Catchup Post

I realize that we have been very slow to post blog entries this year, so here is a post to catch you up to speed on what we've been up to. Undoubtedly, the puppy is taking up much of our free time! Our Bella is growing at an average rate of 6 pounds a month. Holy #$#*, we're going to have a big dog on our hands! She's currently at 40 pounds (was 27 when we adopted her). Here are some recent pics of her and Russ. (We have to thank Donna for the monkey toy, which is her absolute favorite and she has been very careful with.) She now has a whole routine of tricks: sit, lay down, shake, fetch, touch (touch her nose to our hands), find it (find the treat; gets her into the car), and catch -- but the ones we use the most are No! and Down! Still have some work to do...

Rachel's parents visited us in February, and we had a wonderful time showing them around Philly and the area. We went to DC for a 3-day weekend, seeing the Amish countryside in Lancaster, PA, and touring the battlefield of Gettysburg on the way to Maryland. While still in Philly, we stopped at the obligatory historical spots, like Independence Hall (below) and the Reading Terminal Market for one darn good cheesesteak!

On our weekend trip, we spent a day in Gettysburg touring the battlefield. It's a very well done national park. We bought a self-guided audio tour that we could listen to while we drove through the battlefield, which is huge. The picture at the bottom right is where the famous Pickett's Charge began. (2 out of 3 Confederate soldiers who marched in Pickett's Charge were killed as they marched across the battlefield.) It is a beautiful but very eerie place.

It happened to be Valentine's Day that weekend, and we celebrated with dinner at the Dobbins House Tavern, a historic house from 1776.

Once in DC, we spent a full day touring the Capitol Building and walking through all of the memorials on the mall. Here is the Lincoln Memorial and Greg and Ann at the Nebraska column of the World War II Memorial.

To complete the tour of local battlefields, we also visited Valley Forge, which is just outside of Philly in the suburbs. It's a much smaller national park, and not technically a battlefield, but it's now a nice green space for the neighborhood. They have recreated some of the military settlement of the Continental Army, who were stationed there to watch the British Army that had drive them out of Philadelphia in the winter of 1777. While Philadelphia was being pillaged, Washington and his men waited out the winter until they could continue the military campaign in the spring.

We found an intriguing church dedicated to the Continental Army at the park, the Washington Memorial Chapel. The entire chapel is dedicated to the army, with military banners, wood carvings, and sculptures. It was interesting to see so many military symbols as part of a religious space. Here are pictures of some of the wooden carvings of soldiers.

And to thoroughly catch everyone up, here are a few pictures from our Easter in DC with Russell's sister and parents. Our niece Alexis is so cute!

More Puppy Pictures

We've had Bella for over 3 weeks now, and she's doing great. We started her in obedience training yesterday (using the Click system, which really seems to work), and she is picking up commands quickly. It seems we have a smart dog on our hands, so we'll have to keep her busy and challenged!

Here are some more pictures of our pretty Bella. She loves to "herd" her balls and get two of them in her mouth at the same time. She'll play with them for hours by herself, batting the balls around with her paws. It's super cute. This pink rubber mesh ball is perfect, because she can wrap it around her jaw and get another ball on top.

It also works as a great chew toy.

Here's Russ bonding with his girl.

And here's a video of her playing fetch in our apartment.

Flyers vs. Capitals

Rachel and I went to our first NHL hockey game this week, with our friends Pieter and Carolina. The Flyers were up against the Washington Capitals, whose best player is the evil Russian, Ovechkin. It was clear that he is evil because he is really good, he had by far the best 1-on-1 skills and had mutiple shots, 1 goal, and 1 assist. I think he may work for the soviet KGB.

Having only been to womens college hockey before, I was blown away by how fast and good the players were. It really makes me think that hockey is probably the most physically and technically challenging of sports, what with the hitting, passing, and ice. Additionally, we lucked into getting tickets in the "all you can eat section". Pieter and I proceeded to have a small contest as to who could consume the most hot dogs, nachos, ice cream, and popcorn. He won. Afterwards, we decided that they should introduce a section right near the "all you can eat" called the "all you should eat" section, to cut down on the stomache aches. All was made good, however, once we got into true hockey spirit with some Labats Blue and Mohlson Canadian.

We had to rush home on the train to our puppy, which was breaking our hearts by being alone in her kennel. She expressed regret that she was unable to compete in the "all you can eat" contest.

The Fresh Princess of Bel Air

Well, we finally took the plunge...and adopted a puppy! Her official "show dog" name is The Fresh Princess of Bel Air, because, just like Will Smith, she's originally from West Philly. But we're calling her Bella. True to her nickname, she's a beautiful little dog. She's about 4 months old, a German shephard/border collie mix (we think), and very sweet. It could just be a coincidence, but we think we've trained her to sit already. (Seriously, she's sat on command like 5 times!) We adopted her from a local non-profit shelter, the Morris Animal Rescue, who have been great. She was picked up as a stray about a week ago.

Here she is about to jump on the couch:

And her she is being a crazy puppy. This is what we saw running at us for most of the afternoon!

By the end of the night, she was completely tuckered out.

I'm sure we will experience a revival in blog postings with our new abudance of cute puppy pictures. Watch for many new Bella pics to come!

"Is this real life"

I don't want to get in the habbit of just posting random videos, but I can't help myself on this one. A more elaborate recap post is enroute. With out further adieu, David after the Dentist. "Is this real life?"

I believe I would have reacted similarly when I was a kid, but perhaps Wii need to evaluate our society.... This makes me think that Nintendo has figured out a way to deliver crystal meth via televisions and hand-held controllers.

50 kids happy to get a Nintendo Wii for Christmas - watch more gamer videos

Leslie Hall, post 2

Ok, so one post doesn't do this gal enough justice. I also wanted to link to her exhibition of awesome gem sweaters. Make sure to read the captions for each sweater.

I think this Leslie Hall is going places...