all shiny and new!

The Garage picture I promised! Isn’t it gorgeous! Amazing, how getting that one house issue out of the way changed my whole perception of our house and the neighborhood… I feel like I got an extreme make-over!

Actually, there have been a lot of changes around here lately… I went from 6 days a week at work back down to 4 and already feel a renewed sense of calm and anti-craziness settling on me. I keep taking deep breaths and realizing that my stress level is not as high as I expect it to be…

Christmas and New Years were wonderful this year! We did not make it back to New England again (boohoo), but we had a wonderful time making the most of what we did have! We went up to MI to visit the Dyer clan again, and had a wonderful time monging and unwrapping. Ashley went to the climbing gym with us for the first time and showed the big kids how it's done. It was a most wonderful trip. Leeloo discovered how to open presents! On New Year's we went out to see the movie MILK, you know, a date... at the theatre. Great movie, a must see.

We had to replace the transmission in Annie, our 2003 Corolla. The repair had to wait because of the costs of the garage. Grr. And after doing that, the battery died. Not that we are complaining about that, it did last 80,000 miles and was original to the car. So, while we waited for it to be installed, we drove a couple of the other cars that were on the lot around… and found this nice little 2001 corolla with only 60,000 miles on it….

And Curt’s car needed a lot of wear and tear replacement parts (tires, struts, brakes…)…

So we traded it in and got a new-to-us car! A new car! She is so pretty! We’ve named her Carina. She is pretty basic- no cruise control, we have to roll our windows and manually lock the doors. But she is in excellent shape and will be a more practical car than the rapidly aging Saturn. It has been raining like none other here, so the picture is a little dank, despite our spirits!

For Christmas this year, Curt and I got tickets to Wicked in Louisville. We headed out there today and it was awesome! We haven’t been to a show since we moved to Kentucky… we really needed this date. When we got back we reconnected with our friend Erin, who’s been traveling a lot lately like me. We had sushi. SUSHI. YUMMY SUSHI….

I think I am in heaven now. Pardon me while I ooze.

THE TRIP

Monday, the holiday, was another day at work with no computers. Tuesday morning was more of the same, but our new server came Tuesday morning and was working before our afternoon appointments. I never want to do that again. Things seem to have settled down since then. Freezing rain/ice storms will do that to a place.

So, after debating the stupidity of going camping after an icestorm blew through town, curt and I decided our trail-fever was worse than the cabin-fever we would feel if we tried to stay warm and cozy at home. That, and I really wanted to put that backpack of Leeloo's to good use.

So we packed up and headed down to the red river gorge for Leeloo's first backpacking trip. She was ever so proud at the trailhead, all spiffed out with her pack and her z-rest, milking all the attention from the other hikers that they could muster.

It was beautiful out, and there was plenty of time to enjoy it. The ice melted through the afternoon in a beautiful fog. We set up camp, and gave Leeloo her first dinner (I think the extra meals alone are incentive for her, I have never seen a dog so food motivated). Then, we headed out to explore the area a little. Found some beautiful caves and cliffs and trails others have started… the fog wore off in the late afternoon and we got some good views before heading back to camp to make dinner (#2 for Leeloo, oh boy!).

I have needed a trip like this for a while. The winter this year was unpredictable, an freezing rains are not something to get caught in, so our rare chances to get out were often spoiled before we could even hit the trailhead.

After dinner, we all curled up in the tent. Historically, this is where Leeloo tries to bring the tent down, or otherwise explores her environment as a plaything in all manner of inappropriate ways. She also is notorious for not sleeping through the night, but readjusting every 20 min, and when she finally does settle down, snoring vociferously. Last summer, we would camp near the car and when we couldn’t handle it anymore, would merely put her in her kennel next to us; problem solved. But, and this may be due to the fact that she walked 7-8 miles with us…who knows, this weekend she graduated to a full night in the sack with mom and dad. She crashed amazingly well, and a decent night of sleep was had by all (I never sleep well the first night out).

The next day was a wonderful mix of ridgeline, walking by the stream in the gorge, and crossing a loooooong suspension bridge. Leeloo was scared to cross the first time (imagine much crawling and encouragement with gentle pushing from behind, but once we crossed it and she received her victory treat (TREAT?!? Treat! Treat, treat, treat!!!!), she went back across it with no issue what-so-ever. On the way back to the car, we all enjoyed slipping about in the mud and crossing streams. All I can say is that all small dogs should come with a handle. Ingenious!

