Merry Christmas - Porcelain Style

No, not new China or a nice vase. My Christmas present this year is looking to be a new toilet. After seeing a spot on our ceiling under the bathroom, we called in a plumber to investigate. Turns out our master bathroom toilet has probably had a small leak for years. We're having to get a new toilet now and new dry wall in the living room.

We had the fun and excitement of looking at toilets last night. I wasn't looking forward to it, but I will have to admit that the adventure was much more exciting than I anticipated. There is a showroom that had the toilets that our plumber recommended (Toto). Not only did they have toilets on display, but they had huge whirlpool type bathtubs, cool lavatories, sleek water faucets and the like. I was ready to take a bath right then and there.

There are a variety of toilets...who knew! Some flush with a little water, some with a lot...some with elongated seats, others with regular. So many choices.

We're still finalizing our choice. I hope it'll be decided soon so that by the time I'm back from Christmas I have my Christmas present in place!

Finally - a piano!

I finally purchased my long awaited piano keyboard yesterday. Yes, I faced the Black Friday crowds and ventured out. I didn't go until last night and it was pretty easy to get in and out of both Best Buy and Target. I'm embarrassed and horrified that there are people that eager to get into a Wal-Mart that they knocked someone down and killed him. Seriously...no wonder people hate Americans!

Anyway, back to my keyboard. I like spending time on the piano - I've had just a few months of lessons in my lifetime, but still like to play. I've missed not having a piano and so about 9 months ago or so we happened to be in a Best Buy and I saw the keyboards. I played the keyboard for about 10 minutes while Steve looked around. It hit me that maybe I don't have to buy a full blown piano, but could get a decent keyboard for my entertainment. I decided to wait (and save) to get the keyboard. This would also prove to me (and Steve) that I was serious.

I got the keyboard last night. I played for 2 hours straight - letting my Caribou Latte get cold in the process! Today I'm going to go searching for some sheet music. My collection includes the book given with the keyboard, a Christian songbook from the 70's, and a Methodist Hymnal. While I've enjoyed playing Amazing Grace and In the Garden, I think I could use a bit of variety (or maybe Steve would appreciate variety).

If my parents still read this blog...get out the piano music for when I'm there next month! :)

November Update

Let's hope this isn't the only post I do in November. I can't believe October slipped by with only 1 post. Fall at work is my busiest time. I've been putting in pretty long hours. That coupled with taking classes has left me little time to do anything else!

I love going to movies and I can't even think of the last movie I saw in the theater. I started a new class this past Wednesday. The class is "Organizational Behavior" and we watched 12 Angry Men as an example of group formation and interaction. It was a great movie - from 1957. I told the instructor after class that I was so glad to actually see a movie this fall. If you haven't seen the movie, I would highly recommend it. Peter Fonda stars in it.

In other news, I recently had a craving for Fruity Pebbles cereal. Steve and I were at the store and so I decided to go with the competitor's cereal and feed the craving. Steve found the Malt-o-Meal knock off and talked me into buying it. He also tried to buy one of their knock offs of my company's cereal. I wouldn't allow that! Anyway, a few days later he was having a bowl of the Fruity Pebbles knock-off - the Malt-o-Meal cereal is called "Fruity Dyno-Bites". All of the sudden, in his best Jimmie Walker impersonation, he says "this cereal is Dy-no-bite!" Struck me as extremely funny at the time. And yes, the knock-off was just fine.

By the way...70 degrees today and tomorrow up north. By the end of the week, we'll only be in the 40's. It is November after all....

One More Bike Ride Picture

Former railroad turned into bike trail.

Fall Bike Ride - 27 miles

This past Saturday Steve and I headed south and checked out a very cool bike path along the Root River. We took a route that was 27 miles round trip. Beautiful ride with the fall colors! Sadly that was our first bike ride of the year and probably one of the last before winter.

Saturday Snippets

Enjoying a nice fall day up north. It's overcast, but the reds and yellows of the leaves are brightening up the landscape.

This morning I took advantage of an empty Saturday schedule and went for a 3.5 mile walk at a nearby lake/park. It was a great walk all in all - although I did get drizzled on a bit. The fresh air was great after being in an office or classroom much of the week.

I did have a situation that left me feeling a bit disheartened. I decided to use the restroom before I started walking. There is a nice building at the park, so the restrooms aren't scary or anything. However, half way around the trail I would only have an outhouse available. Anyway, back to the restroom. I went in and found myself having to wait. There are 2 stalls and both were occupied with females carrying on a conversation. One finished first and came out, looked at me, and then went to wash her hands. I went into the stall and minded my own business. Next thing I know, they are leaving the bathroom and the lights go out. I said something, but they had already left. I was getting ready to leave the stall anyway, but still. I had to find my way in complete darkness to the lightswitch and then back to the sink. Hello....did the one lady totally space that I was in there. When she looked at me was she really just looking through me? I'm guessing the one who didn't see me was the one who was trying to save energy by turning out the light, but still. Needless to say I had the feeling of being invisible to those around me. Not the best feeling in the world. Thankfully the walk around the lake was great and the people I encountered all said "hello" or "good morning". So, I am not invisible after all, just encountered a couple of self-absorbed women first thing.

