Saturday, October 24, 2009

Shasta's one year adopt-aversary!

We brought Shasta home a year ago today! She spent the whole day curled up on the sofa watching us carefully. She was severely underfed, about 5 months old, still teething, and didn't know anything yet - not how to interact with people, pee outdoors, walk on a leash, or play with a toy (!!). She was fearful and anxious and shy, and would not allow anyone to touch her head or her collar.
We started with housebreaking her, and crate training, and then moved on to sit, and puppy classes, and now! she's an outgoing, confident, sassy adolescent with more energy than even she knows what to do with. She's grown a bit - she's a bit heavier and a bit taller - we don't know if she'll fill out more or not. She brings you the toy she wants you to play with, and LOVES tug and fetch. She is easy to teach and has learned several commands, including sit, down, stay, wait, leave it, give, jump (on command, even), shake, low five, and find Jim/Steph! She lets us play with her head, her ears and her feet now, and she's even getting (a bit) better about having her nails trimmed. She comes and curls up next to us or in our laps at night, and even plays well with our kitty (most of the time). She's learning to walk nicely on a leash, not jump on people or beg at the table (still working on that one). She even knows to go to the bathroom. Outside. Before dawn. Rain or shine. Or snow. It's easy, you just throw your body against the door, wake Jim up, and have him take you.

Plus, she's gorgeous. And we love her. Even though she's kinda crazy.








Sunday, October 18, 2009

Storm aftermath...

So after everything came down we had the fun of cleaning up the yard this weekend. First and foremost among the tasks was cleaning up the oak tree that split in half in the backyard. Thankfully, we had some awesome helpers that made it go much easier! And I really got to break in my chainsaw!

Friday, October 16, 2009

More snow pics

We've had 8 inches of snow so far, and since the leaves are still on the trees, the trees are falling down like crazy - one went through the storm window of our bedroom last night at 3 am and another fell and smashed our picnic table into smithereens and knocked our gutter off the house morning. The road is blocked, and we haven't had power since about 4 am, and likely won't until at least tonight and possibly tomorrow (bummer, I wanted to watch the Yankee game!)

All night, we could hear trees falling in the woods (answering that age-old question) and see the transformers explode and light the night sky. Most of the town doesn't have power.

Nuts, right? And we're supposed to continue with this weather until tomorrow a.m....








Thursday, October 15, 2009

Record snowfall in PA

We have 5 inches of snow in the backyard. Trees are leaning over our house and we hear a new one fall in the woods about every 20 minutes (not counting enormous branches). It's still snowing and it's getting colder. We're lucky that our house doesn't depend on electricity for heat, because the power lines have branches on them and will likely not stay upright till the morning - our neighbor's lines are sparking. Crazy! It's the earliest snowfall in State College since they started keeping records, and since our leaves had not yet reached peak, the trees are falling down. It's supposed to snow until Saturday morning.

Some pics, for proof:

First, the ridge, with snow...
I wonder how long we'll have electricity...

That's a branch that fell, upright, with the base about 2 inches deep in the ground

The trees looming ominously over our house (from our backyard)

Bonfire pit doesn't exactly resemble fall anymore...

More downed trees in the backyard

Fall colors with snow is oddly pretty

Downed tree in our driveway

Sunday, October 11, 2009

It's a miracle!

For anyone who's stayed at our house, watched our critters, or heard pet stories, the miracle is
finally complete- Gemini and Shasta are best buddies. Here's the proof (Gemmy's giving Shasta a bath while cuddling in front of the baseball game)!


Sorry for the poor quality of this movie, but it's worth it:



YAAAAY!

Fall in State College

Our friends T, M and their gorgeous son B came up this weekend! Here are some highlights:

B loves kitties.

Makin' cornbread for chili.

A small house of our very own.
I'm perfectly normal, why?


Oh, happy billy goats.

I think this speaks for itself

This was in the ROV Jason control van - where the scientists and pilots sit while the remotely operated vehicle Jason explores the seafloor.

This is what it looks like in the van:



And on the back wall, where no one really looks, is this (it's worth clicking on it to make it bigger):


Ahhhh, so true it hurts.

A yellow kitchen

So these pics aren't the greatest in the world, but they'll do!

Our kitchen started out beige and dirty:
Then we painted the kitchen in Carolina Inn Crossroads Gold (what a mistake):
I like to call this radioactive lemon meringue.

Finally, we repainted in mustard yellow. Since that IS the color we were aiming for, after all.


It's warm, bright and happy! (Yes, that's a giant bush of basil. Pesto, anyone?)

New Orleans Aquarium

I went on a research cruise in September to study corals growing on shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico. We came into New Orleans and had a day to spend there before we left for the port. We used some of the time to visit the New Orleans aquarium, which was hit during Katrina but has recovered beautifully. Here are a couple of my favorite animals at the aquarium...

What can I say, I'm inspired!

The first of several posts...