PIT BULL ATTACK!!

On Christmas Eve I realized that I was missing a few ingredients for my Christmas Day turkey dinner so I went to the grocery store along with many other grumpy shoppers. I was not grumpy but a man in the checkout line was grumpy! I stepped up to one of the self checkout registers only to hear "THE LINE STARTS BACK THERE!!!" I turned around to be confronted by a man that was less than happy with what he conceived as my blatant attempt at cutting in line. As he gave me a look that could kill his wife sarcastically said "wouldn't that be nice if we didn't have to wait in line". I tried to assure the man that I was not trying to cut and I sheepishly hid behind the last person in line. Which by the way, extended down a nearby aisle where the last person in line told me she had made the same mistake. I waited while thinking how one grumpy person can douse all your holiday spirit. I have not been feeling well (more migraine and thyroid troubles) so I've already been struggling to keep up my holiday spirit. I had been pretty successful until that point. I made my purchases and headed home.

After putting things away I decided to go for a relaxing walk through my neighborhood. I invited anyone in the family who wanted to come along. Thomas and Tom took me up on my offer. It was nice until we were headed up a particularly steep hill and Thomas sort of calmly said "Oh no". I had been looking down at the road as I worked my way up the hill. Since Thomas had been so calm I'm surprised that I immediately looked up. I was just in time to see a black Pit Bull charging down the hill barking and snarling as it came! I had no time to think but my immediate reaction was to bellow out "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!!??!!" As I did this I grabbed Tom's arm as if to pull him back out of harm's way and leaned toward the dog. My tone was that of a super authoritative parent yelling at a child that has been caught doing something bad. As I yelled this, it was only a few feet away from us, it stopped in it's tracks with a shocked look on its face. I think my face must have had a matching shocked look. It turned tail and slunk away with it's eyes nervously shifting back and forth to keep an eye on us. In only a couple of seconds I realized that it was working and I decided that I needed to follow up with an added "GIT HOME".

The owner came out to see what was going on and she gave us an unhappy stare. The only part of my reaction to the situation that I am unhappy with is that I told the owner I was sorry for being so loud but that we had been scared. She never said a word, never called the dog back.

We continued our walk on rubbery legs. After awhile, we began to laugh and we wished that we had a video tape of the incident. It really had a humorous side. Thomas shared the same view as the dog. He thought I was really scary and told me that actually I had scared him more than the dog!

I found my reaction quite interesting. When I was young we had a mean horse that would attack with his teeth bared if he caught you out in his field! My older sister had drilled into my head that if this happened that I should NEVER run! I should stand my ground and yell at him. It was always quite scary but it worked every time. I credit my sister's training and maybe one too many episodes of Dog Whisperer with my smart reaction. I was definitely "Alpha Dog"! I can't say that I would react the same way the next time but everyone is happy with what I did this time! I know I have a tendency to hold back in other situations when the owner is in view because I guess on some level I feel as if they should take care of the situation. However, I'm trying to drill into my head that I need to take care of business no matter who's around! Tom kept wondering "what kind of person has a dog like that?!" It's bad enough that they have a dog that is viscious but the fact that they seem not to care about protecting others is even worse. I've reported it to the community association and they notified them that next time the dog warden will be called. I just hope that next time someone doesn't get really hurt. That dog was out for blood and most people would NOT stand up to it! If you ran I'm sure it would continue it's attack! As for me, I guess I'm proud that I can stop a charging pitbull with just the sound of my voice!

NEW YEARS AT HARTMANN SQUARE

Thomas's Ball Dropping Tower. After Christmas I was looking for left over Christmas lights at 50% off and there on the shelf was this ball calling my name! One time years ago, Thomas had made his version of the New Year's Ball to lower using a Kinex tower. When I saw this ball I knew I had to ask him to make one this year! He tried to guess when to start it so it would hit the ground at exactly midnight and he was perfect! Thomas is 5 foot 6 inches (a giant in our family) and he made the tower to just fit in our 7 foot 6 inch ceilings. We toasted the New Year with Fake Champagne...as Sarah says...not to be confused with "Lake Champlain".

We enjoyed our usual Rumless Strawberry Dacquiris while waiting for midnight. We took out our "New Years Eve Predictions" book that we started in 2006. We read 2008's events and predictions. Then we made our entry for this year. We start by writing down the kids ages, heights and weights and then they make predictions for what their height and weight will be for next year. We then write all the events we can remember that happened in 2009. Although we did write down that Michael Jackson and Billy Mays died, mostly the events are things that happened in our family. From the exciting to the mundane. We don't pressure ourselves to remember everything and its definitely not in order. Then we make our predictions for what will happen in 2010. Thomas tends to make predictions involving numbers "they will find a 100,000,000 digit prime number" (the same prediction from last year since it wasn't done). Sarah tends to make silly ones like "George (her cat) will be even cuter". Erin jumps on that bandwagon and predicts "Derek (Thomas's cat) will have a puppy". Tom predicts things that he wants to do "I will finish the wood floor in our bedroom". I predict hopeful things "Our garden will produce 100.01 pounds of vegetables next year" (Thomas helped me with that one by coming up with the exact number - ha ha) We do actually predict some normal stuff too. We made it to midnight and we even heard my brother's fireworks - all the way from Georgia!

Today will be putting away our plastic champagne glasses that say "2000" on them and storing away the blender until next year. Other than that we will be making our traditional ginger bread houses...well actually house since we decided to duplicate our house if that's possible.