Once we were home, Curt and I seriously got to business and made a chicken-pot-pie. I have been fiending for one of these for ages. AGES! It was ever so tasty. We are geniuses. Mmmmm. Pot-pie! I will be eating the left-overs for a week! I am so excited.

knitting!

i don't know what it is, but the crazies have all been out at the vet clinic.

and i've been under the weather, so it is completely amazing that *doot doo doo doo!* i have started knitting again! here are my first pair of finished socks and some gauntlets (fingerless gloves is the new chic term, but whatever) i made recently! soo proud. this yarn was fun, it is a shame that the socks kept getting interrupted by other projects and took me a year. so worth it!

it has also been really cold here. down to 8 degrees and such on a regular basis. and while leeloo is not normally into all that fru-fru dress-up stuff, i did make her wear a coat when we went out hiking as she is not aclimated to being out in this kind of weather. of course, there are no coats her size available at the store, but this one (lab sized) did fit after some very basic taking in of the belly-strap. it even looks fetching under her new backpack! we tried it out one day on our hike at a regional wilderness area! it should work great on longer backpacking trips, once she works up to it!

it has warmed up and become rather rainy here, but no complaints as i haven't scraped my car in a few days! in other news, curt is on neurosurgery this month which means he is very busy, but in constant need of friendly contact. we will try to get him out as much as possible, but if you don't seehear from us, that is why. i will, of course, continue to deal with crazies at work :)

walking in a winter wonderland

so, it's been a while since i last posted. oops. the holiday season is upon us and no one is perfect. work has been just that. people complain that our hours aren't good enough (we are open more than 10 hours a day, 7 days a week), that our prices are too expensive (i agree sometimes with that), and that they weren't going to do anything for their pet anyway because, and i quote, "its christmas"... i mean, really, your dog is DYING, and you won't buy it medication because why? oh! yeah, you really need to get a pair of chinos to gift wrap under the tree...

but i have actually gotten a nice little break from all that recently. lets see, what have curt and i really been up to?

ahh, for only a few hundred dollars we managed to insulate the attic... with recycled paper blown insulation that looks like snow... grey tufts of warm snowy dust bunnies to keep us snuggly all winter. best darn day ever. so rewarding. seriously, if you need a date, this was the best date EVER. EVER! the dreaded attic project is FINISHED! it is satisfying to see fluffy stuff fly into empty beams and become useful, we came out of it looking like diminuative grey-hairs, and we saved almost $3,000 by doing it ourselves. and our heat is on a lot less often... and we got a great work-out (i mean, seriously sore the next morning). overall, i think this was the best $500 ever spent. mmm.

that means that since we moved in, we have replaced the back door, the roof, the insulation, the windows, and replaced the crawlspace screens. we have torn down the old-english ivy and replaced the piping from the street to the house! i'm sure there's more, but i can't think of it right now, and this is pretty impressive for only having the house since july!

then mom and dave came to visit. of course, my luck, it rained the whole time, and the heat died the first night they were here (it was a little exciting because this the first time that something needing doing was covered by our home warrenty- but we did not follow the correct procedure by going through them first since they were not available, and ended up paying for the repairs ourseves as heat is just maybe, kind-of, necessary when it is in the low 30's outside). but we OVERCAME!!!! and had a blast. got family time in, some shopping, *enjoyed* the bourbon trail, and saw a most mind-altering movie.... good times.

and most recently, we returned from michigan where leeloo met all of curt's family! carol et al have all moved out to toledo, and are staying with mom and dad for the time being. we stayed at the steph et all household, and leeloo got to spend an agreeable couple days stealing cookies from little hands and cleaning up messes (cereal and crayons and cheese, oh my!). she was really, really well behaved! we had a blast, and set no alarms, and enjoyed good food, good family fun, and lights and snow. i love all my nieces and nephews, but there sure are a lot of them now. concentrated energy, that's what kids are! 4 kids 5 and under. wow. 5 with leeloo.

other new leeloo discoveries: see is making out like a bandit this holiday season. lucky dog! she also loves snow! there was 6-8inches in michigan and she happily trounced through it every chance she got. soo funny.

so, we are all cozy and happy this holiday season. we are happy to be home, and were even happier to have all these adventures. just have to fight off the glums at not going back to now england for the first time ever. just enjoying the high of yummy christmas life right now.

while we are all feeling grateful for how wonderful our lives are now, it is time to take a moment and appreciate just how easy oour lives are. in comparison, mr. snowy, beloved snowman squeeky toy of the masses, has just undergone his tenth, yes tenth, surgery. he has lost his tasselled hat, beautiful bow-tie, and has undergone several amputations. further surgeries to help stabilize him will be funded through the leeloo teething christmas foundation, and recovery time in hospice is covered by all her new toys...

