I'm trapped in my house. It's been snowing (with a coating of freezing rain for good measure) for the last two days. So I can't go anywhere.

Lucky for me, I've got friends nearby. And of course, there's Allie.

First, she needed a bath today. I've been avoiding this because I don't like having to clean her, then clean the tub and then clean myself - all because SHE needed a bath. I really wish she'd grow out that dew paw and make it an opposable thumb. Perhaps she could bathe herself. Then again, she could just become a cat. Either way, I could stop trying to cajole her into the bathtub for something NEITHER of us likes to deal with.

Anyways, for those of you who KNOW Allie, she's very fond of the outdoors. This is evidenced by the fact that every time it even appears that I'm going to go outside, she runs to the door nearest myself (even if it's an interior door), sits as close to the door as possible... and waits. But it's not just any wait, it's a sit and a scoot closer to the door. A pant and then another scoot closer to the door.

I think she believes that the closer she IS to the door, the closer she is to getting THROUGH the door. Unfortunately for her, she's pretty opaque and isn't able to go through the door. But I'm a reasonable guy (and I've got a fenced-in backyard), so I'll let her go out there whenever she really wants to go.

Today was no different and when she asked to go out, I let her (yes, AFTER she was dried off from her bath). But not before turning on the outside light so I could watch her slip-slide her way across the yard to do her business. Hehehe... she loves to play in the snow and she can't tell that it's got an ice coating. It just looks white to her, I suppose.

So she falls on her ass several times and I'm laughing at her. Of course, with her super-hearing, she can tell, so she comes running back to the glass door because of the noises she hears me making. Not having any traction, she slides into the door. Hehehehe!

OK, I'll move away from the door so she can go potty (that's her code word for "go-ing" and if you ever meet her and tell her to "go potty", she will almost immediately - so use this doggie kryptonite sparingly and remember that she's probably at your house and not mine). She still enjoyed running around the yard, breaking the ice with her paws. I love my dog.

Since I'm in the house all day, there are a limited amount of things I can do inside (especially now that I took my train down). I can hunt for jobs, surf the web/send e-mail, play with Allie, clean the house (yeah, right) or eat. Care to guess what I did the most of today? Let's just say that I'm not going to be using the new body-fat calculator this week.

So I'm blending into my couch, chomping on potato chips, watching TV and surfing the web. But did you know the mail was actually delivered today? Those folks are nuts. I did get my Duke-Valpo basketball tickets in the mail (anyone looking for men's BB tix?). Woo hoo! I'm going to get to watch MY almamater get their collective butts handed to them as a tolken scrub team to keep Duke warm between real games. Tina, as a Duke alum, thinks it's fun. She can't wait to go to the game - just so I can be humiliated and she gets to sit in a real seat in Cameron (for those in the know, Duke students almost NEVER actually get a seat - they STAND for the entire game).

Anyways, the TV weatherpeople say that the weather tomorrow isn't going to be much better than today. So my guess is that I'll be stuck indoors for another day. Such is my life. But I'm running out of potato chips. If you have some of the new lower-fat Ruffles (have rrrrrrridges), please mail them to me. With the mailman coming by even in this crap, I have a reasonable chance of getting them sooner than me actually getting to a grocery store.

Oh, and just a quick advertisement. Kathy C got me hooked on a game called Bejeweled for the PalmOS. If you have a Palm device, I highly recommend this game. Totally addictive and cheaper than crack.

Good night!