind of creature....although there were two bear siblings with touching noses that were pretty dope. Some of the sculptures were so detailed. it is a lovely art....which clearly takes more precision and patience than i could ever muster. On principle--here are your cute Neah pics (post running like a banshee, neah, and trying to train neah).