More Life in General

I guess fall is right around the corner. The nights have been cool and Jesse is back in full swing at school. I find myself a bit lost without the juggling of classes and work. It used to be that I spent 80% of my evening time writing papers or researching something. Now that I have no deadlines, I sometimes wander around the house aimlessly, trying to figure out what to do with myself. I never knew it, but maybe I am one of those people that likes to stay busy. The dogs get longer walks now days, the house projects are slowly getting caught up, and I've been cooking more, which I guess are all good things.

I was actually hoping to get into some classes this fall, just because I'm a nerd and I like to learn, but none of the classes that I wanted to take worked with my schedule. Maybe next semester. In the meantime, grad school continues to tempt me, but I also really like the idea of being curriculum-less and just taking classes as I please.

Jesse has a botany class right now, which I'm a tad jealous of. Maybe as the class goes on, he will get as excited over microherds as I do. Doubtful, but a girl can dream. Speaking of microherds, mine are super happy. I have frozen 23 bags of tomatoes so far this season, given away lots (to people and squirrels) and there are plenty more out there. Keep working little microbug wormie things and nematodes!

I found a few photos that I had dropped in my blog folder and never got around to posting, so I'll throw them up now.

My brother and sister-in-law were over a couple weeks back and brought their little dog. As you can see, Horton still loves to sit in the swing with people. Monkey has once or twice, but she can't sit still long enough for it be peaceful, so she generally avoids it. She does like to play with my brother's little dog though, but she and Horton play so rough that sometimes I worry about the little dude. He only weighs 8 lbs. or something crazy like that. Oh, and speaking of weight, we took Horton and Monkey to the vet last week and Monkey has definitely grown. She weighs 14lbs. more than when we first found her. In fact, she is just shy of Horton now, clocking in around 63lbs. Horton hovers around 70 in his old age. He was a trim 65 in his youth, but the vet said his weight right now is good for his age.

Anyway, my brother and his wife are expecting their first little one sometime in late Feb. or early March I think. Seems hard to believe that between our two families, Jesse and I have 12 nieces and nephews, and 3 more on the way! We are looking forward to meeting all of them!

My grandpa had his 25th wedding anniversary a couple weeks back as well. Jesse got the day off work so he was able to come with me, which I was very happy about. It was a nice ceremony, casual, fun, but still sweet and sentimental. This is our self-photo.
I had more photos of this event, but doesn't look like I have bumped any others over to the computer yet. I do, however, have snuggly dog photos to spare!

Nothing Much

I guess life has been pretty mundane lately since I don't really have anything in particular to blog about. I could, of course, always tell you stories about my dogs, but being that I am aware that I am one of those totally annoying people who blabs on and on about them, when in reality, no one thinks they are nearly as cute/funny/fill in the blank as I do, I will try to spare you the Horton and Monkey stories. Man, with the way I am with my dogs, when we do finally have kids, I am going to be totally and completely unbearable. Brace yourself for that one. (Don't worry, you've got plenty of time.)

So, in "outside of dog stuff", what can I tell you?

I got a sweet bike!! Well, technically, Jesse got me a sweet bike. He found a screaming good deal on craigslist for me and now I have a "real bike" with 27 thousand gears that I don't really know how to work and all kinds of stuff like that. If I would just purchase spandex shorts and gloves, I would look like I know what I'm doing. However, I have promised my ass that I will not subject it (or the general public) to me in spandex on a bike. (Although this fall, you will most likely see Jesse on display in some little tighties....apparently, there is just no better pant to run in winter than those arse tight ones...) Actually, when I see people running or biking in those tight spandexy outfits, I always just assume they are really serious and into the sport. And Jesse is quite serious and into the sport, so it makes perfect sense for him to suit up. He is kicking some serious butt in his running. I am very impressed and proud.

Speaking of Mr. Nikkel, he will be hitting the big 3-0 in a few months. (Ah, I can't believe it!) I think this deserves a big blowout, so we have been plotting what we should do. Jesse wants to do something that "makes him feel young". We are tossing around trip ideas, marathons, and some other fun things, but we will have to see how it all works out and how much cash flow is around. We'd really like to take advantage of United while we can, but who knows what the future holds. The airline industry is a shaky one at best. And no doubt trips would be out of the budget if we don't have his passes. We shall see!

Monkey

Monkey is obsessed with lights and reflections. Sometimes it's hard to get her to go outside into the backyard, because the glass on the back door reflects into the kitchen during certain times of day when you open the door, so she wants to stay in the kitchen and chase the light. She'll pounce on the floor, and chase it all around. She is very focused during this process, and once you close the door, she'll sit and stare at the wall or floor, wherever the last place the reflection was seen. I think she's waiting for it to come back. During other times of the day, the reflection stretches out into the backyard, and she enjoys chasing that one as well. I always wonder what she is thinking during these little chases...


(Oh by the way, the sound will be an issue again. We called Olympus and they told us we are going to have to send it in for repair. We are waiting until after vacation to do this though, because we didn't want to risk not having it back in time.)