Toledo Thanksgiving

This year, we spent a wonderful Thanksgiving in Toledo with Chuck's side of the family. We had a lovely dinner with his parents, grandmother, and sister's family (including in-laws). There were 14 people total, I believe. Chuck's brother's family is down in Texas this year, so we only had 3 of the 7 nieces/nephews there.

Bright and early Thursday morning, Chuck and I got up to run my 2nd 5K! I have not been training very hard, because it's been getting dark so quickly after work. I had gone running the day before and not felt very good about it. I just wanted to run the whole way again, with no stopping to walk. The course was very nice because it was completely flat - no hills at all.

These pictures are a little bit misleading because it looks like a beautiful sunny fall day. In reality, it was about 30 degrees, windy, and there were flurries while we ran.

Usually I like to run by myself, and I get very cranky if someone tries to talk to me while I'm running. But Chuck ran with me the whole way (walking once when I was running veeeerrrrry slowly) and kept his mouth shut. It was very nice, and we crossed the finish line together. Our time? 36:35, almost a minute slower than my first 5K time of 35:39. But the important thing was that I ran the whole way.


I love this picture of June because I think it makes her look like an opera diva singing an aria. :)


We also had our fun annual Yankee Swap at Amy's house after Thanksgiving dinner.


June surprised Chuck with a beautiful quilt she had made for him. All of the squares are from his t-shirts collected from all of his high school activities, like shows he had been in. It's very cool!


We got to go see Chuck's friend Scott at his house while we were in Toledo, and our dogs had a play-date.


Scott and his wife have two dogs - a Golden Doodle (Golden Retriever/Poodle mix) named Summer, and a Malti-Poo (Maltese/Poodle mix) named Torrent. Lenny was his usual aloof self, but they had fun running around the backyard.

Torrent looked an awful lot like the dog Annie and I had growing up, a cocka-poo named Lucy. Torrent is a little bit smaller than Lucy was.

We got to see a lot of Chuck's other friends because Saturday night was his 10-year high school reunion! It was nice because I wasn't under any pressure to remember anyone's name, and everyone wore name-tags anyway. It was at a nice restaurant, and the buffet actually had pretty good food! I had some delicious veggie lasagna. I also heard some funny stories about Chuck's high school antics, including a story about him playing piano for a high school Christmas assembly of some sort. Apparently, he was wearing a ring of jingle bells around his neck, and starting bouncing up and down on the piano bench to the music to make the bells ring. I wish I could have seen that.


Everyone asked Chuck if he was a high school band director, which was his plan while he was in high school. It was interesting to see the variety of professions that people in his class went into. A lot of people were still in graduate school, and there were also a lot of stay-at-home moms (one with FOUR KIDS already!!!!). There were lawyers, a real estate agent, people in ambiguous things like "international development," a stage actress, a surfer dude from L.A., an author living in Brazil, and even a football player from the Washington Redskins.

Our new TV!

Well, the old TV died, just before Project Runway's premiere and the Michigan game. I was not happy. So thanks to my parents for sending birthday/Christmas money a little early, we got a sweet new TV! We ordered it during the big post-Thanksgiving sale from Target. (Thanks Mom and Dad!!!)

It is a 32" HD LCD Olevia TV. It's pretty cool.

I don't know if I mentioned that our horrible landlords turned our cable off (this is currently in dispute), but we actually get a few channels without the cable. Two of them are public television.



We have been watching more movies from Netflix, and the first thing we watched on the new TV was "High Society" starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra. It was great! It is a re-make of "The Philadelphia Story" as a musical, and Louis Armstrong and his band are in the movie, loosely in the plot, and perform at various intervals.

I've been on a Grace Kelly kick lately and also just watched "To Catch a Thief," a Hitchcock movie that I enjoyed a lot as well. Cary Grant is also in that one. I love watching old movies from the 40s and 50s just to see all the glamorous dresses that the women wore - at ALL times!

Lenny Line-Up

Russell Thanksgiving

If I'm counting correctly, it looks like 30 Russells got together in New Jersey for Thanksgiving.

The Big Kids

The Little Kids

The Old People

I was sad that Chuck and I couldn't join the Russells - we were having Thanksgiving adventures in Toledo. But the good news is that all of the Russells are getting together very soon for a June packed full of excitement!

The big events:
Annie's Wedding - June 21
Stephanie's high school graduation - June 22
The Third Annual Russell Olympics - June 23 on!

We will be the Roving Russells across New England!

Lenny's Fall Photo

Obama and Clinton

If you don't want to read any political commentary (I'm trying to limit it on my blog) don't read any further - come back later! :)

I'm hoping to do a little bit of volunteer work for Barack Obama while Chuck and I are in NH for Christmas this year. I am excited to be interested in the political process again, and very passionate about my support for Obama!



The latest poll out today shows that the top 3 candidates are still in a 3-way statistical dead heat in Iowa, but Obama's on top and his lead is increasing. Hillary's apparently getting nervous, and I read this comparison in an article in the L.A. Times:

"If you remember the phrase used at the beginning of the Iraq war -- 'shock and awe' -- that's the way her campaign is approaching this apparent threat," said Dennis Goldford, politics professor at Drake University in Des Moines. "They're just trying to hit it with an overwhelming response. In politics, appearance is reality, and they don't want the perception to get out that she's slipping or is weak or could well lose this. So what they'll be trying to do is head that off as quickly as possible."

I find the Iraq comparison interesting and ironic.

I really have a problem with Hillary, and this is why: She is running on her husband's experience. Serving as First Lady ("my years in the White House") is not the same as serving as President, Vice President, Secretary of State, or anything else. I can understand that she was one of his advisors, perhaps, but then she should release her First Lady papers from the Presidential Library archives so we can see how she helped him.

