Kitten for adoption

We are fostering an adorable 9 month old female kitten. She's a lot of fun and will make a great addition to a family. PLEASE tell everyone you know, who might know someone who might know someone... We can't keep her. She's spayed, litter trained, has rabies vaccine, etc. Here are a couple photos of her, including the cat with her new best friend.

Other photos

Click on the pictures of Maddy or Kitty below and you can scroll through a few more pics in our photo album.

Maddy, chillin

Stairs: Breaking Ground

In what will be a long project I broke ground, literally, on the stairs to the attic tonight. The first piece is fortifying the the floor beams of the first floor, if you have a lot of time I can explain what the first floor ha to do with the stairs to the attic.

Here's a picture of the hole, Kitty is just finishing his inspection

Magic number

Second only to cycling, in my world, is the great sport of baseball. My team is the Boston Red Sox. It's time for the pennant race, the time of year when everyone is trying to get into the playoffs, and the Red Sox are looking good. They have the best record in baseball and are 6.5 games ahead of the Yankees.

It is getting close to the time of year where we start watching what is known as the magic number. That is the number of games the Red Sox need to win to guarantee a place in the playoffs. To get into the playoffs, in baseball, you either need to win your division (there are three) or have the best record of the teams, in your leauge (American or National), that don't win their division (called the wildcard). For the Red Sox to automatically win their division, the American League East, they would need to win the next 27 games. Now if the Yankees lose or the Red Sox win the magic number goes down by one, if both of those things happen the magic number goes down by 2.

Making things more complicated is the wildcard. Currently the Red Sox are 10 games ahead in that race, meaning their magic number to get into the playoffs is 24 wins. Winning the division means they don't have to worry about the wildcard at all, lets hope for that.

For more updates on Red Sox nation go to Over the Monster

Yankees Suck!
Go Sox!

Good Dog!

Maddy is the smartest dog in the world. Either that or the dog training book I'm reading is brilliant - The Complete Idiot's Guide to Positive Dog Training By Pamela S Dennison. I'm not sure if it's complete training or for the complete idiot... Anyway, after 4 tries she can now sit on command, is generally housebroken, and sleeps in our bed. I guess she did the last one on her own.

She's terrified of the car though. Not quire sure what to do about that.

The stray cat has been fixed and is now back in the world. If anyone knows anyone who might want a FABULOUS cat, please let me know. She's super friendly, adorable, and spayed. What more could you want in a cat? I'd keep her if you-know-who would let me...

turning points

You know the ones I mean. Choices that radically shifted your path in life. Something about holding your 17 lbs. niece in you hands makes you think about those things. For instance, I once sat on the bumper of my car with my friend, Carla, trying to decide whether I wanted to stick with my new, and very difficult, job. The alternative was moving to Bend, OR to try and train to become a professional cyclist, sans performance enhancing drugs. I chose the job. Where would I be now if I hadn't? Does it matter?

How about you? What were some of those points for you?

Dog Name

Wow! We never get comments on our blog - everyone is invested in the puppy's name! We have decided on Maddy. It came out of Madison, which is the name of our street. We've already gotten her ID tag, so it's set in stone. I hope you like it!

New canine member of the family

So my Niece continues to work through the basic rudimentary facets of life, like seeing for the first time and figuring out the difference between Mom and Dad. According to the doctor everything is going great with Ava, correct weight gain, and all other developmental markers are being met. In the mean time, Jodi went off to the pound and we finally have ourselves a puppy dog. A mostly Boxer mix, seen here playing with my parents Beagle, she is 8 months old. Her name is still a point of contention, though she did come named Petunia.

The mountains we climb

In what will always go down as a bitter sweet day, this past Thursday at 7:29 pm, we celebrated the birth of Ava Rose, my niece. At the same time we morn the death of her twin brother Jack Taylor, who we were never given the chance to get to know. It is with great conflict that I write here about the new joy in all our lives, a joy tempered only by the loss of the unknown.