I then headed to the grocery store. Had a great time there - didn't feel rushed, just enjoyed walking up and down the aisles and seeing what I might want to get. Went through the checkout lane just fine. At this particular store they have young workers (first job types) that walk the groceries out to your car for you. Today a young guy helped me with the groceries. Once we got to the car I had to tell him trunk or backseat. I said, " let's go with the back seat today, I've got too much junk in my trunk." I was super embarrassed at what I had just said. In "his generation's" language, "too much junk in my trunk" is slang for a well-endowed back-side. I thought about saying something to laugh it off, but in the end I let it go. I at least gave him conversation fodder with his buddies.

So, that is my Saturday thus far.

Only 3 to Go!

I've updated my map. The red indicates the states I've been to, the light gray are the ones I haven't.

I'm in Washington, DC this week for a conference for work. I stayed through the weekend to both experience DC and also take a side trip to Delaware and New Jersey to check those two states off my list.

DC is great - love the history and the cool old buildings. Today I started at the Library of Congress, walked by the Capitol, down the mall to the Washington Monument, toward the Lincoln Memorial and then over to the White House. The saddest part of the day was when I went and visited the White House. I just gathered where you could in front of the house. There were a number of protesters out there and it just didn't have a good vibe. Guess we'll see what happens in November!

By the way, I heard a Capitol policeman telling someone that the Capitol and the lawn in front of it is closing soon to tourists. They always close it 4 months before the inauguration to get it ready. Wow!

Well, it was a great trip to DC. We had a great conference - met some good candidates. I enjoyed hanging out with some of my colleagues and then spending a bit of time on my own. Tomorrow I head home and it's back to work and school!

By the way, I think 2009 will be the year to check off New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine!

Trip Wrap Up

I lost a little steam in blogging about the vacation. Now it's been almost a week since I've been back and work/school has made me feel the need for another vacation. I should be studying, but instead thought I'd blow off a little steam through the blog.



The western trek led us south from Whitefish, MT around Flathead Lake and down through Missoula into Idaho. Montana is gorgeous country. Lots of wheat fields, bales of hay, and cattle. More cattle than people they say.

We stayed in Rexburg, Idaho just outside of Idaho Falls. They have a Mormon temple in Rexburg and we were surprised to see the newspaper the morning after we stayed there. A man had somehow gotten onto the roof of the temple. It must have happened not long before we went by it. The other thing that we'll remember about Rexburg is this housing complex we went by several times. On the sign out front it read "Approved Housing for Young Ladies."

After Rexburg we headed east into Wyoming. We drove through the Grand Tetons and entered into Yellowstone National Park from the south. We had lunch at a great lodge looking at the mountains. Hard to beat that picturesque view! The weather on the day we did Yellowstone was absolutely gorgeous. Not a cloud in the sky.

We stopped at a visitor center about 20 miles from Old Faithful. While in the rest area my parents ran into people they knew from back home. Such a small world. Here we were thousands of miles from home and they know someone.

After the connection at the visitor's center, we headed on to Old Faithful. It was spectacular! We only had to wait about 40 minutes or so to see it go off. The picture above was at its highest peak. People just sit and wait patiently for the eruption.

After leaving Yellowstone we encountered forest fires in the next chain of mountains. Nothing we couldn't drive through, but lots of burnt forest. We ended the day in Cody, Wyoming.

The next morning we took off for Rapid City, South Dakota. We stopped in Buffalo, WY for lunch at The Occidental Hotel. The food was not that great, but the hotel itself was pretty cool. Lots of stuff to look at and we even were able to see some of the rooms. The hotel was over a hundred years old.

The drive through Wyoming was pretty boring. A few things to see here and there. We drove to Devil's Tower which was extremely cool. Some of the geology of the west is just amazing. We ended the night with a great dinner at The Corn Exchange in Rapid City.

The following day (Sunday), Steve flew back home and I went to Mt. Rushmore with the parents. They hadn't been there in 30 years and it had changed dramatically since they had been there. Well, the faces on the mountain hadn't, but the tourist area around it had. Still quite the amazing site. It was my 3rd time there and I would go back again. We didn't stay too long at Mt. Rushmore as we had 11 hours of driving ahead of us.

We stopped for lunch at Wall Drug in South Dakota. For those of you that have been through that area, you will remember all of the signs for Wall Drug that you see for miles and miles before you get to the town. It was a nice stop for lunch and then we headed out. Dad drove through most of South Dakota in sustained winds of 36 mph with gusts up to 50. He won the award for worst gas mileage for that portion of the trip. We got back to the Big H Ranch around 10:15 that evening and had driven 3800 miles for the whole trip. Not to mention the 1100 my parents had to drive to get up to our house and back. Lots of being in the car!

It was a great trip though. We all got along in a mini-van for 3800 miles. Had some good laughs, good meals, fun times - met relatives. We took well over 800 pictures combined. Gotta love digital cameras! I'll post additional ones in the next day or so.

Now it's back to reality. The reality of long work days, evening classes, and fall weather. Summer is over, but what a great trip to end it on!

