The drive out

I suppose I should start with the beginning of our big adventure out to Maine. As I was bringing the last bag out to the car, Chuck was walking back towards the apartment, with a Stair Master in tow. "I found it by the dumpster!" he exclaimed proudly. "The computer is broken, but the stairs still work!"

The Stair Master is now sitting in our kitchen, because our apartment has no room. Especially since Chuck got the free piano. (At least that wasn't by the dumpster!) It's a little too heavy for me to drag back out to the dumpster by myself.

Driving went pretty smoothly. On the way out, we split it about 50/50 (usually Chuck drives more than I do). We stopped and saw Chuck's friend JD and met his girlfriend, who was very nice. We had lunch at a little deli in German Village. We got stopped (as we frequently are) and asked if Lenny was a wire fox terrier.

Whoever asks this question inevitably goes on to tell us that they used to have a fox terrier, that it was crazy and/or very mischievous, and that it lived to be well into its late teens, and that they ADORED it. This man was no exception. He was impressed that Lenny was so laidback.

Lenny was not so pleasant in the car. We made the mistake while packing up to give him a rawhide treat to occupy him. He's used to his veggie kibble and treats, so this did a number on his digestive system, and he stunk up the car through all six states out to Maine.


Day 2 of driving was the real beginning of vacation, because I got to go to DUNKIN' DONUTS! We have no Dunkin' Donuts in Indiana, and I had to have a Coffee Coolatta. It was the first of several for the trip.


Once we got to the border in Massachusetts, we made a stop in the lovely town of Lenox, where Tanglewood is. Lenny is officially named "Lenox" after this town.



We finally arrived at the lake house on Sunday evening. We were all very excited to be there, especially Lenny! We had some rain on Monday and Tuesday, but later in the week the weather improved.

A lot of news and updates

I have a lot of news and pictures to share, and I am way behind on photos! So please forgive me because the next several posts are going to be kind of random and out of order, depending on what pictures I have available when I am blogging.

CONGRATULATIONS ANNIE!

My sister Annie passed her nursing boards exams last Thursday, and this week was her first one on the job at Yale-New Haven Hospital in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Congratulations, Annie R.N.!

My cousin Greg's news

Greg just sent some funny pictures yesterday. You may remember last year he ran a marathon, and I posted some pictures here. Here's his report from his new event!


"I was in a Biking/Running Mud Race this past weekend called the "Muddy Buddy."

Basically - you and your "Muddy Buddy" (or Partner in Grime as they also like to call it) pair up for a 6-7 mile race through dirt/mud trails. You have one bike to share between the two of you, so as one person rides, the other runs. There are 5 checkpoints throughout the race - naturally, the biker will reach the checkpoint first. The biker then drops the bike, must complete an obstacle (rock climbing wall, scaling up a net, making it across a balance beam -- think boot camp) and then takes off running. Later, when the runner reaches the same checkpoint, he/she completes the obstacle, hops on the bike, and heads to the next checkpoint, passing the partner along the way. Ideally, partners keep "leap-frogging" this way until the end of the race - where both partners must meet up and Army-crawl through the "Mondo Mud Pit" --
Anyway - my muddy Buddy and friend Caroline (the one I ran the Marine Corps Marathon with) had someone get some great pictures of us in the Mud Pit with our other friends (wearing the Blue Shirts in the foreground). Thought you all would get a kick out of these..."

Also, I want to say congratulations to Greg for his acceptance into Emory University for graduate school! He's off to Atlanta to pursue a master's degree in Film Studies.

My Aunt Linda's news

Linda has a new horse! He is a colt named Zavian.

Home from Maine!

"Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go!"

Pictures from our trip coming soon.

A NICE ARTICLE about Chuck's concert from the IDS News.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July, everyone!



Chuck and I enjoyed the Bloomington fireworks on Tuesday night, and Chuck had a fun time playing with his new camera. We did a lot of sparkler "art" and Chuck captured it:





We have been very busy entertaining guests the past few weekends. Two weeks ago, our friend Pete came to visit us. He lost 60 pounds and he looks great! We had a big adventure going to the flea markets in Gnawbone, Indiana.

Jen Miller (now Stoycheff), my college roommate, came for a few days after that. It was so great to see her, and we also got to hang out with our friend Amanda. Amanda is making all of her wedding plans for next summer, so we went to see where her ceremony is going to be held.

This weekend, Chuck's family came to visit to see his outdoor concert with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. We had fun hiking with them and Chuck went swimming with the munchkins at our cool waterpark here in Bloomington. I will have plenty of pictures to post from this weekend, soon! The concert was a big success.

