Everything you never wondered about

Happy almost Thanksgiving to all! I wanted to take this lapse in traveling to fill you in on various exciting events in our lives.

Last week Liz and her sister Ellen came to visit. It was wonderful to have Liz and Ellen here. We spent most of our time talking and eating cookies. Liz will be guest blogging about her visit, but it might a bit before her post is ready. Liz thinks buying a house and adopting a dog are more important than writing a blog entry. I don't know if I agree with her priorities. I have thrown in a picture of Liz, Ellen, and I on the wrong side of the tracks. Make sure to check back for Liz's post and her awesome pictures.



In exciting dog news, my parents adopted a new dog last weekend. They adopted a six-month-old black lab named Jackson. He is joining their sixish-year-old yellow lab named Rudy. Jackson sounds like a real sweetie and is super cute. In this picture, Rudy is showing Jackson the appropriate way to beg for food. I can't wait to meet Jackson, and I get to meet him soon!

I am going to be in the states from December 7-January 7. I am very excited to spend some time with family and friends and to be home for the holidays and my brother's birthday. I will be spending most of my time in Maryland, but I will be in Chicago from December 29-January 2. I am not so excited to leave Justin and Pecos behind. Justin elected to spend Christmas in Istanbul, and Pecos decided that he wants to spend Christmas at the dog kennel.

Fortunately, our little family of three will be spending Thanksgiving together. We were supposed to fly to Marrakesh, Morroco for Thanksgiving, but our flight was cancelled. Instead we'll be hosting a big Thanksgiving here for eight (plus us) of our nearest and dearest. We'll let you know how it goes and if my detailed menu-planning and burner-placement-map work out.

Pecos wanted me to include that he and I set a new record today during his romp in a field. We set the record for most-sticks-lost-in-the-shortest-period-of-time. After collecting four sticks for fetching purposes, Pecos and I lost three of them in under thirty seconds. He blamed my poor throwing skills. I blamed his crappy sniffing skills. We both blamed poor stick quality as weeks of rain have left the sticks a bit sodden. Hopefully, we'll do better next time.

One last bit of exciting news. Last night, we were settling into bed when we heard something fall in the guest bedroom. I told Justin it was the man's job to go check on things-that-go-bump-in-the-night. Being a manly-man (or maybe just nice) Justin went to check out the guest bedroom. There he found that a chunk of the ceiling had fallen. It seems the radiator in the apartment above us had been leaking. Bedtime was delayed as we told our matainence man who then contacted some other guy, who came and looked at the hole in our celing. After some aw-shucksing they left with a promise to return today. The painters just stopped by looked at the hole and promised to return next week when the area has dried out a bit. Things like this, make me happy we're still renting.

I wish you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving.