February sucks and it lasted till Friday

Since my last update, the dogs have taken a back seat to family death, injury, and illness. I'd been pretty bitter about it all until today. I'll explain.

Last week, my grandfather, died. Before you get all bleary eyed and apologetic, he was really old, 86. He got away with being a functional alcoholic (he put the fun in functional alcoholic) and a chain smoker till he was in his early eighties. No cancer, no disease of any kind, unless being a curmugeon is a disease.

Grandpa was also "the man." No, not the way Sean Connery uses it, he was management for U.S. Steel. He and my mom were total opposites (in that way and others (though not in stubbornness)) Good thing she moved to labor-loving liberal Texas, huh. I don't know much more than that. I really only saw him a handful of times in my adult life. Mostly what I remember about him was that he always had polaroid camera with him and he used to pretend to close the car door on his leg to get a laugh out of me.

For numerous reasons, I didn't go to the funeral. One of which was that M was laid up at the time.

As most of you know, M has scoliosis or curvature of the spine. When she was 16, she had her spine fused. The now straight spine had to be held in place with titanium rods. The top of the rods would occasionally snag on a muscle or nerve temporarily. So far, the snag hasn't been temporary. So now she is in Austin seeing what is what from her orthopedic surgeon.

So while she is dealing with that, I get a stomach virus. That was Monday. Today is the first day that I've had ful meal. It was the best pizza I've ever tasted.

While all of this was taking place, M and I went up to Fort Worth for my brother's 30th birthday. Here are some pictures of the dogs from that trip.

Oscar and Gracie. She really isn't so bad, she is just old. Don't worry, she didn't bite the puppies.

Doin the freak out!

This is what I call the 'tard picture. When they fight, their gums get dry and their lips get stuck like this and make them look very silly.

M and Oscar sleeping.