Off to Charlottesville

I know I haven't been much of a blogger lately, and it's not like I even have a clean house or buff body to show for the time spent not blogging. Mostly I have a few indexes, a well-walked dog, and kids who have gotten here and there in a quasi-timely fashion. Not very blog-worthy, I'm afraid.

Tomorrow we're leaving for a week in Charlottesville, VA. Fred has a conference to attend, and there are meetings for me on several of those days. The kids are looking forward to relaxing in the hotel room with the Gamecube and computer (and dog--Ginger is going too), and I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of old friends. I'll try to be a better blogger once we're back home!

Do blondes really have more fun?

I don't know. You'll have to ask Annabelle. Yesterday we went to the beauty parlor, where she had the last remnants of blonde removed from her hair. Here she is a couple weeks ago (you can click on the picture to see it larger):



And here she is now:



So far she is loving her new hair!

And so it was written

I knew Annabelle had been lobbying for an Australian terrier for quite a while, but I didn't realize just how long it had been until I found this the other day while I was cleaning out my office. It's an essay that she wrote in fourth grade extolling the virtues of the Aussie:





(You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

EDITED TO ADD: Annabelle asked me why on earth I was blogging this. I said I thought it was kind of neat that she wrote an essay 2 years ago that came true this year. She replied, "I also wrote an essay about guinea pigs, you know." Nice try, kid.

A song from my sole(s)

I saw 'em on ebay.
Couldn't refuse.
Five days later I'm sportin'
My new used shoes!
(Oh, yeah)
Don't you laugh at
My new used shoes!
(Uh uh)
I can buy something else with what I saved on
My new used shoes:



Every time Annabelle wears her cool Josef Seibel shoes that we bought in Germany, I am overcome with a wave of envy. I wanted those shoes for me, for ME! And while I am thrilled that they fit her and that she loves them so, I just had to find some similar shoes for myself.

On a lark, I decided to check ebay, and lo and behold! there they were. The perfect shoes for me. An almost-new pair of Josef Seibel shoes that would have sold new for $125. I watched the auction obsessively for several days and put in my bid at the last possible minute. Fifteen dollars later (including shipping), they were mine!

Oh, how I love them. And I love that they fit into my ongoing quest to save millions of dollars by buying stuff on sale!

All the pretty little horses

We've been in Kentucky for over a year now, if you can believe it. Seems like only yesterday that we were saying goodbye to Germany. In that year, we have been to Missouri, to Virginia, to North Carolina (twice), to Florida (three times), to Tennessee, to Alabama, to Utah, and even back to Germany, but we really haven't seen much of Kentucky.

So when my friend Ivy emailed to say that she and her kids would be visiting family here, I thought it would be great if we could meet up at someplace distinctly Kentuckian. That is how we came to be at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington one Sunday last month.

Ivy and I met through our homeschooling support group in Hawaii back when Mike was a second grader. Mike and Ivy's son Will became huge buddies, and we all had fun exploring Oahu together. Here's a picture of the kids from our whale-watching fieldtrip:



What a difference 6 years makes--here's a picture of the boys at the horse park:



The horse park itself was quite impressive. We got to see Man O' War's grave:



And we watched the parade of breeds show:



The horse park is dedicated to making sure that nobody leaves without understanding just how gosh-darn VERSATILE the horse is. Why, even the versatility is versatile. Ah, the versatile horse. You know how if you say or hear the same word often enough it starts to sound like nonsense? And so it was with "versatile":



By the end of the day, we were hot and tired, and the kids enjoyed hamming it up on the wooden rocking horse in the museum gift shop:



All in all, it was a fantastic way to spend the day. I just hope it doesn't take another 6 years for us to get together with Ivy and Will again!

• All my unedited pictures from that day are here.

I've heard of a wolf in sheep's clothing . . .

. . . but this is ridiculous:



Annabelle and I bought a chicken costume for Ginger the other day, but it's too big (maybe next Halloween?). We tried it on the cat so that it wouldn't be a complete waste.

Oh, this is terrible! Have I nothing left to write about other than my cat and dog, punctuated with the occasional photograph of my feet? I still need to blog about our trips to Florida, and our trip to Alabama, and our visit to the Lexington Horse Park. I swear I will get to it soon.

But first I have to go walk the dog.