Puppy Update

So our new puppy has a name!  She is Mobius...or Mobi for short.  She is so sweet and she is adjusting well to her new home.  She loves her big sister Stormy....though she is rapidly growing and will soon be bigger than Stormy. 

She loves to lay on the tile next to the fireplace like this...though she is getting to be too big to sleep too comfortably but she hasn't given up yet.  

 But her feet don't stay up too well...

But when she sleeps like this it is so precious...Here she is as "Stormy's Toys"

And this is her today on Thanksgiving day, just relaxing before the big feast...

Waiting patiently with Stormy...

Erdnuss-Berge

When Jody and I visited with Florian's parents in Florida they sent us home with more chocolate (I'm still amazed by their generosity). One of the things we received was basically peanuts in dark chocolate. Erdnuss-Berge roughly translates to peanut mountain.

Normally I'm not a big fan of nuts and chocolate, but these are really good and in fact I think Jody liked them more than me and I think I could eat a lot of these. Recommended.

Introducing

Well we aren't really sure what her "forever" name will be, but we think she is the sweetest...

Yesterday we took a little drive to a small Colorado town and picked her up.  She is a Great Dane Puppy and is just 8 weeks old.  She should get pretty big, here are her parents:

This is her dad Sargent....he was very very sweet and I could have brought him home too...

He likes to lean up against you to get attention, here he is with my mom

This is Mom (Scooba) and Dad....

 

Here are some of the pups

Stormy is adjusting well, and she even thought about playing a little, I think in a few days they will be fast friends

 Stormy even let her bite her tail...

 Her first night, she found the treat basket and immediately fell in love with the bunny

 Here you can see her unique coloring, and she has blue eyes.....

 So what should we name her?  Any ideas?

Harlow's 1st Birthday

On Sunday we went over to Dez & Tim's house to celebrate Harlow's 1^st birthday. So Harlow opened her presents...

Oh look a box... let's empty it out and play in it

And then we had some cake that Dez made...

Definitely not a cakewreck...

And then Harlow ate it....

I wish I had a picture 10mins after this...

All in all, a nice afternoon with a nice sugar rush ending....

First snow of 2011/2012

While I was out of town for work, the first snow of the season hit us here in Colorado. Luckily it was not a major storm and didn't cause me any trouble getting home. Because the trees had not lost all their leaves yet, there was quite a bit of damage in some areas, but we did not have any at our house since Jody went out and knocked the snow off.

However, it did provide us with some nice pictures. So here they are

During the storm on Wed

Thursday Night

Thursday Night

By Saturday the snow was basically gone, except for the shaded areas. So that is the start of the season, and it looks like we'll have more in the next day or two.

Conference presenting

So as I said earlier, I was accepted to present at a conference in Miami.  Now funny enough this conference was at the same hotel that work has had graduation at in the past, so I knew the area, and the hotel.  When Kevin and I checked in, we chatted with the person at the desk, and it turns out he had been to CO a few years ago etc...anyway, small talk paid off as they upgraded our room to a suite....it was sweet. 

one night we walked over to Bayside, it is a fun little area, near the water, with shops and restaurants.  Here is Kevin at Bubba Gump (taken especially for Pauline)

However we didn't eat there, we ate at a Cuban place. 

On the walk back to the hotel we saw this statue....

My presentation went off without a hitch, we were a little worried as we had the last presentation of the day on a Saturday, but I guess our topic  "Supporting General Education by Connecting Faculty Across the University to General Education Disciplines"  was interesting to a lot of people.  :-)  Here I am with my co-presenter Heather (Asst chair of math).

Florida!

Recently I was accepted to present at a conference in Miami.  And as luck would have it, the same week I was going to be in Florida, our exchange student from this summer, Florian would also be in Florida on vacation with his parents.  So Kevin decided to go with me, and we went a day early, and drove from Miami to Sanibel Island to get to meet Florian's parents and to see Florian again. 

It was a really nice day....Here we are driving across the bridge

 

 As we got into town, we saw this sign, it made me laugh....Now, in CO I guess we have don't feed the wildlife signs, so this isn't any different, but still not something I see everyday. 

First we met Florian and his parents at their condo and sat and visited and exchanged gifts.  Then we went to lunch: 

This is the pier at the restaurant we ate at...

 Then we went to the beach.....can you see this, this is entirely shells....

The GULF!!!  This was the first time I had seen the gulf up close and I got to put my feet in it :-)

Then we went to ice cream

Then we went over to see the lighthouse and more beach

 

Driving along alligator alley....didn't see any, but I did like seeing the palm trees and the evergreen trees together.  

It was really wonderful to meet Florian's parents!  They are very nice people and we had a great day with them.  I wish we would have had more time, as both Kevin and I enjoyed our visit.

I had said we exchanged gifts, and Florian's parents were very very (too much so) generous.  Here are all the things they brought us....

You see the Coo Clock in the box, where here it us hung up on the wall:

You can hear what it sounds like here:  I am not sure if Stormy yet gets it :-)

What a wonderful (but short) vacation, before my conference.