This is my 100th post on this blog. :)

Day 5 of Road Trip 2008

Today marks Day 5 of the big western road trip. So far only a few minor annoyances from each other. Given that we have 4 adults in a minivan for hours on end, I think we are doing pretty well.

The trip started on Saturday with a drive up to Bemidji so I could actually see where I got a degree. We then crossed over the Mississippi near its origin. It was basically a small creek that we could have walked across. Very cool to see given our knowledge of how huge the Mississippi is further south. We ended the evening with a drive by where Steve vacationed with his family growing up. Very neat to see that! I guess we actually ended in Fargo for the night.

Sunday was a drive across North Dakota and eastern Montana. Who knew there would be so many cows on our trip. We saw lots of sunflower fields and even a few buffalo. We ended the day in Billings, MT.

Monday was the big reunion day for my Dad. That was the day he finally met his long-lost cousin whom he was named after. His cousin had moved out west 3 years before my dad was born and had never been back. It was fun to be involved in the reunion day. We went to lunch at a nearby resort with his cousin and his wife and the 3 of us. We then drove up into Beartooth Mountain. That night we had dinner with his cousin's daughter - my 2nd cousin and her family. It was a fun night of sharing pictures and stories. We hope to see them next summer in Illinois when his cousin finally returns to his roots. The day ended with the arrival of Steve for the road trip.

Tuesday we headed out to northern Montana. Many more cows in the fields and wide open spaces. It's amazing at how much land is out here. Supposedly the cows outnumber people in Montana. It wouldn't surprise me. We got to our hotel pretty early and decided to head up into Canada to use newly obtained passports of the parents. We ended up on a gravel road that has to be about the furthest north you can go in the continental United States. It then took us 55 minutes to get through the US/Canadian checkpoint. The border agent asked all sorts of questions. I think he just wanted to mess with us. We finally got the all clear at which point another border agent told us to "head north." We saw a lot of fields and cattle in Canada as well. We ended up in a small town for dinner at the local Dairy Queen. We then headed south through a different checkpoint which only took us about 2 minutes. At this point it was dark and the roads back to the hotel were pretty winding over a mountain. We saw a lot of cattle on the side of the road. Instead of watching for deer, we were on the lookout for black angus on the road. Very hard to see at night. We made it through though.

Today was the day to explore Glacier National Park. We drove back through the cattle mountain road that we were on last night. We were going to attempt to cross through Glacier at Logan Pass. Unfortunately the picture above shows the weather conditions of the day. It was cold and rainy. We got to the park to head up to the pass and found out the pass was closed today. Not sure if it was the 60 mph winds or possible snow in the mountains. Regardless, we couldn't go through. We ended up going back on the same road we'd been on twice already and headed around the southern end of Glacier National Park. The roads were much less treacherous - no steep drop offs which made many of the passengers feel better than what we would have encountered on Logan Pass. We stopped for lunch at West Glacier and now are at home for the night in Whitefish. We'll explore the area a bit, call it a night early, and head down to Idaho Falls tomorrow.

Great trip so far. Lots of great pictures and some fun conversations along the way.

Zed - A Nervous Dog

Tried to take Zed for a walk tonight at a local park. He's been to the dog park many times, but this was new. A path, a leash, other activities going on around him. Our walk sadly only lasted about 10 minutes.

First there were the 2 dogs that we passed. He wasn't fazed by them - too much. Then a bike went by - he did have to bark at that. You may recall that Zed freaks out with bikes. A few steps later another bike was coming towards us. I went to tighten up the leash when I realized that Zed's nervous stomach had taken over - several times. Thankfully I had picked up the disposal bags. Unfortunately it didn't clean up the best and it's not supposed to rain for a few days.

I decided to call it a night and head back to the car. I knew Zed wasn't going to make it much further. Nor did I want to have to use another bag! On the way back to the Jeep, Zed got a little spooked by all the activity so he wrapped the leash around my legs. I opened up the back of the Jeep and Zed attempted to jump in - unfortunately he was on a very short leash (since it was around my legs). He hit the edge of the ledge and flipped backwards off of it - he did this 2 times before I finally could get him untangled. Of course then he didn't want to jump up again. We got going for home. I just couldn't stop laughing when I thought about it.

Guess it'll be awhile before we go back to the park for a walk. :)

Garlic Fest 2008

We took a little trip to Howard Lake today to check out Garlic Fest. Yes, several hundred people or so there to experience all things garlic. There were people there wearing hats with garlic bulbs hanging off the back and of course a WIDE variety of attire was there.

We watched a local chef prepare garlic/cucumber soup. It was pretty interesting to watch it being made. Can't say that I tried it though. They also had a number of vendors selling different varietals of garlic, as well as other knick-knacks. (Lots of people feel the need to make homemade soaps and such. Maybe it's pretty easy to do and it smells good. Except for when you get a lot of it in a confined area.)

Probably 2 keys for the event for me was trying the garlic ice cream and the chocolate zuchinni cake. The garlic ice cream lived up to its name - pretty large pieces (in my opinion) of garlic throughout the ice cream. It was good, but I let Steve eat most of it.

