Fall break

Rochester's fall break comes early in the year. It seems we had scarcely gotten Annabelle settled into her dorm room before we were going to the airport to pick her up for a long weekend. We've been having a mellow time just enjoying being home together, especially since this long weekend effectively doubles the length of time she has lived in this house.

The number one activity has been hugging critters. Here's the big reunion between a girl and her dog:



Sorry it's so blurry, but there was a lot of wiggling going on.

And one with Harvey:



I guess Eddie didn't make himself available for photos, but he has been on the receiving end of plenty of loving.

I made a little video clip of Harvey doing what we call his Dexter dance:

Wolfie and me

We met up with Phil and Amy tonight at Cafe Mozart to relive the good times in Germany. Here I am with Wolfie:

Fan grrl

I was lying in bed this morning browsing through my Twitter feed when I saw that Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig and Senator Elizabeth Warren would be speaking at the Capitol this afternoon about corruption in politics and the upcoming Supreme Court case McCutcheon v. FEC. I've been a fan of Lessig's since my Information Policy class in library school, and I relied heavily on his work in teaching my copyright class last spring. I found myself wishing I could go, and then it hit me: I could! So I got myself down to the metro and soloed into the city for the first time.

Capitol selfie:



The talks were very informative and inspirational. You can (and should!) watch them here:



After the talk, people were lining up to talk to Professor Lessig, but I was the only one asking for a picture. Can't help it--I'm a geeky fangirl!



On the ride home, I snapped a pic of Fred's new office building:



I love living here!

First day of the new job

Fred is looking sharp in his new civilian lifestyle:

Like a dream come true

Fred said something today about the downstairs linen closet.

"We don't HAVE a downstairs linen closet," I replied.

Turns out that if you go in the downstairs bathroom and close the door, THERE IS A WHOLE EXTRA CLOSET BACK THERE:

Harvey looks down on us all

Little dog, big campus

Living in the DC area is really fun, but it's also really expensive, and that includes the cost of dog boarding. Oh, how we miss Main Street Pet Resort and their doggie bus that would pick Ginger up and drop her back at home for a shockingly reasonable rate! Rather than spend several hundred dollars to leave Ginger behind, we decided to bring her along on our journey.

This afternoon, Sarah wanted to take Ginger to visit the FSU campus. We started at the "Unconquered" statue:







Mike and Sarah had told us about the sod cemetery where little bits of turf from important away victories are buried. I had to see that:



The sod cemetery is located just outside the practice field. We could hear the team finishing up practice, and as we were standing there, they started streaming by.

And then this happened:



Yeah, this might just have been the best day of Mike's life!

Colorful morning

Stand by for a barrage of photos from this morning's Color Run. Mike and Sarah will be sneezing purple for the next couple weeks!

Heading south

Fred and I rented a trailer and hauled our old sofa down to Mike today. Here are some scenes from the 855-mile odyssey.

Welcome to South Carolina:



The sign says "Sunshine State," but the sky disagrees:



A little liquid sunshine along I-10:



It was all worth it though once we found ourselves relaxing over margaritas with Mike and Sarah:

Meanwhile back at the empty nest . . .

Fred and I had lunch today with the DC Auxiliary of the Leavenworth Porch Party:



So many friends in this area!

Then later while walking the dog, we followed the sound of music and discovered our local high school band hard at work getting ready for Friday's halftime show:





Look! A bari sax:



Once a band mom always a band mom.

Annabelle goes to college

We spent most of last week in New York, getting Annabelle moved in to her dorm. I have to say, move-in day at the University of Rochester is one finely tuned machine. Everybody has a time to show up and wait in line in their cars:



That sounds terrible, but really it's a lot of fun. We got serenaded:



And we got to hear the pep band play:



Before we knew it, we had reached the front of the line and were sent on our way to her dorm, where a bunch of upperclassmen were waiting to help unload her stuff:



That afternoon Annabelle went to convocation with her hall, and Fred and I went on our own:



We hung around one more day for parent orientation and then took off for home:



Annabelle had the rest of her orientation over the holiday weekend and started classes this morning. Here's the obligatory first-day-of-school pic:



Here's to a great year!

First day of school

Thank you, Mike, for humoring me and providing me with a first-day-of-school pic:



I hope you have a wonderful senior year!

Welcome to Virginia!

Where there's an escalator in Target:



And where you have to drive through a long line to drop stuff off at Goodwill:



Ginger doesn't care about escalators or lines though. She's just happy to finally have a fenced-in backyard:

Two furry fellows

Mike will have to shave his when he gets back to school and AFROTC starts back up, but this can be a whole new look for Fred:

Oh, Auntie Em!

In honor of his retirement, the kids and I gave Fred a painting of our Fort Leavenworth house done by my friend Marianthe Snyder. What a great way to remember 3 happy years here!

Let's cook!

In honor of the beginning of the end of our beloved Breaking Bad, we had breakfast for supper tonight and made our ages out of bacon:







If you don't understand this, you really ought to watch it for yourself. It's on Netflix!

One more ceremony

We went to our final scholarship ceremony this morning, this one sponsored by the Michaels Organization, the contractor who manages housing here on post at Ft. Leavenworth. Nice to see a great group of kids get some recognition (and cash!):

Moving on

Fred, Annabelle, and I have been in the DC suburbs for the past few days, looking for a new home for the next phase of our life (civilian life, empty nest, etc.). This is it:



Now to hurry home to Kansas and get packed so we can get back here before taking Annabelle off to school!