that is about all for this end of the woods. we are both working through christmas and new years this year (being an intern sucks, but no complaints given how much time we did get this year!).

always something

first off, continuing the pictures of the house. they are sprinkled throughout. but now, the real gripe:

so, just when we felt on top of things here, our water bill shoots through the roof. turns out we have a leak in the water pipe between the street meter and the house. this is, apparently, our problem and not the city's. we are going to have our yard dug up and the pipes replaced. goodie. just how everyone sees their day off. and, this is not covered by our home-purchasers insurance which covers the house for one year. but not the property, it only covers from the foundation in and up. at least the ground is not frozen yet.

in other trying news, we are really strapped for vets at work. hard thing to imagine in a 4 vet practice, right?! well, part of the comforting idea that if anything happens to you, there will be other vets ready and able to come in and cover your clients until you return is the fact that you will sometimes be that vet for others in the corporation. so, i have been covering for a vet in loisville 2 days a week since she went in for surgery and needs at least 6 weeks medical leave. i work part time now at my own clinic. one of the other 4 vets works only part time in florence and part time in hyde park. hyde park just had a 90 day review with it's only full time vet, and apparently the meeting ended with :don't come back tomorrow! don't come back ever! so, we have to get a full time vet there too. that's one more vet down. so, i'm part time, dr o is part time, and dr j in no more at our clinic until we have a replacement... that leaves an equivalent of 2 full time vets in a practice that should have 2 vets there (maybe 3) 7 days a week.

long story short, were are all a little stressed right now. i get 2 days off for thanksgiving (nice gesture) but curt won't be free. grr. and christmas will be interesting to say the least. i worked my first sunday ALONE! all alone. all emergencies, no scheduled appointments, no other vets. i removed fishhooks and amputated adult dog tails... all went really (suprisingly) well. i rock as a vet! go me! woot! i just wish i had seen it coming, as i found out saturday night and had no time to talk myself down from the rapid rising panic.

leeloo is doing well in puppy class. we've only had 3 so far, but she is responding to me and is not a crazy flying furball at the end of the leash any more. (she is doing great at home, the distrations of other dogs, though, that is much more difficult).

mwah!

auds (the distracted)

beutifully productive days

ahh, monday was just peachy-perfect. an early morning jump-start to the day... then i had an appt with a blown insulation guy over the sad and pathetic insulation situation in our attic (no wonder the old owners payed almost $300/month to heat this place). learned some good stuff, although it was too expensive and we will probably just tackle this one ourselves too...

then, i cut matting for framing pictures and reduced the size of that project. my desire to actually finish the project has been reduced since anne and sean are no longer visiting (but at least they will be loving a new bundle of joy that they are the proud godparents of!), but now the large mat-board isn't the main attraction of the living room. success in smaller packages!

then, i finalized the roof contractors and the windows. the new roof should be on by friday (in fact, they just dropped off the new tiles today... better than getting a new toy!). the windows, however, will take 5-7 weeks to order and come in. so... no new windows until dec., but at least all my little ducks are in a row.

i did laundry and dishes, played with the dog... THEN i went to the garden center and got bushes for the front of the house. which i brought home and finished the landscaping. i pulled out a small tree and moved boulders... grrr, i am powerful woman, hear me roar! and now the house has a facelift! baby bushes... so nice to have it done...

i started patching the insulation on the heating ducts, then met curtis when he got off of work and we went climbing then out to eat. what a great night... actually sitting down and talking with my husband and eating fabulous dosas at the southern indian restaurant. hmm, heavenly ending to a perfect day!

yesterday, well, that was just work and puppy class... poor leeloo, learning how to behave herself... so sad. teeheehee.

today will be decidedly less productive, although i will be visiting home depot AGAIN.

the MASTER bedroom

here it is, in all it's glory...

it even comes with a full bath! (small)

and i just couldn't resist some more pics of the cutie!