To get rid of the garlic taste, I went into the little food stand and found a chocolate zuchinni cake to try. Now Steve is against all desserts that have vegetables as part of the name and recipe. So, I brought it over to where we were sitting and introduced it as just chocolate cake. He of course liked it and I asked him a couple of times - "So, you like it?" After his 2 affirmations that he indeed liked it, I let him know what was in it. Of course he had to feign indignation, but he still ended up taking a few more bites!

We left the festival with a few varieties of garlic bulb and a t-shirt of the event.

The drive was great - it was all out in the country and we just saw some neat farms, houses, etc. This one house was simply amazing with their landscaping. They had a little creek/pond in their front yard. They had all types of flowers and plants around their yard. It has to take them all weekend to keep up with the care of the lawn.

We also stopped at a great restaurant for lunch (before the garlic fest). I had the B.E.L.T. sandwich - bacon, egg, lettuce, and tomato. Such a summer sandwich - awesome!

All in all a great Saturday!

Ankle Blog Fodder

I know it's past my self-imposed curfew, but I meant to write last night and ran out of time. Been busy today and here we are at 10:30 - a good hour past my curfew. Oh well...

So, I went to my orthopedic surgeon yesterday to check in after 1.5 years after the break/surgery. I just wanted an opinion on whether or not I should get the hardware removed from my ankle at some point. Would it help the swelling go down? Would it be less sore? Would I stop feeling like I was hitting metal when I would bump up against the ankle?

It was odd to get to the building and realize that there are actually stairs up to the office versus the elevator. That was my first "new thing" there - checking out the stairs - with both feet!

Next up - more x-rays. My right ankle has had more radiation than....well, something with a lot of radiation (remember, it's after my curfew). I hopped up on the table to get the picture taken and the x-ray technician said "don't get too comfortable, I need you standing." What??? Stand on it for a picture? Guess when I was there for all of my other x-rays it was pre-weight bearing on the old ankle. We did a few pics and then I waited for the doctor to come in to talk.

Good news is that everything looks great he said - nice and healed. He pushed and prodded around the ankle and then repeated several times that "given my young age, it would make sense to have the hardware removed." (yes, he has won me over with constantly referring to my young age - versus a bartender tonight who carded everyone I was with but me.)

The doctor said that removing the hardware would potentially help the swelling go down and just the overall feeling of the ankle. He then looked closer at the x-ray in comparison with the before the screws/ after the break picture and did say there was maybe a little sign of arthritis in one area of the break. He said of course that is very typical with bone breaks.

I asked how the recovery time is for this type of surgery. He said that I would be in my walking boot for about a week while the incisions heal, but that's about it. He suggested doing the surgery mid-week and then being back at work the following Monday. I'm going into the busy time at work now, so I'll probably wait until January to do the surgery. Just in case I don't heal quite as quickly as he says, I want to make sure I won't be having to be on my feet alot at work.

So, I checked with Steve after the appointment to get his perspective. One of the first things he said was that he was for it as it would provide good blog fodder. I had been complaining that I didn't have anything to write about lately. Guess in January I'll be back to my critiquing of The Price is Right! :)

Little Rain + Pond in Yard = Swamp Dog

Zed has taken a liking to exploring the pond in front of our yard. I think he gets thirsty and heads to the pond for relief. Before you think we're poor owners and don't provide water for the pooch, please know that one of Zed's tricks is to carry around the water dish (with water in it). He ends up splashing much of it out and we find the bowl randomly around the yard.

This is a picture of him last night after a visit. Note the mud streak down the head. He's normally such a cute dog.

Today I fell victim to the swamp dog. Beautiful morning, thought I'd walk to the mailbox to get yesterday's junk mail. Zed decided to greet me before I got too far. I returned sans mail, but with a muddy mark on my clean shorts, mud from a tail splashed across my leg and mud drips on the white socks/shoes. Ahh....puppies!

Feelin' the Need to Blog, but about what??

Sometimes I come to this page and think - I want to blog about something. But often times, nothing comes to mind. As I've mentioned in previous posts, blogging about work is not something I can (or should) do. Sadly that is where the interesting posts would come from.

So often this ends up being a diary/journal of my day or weeks (if I've been a little slow in maintaining the blog). After breaking my ankle I had good material. Around the time of getting Zed and the other dogs in the family there was more material. Just not much right now.

Steve is doing something on his computer that is making a repetitive noise that is more than a little annoying.

I'll keep thinking about where I might want to focus my blogging energy. Keep checking back - I may hit upon a winner of all winners in blogging material. You just never know......

By the way - it's after 9:30 and I know I shouldn't be posting. I did do spellcheck - that should be fine. If the post doesn't make sense, well that's another story.

The Dark Knight

We took in The Dark Knight over the weekend. Yes, we helped Warner Bros. (ever so slightly) hit their $300 million in 10 day record for this movie. I will have to say it was well worth the money we spent to see it. We got extra lucky in that the time we decided to go ended up being the movie shown in the "Monster Screen" theater. It's not an IMAX, but it is much larger than a regular movie screen.

