waahoooooo

here are the pictures of our great adventure in underground plumbing! it has been an experience. not only was it wonderfully fun to see the front yard play nice with a backhoe.

we had to pull out a bush to get the pipes changed out. and guess what?! the bush is still alive! i was worried that it wouldn't make it, but so far, so good. (yes i am obcessed about my bush. you may all giggle and tee hee).



so here is what the frony yard looks like now. it's a little hard to see, but the mound is a long way from settling, and there are chunks of clay (yes, i know, i moved from the horridclay of michigan to the clay of kentucky) as big as basketballs (note, the excellent sports mention. this is as close as i'll ever get!) so i need to have a date with a rototiller. and it is time once again to pray for rain.

in other exciting news, i got my time off for "christmas"! it pays to have a hubby who gets his winter break off of the usual cycle of holidays! yippee! oh i am so happy! la la lalalalalaallalalalalala! llama! it also pays to have accrued time off that can be requested. hehehe. life is good.

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)

happy birthday to me!

i did NOTHING! and it was wonderful!

well, i baked a cake (chocolate with cream cheese frosting), and curt got some sleep and we went climbing and out for sushi. SUSHI! yummy, rolled up, happy sushi with interesting food combinations! waahoo!

oh! and the baby bushes i planted are doing just great! here they are! aren't they so cute?! woodgie woodgie woodgie little planties... when they grow up, they will look like this: i can't wait! it will be beautiful!

and yesterday, i saw our roof *oh boy* in the sunlight! no rain, no post-work or pre-work darkness... just warm sunlight and our new roof. which, by the way, looks like this! fantabuloso! mmm, architectural shingles!

happy halloweenie to all of you scary ghouls out there! we had our open haunted house at work, and our work social outing to the haunted uss nightmare in cincinnati was awesome (except for leeloo getting a little separation anxiety and tearing up the floor in tammy's bathroom. i'll go up tomorrow to fix it)! while i will be missing a party tonight (no loss, got to spend the day with my hubby), we are now crashed as a family of 3 in front of the fake fire. okay, curt is right, it is an actual fire, but the logs are very fake. kelly's baby shower and tammy's bathroom are tomorrow.

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.

tickled pink

amy's wedding was absolutely beautiful... she was a picture of perfection, we all had fabulous updos (i had more than 70 bobbypins in my head) and glorious gowns... no one tripped and fell, the ceremony was just the right length, the reception food was fantastic, and the dj rocked! it was so wonderful to see my vet school friends again!

plus, being in detroit and east lansing, we stocked up on good sushi, bubble tea, and middle eastern. ahhh, tasty vacation.

we were driving home when, much to our surprise, ren called and we found out that we are god-parents to beautiful little jackie! oh great excitment and long distance schmoozing over an 8 lb infant!

then, we also made it down to the smokies for some great backpacking...views, walking in clouds, the at.... so refreshing and desperately needed. it was a great week off, all things said. now we are both back to the grindstone.

sorry no pics, but getting the words up is a good start.

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!