new puppy purchase

today i finally broke down and bought a backpack carrier for leonidas...listen to my reasoning before you judge me too harshly :)

i'm taking him on our family vacation to colorado in a few weeks, and although he's a great walker, sometimes he gets tired out and his little legs don't have the stamina of, say, hudson or jack (my parents'/cousins' black labs, both of whom will be in attendance). so rather than leaving the little guy at the house (where he could pee on things and scratch up doors) while the big dogs get to go on hikes, i figured i'd find a way to carry him in case he gets tired.

i considered the baby-bjorn style with the carrier in the front, but then i saw this other product and it has room to carry treats and a water bottle, and i could zip him in rather than just using a drawstring (in case he tries to wiggle out), so that's what i went with. now you can judge; i know i deserve it, haha.

weekend with my bro

this past weekend my brother was in the burg for a fraternity conference, so i went down to see him and then bring him back here for a few days of relaxing. he finished up at the conference on sunday morning, so i picked him up for a little double-duty church...we went to the 9:00 service at chapel and then out to peace hill at 11:00. chapel was great, bill did a really nice job with the sermon, and afterwards we got to see alex in action at his internship for a little while.

out at peace hill, everyone was really surprised and excited to see us :) driving up to the church, my brother was like, "whoa, that's a church??", and i think it's safe to say that stunned sentiment continued all the way through the birthday song, haha. afterwards we hung around and ate and talked to people and just generally enjoyed ourselves.

that night, he, alex, and i went to see startrek at the movie tavern and it was AWESOME! first of all, the movie tavern is sweet...$6 student tickets and you can order beer for movie (alex got a cherry coke, but my brother was brave and sampled the movie tavern ale...wouldn't recommend it, haha). second, the movie was sweet and we all really enjoyed it (alex too, i knew he would!).

scott and i drove back monday morning and then spent the afternoon seeing the sights....not true, we actually played diddy kong's quest on super nintendo for like 4 hours and it was awesome, haha, really brought us back to our childhood years. we discovered the lost world and everything! that night, katie and maggie came over to hang out and we enjoyed some excellent 5-5-5 pizzas.

overall, it was a great visit, love my brother lots, and if anyone wants to continue conquering diddy's lost world, i'm game :)

"concerned citizen"=crazy person

today i dropped my brother off at the airport (we had a great visit, more on that later) and took the dog with me to say goodbye. on the way home i decided i'd swing through the grocery store to grab a few quick things on my list. well, i cracked the windows for the dog (a feat given the crank windows and a tiny dog that can squeeze through small spaces) and headed inside for about 10 minutes. when i got back in my car, a woman knocked on my window and this was our exchange:

random woman: "i wanted you to know i called the police on you"
me (befuddled): "why did you do that?"
crazy woman: "you left your dog in the car and it's hot outside!"
me (annoyed): "i was inside for 10 minutes, the dog is fine..."
crazy b****: "i called the police 5 minutes ago!"

i decided rather than respond i would just go home and call the police to straighten out the matter, which i did and all is well. they had "dispatched a unit" but i was already home and had unloaded my groceries before they had even arrived at the "scene". i am glad to report that i have avoided yet another day on this town's most wanted list.

no news...

so for the past few days i've been signing into my blog, pulling up a blank post, and realizing i had nothing interesting to say. sad. i've decided that wednesday is close enough to my weekend plans that i can talk about those for now, until something more interesting happens.

today my brother flew into richmond because this week/weekend he'll be at W&M for a fraternity conference! i'm headed down for the weekend to see him and then sunday i'm bringing him home to hang out, monday i'm taking the day off work to see the sights, and then tuesday he'll be on his merry way. anyways, i'm pretty excited to see him, especially since it's been awhile. yay for sibling bonding!

pregnant man...again!

the other day a few of us were discussing the first ever transgender male to get pregnant and give birth...well apparently, he's pregnant again! i had never heard of this guy, so the story was incredibly bizarre for me. check out the latest report from People.

weekend in NYC

this past weekend, alex and i went to NYC for his graduation/birthday present, and it was an awesome trip! he's got the pictures so when i get those from him, i'll post, but until then i'll give you the run down of events.

friday night we caught a bus at 4:00, sat in HOURS of DC/Baltimore rush hour traffic behind a woman who was, shall we say, tossing her cookies into a plastic grocery bag (yuck). however, we arrived on manhattan around 10:30, caught a cab to Pia's apartment (our host for the weekend) and she took us to a late night chinese dinner, which was delicious.

saturday we wandered all over the city, walking over 5 miles or so. we went to the south street seaport, wall st, the world trade center site, battery park to see the statue of liberty, caught the subway to times square, walked along broadway to central park, and through central park to up to 79th st, where we caught a cab back to Pia's. the weather could not have been nicer, and we had a blast people watching, seeing the sites, and taking some good pictures. my favorite might be alex in front of Bad Boy Entertainment :)

saturday night we went to a super ritzy dinner downtown in the theater district before we caught shrek, the musical on broadway! we had awesome seats thanks to discounted tickets, and the show was a lot of fun. the music and costumes were awesome, and the set was unlike anything i'd ever seen. it was a good first exposure for alex into the musical theatre genre, haha.

sunday we went to church with Pia and Adam at Redeemer (Tim Keller's church), which was great. then we wandered a nearby street fair with them, sampling all kinds of good food. we had grilled corn, watermelon, italian sausage, kettle korn, and masarepas (2 bizarre crispy corn pancakes with mozzarella cheese sandwiched between). then we caught another bus for a much shorter 4 hour ride back to DC.

all in all it was a jam-packed weekend, but so much fun! now that we've got the tourist stuff out of the way we'll have to go back for a more local experience...

spongebob anyone?

this past weekend i went to philly (well, close to philly anyways) to visit my cousin Jamie, his wife Sarah, and their 3 kids. will is 6, haley is 4, and kate is 2, and they are really fun and can be such a handful, as you can imagine. we went to will's baseball games, traveled to the jersey shore for a little boardwalk action, rides and funnel cakes included, and played cowboys and indians in the backyard. all in all, it was an awesome weekend!

my favorite story though happened while we were waiting for kate to wake up from her nap to head to the beach. here is what transpired:

jamie: do you want to watch a show while we wait for kate?
haley: yeah, i want spongebob!
jamie: ok i'll look (scrolls through the guide), sorry haley, spongebob isn't on, just madagascar
haley (annoyed): dad you have to check and see if spongebob is on demand!
me: she's 4 and she can use on demand?
jamie: oh it's a whole new world out there. you have no idea.