We’ve been keeping up with our friends and family members out on the East Coast and it looks like Jonas brought in more snow then we’ve seen here in Chicago this winter so far. I’m sure we’ll be getting more inches (or feet???) as the winter wears on but just the other day we woke up and were greeted with a nice dusting of huge fluffy flakes.

We were very lucky as I know some folks in Washington DC, Boston, and NY are dealing with much-taller-than-a-pug drifts of snow!

We hope you are all staying warm and safe out there!

We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. Sid got a new lion stuffie filled with squeakers and was also the recipient of an unending flow of treats and snacks all weekend long. His waist quickly vanished and soon I found myself staring at a pug sausage. So after a long weekend of relaxing and gorging, we returned home and got back to our ol’ brisk walk regimen. Guaranteed to remove those extra holiday inches and rolls.

Although, we were almost immediately cut short due to a dusting from Mother Nature.

It’s a little hard to strut your stuff when the sidewalk is frozen solid.

We did manage to at least get around the block, at which point Sid thought he might take refuge under a nice bush with a family of rabbits until Spring.

Is anyone else snowed in?

Thank you all for sending the good pug juju! I’m sure it is helping heal Sid’s eye abrasion.

How about all this snow?! It certainly is incredible. We went from zero inches to about 20 in just one day (Sunday). Personally I think it’s amazing. Although I’d imagine I might be feeling different if I didn’t work from home and had to attempt to commute through the snow. Many cars parked on the streets are still deeply buried and may stay that way until Spring.

If you’re wondering why Sid has a salad container on his head, it’s my latest invention – the STOUT SNOUT CONE (patent pending)! See, a regular-length cone is fine for dogs that have normal size snouts, but flat-faced breeds have no joy when trying to sniff out the ideal “business spot”; they just can’t get close enough to the target. With the STOUT SNOUT CONE, your flat-faced friend can sniff the trees with ease. What do you think?!

Today’s lesson: Sometimes it’s good to be lazy.

When the first flowers of Spring start popping up from the ground, my instinct to pack away the puffy coat, boots, scarves, and gloves kicks in. Sweaters are folded up and smooshed into storage bins and short-sleeved shirts and shorts make a reappearance. But this year, I was a little sidetracked with some other projects around the house and I neglected to put away any of the winter gear. Well, sure enough, the winter that wouldn’t die made a final gasp on Monday and dumped some snow (or mini hail balls?) on us. Sid had to break out the fleece again. He was not happy.

Luckily the snow didn’t stick around for too long, but now I think I’ll just leave all the winter stuff out until, oh, say June. Just in case.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

Starting New Year’s Eve, Chicago (and pretty much everywhere else) got bombarded with snow for 48-hours straight!

Sid’s been such a trooper through all this, and even though he was born and bred in Southern California, he’s been bucking up and going outside in the frigid January air to do his business. We’ve been forced to stick to brief walks – basically to the front of the apartment building or to the backyard.

Thank goodness for our awesome landlords (and most of our neighbors) who shoveled the sidewalk immaculately, otherwise I’m sure I’d have a full-fledged poop strike on my hands.

Sid wanted to do an “artistic” photo to show his feelings about these brutal temperatures. He happens to be doing his famed “Tripod” in this one. Don’t worry, though, he got a top-notch paw-warming by yours truly immediately after the photo was taken. STAY WARM, PEOPLE (AND PUGS)!

We got a decent dumping of snow over the weekend and most of it has stuck around. We’re supposed to get some more tonight. It’s actually really pretty. The initial snowfall is the best phase of snow, before it eventually morphs into grey piles of mush. The wonderful sight of Christmas light shining out under a thin layer of snow almost makes up for the fact that temperature is in the single digits.

Sid enjoys the snow, although when there’s more than an inch or so, it gets stuck between his toes and he starts trying to walk on three legs while staring at me pathetically. I can usually appease him by holding his limp paw in my ungloved hand to melt the snow and warm his paw up a bit, but other times the only way to console him is to carry him the rest of the way home. He was born and raised in southern California so I can’t fault him for having thin blood.

If it stays this cold, we’re going to have to double up his layer of confidence shirts and invest in some insulated pug boots!

Thank you all for your concerns regarding Sid and his recent baby carrot deficiency. Lucky for him the grocery store was open and we restocked our B.C. supply with haste. Sid was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I responded to his demands.

Speaking of surprise, both of us were stupefied by the sudden arrival of a certain fluffy, white, cold visitor.

Yep. Just when we got our masthead all up to speed with an Autumn theme, in rolls the blizzard. Well, not quite a blizzard like the one back in 2010, but it was enough to get poor Sid shivering!

I guess his t-shirt alone wasn’t cutting it. Time to break out the fleece!