And this weekend, we are leaving for Maine!

Tagged!

I've been tagged! My friend Mary Ann "tagged" me for this blog game:
(Mary Ann also started her own blog - you can check it out here!)

ON THIS DAY - Go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (only the month and day). Choose and write down 3 events, 2 births and 1 holiday. Then tag 5 friends.

My birthday = DECEMBER 16th

Events:

• 1773 - American Revolution: Boston Tea Party - Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
• 1893 - Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, "From The New World" was given its world premiere at Carnegie Hall.
• 1997 - The Pokémon episode Dennō Senshi Porygon triggers attacks of photosensitive epilepsy in hundreds of Japanese children.

Birthdays:

• 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (d. 1827)
• 1945 - Yukio Hattori, Japanese Iron Chef commentator

Holiday:
Happy Kazakhstan Independence Day!

Now I'm tagging my friend Jen! (I don't think I know five people who have blogs! Dogs, yes, but humans...no)

Hot time in Bloomington

Last night we had a visit from the Bloomington Fire Department. I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but there are fire trucks, firemen, and our neighbors in their jammies. Around 11:30, Chuck started smelling smoke in our apartment and woke me up. We couldn't find anything wrong and assumed it was our air conditioning, because the smoke seemed to be coming from that vent. So we called the BFD.


As the firemen were checking out the apartment, our neighbors upstairs got home and realized that it was their apartment causing the problems. One of them had left the house with a pizza in the oven, and now their apartment was a smoky mess. I don't think there was a (big) fire, but it took about an hour for the firemen to suck all of the smoke out with a big fan.

Friends and family - check your smoke detectors! Our neighbors didn't have working batteries in theirs. Ours never went off - we tested it and it seems to be working, but that was a little worrisome.

Today our Maintenance Man Ted came and replaced the filter in our A/C (our A/C sucks the air down from upstairs somehow) and brought an ozone-fan-filter-zapper thing to get the smoke smell out of our house. We are a little smelly, but fine, luckily!

Unfortunately, the purple and yellow royal gramma fish did not make it through the night. She had been sick with a fish disease called "Ick" (no kidding) and I found her this morning at the bottom of the tank. Now the clownfish has Ick but Chuck is successfully treating it. We do have a cute shrimp now as well. Chuck won't be able to get any new fish for several weeks, though. RIP Royal Gramma!

Congratulations Chuck!

Congratulations to Chuck! He was named the new Music Director of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra! The local Herald-Times newspaper had an article about him and his new appointment. His first concert with the BSO will be on July 1st at 6:30 p.m., outdoors at Bryan Park in Bloomington.

Chuck also had even more big news. He was named the Conducting Fellow of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra for this season. No pay, but lots of perks - including free box seats for the Joshua Bell concert last Friday night! It was awesome! We even got to go the private reception for symphony bigwigs at intermission. I am so happy for him - this is a really big deal for him and I think it will give him a lot of good experience and exposure.

So Chuck will be doing a lot of commuting this year - Indy is about an hour north of Bloomington, not to mention his usual trips to Columbus, which is also an hour away.

Uncle Chunkie's Fishies

A posting from Chuck:

So...... I have a new saltwater aquarium now. It's been about three weeks, and Kelley and I have two fishies! And they're just like "Finding Nemo" characters!





We have one Royal Gramma --- just like "Gurgle" (Gurgle is never named in the movie.) Gurgle's the one in the tank who's afraid of germs and scuzzy stuff.




And we have a Percula Clown, just like Nemo and Marlin!




They're the bestest of friends!


.... and on Saturday, we're gonna go get a Cleaner Shrimp, just like Jacques!!!

Unfortunately, there's no room in the tank for Dori, Deb (and Flo), Bloat, Peach or Bubbles. And we'll never be able to afford a Gil.

Toledo Pictures

I am posting a link to the album of photos from our trip to Toledo over Memorial Day Weekend. You can click on the picture below, which will bring you to the album.

Visit to Toledo

We had a great time with all of the munchkins (and grown-ups) and we got to meet niece #4, baby Elise! (She brings the niece/nephew count to 7.) We had a very nice picnic at a state park in Toledo that Monday.

Project Runway update - bad news. It's not going to be back until this winter. I'm very disappointed. Apparently they're filming Season 4 right now.

Barack Obama for President

Now having completed reading "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama, I have decided to whole-heartedly support his candidacy for the presidency of the United States.

