We've been doing so much with Ezra out of the house lately, that I've realized that Magda has been getting the short end of the stick. And she's turned into such an amazingly sweet and great dog (man those first months were rough!), and I want to be sure to keep her fresh in your minds. Plus, I'm feeling guilty about leaving the sweet girl out of the posts lately.Our walks this week have been shorter than usual due to the absolutely ridiculous and cruel humidity here in Minnesota right now, so I shot a few images of her around the house.
For your internet shares of the week:+ This piece on listening to people with opposing viewpoints was interesting to me. I am seriously doubting anyone out there could convince me to vote for Trump, but I would be interested in having the discussion. And let me be clear, I would want that discussion to revolve around why you WOULD vote for trump, not why you would NOT vote for Hillary. Those are different topics to me.+ I am super afraid of messing with electricity and killing myself, but if you are not and would like an awesome light fixture, I loved this DIY project for such wonderfulness. And this reminds me that I should probably install that dimmer that I bought 6 months ago for the dining room....+ Middle Eastern Nachos? Let's make this for dinner now!
This week is unusual for me in that a) I'm slammed with work in January (wut?!?) and b) I don't have that many shoots (until Friday) and it's all computer work (huh?!). The reason being I had several big commercial jobs at the end of December and the start of January, and this week the clients are deciding which images they want me to deliver, and some of the jobs are requiring some major photoshop work. Like, the kind of work where you're removing some objects from a photo and replacing them with other objects. Over and over and over again.In general, I really really love editing photos -- I think it's the graphic designer in me. I am one of the few people who probably likes editing images in photoshop just as much as I like shooting them. But. That said? This is getting tedious! Yesterday I didn't even have time to squeeze in a walk with my girl Magda, so this morning I took her out in the yard for some fetch in hopes it would burn enough energy to get me 4-6 solid hours of computer time.I also wanted to see if the snow would "thicken up" for some great winter shots, but it didn't. This year's snow has been really weird in that a) there hasn't been much b) the flakes are pretty small and c) it's not really wet and sticking to the trees. All of those factors are what make snow the prettiest in photos, and should we get any of that, you'll find me clomping through the woods taking lots of photos. But it hasn't happened yet.For your internet shares:
This girl gets a LOT of nap time during my workdays. Until about noon. Then, it's all, "Can we go for a walk? How about now? NOW? How about right NOW?" Until I take her for a quick walk.But when she's all curled up like this? Holy cow is she cute.For your internet shares of the day today, I enjoyed 
My little girl is three years old today. Happy Birthday, Mags! I plan on spoiling her later with a romp in the snow and a glazed doughnut. Normally, we give our dogs ice cream on their big day. But Magda here is our first winter birthday, and ice cream doesn't sound as good as doughnuts, so there you go.On one hand, I feel like we just got Magda a year ago. Not because time has flown by so fast with her in our lives (although it has), but more because those traumatic days of her puppyhood seem still so fresh in my mind. But... then I remember that when she was a pup, Merlin was with us (and healthy). And there was no Ezra. And my dear friend Alby was still with us, and still undiagnosed with cancer. When I think of all that has transpired since we brought this girl home, it's more like she should be seven or eight years old today. Time is weird, eh?For your internet share today, I'm sending you over to 
Today was another day where I only did about a half-day of work (lazybones!). I had planned on taking this entire week as a "staycation"... but ended up working about 20 hours or so instead. Oops.But I was determined to complete one of the many projects on my to-do list: building a book of all of the photos of Ezra's first year. Well, not ALL of the photos (ahem), but a very edited version. If I can keep my act together, I hope to do this every year, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, eh? I think it's so easy for photo prints to get lost in the cracks, and I can't imagine that in 15 years I'll still know where all of these digital photos are or how to access them (other than my blog). So an analog book was high on my list of priorities. I'm old fashioned like that.And what does this have to do with that photo up there? Well, as you can imagine, there was a lot of digging in my archives today, and I found that one!Remember back in August when Minneapolis St. Paul magazine ran 
What a week! We had Eloise (my amazing niece and Ezra's amazing cousin) stop in town for a few days at the start of the week with her boyfriend as they are driving across the country. Oh, how Ezra loved them. Oh, how they make us feel so old.They arrived just as Jamie was recovering from a very serious stomach bug, that I then contracted the next day. That was no fun at all. AT. ALL. Then, on their last day in town, Jamie's mother (Eloise's grandmother) came to town. While she was here, we had swimming and zoo visits and tons and tons of fun. Photos are below -- Enjoy!....Oh. And um, I forgot to blog last Friday. Plum forgot. Because I'm old. I apologize.
Well kids, it's almost time for our summer vacation. This has me packing Ezra today between answering emails and finishing up last-minute work details. And this girl here? She knows what that suitcase means. And until she sees her stuff make its way into said suitcase, she's a little depressed.There was a lot of moping around the house today. Heavy sighs. Avoided eye contact.Aw, man. I'm gonna miss her so much. But I'm pretty sure she'd rather stay here playing with her dog friend all week than fly inside the belly of a cold airplane for seven hours. So she's just gonna have to trust me on this one.For your internet share of the day, 
I kinda left Miss Magda out of this week's Monday at the Madhouse post. I felt like talking about her would seem like a brief addition, and she deserves much (much) more than that. So I'm using up a full post to update you on our princess here.So what's the story? She has been WONDERFUL. I don't know if she's sad because Merlin is gone or if she was always jealous of him and acting out a bit or maybe she's just picking up on our own sad vibes, but kids? She has calmed the hell down. Sure, she's still squealy and jumpy when company arrives. But day to day? Her behavior has improved IMMENSELY. And I hesitate to write this for fear of what's around the corner, but I'm so dang proud of her that I cannot resist.She walks right by my side now -- rarely pulling or wrapping my legs up with her leash. She comes when called. She snuggles like it's going out of style. She is so gentle and careful with Ezra. This morning she greeted him by licking his toes and resting her chin on his thigh while he was on my lap.I don't know if this will last, but I am so grateful for this development. As if I couldn't adore her any more, something like this happens and here I am.Also... notice the grey on her chin? Looks like my sweet thing will prematurely whiten like Memphis. Ah well, I can't be too critical. Ezra is turning my own hair white as well.For your internet share of the day, the making of this New York Times sunday magazine cover is RAD.