Burying the Bone

Its not often that we let Hank go out into the yard with his bone, but when we do...

So it is still visable after the burying, but he thinks it is well hidden and he has the cutest dirt nose.

Murder Mystery Party

1920s Murdery Mystery party for a friend's birthday; Laura (in the red hat) got one year older and we got to shoot and bribe each other for her special day.














Erik was having an secret relationship with Sarah (here in purple)


















I was a politician's wife; congress woman to be exact, my husband was played by Aziz. Little to his knowledge I was cheating on him with the Mayor of Chicago. Saucy.

















Amy, Rebecca and I in our swanky garb.





And after a long night we were all a bit wiped.

Birthday Camping!

To celebrate our birthdays, we went camping for a weekend near Lake Monroe (only 15 minutes from our house), with Hank and a bunch of friends in tow.


On Friday night, after some in depth conversation about time travel and the third installment of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trilogy (a close second to Krzysztof Kieslowski's three colors series in terms of cinematic accomplishment) I decided to chase some Canadian geese by showing them that I was by far the superior waterfowl, and that the only one who would be pooping all over our campground would be me. And Hank. And Mika. (There really was a lot of goose feces, perhaps the only drawback to an otherwise stellar campground. Oh, and the half-naked, severely overweight redneck guy who was blasting Toby Keith all Saturday afternoon).


Everyone practicing their goose fighting poses.


We had to have a little champagne for our birthdays.

Corey was our grill master and by far the most enthusiastic camper.

Some of our English dept buddies, left to right: Brian, April, Aubrey, and Chracey (Lacey and Chris).

It's been a very wet spring and summer. Even after a few weeks of only light, sporadic rain, the water level is still really high.

Once again, all of the fine, artistic photography is Les' doing. That's Erik and Hank, waxing philosophical and sniffing wildlife droppings, respectively.

Our campground -- we actually had four sites that stretched a ways on each side -- from afar.

Storms, Hank, Erik's Birthday, Evening

These first few pictures were taken a few minutes before a pretty intense storm. We were amazed by how the clouds looked like a huge wave curled up and just starting to break.

Hank, usually indifferent to his toys, loves this stuffed dog, which we nicknamed Husky Jack. Normally Hank patiently and methodically rips his stuffed toys apart until their fluffy bowels are spread over the living room floor -- but when he starts to pull on the limbs of this little pup and the seams begin to snap, it's like he feels the pang of a guilty conscience and promptly licks the appendage he was just tearing from Husky Jack's body.

Some photos Les took of our backyard foliage.

On Erik's birthday!

We wanted to cook up some steaks that night, and as soon as the grill heated up it began to rain and thunder.

Cloud layering during an Indiana sunset.

First year in Bloomington

Selections from this past year in Indiana: IU Campus, pumpkin carving, our first solo Thanksgiving, first snow, and doggie love, respectively.

Showalter "Fishtasm" Fountain

One of the many creeks running through campus

The creeks, of course, demand extensive wooden footbridges.

Jordan Hall: Lesley's lab is on the top floor, on the end (right near the tip of that pine tree). If you squint you can see her then-future-now-present self waving to her past self who took this picture last spring. Amazing, isn't it?

Tulips in spring

Dunn Wood in the fall.

We went to a small family farm and took a hay ride out to their pumpkin patch. This year, we're growing our own, as long as Hank / the rabbits / bugs don't devour them first.

Les, making me jealous with her public displays of pumpkin affection.

We hosted a carving party for our friends in the Biology department.

Now you can match pumpkin to carver. Top (left to right): Mark, Casey, Laura, Amy, Sherry, and Andy. Bottom (left to right): Rebecca, Sarah, Erik, Lesley, and Gwendolyn. Not pictured because he was taking the photo: Thomas.

Les stuffing the bird.

Stuffing shaker dance.

Mmmmm....

A snow angel for Kristin.

Of course our snowman was a Gunners fan. And those are Nilla Wafer eyes that for some reason the birds never ate.

A solemn goodbye to that first snowman.

Columbo is Houp's dog and Hank's unofficial brother. Jeez, aren't little brothers annoying?

And one of Katie and Allie -- still our favorite doggie sisters.