He is the leader we need to unite our country and solve its problems.
Ask me if you want more info about him, or if you want to borrow the book!

You can see him in action in the next Democratic debate, which will take place July 23rd on CNN at 7 p.m.

Running

You might have noticed I have something new posted on the right of the blog. This is my running stats, as tabulated by my new iPod nano! It uploads my stats to the nikeplus.com website - I've been having a lot of fun with it.

Chuck's Birthday

Back on May 9th, Chuck turned 28, and I finally agreed to go with him to the vegetarian restaurant in town, Roots.



The appetizer came out, and it didn't look so bad. Chicken fingers, maybe?



No such luck. It was fried seitan, a wheat gluten product. With a little ketchup, it would have tasted like chicken fingers, though.

Wheat gluten, let me remind you, was the ingredient in all of the pet food that contained the poison and got recalled recently.



I don't even remember what Chuck had now, and looking at the picture, I certainly can't recognize it. The only thing that looked "safe" on the menu for me to order was Thai Curry peanut noodles. Note that the word "Curry" is contained in the title. And this was the SAFEST thing!!! Very scary. The noodles actually turned out to be pretty good, and I even ate the leftovers.

But I don't want to go back any time soon.



My thoughts exactly, Lenny!

Fun with Slideshows!

I am experimenting with all of the wonders of Google, and I figured out how to make these neat slideshows for my blog. You need Flash to play it. Tell me what you think!

Finally, let me put some pictures up from all of the goings-on of last month.

The highlight of May was our trip to New Hampshire and Rhode Island to see Annie's pinning ceremony and graduation.



It rained on the graduation day, so the ceremony had to be held indoors. Since each graduate only got 2 tickets, John, Chuck, and I watched Annie graduate on the big screen in a building across campus.

Afterwards, we went to Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse to celebrate. Much to Annie's horror, she got "kissed" by the big stuffed moose.



Mom and Dad are new friends with Al Gore. They bought a hybrid car! Mom's Audi bit the dust, so the Russells got their third trusty family Saturn from Derek at Saturn of Portsmouth. Mom says she gets 60 miles a gallon!



We had a great trip and we're so proud of you, Annie!

More fun at the park

First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to RENEE today!


Pictures from last week are coming soon, but in the meantime, here are some more shots from our latest trip to the dog park. (Warning: These carry a PG-13 rating!) Lenny went back to the vet yesterday for a checkup and got a clean bill of health, and he was feeling very good. He was the fastest dog at the park.




The vet said that Lenny has a little arthritis in both of his back legs, but that apparently wasn't slowing him down yesterday.

Go Annie!

I won't be posting until next week, because Chuck and I will be attending my sister's graduation from college and pinning ceremony.

CONGRATULATIONS ANNIE!

Lenny at the Dog Park

RUNNING





ROLLING






PUTTING ON THE BRAKES




Lenny had to go to the vet yesterday because his allergies have flared up really badly. This is despite our best efforts to keep his itching under control by:

1) Giving him immunotherapy shots every ten days.
2) Giving him children's Benadryl.
3) Bathing him twice a week with medicated shampoo.
4) Changing his bedding twice a week.
5) Vacuuming the house every day.
6) Leaving his "cone-head" on him when we have to leave the house so he won't chew on his paws.
7) Constantly chaperoning him when we are at home - he is not allowed to go in a room without one of us there. (He's sneaky about scratching!)



This is supposed to be a particularly bad allergy season in Indiana. (My allergies have been non-existent, though!)

Wednesday night we came home to find him very cut-up because he had clawed open his front legs with his back paws, on his ankles, paws, and elbows. So Thursday he went to the vet.

This vet (not our usual Dr. Koch) for some reason was convinced that Lenny had cancer, and kept telling Chuck about how Lenny's medications would have to change if he had chemotherapy, etc. His lymph nodes in his legs were swollen, but his other lymph nodes were not, so she did a biopsy. Chuck asked if perhaps the lymph nodes were swollen due to his allergic condition, but she insisted on doing the biopsy. While she was looking at the slides, Chuck could hear her out in the hallway talking to Dr. Koch, our normal vet. She was telling him that she didn't see anything on the slides, and Dr. Koch said something along the lines of "Lenny has allergies, not cancer!" But at least now we can put our minds at ease...

Anyway, Lenny came home with a cocktail of pills - steroids, anti-histamines, and antibiotics. Hopefully he'll get through the next few weeks a little better. We took him to the dog park after his appointment.

Photographer Chuck

So Chuck has been playing a lot with his new camera. Here are some of the pictures he is proud of so far.