Best new dog toy ever

This thing is great. it bounced erratically, squeaks really loud, and is durable. Two thumbs up. So far, Scupper-proof.

You know it's a good day when...

someone gives you a bone, and then you proceed to bury and re-bury it throughout the day. It's like hiding a present and then finding it over and over again.

Like, under the orange tree. Or in the corner of the yard. Or in the corner of the living room. Or under the fridge. Or by the tomato plants.

But it's a better day when you are the person that gave the dog said bone and get to watch all this unfold.

Ah, if we only could be this satisfied by bones.

End of Track Season

So I just have to brag -

This past Tuesday was the last night of track season - which usually means that there is one good race, followed by bicycle insanity in the form of tricycle racing (for adults, mind you), a slow race (which means how slow you can actually go on your bike - and remember, no brakes or coasting), a pinata race, where you have to ride your bike around the track and try to hit the pinata while you are riding (someone broke their collarbone two years ago), and of course, lots of beer and pizza. A great way to end a 6 month season...

But back to the bragging - Steve's last race of the year on the San Diego Velodrome was a 60 lap scratch race - basically, ride 60 laps and whomever crosses first, wins. They sweetened the deal by adding that every 3 laps, womever is first gets $5. 60 laps around the velodrome is 13 miles. Steve's average speed was 28.8 mph (yes, average),

and his top speed was ...

37.5mph.

HOLY COW! No gears! no hills! no brakes!

and he won $5.

Pretty cool, if you ask me. I hardly go 37mph down hills. ;)

Anyway, it was a great season. He hung in there with the top group -the "A" riders, some of whom are former World Champions, Olympians, and National title holders... We are looking forward to next season when he gets to do it all over again... and if this whole dissertation job search goes well, even if we're moving, he'll still get about 4 months of racing in... and who knows? Maybe there will be a job position just for me right next to a velodrome. Steve can only hope.

Lazy Lazy Lazy

Sorry if any of you are actually out there checking this. I kinda thought my mom was the only one - but it seems that I have received a little flack lately for not updating this in, oh, about 6 weeks. You know, things to do...

So I thought I'd recap in pictures.

We went to Delaware to celebrate my mother's retirement - the whole family was there - my father's sister (Aunt MaryAnn) and my mom's sister and brother and wife (Aunt Liza, and Uncle Pete and Aunt Mel) - the last time we'd seen all of them was when we moved to California, so it was a great time visiting with the extended family.

We, of course, had a crab feast.
And, of course, my mom and my aunt hid from me taking their pictures... although i think they were a few sheets blowing in the wind at this point, if you know what I mean. Liza makes some mean sangria. ;)

Steve did another team time trial with the boys from the Adams Avenue team (the bike shop that he races for) - they would have come in 3rd place overall, but the ijits forgot which lap they were on around the island and forgot to go into the special finish line... so "technically" they "DNF" - did not finish - but we'd like to think they would have come in third.

He's so cool in his aero helmet... even if it does look like a sperm. ;)
We grew tomatoes this summer - 2 regular and 6 heirloom plants. Unfortunately, 4 of the heirlooms bit the dust. Two produced some really neat stripey tomatoes (red to orange to yellow all in the same fruit!) and the 2 regular plants are still going strong. That's after I picked about 4 pounds of them off the plants last week and made homemade sauce. Steve is just about up to his eyeballs in eating fresh tomatoes (b/c I don't like them sliced raw) but I think the season is winding down. (Not that the weather is - it was freakin' 86 on our back patio today).

Here is one of the good heirloom tomatoes being devoured by (what we have learned) is a tomato hookworm. Luckily, he was so far into this one before I found him that I let him finish it before I picked him off and sent him packing. If my mom still taught kindergarten, he would be a dead ringer for Eric Carle's the Very Hungry Catepillar... but I don't think he gets to turn into a butterfly. (and if you have kids and don't own that book, run, not walk, to the nearest bookstore.) BTW, if you look closely at the tomato, my aunt Melanie says you can see a little old man's face in the profile of the tomato.... hmmm.... what would Freud say?
And last, but certainly not least, here's the latest of Scupper. We found him all wrapped up on the couch the other morning. Yup. He got up at 6:30am, we let him out, brought him back inside and figured he'd go back to sleep on his pooba bed like he always does. When we all woke up around 8am, he was happily playing hide and seek in our fleece afghan. Wasn't that sweet? :) the little sneak. He's looking at Steve in this picture who is ordering him to "off" - you can see how well that's working.
And I guess the last bit of news is that I passed my qualifying exam last Tuesday, which means I'm ABD (all but dissertation). That means that now all i have to do is write. And since our school is different, my "exam" was to turn in two major papers and a prospectus that will (theorectically) become part of my diss. So I'm saying that I have now have my intro and two chapters done (with revisions to do of course) and now I have 3 more to go. I'm 28 pages into the next one, so then "technically" I only have 2 1/2, right?? And this will all be done by June 2009, right? Who's with me?

Why we love our pup

besides the fact that he is darn cute...

I was musing upon this today, as this week, Scupper turned 5 months old - which means he's been with us longer than he was at the shelter. Here are some great reasons for owning a dog:
1) I get a 2-3 mile walk with him everyday. If that's not a good workout, I'm not sure what is. I, however, come home and write more on the dissertation, instead of taking a 2 hour nap.
2) Watching him try to bury a bone is the cutest darn thing you have ever seen. He gets all anxious going around the whole house and yard looking for that "perfect" place. When he finds he, he does the requisite digging, and then pushes the dirt/stones/grass back over the bone to cover it up.
3) Coming home is a wonderful thing. There is nothing like pure, unadulterated puppy joy at your returning to the house.
4) His little noises when he's thoughtful or grumpy are hilarious. If i could upload sound to this blog, I would.
5) He's a great food vacuum. Except of course, if it's mushrooms. Other than that, he likes most anything that gets dropped to the floor in a moment of cooking flourish. Like, cantelope. Or peaches. Or pea pods. Or carrots.
6) Sometimes, you just have to find joy in chasing your tail. Scupper does.
7) Although tempted by many other doggies at the park, he always checks back in to make sure we're still there. I like that someone checks in to make sure we're here. It's a good feeling.
8) He's got the best nails around. Who else can have black, white, and gray nails? He was punk before it was punk.
9) He doesn't need the fancy things - his favorite toy recently has been empty milk cartons. Go figure.
10) He lives each moment to its best. I think we can all take a lesson from that. Play, sleep, eat, receive attention, play, sleep, eat, receive attention. I think i could get used to that.

A new kid on the block

Meet Evan Pettigrew, born on a very auspicious day - 08/08/08. Here is his "big" brother Jayden holding him for the first time. Jayden is almost 3 years old, and Evan is about 30 hours old in this picture.

And did you notice the hat? ;)

Will it make me write better?

I'm a big dork, but I've always wanted a roll top desk, with all those cubbies and drawers and places to put things. My type-A personality loves that kind of stuff, but my procrastinating, lazy self thinks it will just be a mess.

However, searching randomly on craigslist last week, we came across this - for $50. Yup. Steal of the century. I spent more on gas las week to fill up the Honda. Older couple downsizing to a smaller house and just didn't need it. It's from the 1950s, we think, and has a beautiful oak patina and antique smell about it.

Will it make me write my dissertation faster? So far, i'm still pretty good at procrastinating and searching random websites instead of thinking astutely, but I'll keep you posted.
At least i can hide things away when i REALLY don't want to write. ;)