Picture it: Late January, 2007 (yes, last year). A suburb of Ottawa, Canada. Snowbanks as far as the eye can see. A set of my house and car keys lost in one of them, not to be recovered until the spring, well after the locks had to be changed, due to an incident I like to call "my spare key was with Karen, and Karen was in Denver, and I needed a house key to lock my door." And Pico, but 6 months old, plowing his puppy way through any pile of snow that confronted him, following housebreaking during the rainy fall. To him rain and snow were the norm, and he had no problems splashing through any mud or slush puddle that got in his way. He had his own set of towels because I was drying him off five times a day.

Let's fast forward to one year later. We live in California now, in an area that sees 300 days of sunshine every year. The slightest trace of rain during the summer becomes the biggest news story of the day, week, or possibly even month. Believe me, I'm not complaining. Summers in Ottawa? Let's put it this way. I had several umbrellas on hand at all times, because while the day could begin sunny as could be, by afternoon a huge thunderstorm could swoop in, the skies would open up, and it would POUR. Then once that cleared out, back to sunshine it was. This was normal and expected behavior.

You don't truly appreciate how volatile the weather in Canada can be until you move to a place where weather patterns are predictable. You also don't appreciate how much you appreciate a moderate climate until you live in one. Love you, California. LOVE YOU.

At any rate, not only am I Californified, but apparently Pico is too. The dog that used to race out into the rain has developed some pretty refined tastes when it comes to weather, and rain? Now, here in the winter when we DO get a bit of rain, I'll open the door and the dog who was so excited and bouncing around to go outside will back up, sit down, and look at me with the expression of "you've got to be kidding me."

The classic California reaction to rain. Even I'm starting to adopt it (and am now ducking all objects being thrown my way from friends up north... I know, I know, I KNOW).

I think we've finally found our home.