It was a great movie and I would definitely recommend it. It's action packed and the 2.5 hours goes very fast. Heath Ledger is great as the Joker.

There is a very cool ride that Batman has - called the Bat Pod. Basically a motorcycle type contraption. They actually had the Bat Pod at work several months ago. My company has a lot of tie ins with the movie, so we saw the Bat Pod live and in person.

Go see it! 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Cookie Dough Fondue on a Stick

9 years after moving here, we went to our first county fair tonight. Great night for it. It was overcast which kept people away and it was Thursday - also kept people away. We started out by just checking out the sites and sounds of the fair. We then stopped at the 4-H Diner for a little dinner - bbq pork sandwich for me, hamburger for Steve.

We then visited the animal barns and the other exhibits. It was fun seeing all of the animals. I actually heard a cow mooing and a pig oinking - up close and personal. The rabbits were very cute. The chickens and other bird types were ok, but frankly birds freak me out a bit. And no, I've never seen the movie The Birds. Don't think I could see that movie at all!

We ended the evening with dessert. Cookie Dough Fondue on a Stick. 3 disks of chocolate chip cookie dough (chilled) on a stick. They then dipped it into either chocolate or butterscotch - we chose chocolate. They then poured either sprinkles or peanuts over the chocolate. We chose the sprinkles. It was very rich - it was pretty tasty though. Something different. Not sure I'll ever have that again - ever. It was still fun.

We're now back home and I am getting ready to enjoy a day off of work tomorrow. We might take in The Dark Knight - we'll see.

Blogging Curfew Is Messing Me Up!

So, I posted the last blog to which Steve pointed out I had misspelled absolutely. I then was trying to name this post and had to ask the question about is it "time is pushed up" when moving from say 10:30 to 10:00 as a bedtime. He quickly read through my question and said "I'm not going to help you write your blog post."

Therefore, the new title is above. I think I need to establish an earlier "blogtime". Past 9:30 and I make less sense.

If you were able to read and understand this post - congratulations!

Hot Child in the City

Took a quick trip to St. Louis for the annual family baseball outing this past weekend. 100 degrees yesterday after we left the Arch. That's a little too warm for my northern climate blood. Made today's 85 seem like a cold front.

The Cardinals won on Saturday when we went to the game. They were down 5-0 and came back and won it 6-5. I think Puljos was credited with all of the RBI's. Cards won yesterday as well, but we weren't at the game. As mentioned above, we were at the Arch. First we went to Grant's Farm. All of the times I had been to St. Louis and I never once had gone to Grant's Farm. Very cool to see and the Clydesdale Horses are absolutley huge!

Can you believe it's already July 21st? Where is this summer going??????

Blogging Curfew Established

For those of you who still happen to read this blog...

I've had to edit the entry with the picture of Zed twice. I posted it last night and it didn't make sense this morning.

So....blogging for me will be banned after 10:30 p.m.

Zed's Alter Ego

This is a great picture of Zed looking into a mirror and growling at the "other" dog. Anytime he sees his reflection he starts growling - it could be the mirror, the fireplace, or even the back door. He's a little neurotic!

Walk of Shame

Gorgeous evening up here. Nice night for a ride in our recently running VW Bug - convertible! We enjoyed a great evening in a neighboring downtown - dinner, sitting in a park - just a nice relaxing evening.

On our way home, the bug sputtered a couple of times and Steve was able to get it to a side street. Of course we had just picked it up from the shop this morning, so our first thought was something didn't get fixed. Until we realized that the gas gauge was low. It wasn't on empty by any means, but the car is 30 years old and if it doesn't want to read the gas correctly, it doesn't have to.

Serves us right - we decided not to go to the gym and now we were forced to hoof it to the nearest gas station and hope they also sold gas cans. Thankfully we were only 7/10 of a mile from the gas station - and they had a gas can.

After getting the gas and heading back towards the car we passed a few people outside of a restaurant that had seen us walk by earlier. Now with gas in hand, we were doing a version of the "walk of shame". Anyone who saw us had to know what was up with our situation.

We got the car filled up and headed to the gas station for more. We were glad to know we really had just run out of gas. The bug is safely tucked away in the garage now and we've learned our lesson on keeping an eye on the gas.

Neither one of us has run out of gas before. It made us review our cell phones to see who in the area we could call to bail us out. Thankfully we have a few people in mind. This time we were self-sufficient though.

Happy 4th of July!

Now It's a Mirror

Steve has found that Zed doesn't like mirrors. He thinks there is an intruder dog in the house and goes crazy barking and growling. So what does Steve do this morning...brings Zed inside to purposefully get him in front of a mirror.

Tormented by a Bike

Steve has found a new way to torment Zed. For some reason, Zed does not like bicycles. This afternoon Steve hopped on his and was riding around in the yard. Zed started going nuts - barking and semi-chasing Steve and then running back to me (home base I guess).

In other Zed news, he likes to go into our pond and bring up various matters of earthen material to the front porch. He has taken a liking to eating mud pies. Hey, I'm just happy they are mud pies and not something else that he's been known to show interest in.

