I'd always considered myself a single-digit kinda girl. I like the numbers 3, 6, 9...ya know...easy to remember, not hard to write, and a bit of character in and of itself. No "partner" number imposing additional influence on its appearance or meaning. Well...that all changed today, when it had been four days...count 'em...FOUR DAYS since the dogs had been outside for any exercise. None! As in nada, zilch, zero. It was today that the number 10 and anything higher became my favorite number. And please...don't put a "-" in front of it. That's just mean.

Hopefully I haven't totally confused you. Allow me to elaborate. As you gathered from my last post, we've been experiencing colder than normal temps lately. Ty and I have decided that anything below ten degrees - unless the sun is out and making itself more than known - we probably shouldn't take the dogs out into the elements. As a result, they hadn't been out since Saturday and let me tell you...the tensions were running high. The casual wrestle session between Hunter and Wally had turned from friendly to snarly. And the Rosco-Wally chase fest went from knocking one or two ornaments from the tree to an unprecedented three or four falling to their death. AND a tree skirt disturbance thrown in for good measure. It was turning desperate here at the Anderson's.

But...finally (hallelujah!!!), the temps started going up, up, up today and we crested at 14 degrees! To make it all that much more enjoyable, it's been snowing all day too! Hunter, Wally and I celebrated with a drive-way shoveling, chuck-it throwing, snow eating (the dogs) fest after work. It was grand. The dogs are now sleeping peacefully downstairs and I imagine we won't hear a peep from them 'til tomorrow.

Thank you double digits! I owe you my life.

Happy dogs, happy me!

If only I could capture the glory of the temp in this photo.