I'm married to a very good conductor. Does that qualify me to go lead the New York Philharmonic in concert? I know more about the conducting world than the average person, and yes, I'm a musician, but I would be a TERRIBLE conductor. I would be waving my arms and pretending. That doesn't mean that I am any less intelligent or talented or likeable or anything else - I'm just not qualified for that position by virtue of being married to the man in it.

I'm not trying to insult Hillary - there's no doubt that she's a very intelligent woman and a capable Senator. She is just not entitled to be president.

I want a woman president. But she has to be the right woman for the job. Someone who has earned the privilege of leading our country, not by marrying into the job. To me, that would diminish the achievement.

I also don't buy the argument that Democrats should support her because she is the only one who can win against the Republicans, and that she is the inevitable nominee. First of all, I really doubt that she can win in the general election. Second of all, if all the Democrats jumped off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge after them? Third, my future brother-in-law John made a very good point to me a while back about Hillary. What our country needs now is someone who can unite the people of the nation. Is there anyone more divisive between Democrats and Republicans than Hillary?

It might also be helpful if she would take positions on important issues. She has a lot of feel-good phrases that she throws out in debates, and is very well-spoken, but she just doesn't SAY anything new or unique. I watch all of the debates. I have listened. Nothing. It also really irritated me that her campaign (and husband) complained about all the boys picking on her in the debate 2 weeks ago. She was not a victim - she just had a crappy debate, and got caught in one of her own waffles.

If you love Hillary, please feel free to leave a comment and tell me why.

So I am also going to do a post about all the reasons I am supporting Obama - coming soon! (If you're still waiting for more Lenny clips, I don't have any yet.) But if you have read all the way through my political rant, you deserve something fun - this is a campaign commercial by Mike Huckabee that I find very amusing. I hope you enjoy it.

Talented Lenny

I am going to start a new little blog series to show off Lenny's many talents and tricks. Actually I am just playing around to see if the video will actually work. Let me know what you think! (And sorry, I know it's really blurry - it's from my cell phone.)



This is one of Lenny's best tricks - especially at night when we're too lazy to get out of bed. GET THE LIGHTS!

Sooner than I thought!

OOOH OOOH OOOH!!! Project Runway is on TONIGHT! I was wrong!!!!

Unfortunately, it is still on past my bedtime - it starts at 10 p.m.

Heidi is back!

FINALLY! Project Runway will be back on Thursday night on Bravo. I have been waiting MONTHS. It turns out that the finalists did not present collections at spring fashion week earlier this fall; they will present them in February.

The only problem is that we currently have cable nor do we have a completely functioning TV. I am coming up with a contingency plan should these two things not be resolved by Thursday.

A better picture of the Dalai Lama here in Bloomington.

Halloween Costume Contest

You might remember last year's Jacobs staff costume contest, where our office challenged the other staff to a contest because many people were dressing up for fun anyway. The tradition has stuck, and it's gotten even bigger this year. It's a lot more fun and more effective, I think, than our team-building event was several weeks ago.

Everyone does get very competitive, though, and won't reveal to any other office what their theme will be beforehand.


This year, I was on a new team, due to my new job. I teamed up with the three ladies in the other Dean's Office, Janie, Jennifer, and Bettina. Since the contest is in the lobby of the Opera hall, we decided to dress like we were going to the "Opry" - the Grand Ole Opry.


We found these lovely square-dancing dresses on eBay. There are some great bargains on those things!

My OLD team, the combined Undergrad and Grad Offices, were very clever, despite my not being there anymore. :) They came up with the idea of being a sandwich - everyone a different piece. My friend Gaye (the slice of bread on the left) had actual oatmeal on her crust! It was a healthy sandwich.


The Business Office, who stole the show last year with their chain gang outfits, dressed up as the high school wrestling team (the boss is the coach of the local team).

We had a "jazz cat" - very appropriate for the School of Music.

More feline fun - the Admissions Office ladies dressed up as the Three Little Kittens Who Lost Their Mittens.

(Good news - my friend Gaye is changing jobs and will be starting in the Admissions office next week. She'll be my "neighbor" just down the hall!)

I loved our IT department's costumes. They were the Peanuts gang. (Linus showed up a little late, after the judging.)

My boss showed up to assist with the judging.
Rumor has it (I heard this from one of her fellow theory professors) that some years ago, she dressed up as Salome, a Biblical character who does the Dance of the Seven Veils in Richard Strauss' opera. No photographic evidence of this has yet been found.


The awards worked very differently from last year, where just about everyone was awarded a certificate in a different category. (Best theme, funniest, scariest, etc.) This year, everyone got a ballot to choose their favorites in different categories. (Let me point out that this clearly gave the larger offices an unfair advantage.) This year, there were trophies and medals instead of certificates!

Our group took the trophy for "Best Halloween Theme 2007!"
Here we are accepting our award from the Dean.


The trophies were really cute and had pumpkins and witches on them.

And my old office took the grand prize for the best overall theme - they got the BIG trophy. Every year, it will be passed on to the next team who wins the best theme.

Rachel the Tomato accepted on behalf of the team.

Happy Halloween!

The Dunk

DUN-Kin DO-Nuts! (Clap, clap, clap clap clap!)

There is a new Dunkin' Donuts about 45 minutes away from our town, on the way up to Indianapolis. I believe this is the first Dunkin' Donuts in Indiana.

Could it be coming to Bloomington next?

We are driving to Chicago tomorrow to briefly visit my parents - maybe we can stop there for a Coffee Coolatta on the way up.

I am a happy girl.