Zed is unlike our other 2 dogs in many ways. Or my mind has successfully blocked the early years of Moe and Winston. He's fun though. He does like attention. If you show any attention to the elder dogs he gets in your face and demands a little "face time".

All in all he's a great dog - even though Steve is by far his favorite. He is interested in me until Steve comes around. Nothing like living with 4 males. :(

Home For the Weekend

After several busy weeks, I'm actually at home this weekend.

The busy weeks started around Steve's big birthday the end of May - we headed over to Amsterdam and Germany for several days. Interesting how other than a different language, it would seem that we were in just another big US city at times. Although once people heard us, they switched into English as well. It really gave me a sense of how English-centric we are. Others around the world are able to speak 2 or more languages. I know a few basic words in several languages, but couldn't speak it to make a tourist feel comfortable in the US like they do in Europe.

Anyway, by far my favorite part of the trip was our visit to Germany. Germany was absolutely gorgeous. Lots of trees, rolling hills, and green everywhere! Definitely want to go back and spend more than a day and a half in the country. Amsterdam was interesting. We visited a couple of cool museums and did a lot of walking around the city. If I ever figure out how to do a photo album in association with this blog, I'll let you know.

The weekend after Germany was my annual girl's weekend. This time the girls came up here. We did some shopping, had some wine, ate out a few times. All in all, a good time! We've been friends since grade school and middle school. That was quite a number of years ago. :)

After they left I was busy with work getting ready for a conference. I spent 3 and a half days in Dallas for work. It was super hot - mid-90's and lots of humidity (read: Debbie had big hair). It at least felt like summer finally.

Oh, and I started a summer class this week. I'm doing a brilliant job of procrastinating right now and not reading for it.

Speaking of that....off to read "Process Consultation Revisited."

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Check out the curls

Debbie's Dog Discourse

This blog is becoming quite the collection of dog pictures. Here's another one. We took Zed and Winston to the dog park tonight. Best day of the year so far - sunny and 80. This evening we had a few stray rainclouds. We got a little wet, but look at the gorgeous rainbow.

Speaking of dogs....another one in the family now. My niece Katie got a puppy for her birthday. Coco is the pup's name. When my niece sends me a picture, I'll post it.

Best Meal in a Very Long Time

I had the best meal in a very long time this evening. We went to Cafe Levain and tried their Sunday night prix fixe menu. Everything was excellent. Well, it didn't start out so well. Our waitress essentially forgot about us for a good 10-15 minutes. I was ready to walk out...thankfully we didn't! We both ordered the Vegetarian menu once we had the waitress' attention. I also ordered the wine flight.

Everything they served was excellent to the nth power. First we were served a soup that was made up of micro greens, a vegetable called ramp that I had never heard of and it was all pureed. It was so extremely interesting. It was sweet, then spicy, then tart, then...well, I don't know how else to describe it, but it was such an interesting concoction. It was bright green in color - that was a bit disturbing, but once you tasted it....mmmmmm.....

The next course was a fingerling potato salad. It was also quite tasty. It had fresh green beans and from what I can tell now.....quite a bit of garlic. ;) It was so good though. Even the lettuce that is typically very bitter in taste was good.

The main course was the gnocchi. For those of you that know me well, you will be surprised. I was eating straight mushrooms - not small pieces on a pizza, but big pieces of mushroom with nothing else. Of course when I mentioned it to Steve he had to remind me that it was probably cooked in A LOT of butter. Still - delicious!

We ended up having a profiterole with mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert. Just the right ending for a fabulous meal!

In addition, I had 3 tastings of wine to go with the various courses (minus dessert). Very good wine as well.

The food and the waitress' attention after a rough start made the meal very memorable. By far the best meal I've had in quite awhile.

Thankfully we went for an hour long walk prior to dinner. Probably could have used a similar walk afterward. :)

They Were Wrong - thankfully!!

We were forecasted to have snow once again this weekend, but thankfully the meteorologists were wrong! Yesterday was brisk, but sunny. Today is not so windy and high could possibly reach 70.

Of course I'm stuck inside working on a paper for Statistics - it is as fun as it sounds! Null Hypothesis testing, t-tests, f-tests, and p-values. Anyone out there get it? Neither do I. Sigh.

I'm about ready to switch and continue working on a presentation I have to give tomorrow night on The Aging Workforce and it's impact on businesses in the near future. That is a bit more up my alley (not the aging workforce), but rather the interest in the topic. :)

Hope everyone is finally enjoying some spring-like weather.

Zed is a Retriever After All

That's right...a snake was left on our porch for us.

No More!

We are in the middle of what has to be the latest snowstorm I've ever experienced. April 26th and the ground is white. 3 hours to the northwest of us they had 15 inches of white stuff overnight. Now, we're not supposed to get much more than an inch, but hello........it's been spring by the calendar for over a month now!

I've been swamped with school work, so have been MIA from the blog for awhile. 3 weeks until school is out for summer! I am taking one class this summer, but I don't see that it will be all that time consuming. :)

More dog/puppy news....

Zed started a canine boom in our family. My sister's family now has a black lab puppy named Bailey. Then my parents got into the action and got a 1.5 year old Miniature Pinscher dog named Maggie. See pictures to the side.

