He's Baaaack!

Well, not quite yet.  As you can see from my Uter widget on the right, Chuck is flying home tomorrow.  I will be happy to see him, though I'm not sure Lenny will be as thrilled when it's time to go to sleep, and he gets expelled from the "big bed."

Somehow, I don't think Chuck will find Bloomington as exciting as Salzburg.  As hard as that is to imagine...  That's one of his photos he's taken.  If you want to see more, email him for his Salzburg blog address!

You may have noticed that my Nike Plus running widget has been the same for several weeks.  This, unfortunately, is not a computer glitch.  I have forsaken running (and cleaning the house, for that matter) for practicing piccolo. I have had two auditions, and one more coming up on Saturday.  The first one was for the sub list for the Terre Haute Symphony, and I CHOKED!  It was terrible.  I got so nervous and I flubbed my piccolo solo piece (Vivaldi).  I was having a Bad Tone Day - the flute equivalent of a Bad Hair Day.  :)  The excerpts went fine, though.  Chuck's boss was listening behind the screen, and I think that made me nervous.

But I had to play for him again last night, for the Columbus 3rd flute/piccolo audition!  I really got my nerves under control this time, and I played a decent audition.  It certainly wasn't perfect, and there were some things that SHOULD have gone better but didn't.  I don't think it was good enough to win, but I felt like I had redeemed myself from my embarrassingly terrible audition LAST year.  So I am relieved to have that over - I've been working hard for that for about 5 weeks.  And it turns out that I made the sub list for the Terre Haute orchestra, anyway.  (Probably the very last line at the very bottom of the sub list!)

Lenny has been my "coach" the past few weeks.  When I would go over to school at night to practice, he'd sit in the practice room with me and eat his chewy bone, and occasionally chime in with the high notes.  So last night, before I left for Columbus, I patted him on the head and thanked him for being my practice buddy.  In my other hand, I was holding my piccolo, and he leaned over and "kissed" the end of it.  I'm sure it just smelled tasty to him, but at the moment it seemed like a very sweet gesture!

And as you can see, he's been very helpful with the housework while Chuck's been gone.

Lenny Sleeping

New Office

Big news!

Wedding bells will be ringing soon! Congratulations to John and Annie - they are engaged!

Off to the Races

In the spirit of the Games, Chuck and I wore Team Latshaw t-shirts.

As our team captain, Lenny wore his Team Latshaw handkerchief to match us.

We decided to wear them on the first day of competition. The two Russell teams competing that day got extremely intimidated and immediately had to go change their outfits. So everyone came up with matching team t-shirts.

Mom and Dad came up with matching Red Sox shirts.

Gary and Marlene had Washington & Lee football shirts (the team that Scott plays for).


The first event was relay kayak racing. The goal was to paddle out to and around the buoy, back to the dock where you jumped out, your partner jumped in, and did the same trip around the buoy. First team back to the dock won.

Some athletes competed more earnestly than others. (And may I add, some CHEATED and splashed more than others!)

It was a little unclear - this was the "Slow" Olympics, but this was a time-trial kind of race. How would the winner be determined?

Chuck won the honor. In the course of trying to cut to the inside past the buoy, he capsized, and thus proved himself worthy of the gold medal.

If you click on the picture below, you will get a slide-show of some more pictures from the kayak racing day.

Tommy Makem

Dover, New Hampshire's own celebrity, Irish musician Tommy Makem, died this week. He used to go to our church.

What's going on

Sorry to interrupt the trip narrative, but I thought I would give a report on how I'm doing with Chuck in Austria.

I am sad to report that the clown fish has died.
I was very good about feeding him, and he was just fine when Chuck left. Somehow he got really sick and deteriorated every day. I knew the day before he died that he wasn't going to make it through the night.
Chuck said I didn't do anything wrong, but I feel bad. He also said that one of the operas there in Salzburg has clownfish in the staging and as props. Weird!

It's been a bad week for pet care - I also messed up Lenny's allergy shot. I managed to poke the needle completely through the fold of his skin, and it squirted out the other side, rather than in to his body. And that was the last dose in the bottle of serum - the new one hasn't arrived yet. So he's a little itchier than usual.


I went and saw the Simpsons movie without my husband. He claims to not want to see it, but I think that he would like it. It was pretty good! I also rented "The Sound of Music" to see some of his scenery there. :)

But the big good news is that I have a new job! I had a series of interviews this Friday and Monday, so I've been a little distracted from everything else. (I apologize to everyone about my weekend cell phone blackout!!)

I will still be working in the Jacobs School of Music. I will be moving upstairs in the same building (no more basement!!) to one of the Dean's offices. I will be the only one there in the office, and it has a huge window, and I will be making more money. All very good things. Rather than working with the students all the time, I'll be working with faculty members on tenure/promotion issues and I'll have more long-term projects.

With new student orientation coming up in three weeks, it throws my office into a little bit of a tailspin, so I'll still be helping out for a little while. Just about everyone has been very happy for me and very supportive.

Olympic Event: Scrabble!

Not to brag or anything, but Team Latshaw DOMINATED the Scrabble board!

Since there were six people playing, we played on one board with two sets of letters. That was really fun, and it really messed up any kind of strategy that would ordinarily be used.



I happened to be the overall winner of the game. It was certainly my best event.

The Birthday Boys

The reason the Olympics were held that week in July was because it coincided with several important birthdays in the family.


DAD

My Dad turned 55! He is officially eligible for the Senior Discount at Wendy's.
Gary and Marlene brought him a very special cake - his favorite kind - yellow cake with no frosting.





We got a little crazy when we got Dad his gift - we bought him an iPod Nano, and loaded it up with music for him!

Could he handle this technology?

He has mastered his new RAZR phone (even Call Waiting now!), so we were confident he could use iTunes and his iPod. He is a Titan of Technology - a Wizard of the Web!



The only problem came when he and I went running together with our iPods. My iPod said we ran 4.25 miles, but his said we ran 3.75 miles. D'oh! I think we both have to calibrate them. I'm going to believe mine for now.

GARY



My Uncle Gary turned 65! Wow! His birthday gift was an Old Man Outfit - seersucker shorts, this lovely shirt, and a white belt.

He wore the shirt proudly for the golfing Olympic event.



LENNY

Lenny turned 9 on my dad's birthday - talk about an old man! That's about Uncle Gary's age in dog years. I think Lenny needs a Hawaiian shirt.


Lenny partied a little bit too hard for his birthday. He thinks he's still a puppy, but his age catches up with him.

The Opening Ceremonies

The Russell Family Slow Olympics Opening Ceremonies happened on Friday night, when the Bernardi family arrived. In total, there were 11 Russells there - me, Chuck, Mom, Dad, Gary, Marlene, Linda, Michael, Stephanie, Jen, and Lauren.

Uncle Gary, being the eldest (and the winner of last year's Slow Olympics) had the honor of carrying the Olympic flag.



We had the Olympic Fanfare playing as we processed around the campfire. I'm sure the neighbors thought we were having some kind of satanic cult gathering.









We had ceremonial s'mores, some more sparkler art, and had a great time around the campfire.

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.