To the quick

Our chocolate lab, Charlie, has prehistoric dinosaur toenails. They are thick and grow like crazy and always manage to scratch our recently refinished wood floors. We are not as good about cutting his toenails as we should be; I'm really squeamish about cutting the dogs' nails for some reason. So it's pretty much a household event when the three of us hunker down on the kitchen floor: I try to pin the 85 lb dog and my husband cuts toenails. Last night my husband accidentally cut one nail past the quick and, my heavens, THE BLOOD. There was so much of it! It looked like a murder scene in the kitchen. And it Would. Not. Stop. Some styptic powder came with the clippers- we used that up right away and still the dog was bleeding. I broke out the cornstarch and tried to cram it in his toenail... and he still bled. My hands (and the floor) were covered in blood. It stopped, eventually, but not soon enough for any of us.

I spent the week up in Vail at a conference for work. I only skiied one day (unfortunately, not the day that it snowed 7" by lunchtime) but it was fun. I am finally convinced that every time I get on skis I don't have to re-learn the whole process. It comes pretty naturally now and I'm not a terrible skiier. My endurance is awful though- that's what I get for not running in the last six months!

This weekend I am planning on painting the kitchen, so I can give myself the illusion of actually making some progress in there. As always, picking the paint color is the most miserable part. I think I have settled on Martha Stewart's "hellebore" (aka green) as it blends well with the accent wall in our living room. I wanted to have warm colors in our house and somehow I've ended up with all cool colors. I do love how it looks, but I still keep wondering how I could warm it up without re-painting everything. I am definitely obsessed...