Another Dog Story - this time not so cute!

Sunday was a nice day here - sunny, 50 degrees, snow was almost gone in most places....

Given that all I do is work, study, and attend classes these days, I decided to go to the library to study statistics. Who wouldn't wnnt to swap their Sunday afternoon with mine? Anyway...Steve and I hit the library 10 mins before start time. We hung out and watched a guy drive up and get out with his dog. He was letting his dog get some running around time before he went to the library I guess.

We got out of our car and were getting our stuff out of the backseat when I saw the dog behind Steve. I mentioned him to Steve and when he turned to see, the dog JUMPED INTO MY CAR! Now those of you who know me, know that I have a relatively new red Honda Civic with a very light tan interior. And you might also have been admonished once or twice to be sure to keep the car clean as I'm a little uptight when it comes to "Little Red".

The dog started in the back seat and when his owner started yelling for him to get out of the car he jumped up front to the passenger seat and then back to the backseat. FINALLY he got out of my car. Remember how I said it was nice, 50 degrees and the snow was melting. I forgot to mention that at one point we heard the owner tell the dog to "get out of the mud." Yes, my car had muddy dog prints on the back and passenger seats of my light tan interior.

The owner gave us some money to get the car cleaned and we were all on our way. Thankfully Steve was there - otherwise I would have for sure lost my cool. Instead I didn't say a thing and that was probably for the best.

Speaking of dogs, Zed has climbed up on the couch as I type this. Not sure how this has happened, but he's so darn cute that it's a little hard to be strict and get him off the couch. He only gets on it when we're sitting on it and it's pretty much to lay in our laps. Given that I have a laptop on my lap, he's laying to the side. I'm not giving him enough room as he keeps nudging me. He's now snoring quite loudly.

Now that I've procrastinated, off to study.

Three Musketeers

The 3 boys finally in a picture together! Amazing that Zed stayed still long enough - he tends to make figure eights around the older dogs and they just sit and watch him. Moe seems to be letting Zed get a little friendly - I'm wondering if this was followed by a growl from big, bad Moe.

As you can see in the background, snow still on the ground. I'm not in town, but Steve said we got 4-6 inches of the heavy white stuff. Meanwhile about 500 miles southeast the temperature was 63 and sunny today. Guess I really am getting a spring break!

Happy Easter!

"...I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"

WMSZ at the Dog Park

Our new call letters here at the old homestead - WMSZ. I'm thinking it sounds like either an oldies radio station or a country station. Hopefully you've picked up that it stands for Winston, Moe, Steve and Zed. The fab four - hey, maybe it is an oldies stations. Beatles music 24/7.

Anyway, I digress. We took the 3 canines to the local dog park today. I met WMSZ at the park on my way home from work. Zed was quite the hit with the ladies and of course their dogs. Everyone really made over him and said what a cute puppy he is, etc. Of course the puppy got his share of sniffs and did his share of sniffing with the other dogs. The set up is pretty nice - just a huge fenced in area that the dogs can just run and play off of their leashes.

Of course for our dogs they have a pretty big area to run around anyway, but they are never bored with all the smells and new places to explore that they find at the dog park. I of course got "blue bag" duty. Not more than a few minutes into our time there, I was scooping for not one but 2 dogs. We have 10 acres for their elimination needs, but they wait until I'm forced to pick it up! Extra dog treat to Winston for sparing me from a 3-dog night. :)

They did have fun though. Zed would take off running and then rush back to us (making sure we were still around). He hasn't figured out how to brake and so constantly would run into our legs. He and Moe are much more concerned with where we are than Winston - he's definitely the Alpha Male.

Signing off for WMSZ - have a good night!

March 2008...similar to 2007?

No, I haven't broken anything (although it is snowing right now, so there's still a chance)! The month of March last year started with me breaking my ankle and then a couple of weeks later we had a grass fire out back of our house.



2008.....got into work last week and had a message from my boss. She had fallen playing soccer (indoors, note the snow mentioned above). She broke her clavicle. Not sure when she'll be back to work - I'm guessing sometime this week since she doesn't have to have surgery. Painful nonetheless.


After her bone break, another fire near our house. The garage was totally destroyed and the house has major damage. The fire started in the garage, but we're not sure how yet.


As you can see from the picture, we still have snow on the ground. We've had over 100 days with at least an inch of snow on the ground. It also has been extremely cold this winter. I'm pretty crabby about it all!

All in One Piece

Unless I slip and fall on the stairs tonight, I have safely made it through March 2nd. That hasn't happened since 2006!

We went out to Target and dinner this evening and we're getting some precip that is freezing on the parking lots, etc. Made me a bit nervous, but Steve lent me an arm and dropped me off at the door. I was still glad to get home. And I'll be glad when this winter thing is over! We've had over 90+ days with snow on the ground. Granted we are seeing quite a bit of grass right now, but there is still snow around.

Blech!

Year Anniversary of the Ankle Break

Leap year confuses the situation a bit since I fell on a Friday and I'm celebrating (or remembering) the one year anniversary of my ankle break on a Sunday.

