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. ;)

Hot Stuff at State Champs

Okay, well, I at least thought he was hot stuff. Now here's the stats - he did a men's points race (race around, but the winners are ones who win points in the sprints, not who comes across the line first). It was a 75 lap points race - 75 laps! Usually he does between 20-40 laps at the track. 75 laps is the equivalent of 15 miles. Now on the road, 15 miles ain't much, but at an average of 28mph... yes folks, you read that right, 28 mph AVERAGE for 15 miles, we'd all be dead tired. 'Cept for these guys. Steve said his max speed was 38mph at one point. All I know is they looked freaking fast out there. He came in 4th place in his category - so not bad for never racing in states before and racing against guys who are in the top categories. So we're proud of him here at Casa Germonski.



Here are biking buddies that came to cheer him on (and buy pizza later!)

Mark - the Brit and Scupper

Dave, wearing a cowboy hat in honor of Mark's impending move to Texas

Bob, the pizza buyer extraordinaire

Michael, bringing a flask of Scotch, just 'cause

What's a girl to do?

when you have this to look at from your office door each morning? Now how could I write dissertation pages with such cuteness snoring across the room? Seriously though, I do have all my materials done for the qualfying exam in September - all 109 pages of it. 30 of which will probably get throw out or chopped, so that means I'm approx. 80 pages towards the completion of my diss. Only about 120-150 more to go. Eek.

Steve races at Master State Track Championships this weekend - yes folks. it's a biggie. The state championships here in San Diego. I am aiming to take the dog AND the camera, so I will hopefully have pictures of Steve in his racing finest, and - cross your fingers - possibly in a state champ jersey - by Sunday evening.

check out the little bitty pink tongue....

Looking good for 39

So this blog has become all about Scupper as of late, and I want to take a second to brag about my oh so lovely partner. Steve's 39th birthday was this weekend and even though he had to work and missed a bike race he was so excited about doing, he took another year with grace and ease. I don't know many people who are 39 who are practically the same weight they were in high school, who bike 150 miles a week, swallow the crap at work so that I can sit at home and whine about not writing 5 pages, and who dedicate themselves so fully to taking care of the people they love. I feel exceptionally lucky and proud.

But just 'cause, here's one with Scupper, the other cute little man in my life.

We dressed up a bit to go out for birthday dinner, and I realized when we got home that we haven't had a pic of the two of us in awhile. Here we are!