(and her duckie-okay, it is really a phesant)

i am an auntie!

hooray! jackie was born this past weekend, and both mom carol and baby are happy and healthy.

oh, and here is leeloo, our cutie-pie. i spayed her

on monday, and she is still a little out of it, although nothing beats the vomiting punch-drunk puppy i brought home... today we start her first puppy class.

curt and i had a magical weekend in tenn this past weekend. curt got 2 days off in a row, and we drove off into the middle of nowhere... i mean, literally, nowhere. it is amazing that these places still exist. down a road that turned into dirt after a stream crossing, we pulled into some stranger's driveway- the only available place to camp- hoping it was the right location and we weren't tresspassing because this sort of place i expect shotguns... and pitched our tent (and the dog kennel as leeloo still doesn't sleep through the night).

we had one good day of rockclimbing- curt and i loved the routes down there, and curt decided to end on a 5.11a. bear in mind that we are climbing sport, which means that he is taking the rope up with him and clipping it into the wall as he goes. if he falls, he will fall from where he is, back to his last clip, and then the same distance under the clip... plus a little extra for rope stretching... so most people climb a few grades lower on lead than on top-rope (in the gym where the rope goes all the way to the top and you maybe fall a foot if you don't do the move correctly). curt climbs 5.11a's in the gym. he nearly falls, he dramatically saves himself and scrambles to return to a place of refined balance... he makes it to the top of the route (hooray!) and i lower him down, stopping every 6-10 ft or so to retrieve his gear holding the rope to the wall. the problem is, this route traversed up the wall at about a 45 degree angle, and under a huge ledge... to get his last piece, he had to pull on my end of the rope and haul himself back under the ledge. when he got it off the wall, we BOTH swung waaaaaay out pendulum-style. he, gracefully arching through the air, and i lifting my feet to avoid hitting rocks. no problem, right?

not so. i swing directly into a dead tree stump, breaking it in the process, and swing back into a live tree trunk... thus making all my scrapes andbruises symetrical... all minor, don't worry. this arc takes us right through the line we had set up for leeloo to run on... she is so startled she begins to howl and bark, shaking like mad, upsetting a hornet, and getting stung behind the ear (poor thing!). everyone is fine, i lower curt, and calm the puppy. we pack up and leave, deciding to go for a swim in the stream to clean off. cold, but refreshing. leeloo looks at us expectantly from shore, so i turn on the sweet talk and say "come 'ere". she, apparently thinking she could walk on water, LEAPS! toward me, the look of utter amazement and incomprehension spreading on her face as she sinks up to her neck in cold water...and promptly tries to clamor up me to get out. i turn her around and curt fishes her back onto shore. we dry off, change into warm clothes, and hang out by the fire with the owners we have now met...on sunday, we decide to forgo the climbing for some hiking, and got some great views.

ho0use pictures to follow soon. love!

the beauty of the changing leaves

sooo far behind in the postings! must bulletpoint to get through in a reawsonable time!

-WE HAVE A PUPPY! her name is Leeloo, she is about 5 months old. she is a mix of (most likely) beagle and deutschund. so cute. brown. untrained from previous home.

-my job rocks! yesterday i saved a kitty on death's doorstep, merely by giving it fluids and passing a urinary catheter! some days this job is truely rewarding... nice kitty.

-curt is on ortho surgery for this month and next. he is working 80+ hours a week and wanders in the closest semblence to a zombie he can muster. but he managed to get acouple days off in a row that line up with mine. he is an angel. hmm, angel-zombie... sounds like a great b movie...

-having a shifting schedule where you never have the same days off is tough because you can't join any groups or classes. i think i went to yoga twice. it met 4 days a week all summer....

-the library is inconveniently placed. everything is when you are doing work/transit for >60 hours a week.

-leeloo loves her duckie. she also has made more friends than me, and often plays with finns, the dog of dr j, and harley, the neighbors boxer.... that said, finns got run over by mom's 4-wheeler today, so play dates may be suspended for a while.

-we still haven't finished unpacking. there will be much celebration when that happens.

-i still haven't figured out how to put up pictures on this blog. once i figure that out, there will be puppy pictures, then a tour of the house in installments.

-i still haven't looked at the spain pictures since we got home. poot : (

-i still haven't learned another foreign language, but banfield is actually working on purchasing a car for me! woot!

-carol is due any time now. giddy excitement! after all, i should call because she is MY sister-in-law (tee hee).

-great excitement in the near futute (besides the baby), includes leeloo's first camping experience, spaying her, and puppy classes starting next week! (i am such a dope-y dog mom!). then close on that tail... amy's wedding, a backpacking trip (sans puppy), mybirthday, annie and sean visiting... world peace, and an end to global warming! can't you just see it now!

-i love my commute. losing the time sucks, losing the energy sucks. wasting the gas sucks. but the time i gain with the people i chat with on the phone is priceless. and so far leeloo sleeps through it fine.

-i'm used to going to bed at 10, and it is now midnight... perhaps there is a bettertime to be doing this.

love you all