The Boilers in The Sweet Sixteen!

The Boilermakers are heading to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in 9 years! Go Boilers!! We had a small gathering at our place to watch the game. Since the local CBS affiliate was showing the Michigan game and not Purdue we had to watch on the Internet. After much consternation and two trips to the electronics store we were able to push the image to our HDTV. Let me tell you, if a sales guy says that pushing the image is as easy as hooking up cables, they are totally full of it. We ended up having to purchase a converter kit of some kind and we barely got things running in time for tip off.

Chris and Eileen were over with Mary Kate and Grady and Anna came in from the 'burbs. We were really glad Anna felt like coming over, as she is due with their first child in less than 10 days. As you can see here the father to be is practicing a very important skill: balancing a baby while holding a pint of Guinness in your lap!

Mary Kate was great throughout the party, but did eventually get a little fussy. Chris was calming her by carrying her around the living room in the "football carry" that parents use today. Chris even topped it off by giving us his best Heisman pose.

As you can see in the background Vince was intently following and watching Mary Kate. Chris and Eileen were good with letting him investigate her a little more this visit. He sniffed her over and gave her a little lick on the hands. You could tell he was really wanting to give her puppy kisses on the nose, but Mary Kate wanted nothing to do with that. Once he decided that he liked this little bundle Vince was her new escort, following whomever was carrying her all over the house. All that patrolling eventually tuckered the little guy out and he spent the majority of the evening snoozing away.

St. Patrick's Day

In addition to it being St. Patrick’s day, it was an “Irish Day” for Vince as well. Our neighbors across the courtyard in Michigan City have a black miniature schnauzer named “Irish” who is Vince’s best buddy in the MC. Yesterday afternoon was so beautiful that I went home to give Vince some outdoors time during my lunch hour. Turns out Irish was getting the same thing so they got some “puppy time” running around the courtyard.

Irish’s owner said something funny though, she said that they don’t let Irish off leash unless he’s with Vince because he doesn’t come back otherwise. She went on to say that she was impressed with how well Vince listens to us. I was shocked to hear that somebody thinks he minds well, as he can sometimes be a spaz, especially when meeting someone new.

I hit the local pub – McGinnis’ – in Michigan City for my Irish fix for the day. The Guiness was a little flat, but the Murphy’s Irish Stout was perfect and the Shepard’s pie and soda bread was scrumptious as usual! The only downer is that they are still allowed to smoke anywhere in bars and restaurants in Indiana, so the bar and dining area of the pub was nasty. However, I lucked out and got an upwind seat out on the patio to sit and have my dinner!

Spring Break Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our sojourn to warmer weather.

Eric and his Cuban.

One day Eric, one day you will make it all the way to Cuba.

Cheers!!

Eric's affinity for the shrimp cocktail on Celebrity is never ending.


Who doesn't love the muster drill?

Spring Break 2009! WOOOOOOO!!! Party!

OK, so it wasn't spring break like that, but Paula and I did get away this weekend for a little fun in the sun of the Caribbean. We left on Thursday from Miami on the Celebrity Century, which is also the first ship that we ever cruised on back in 2002.

The ship itself has been upgraded and the new martini bar is something else, with an icy waterfall behind the bar and an iced section in the middle. The crew and staff was spectacular, much better than our last cruise in the Med. (We were a little disappointed, we felt the staff was well below Celebrity standards.)

Our first stop was Key West, a place that we love. Unfortunately the excursion that we had booked got cancelled because of lack of interest. Truly, it shouldn't surprise us that the kayak/snorkel/swim with wild dolphins wasn't really popular with the Celebrity crowd. (The crowd tends to be a bit older, which suits us normally.) The excursion being cancelled was kind of a blessing in disguise, as we had a great time just bumming around town. We went to the southernmost point, had breakfast at Blue Heaven, and then did a mini pub crawl from Margaritaville, to Sloppy Joe's, to Captain Tony's, and ending up at Hog's Breath. A great time, and as usual I managed to get myself into a fun conversation with a couple of people who were a hoot and a half while sucking down margaritas! (Turned out they were on our boat as well, though we only saw them at the end.)

Our next stop was Cozumel for some of the best diving we've ever done. Both dives were drift dives where the current pulled us along the reef where we saw all manner of sea life. It was truly my personal best set of dives, I was able to make it to depth with little or no issue with my ears, and reached a new personal "deepest" dive of 90 feet! I was even able to make the first tank last 40 minutes, which is crazy long for me. (Though it was almost dry by the time we got to the surface, I had less than 100 psi.)

The second dive got a little dicey when Paula's tank ran low very early in the dive (we don't think they put her on a full tank at the changeover) but our excellent training kicked in and we did buddy breath for the remainder of the dive. Buddy diving isn't all that uncommon, we actually saw a couple doing it the entire time in Egypt, but it was a new experience for us.

The last day at sea was really nice weather, a little windy, but sunny and warm! I managed to burn my backside because I didn't reapply sunblock when I "turned." Apparently I managed to sweat off all of that SPF 8 off of the back because the front is still white and the back is all red!

We'll get a few photos posted at some point, I'll leave that to Paula! (Everyone knows I can't do a thing with a camera.)

Vincent was apparently very happy to be picked up from Puppy Camp, Paula said he bounded out to greet here and has been sleeping since he got home.

Holiday Recap

Vince had a very hectic but satisfying holiday season. He loved his trip to Eric's parents as there were four girls under the age of 10 to entertain him for two days! The girls were great, they threw toys and chased Vince all over the house. By the end of Sunday though he was down for the count!

When we all opened presents at Eric's parent's house Vince wasn't left out. He received a large tin of peanut butter puppy treats.

When we moved to Paula's parent's house for Christmas Vince was just as happy even without his new playmates. Vince loves their house because it's out in the country and he gets to run and chase any toy you throw. He spent 3 days getting runs outside and spoiling belly rubs.

As far as gifts go, Vince must have been good because he got 2 chew toys in his stocking from Santa. Paula's mom also bought him a "lounging bed" for the living room, which Vince absolutely loved. Guess we're going to have to get one for home as well.

Puppy Camp

Vince spent 4 days at Puppy Camp while Paula and I were in Philadelphia. He came back acting really strange and even skipped a couple of meals. Things look all better now though, he even brought me toys for puppy play today.

This is Fall?

Temperatures soared into the 80's here in Chicago this weekend, kind of shocking considering the calendar says October! The one benefit is we were able to drive the convertible out to our friend's house to watch the Boilermakers lose to the Buckeyes on Saturday.

Vince was happy though, as the warm weather encouraged us to take a long walk on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday was a bit interesting. Those of you that have visited us know that we leave near the Lathrop Homes CHA housing projects. This has not been an issue in the 5+ years we've lived here but it was not good when we walked through on Saturday. There were multiple people out on the street completely DRUNK (or worse) at 9 a.m. and they were checking us over as though we were fresh meat ripe for the picking. Frankly, it was a bit disturbing. I hope that this economic downturn doesn't lead to an upturn in crime in the area, but it might just be time to purchase a baseball bat to keep in the house.


On a brighter note, the warm weather gave us the chance to winterize the deck in decent weather. We took down the tent cover and placed the table and chairs under a tarp for the winter. :-( Guess the only "al fresco" dining we'll be doing will be at tailgates!