Hi everyone!
Now I am back from dogsitting so blogging can continue on a semi-regular basis. But I return chock-full of stories for you, so enjoy!

Oh, and about MY gas problem, Sarah...Paul eventually moved the stove forward and found the gas valve and shut it off to the stove, meaning that after one more night of coldness (so the remaining gas could dissipate) I was able to sleep cozily on the night it was predicted to snow (Saturday). Yay for Paul!! Plus that enabled me to get the 8 million tennis balls out from behind the stove that the dogs like to lodge there. Gross, but necessary, cause between that, losing them in the park, and digging pits in the yard and shoving them in there, we were running a shortage of tennis balls.

So, 3 stories for your enjoyment, if I can remember them all...

(1754 you have probably heard all these already, so you can tune out now)

Most traumatic story:
There is a dog park across from these dogs' house (well technically an elementary school, but when the kids're away, the dogs can play...hehe I'm so witty). Anyways I would take the dogs there every evening, as it was easier than walking them, plus it got more energy out so they wouldn't go as crazy when I took them home. I would bring tennis balls etc for them to play with/chew on. The other night when I brought the dog there it was running around the far end of the park and then lay down and was chewing on something...too far away to see what it was, but the dog wouldn't come when I called it so I went over to get it. I finally managed to get her near me and it looked like she was chewing on a piece of bark. Well, ok, but I wanted her to be running around, not lying down, so i told her to drop it. She wouldn't. I went over to her and the other lady in the park who I had been talking with all this while said, "Oh, it looks like a banana peel" (true, it WAS old and gross, but it could have been a banana peel.) So I take hold of the banana and start pulling it out of the dog's mouth. I have my hands firmly on it and am yanking and pulling. Finally it slips a little and guess what: How many banana peels do you know that have feet and a tail?
Yeah....great. The dog was chewing on some old dead rat that had been run over in the nearby alley. I have never felt so gross! I had my hands all over it for several minutes!! We went home immediately so I could boil them. GROSS!

Not-so-exciting story:
I was sitting waiting for the bus the other day and this jeep pulls up to the stoplight; it is blasting rap music. It's there for a while and I glance over at it ... the driver was around 50+ years old and he is tough-guy smoking a cigarette (if you don't know what I mean, too bad). Haha!! Um this sounds less funny when I write it down.

Bonus story:
(Cause i can't remember the real third story now)
Paul ran a track 5k the other night. It was fun to go to but it was soo cold, and I was not smart enough to bring warmer clothes, cause I thought it would be done an hour and a half earlier. I tried to take pictures of him running, but I was slow so I think I only got pictures of runners' asses. (Martins was one of them. When I told him I had been yelling "Boo Martins" the whole time, he said, "no, I heard you...I believe that was 'Booty, Martins!'" Haha.)

We were having a debate the other night (hey, I think every single one of these stories took place on the same night...) on what is the whitest state in the union. First Michelle and I said Wyoming, but then we thought, nah, there are probably a lot of reservations there. We are thinking, erin, perhaps NH or VT? Paul is finding out both per capita and percentage the most and least white states, and he's going to make us a map. Man it's handy to have a geographer around. You guys should try it sometime.

Oh, and he pointed out this studio to me the other day: There is this photography/framing place by his apartment, and on their sign it advertises "Wedding, Portraits, Commercial, Geopolitical Consultation." ....Geopolitical Consultation?! That is so random! And this is a permanent sign, too...

Hey guys are the tulips blooming outside our house? Or are they gone already. If they are still there will you take a picture for me, cause it is so pretty then!

Man I wish I knew what that third story was. That would be so exciting.

Well, I can rest assured that my mother has not found my blog yet; this morning she was asking my dad what a blog was (she was reading an article in the paper)...then found the idea highly amusing. Phew! Safe!!