6 Months Is A Long Time Between Hair Cuts

Since it's been so cold the last month we have been reluctant to get Linus a hair cut. Eventually it got to the point he couldn't see and he started running into walls & falling down stairs. OK, that wasn't happening, but you can agree with us, he looked ridiculous.

The lady at PetCo was really good. She got him the same length all over, even paws, ears. belly, and face. They usually can't get to those and leave them longer. Can you see a difference in the before & after pictures? He probably lost about 4# in hair...

New Wheels

This was a wake up call. We are moving in 5 months and we decided that we can save A LOT of money (especially since we'll be broke) by going down to 1 car. We figured we'd save about $500/month!
Since we will probably only have 1 car for a while we had to get an extremely reliable new car with a good warranty. We decided to go with a 2007 Toyota Camry. We have loved the car since we got it on Tuesday!
As you can see we kept the MCBACON plates on it, but in 5 months we'll have to get Missouri plates...:(

The Marathon Man!

Mara and I would like to show our support for Chris in his quest to complete a full marathon in Green Bay. He is running in the CellCom Marathon on May 20th.
While Shell would love to be right there with him, it will be about 6 weeks after the baby, so 26.2 miles is pretty much out of the question.
In honor of his quest, we'd like to revisit their 1/2 marathon they did last year...Enjoy!
FYI...It's about 5 MB's, but trust me...it's worth it! Be sure you have the sound on...


If you have problems with the video, click here to see it.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4129667428550998838

Puppy Sitting 101

We had the GREAT pleasure of being reminded how much work a 12 week old puppy is. While Nikki & Crawford were in Marco Island, Florida, we took care of their Australian Shepard/Labrador mix, CoCo.

Here is a good picture when they actually slowed down long enough to take one. We had to bribe them with treats in order to get them to settle down.

CoCo eventually got worn out, but it took until about 1am before she crashed.









In the end, Lucy found a new friend to play with that can take her down a peg too!
Here is a good video of them playing. It was like this all NIGHT/DAY!!!

If you cannot see the video, go here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1206607727669060884

Cabin Fever Avoided!!!

The air temp is -11°F, and the wind chill is roughly -35°F. 3 weeks ago, when we were in Mexico, it was 85°F. THAT'S 120° DIFFERENCE!!! So we decided to play football at a park overlooking Lake Michigan.
The head of my department hosted the 14th Annual Crown Point Bowl at his place on the lake. We bundled up with about 6+ layers (no joke) and went out an played 2-hand-shove football on Super Bowl Sunday. We played for about 1 1/2 hours and avoided frostbite (barely). But since pretty much everyone there was a Doctor, and they were condoning it, it MUST be OK...:)
As you can see from our picture below, everyone bundled up quite well. Mara and I had Hot-Hands so our fingers didn't freeze off, and our face masks kept our mouths from freezing shut. But we had a blast the whole time!



Al Merati (Head of the Otolaryngology Dept) & Mara with her assassin gear on...



Gotta love the sharp t-shirts too!










Group photo with all 13 participants! Grant (orange hat) played all-time-offense to make teams equal.
Crawford played with us too (front row, far right), and our resident rotating through the lab also played (4th from left, back row).
Everyone else is a otolaryngology resident, except for Dr. Merati.









Me (orange coat) with one of 3 TD catches!!! The ball is behind the tree at the top of the picture. I also had 3 interceptions on my way to MVP...:)
You can see Lake Michigan in the background. There was a permanent fog hovering about 2 feet above the lake due to the temperature difference in the water & air. Pretty neat effect





We had such a blast playing. The wind was not too bad, but it was still BONE cold. We had a nice hot shower when we got home, then went to Nikki & Crawford's and watched the Super Bowl, ate some shrimp & wings, and relaxed. It was well deserved!

FINALLY Some Pictures

Sorry it took so long to post our Mexico pictures! We were waiting on some friends to send us their pictures, but they are really slow (and probably reading this, so maybe they'll send them now). We decided just to post a few of ours.

From Top To Bottom:

-Mike & Mara in their hotel room

-Mike finding time to hit some golf balls

-Gorgeous sunrise @ 6:30

-A school of fish that followed us as we snorkeled

-A cool yellow fish in amongst the coral reef

We had an absolute blast on our trip, although 5 days just wasn't enough time!!!

Maybe in another decade we'll make it back there (when we finally finish up school!).