But, I've made it a year! The doctor had said the swelling and stiffness could continue up until about a year. He sure was right. I'd say after about month 11 the swelling was much improved. It is only occasionally swollen now and mainly after I've been on my feet all day and have had a bit of a heel on my shoes.

In another few days (on the anniversary of my surgery), I'll be given the green light to remove the hardware from my ankle. I don't have any plans to do that anytime too soon, but will keep it in mind as an option. If I'm going to do it, I don't want to wait years either. We'll see. I think I have enough going on with classes, work and the new puppy to not add another thing onto that!

Thanks for all of your support over the last year!

Zed - Puppy Extraordinaire

Meet Zed - he's the latest addition to the canine population here at The Big H Ranch and Kennel.

Zed is a golden lab mix and is now 13 weeks old. We got him from the humane society after they conducted a "rescue" from a breeder who had over 65 dogs/puppies in not the best conditions.

Zed is doing just fine. We were a little worried after the first night because he was sooo mellow. He's now a normal puppy with LOTS of energy!

Today was a big day for him. After a week of quarantine from the "elder statesmen", he met Winston and Moe for the first time up close. Z man was very interested in his big brothers. They were less so. They tolerated him well though and I think they'll co-exist just fine.

As you can tell from the pictures of Zed and the one on the right of Winston and Moe, he's a good mix between the two. I think he's got the eyes of Winston and of course the coloring. However, he's a lab like Moe so has some of his characteristics too. We'll see how big he'll get. The vet's best guess was maybe around 40 pounds. If so, he'll be a bit smaller than the other 2 dogs.

This is my first experience having a puppy in the house - it's quite a bit of work! Thankfully Steve is our resident dog expert and has quite a bit of patience.

Zed

Ice Can Be a Bear!

Defense Secretary Gates fell the other day. Broke his arm between the shoulder and elbow. Ouch!

Isn't it sad that when I see Gates mentioned in a news article my first thought is Bill. Ahh, the power of Microsoft.


Stay safe!

5 More Weeks of Winter - Supposedly

There should be 5 more weeks of winter left. It has been a cold winter and doesn't seem to be letting up at all. Today it didn't get above 0 and the wind chills were dangerously low. Needless to say I avoided being outdoors as best as I could. It sure gets old - this winter stuff. Tomorrow we're supposed to get a couple of inches of snow. Gotta love it! Definitely the worst winter in the 8.5 years of living up here.

Nothing too exciting happening up here other than the weather report. My life seems to be consisting of work, classes, studying, repeat. You know it's bad when I haven't been to a movie in a month! I was averaging 1 a week for awhile. I think the last movie I saw was The Bucket List back in the beginning of January.

There are some Oscar nominated movies that I haven't seen. I always try to at least see all of the movies up for Best Picture. This year I've seen 2 of the 5. No Country for Old Men and Atonement. I do want to see Juno, Michael Clayton and There Will be Blood. Maybe next weekend I'll get to a movie.

Out of the two Best Picture nominees I've seen, No Country for Old Men has my vote over Atonement. Atonement was overrated. NCFOM was pretty intense and isn't a movie I would necessarily recommend to people - although it was well done and deserves some awards. Just pretty creepy. Javier Bardem is awesome in it and definitely deserves Best Supporting Actor.

Check back next week and I'll let you know if I get to a movie and what I think.

Stay warm!

Won't Back Down

Classes have started back up this semester. I may be in over my head! I'm in classes 2 nights a week and Saturday afternoons right now. I will add another week night the end of March as I pick up a 2nd half of the semester class. Not sure when all of the studying and sleep that I will need will come in - especially working full-time.

Speaking of studying....I'm watching the Superbowl right now. :) Not too impressed with the ads so far. The game is pretty good though. I like that it's not a blowout, makes it much more interesting. Oooh...Patriots just coughed up the ball with 10 seconds left in the half. Now the Giants have the ball - wonder if Eli can get a score before half. That would be no.

We had about the coldest weather last week that I've experienced in my almost 9 years up north. The temperature coming home from class was -15 with wind chills at -35! Now that's cold. Thankfully I found the perfect hat. It's a Land's End, "Thermacheck Roll Brim Hat." It actually fits my big head and thick hair. Not to mention it keeps me warm - critical for -35 windchills!

How is it that Tom Petty is still relevant enough to headline the Superbowl halftime show? I'm not saying he shouldn't be, just seems odd that they always have performers from years ago and not more current artists. Maybe it's because he stands his ground and won't back down.

Phil says 6 more weeks of winter - stay safe and warm!

2008 Has Been In Full Swing for 1 Week

Hope everyone is having a great start to the New Year! I'm looking forward to a healthier, less fractured, 2008.

I did find some amusement over the holidays when I was at the gym and realized that I was running on a treadmill while watching The Price is Right. Given that the re-emergence of TPIR in my life coincided with my inability to walk, I found it slightly amusing that I was now running.

In addition to my attempt at running, I have also "stepped out" and did a little shoveling in our driveway. Yes, we had so much snow in December that even though we have had several days in the upper 30's, low 40's, we still have snow on the ground. My new snow boots are key - keep me upright!

Hope all is well!