Catch-up Blogging: Aidan's birthday

Aidan turned FIVE in late February and, for the first time ever, I was in town for the par-tay. As far as party goes, it was a good one: pizza (New York pizza, thank you very much), cake, and lots of time for me to play with the kids.

Once again, I didn't get a ton of pictures, especially of the adults. I am working on a theory--my family doesn't like to be photographed. It's frustrating. Anyway, here's what I got...


Erin and Kelsie. (See, Erin lets you take her picture...she's a good one...)


Jeff and my dad. It's a bit blurry and there's a weird white blob by my dad's mouth, but it's just about the only other picture of the adults that I have. (Jeff and my dad are also usually willing to get photographed.)


Aidan and Erin.


My family has gone dog crazy. In October, there were no dogs in our family. None. Now all four of my siblings have puppies. Crazy. Here's Savannah, the new puppy in Christian, Jennifer, Kelsie, and Aidan's house. She's pretty darn cute.


Some video of the dog. Also, how loud is my family?


Aidan with his cake.


Closer view of the super-cool NASCAR cake. He looks like he's about to karate-chop it, but don't worry, he didn't.


One more piece of video, featuring the family singing "Happy Birthday." Move over Von Trapp Family singers. Seriously, bet you didn't know I have one of the best voices in my family.

Catch-up Blogging: Rocky Point Snow

Warning: skip this post if you images of winter-weather trigger your post-snowpocalypse traumatic stress disorder.

The last weekend in February found me in NY, at my parents' home in Rocky Point. I hitched a ride up with Erin and Eric on that Friday, since the latest batch of nasty winter weather was whipping up the coast and I didn't like the idea of driving through a blizzard on my own. We were all heading up there for Erin's bridal shower (scheduled for the next afternoon and Aidan's 5th birthday party, scheduled for the next evening). Fortunately, we ran into zero problems on our drive up, a combination of good luck, excellent road crews, and the fabulous driving skills of my future brother-in-law.

Once we got to Rocky Point, I was a bit restless from being cooped up in the car. Plus, for the first time this whole long winter, I found myself appreciating how pretty the snow can be. It had been snowing all day in Rocky Point and would continue to do so, but the roads were nice and clean. Given how ill-prepared my area of West Virginia was for all the snow we got, I was almost stunned by the difference. (No, this is not a criticism of WV--the amount of snow we had this winter was historic.)

Anyway, I decided to take a long walk around the neighborhood. My companion?


My dog nephew, who rode up with us for the weekend.

At certain points, he was mostly interested in eating the snow...


But he and I also had fun just playing in it, especially in my parents' back yard.

Anyway, it was a nice walk and I took some pretty pictures...

First, my parents' house.



Then just some neighborhood shots...













So yes, snow can be very pretty. But we're done with it for now, thank you.

More puppies!

Check out my dog-niece, a boxer puppy that my brother Ryan got just before Thanksgiving. He named her "Sugaree," which is apparently a Grateful Dead song. We've always been a cat family, but it didn't take long for her to win us all over.


Here she is with Ryan.


With Ryan again.


Sleeping in Jeff's arms.


Hanging with Kelsie.


With yours truly.


She even passed the test with my mom, the biggest challenge of all. Less than 5 minutes after this picture was taken, my mom was calling her "Oma's dog." Too funny.

And of course, I've got video.





This last video shows what happens when puppy meets cat and neither one saw it coming. Notice, by the way, how I get asked, "Did you step on her?" Real nice, folks.

I promised puppies...

...and I deliver puppies.



The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, a day that I had been in my office on campus all day grading papers and reading applications, my friend Steph stopped by with her new acquisition, Cali. Pretty darn cute, right?

You can also check out this video on Cali and Bella, her new big sister, playing on the floor of my office. Please ignore my silly laughter--you can tell I was punchy and just thrilled for such an adorable distraction.

Veteran's Day Links

Just in time for Veteran's Day, take a look at "Ian Fisher, American Soldier," a photo essay capturing 27 months in the life of a young serviceman.

After that, you know you'll want to check out this collection of soldiers' dogs welcoming their owners home from overseas. (I've linked to one of them back in October 2008).

Greensboro visit: Grasshoppers' Game

Memorial Day Weekend found me visiting friends in Greensboro. Lots of fun stuff: a Grasshoppers' Game, stops at some of my favorite restaurants, and a great graduation party for Aaron.

Some pictures...first from the baseball game.


Vogel and Lauren.


Sunset over the field.


Another nice evening shot.

Like any minor league game, a Grasshoppers' Game is about more than just baseball--it's also about the wacky stuff that's also going during the game. You know--dizzy bat racing and sumo wrestling between innings. That kind of stuff. But what we really love about the Hoppers are Yogi Berra and Babe Ruth, the two dogs who retrieve bats and do other stunts during inning breaks. You can read about their more...interesting stunts here and here. Vogel, who loves dogs more than she loves people (it's not even close) goes crazy for these dogs, so I took a couple of videos for her (and you all, of course.)





Something I wasn't able to get decent video of, though, was the Waffle House strikeout. I am not sure if other teams do this, but it's one of my favorite things about going to a Hopppers' game. They pick some poor guy from the other team and designate him the Waffle House Strikeout Victim. If he strikes out at any point in the game, everyone in attendance gets a coupon for a free waffle. So every time he comes up, they play the Waffle song (more about that in a bit) and people yell "Waaaa-fuulll! Waaa-fuulll!" It's totally silly, a little bit mean (but harmless), and a ton of fun. And in the 8th inning it happened--he struck out. Free waffles for everyone! Yay! I tried to get video of the jumbo-tron and the song, but it didn't come out. Here's a clip of it from youtube, though. I just love it and it totally gets stuck in my head. Even now, I think I'll probably be singing it all day.




Here's Vogel with her free waffle coupon. Doesn't she look happy? Who wouldn't be? And now I have incentive to come back to Greensboro before October 31 (the coupon's expiration date) to put that sucker to good use!