The Girls are all Grown Up

Last weekend, we made the most important home improvement we've made to date. We replaced our back door with one that has a dog door in it. Now, when we're home, there's no more constantly getting up to let Hannah in and out. There was a small training phase to get them used to it (especially at night, when we're all upstairs), but it's been fantastic. But the best part is this...

Now, if you're familiar with our dogs, you'll know that they have, in the past, had some serious separation anxiety issues. The first time we left Hannah alone (in our apartment) outside of her crate was the same day we signed for the new house. She proceeded to take all of the (signed) paperwork for the house off of the dining room table and shred it. Just so you know, it's a bit embarrassing to call the real estate agent to explain that the dog ate the closing papers. Since we've been in the house, the pair of them has slowly been tearing away at the hardiplank siding around the back of the house on the porch. It's not pretty.

So, the plan for the new dog door was for it to be used when we are home, but for the dogs to still be outside when we're out. But Tim decided to give the girls a trial run on Wednesday morning to see how they might be able to handle a little freedom. He left the dog door cover off so they could come in and out. And they have performed excellently. They have torn up only one thing--a kitchen mitt that had chicken grease on it that we clearly should not have left on the counter. There was evidence that Casey had been on the couch one afternoon as well, but she does that once in a while when we're home also. So for the last three days, they've been given the run of the house, and I think they've enjoyed it.

We will, however, have to define some restrictions for when it is rainy and wet outside...

Dog TV

My dad was here last weekend, and we were discussing the fact that Casey could probably excel at agility training. Sunday night, we sat down to watch some TV and happened upon the Animal Planet. They were showing an agility competition. Casey promptly plopped down in front of the TV and literally watched the entire thing. She would get a bit distracted when they switched to commercials, sometimes even wandering off. But when the show came back on, she was right back in front of the TV. I've never seen a dog actually track the action on a television, but Casey was all over it:


Hannah took a turn, too, at the end of the show, but she did not demonstrate the same persistent interest that Casey had.


I had, in fact, never seen the HUGE dogs do agility trials before. They had a Great Dane, a Saint Bernard and a couple of Boxers in this particular competition. It was crazy...

26 Weeks...

If you've been following, you'll be noticing that there haven't been any photos of me for a while now. So to keep you updated, here's one from this evening... Christine at 26 weeks. I didn't realize I looked like that until I looked at the picture!

I'm goin' to... Kansas City, Kansas City, here I come...

Last weekend, we took a trip back to KC to see some friends of Tim's from vet school. (Well, they pretend they live in Kansas City, but it feels like they're practically in Oklahoma, it's so far south.) We flew in Friday afternoon (after a small hiccup in travel due to "ice on the runways in Dallas"). We checked out a couple of shopping venues; there's a great new place up north called the Zona Rosa. It looked really neat, but it's an outdoor mall, and, well, we Texans just aren't used to winter anymore. We hit a couple of malls though. One that we frequented when I was growing up was terribly disappointing; it must be close to closing, which is kind of sad. After killing enough afternoon time, we met some old family friends for dinner at Cascones. If you're ever up north in Kansas City and are looking for some Italian food, it's a great place. Plus, Tim was pleased to find out that they have Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat beer there; we can't get it here in Texas, and I know he misses it. He was drinking it all weekend. It was good to catch up with the friends and find out how their whole brood is doing. After dinner, we hopped back in the car for the drive down to Louisburg to Dave and Emily's house.

We spent Saturday and Sunday with them, and had a great time. Though it was tough to convince ourselves to venture out of the house much, given how chilly it was. Here's Emily snuggled up with her dog Derby Saturday afternoon:


I did get to experience an old KC favorite, though...Saturday night, we met some additional vet school friends for dinner at Strouds, home to some real good fried chicken. Everything's served family style, and you can finish off with a cinnamon roll to die for. After dinner, we did some bowling... always an interesting affair, especially when no one's really a bowler... Here are some photos from bowling: Dave and Emily, then Andy and Beth, then the boys together:



Sunday we had to head back, but we all stopped by one more friend's house for a little pre-Super Bowl celebrating. (Tim and I, of course, missed almost the whole game, since we were on the plane...)

All in all, it was a great trip...very relaxing, with no email access for two full days!

The 3M Half Marathon

A few weeks ago, some friends from college (and teammates of Tim's in college), Susan and Jeremy, came to visit. They've been in Albequerque for some time, and we haven't seen them in a couple of years. The real purpose behind their visit was to run the 3M Half Marathon that starts up here in North Austin and finishes downtown. Tim's been thinking about getting back in running form to run either this race or the Freescale Marathon, but he's been busying himself playing basketball instead of running. So he watched from the sidelines while Susan and Jeremy braved the chilly Austin morning for 13.1 miles. They both had great races (getting personal best times). On top of that, we got to spend the entire weekend with them, taking them to see a few of the Austin sites (and restaurants). Here's a post-race picture:

Arctic Blast 2007

Austin is in the grips of a winter storm. While the storm doesn't really compete with the old Missouri storms, the ice is pretty treacherous, and we've started getting a light dusting of snow on top. The dogs seem to enjoy the weather well enough:


It's not my fault that they're a bit blurry...it was hard to capture Casey especially when she wasn't moving.

Here's some of the ice on the shrubs out front:


And proof that it really is cold!

Visitors Beware...

Here's a little warning for anyone thinking about coming to visit us...

We've been here in Austin for about 2 and a half years now. We've had several visitors. But in less than three years, we've had three different sets of visitors who appeared and decided to stay in central Texas.

First, there were our friends James and Laura. They came to visit at Christmastime the first year we were here. They'd been living in San Diego, and when they returned, they realized they simply couldn't live anywhere other than Austin. They promptly returned that spring and have been here in town ever since.

Next came Tim's mother and brother. Arthur is stationed at Fort Hood (about an hour from Austin). Audrey is working on post there and lives in Kempner. (To be fair, I think Audrey actually decided to move BEFORE she ever visited...)

And finally, my parents have been down several times. On their second or third visit, they killed some time while Tim and I were working looking at neighborhoods. They happened upon Sun City in Georgetown, Texas (about a half an hour away). Sun City is a neighborhood dedicated to people "55 and better." With their retirement looming, this November, my parents came down and bought this house:

We expect them and my sister permanently sometime in late summer or early fall.

So, as always, we're more than happy to entertain any visitors. Just beware that you're risking major life changes if you make the trek down here to Austin...