Nephews & Nieces Weekend

We have a fun week (and weekend)planned with lots of family time.
Mike is driving me up to Amherst this afternoon, where we'll play with the puppies for a while then Mike will head back to Milwaukee and I will head up to Hudson.
I get to hang out with Sally, Scott, & Sam for the next couple of days. I am very excited to see the little guy (I think I'm going to call him Sammers, until I find another nickname, not sure Sally will like that...). I'm sure he's changed quite a bit since I saw him 3 weeks ago. Sally & I will have some time to catch up and enjoy hanging out.
Then on Friday I will head back to Amherst, as will Mike. We'll hang out with the Bacon's and the puppies on Friday night.
Saturday, Austin and his uncle and grandparents are going to be in Waupaca and will stop by the farm to visit. It will be nice for my parents to finally meet them as I've talked about them so much over the last 2 years. He's such a great kid with a really awesome family!
Later on Saturday we'll head to Appleton to hang out with the Syring's (& Stokes' & Bowers')and maybe get some golf in. It will be great to see Taylor & Kaylee as well as Jackson, being around kids means we get to act like kids...right? :) Saturday night back to the Bacon's and the puppies.
Then Sunday morning we'll head to Green Bay for Jackson's baptism.
Just writing that made me realize how much we'll be travelling in the next few days, can you believe our new car will hit 15,000 already! It's all worth it and we are glad we can spend so much time with family before we head to K-ville and Med School.
Just a week left of work for me (I guess 3 days I'll really be there!) and then we pick up the puppies, pack up our stuff and head to MO. I'm sure we'll post pictures of all the fun this weekend and maybe even some video.
Enough rambling for now...I'm just avoiding work:)

Child Proofing With Puppies

I just heard of a great way for Chris & Shell to childproof their house. Maybe they can teach Gabby to do this...well maybe Maggie...well maybe Lucy...Linus? Well someone, somewhere has a dog that can do this...




If you can't see this, here is the link: http://www.break.com/index/childproof-drawer.html
FYI, it uses a different video player (called Shockwave), you may have to download & install it...

Tick Tock...Countdown To Kirksville

Well it's about a week and a half before we move and we finalized our rental house. The new address is 9 N. New Place, Kirksville, MO 63501. We haven't actually seen it yet (outside of a few pictures), but it's across the street from a large park with an amphitheater, with a larger yards as well. It's 2 bedrooms, with a large living room, so we will have plenty of room. The dogs should love the yard and space they'll have! Plus it's about 1.5 miles from school/work so we won't have to use the car much at all.
Just so everyone remembers, our syring@wi.rr.com e-mail address will be deleted come next Thursday, and we'll be without Internet for about a week or so (god forbid!). I'm sure we'll manage to survive...:)
We hope all is well with everyone, and we will be sure to keep everyone up to date as best as we can!

Whitefish Dunes State Park Hike

Last weekend went on a GREAT hiking trip to Whitefish Dunes State Park. This is like nowhere else in Wisconsin. The short bluffs are really a site to see, especially when the weather is turning bad, the waves really pick up!

Mara found a cool way down to a cave and got some great shots of the water.

Here is a shot of where she was when she took the video...a really cool lookout!

We also had a great photo-op when we were out on a rock column and Chris took a picture just as a good sized wave hit below us. We could feel the concussion through our feet! By the way, I'm not giving the thumbs up, I'm trying not to bleed on Mara's shirt. I fell about 8 feet trying to get to the rock column. Luckily no one caught that on film...:)

Michelle had a confused look on her face most of the time, but if you know her, it shouldn't surprise you...:)

Jackson really enjoys being outside. It pretty much was the only time he was quiet...:)

Otolaryngology Lab Goes To A Brewers Game

I recently set up a lab outing with a bunch of the researchers and investigators in my lab. Where did we go? A Brewers game of course!!!

We had a good turnout too! Mara and I, the lone investigator not on vacation Dr. Joe Cioffi and his significant other Cathy, our Lab Manager Christy, and techs Wolfgang & his friend Becky, Rebecca and her husband Noah, Sabrina (AKA Short Bus), and Tina (AKA Wiener).

Tina being Tina:

Mara, of course, worked our grill filled with bratwurst, and we had a nice spread while we tailgated for a few hours before the game.














We had great seats in Home Run Ally in the front row of left field. All in all we saw 6 homers! Unfortunately they were all to right and center fields, but the Brewers still came out on top 4-3.

Tina, Rebecca, and Noah had an unsuccessful wave attempt, but eventually it got all the way around...:)

We had a great time at the game, and some of us made it into work the next day. Well, all of us but Christy...:)

Well This Just F'in Sucks

I won't mince words. It's official, our buyers backed out. If you were listening, you definitely would have heard the collective F-Bomb from Mara and I. The buyers' credit is just too bad. Apparently they had a bankrupts which no one was informed about.

What does this mean?
The bad...
1.) We have to kick the buyers out of our house since they were living there before they bought it, and collect the $3,000 they owe us for living there, and breaking our contract.
2.) We'll have to take them to court because, as of right now, they are refusing to pay us.
3.) We have to re-list our house with 3 weeks before we leave for Kirksville.

The Good...there isn't much
1.) We can hopefully catch the end of the summer rush for housing, if not, it looks like a long year ahead of us...
2.) The lawsuit is a slam dunk (per the clerk of court), but even with a judgment in our favor, we'd have to probably get the money from them over the course of a few years by garnishing their wages
3.) This is probably the worst one. We'll be fine with the extra mortgage, we were somewhat prepared for that, and we'll be fine with getting their money over time, but we unfortunately lost the house in Kirksville. While it is just a house, and there will be others we like, this one we were really in love with. Maybe we'll get it if we sell our house fast, maybe we'll find one we like better, but it's a tough either way.

All in all it has been a really tough week for us. We have had a lot of good ears to vent to, which has helped us a lot. We've talked everything over, and while it sucks (and it f'in does) it's not the end of the world, and we have to just play the hand we're dealt.

We are hoping to find an apartment in Kirksville soon (that accepts dogs) and we are still moving that first weekend in August, although now we don't need to rush down for a closing.

We are looking forward to our weekend away this weekend. We are going to grab the dogs from the farm and head over to Chris & Shell's for some R&R which will consist of hiking, grilling, and finding some silver linings...

Well Worth The 1500 Mile Trip...

We again broke our personal best for hours spent in a car. We shattered our previous record of 18 hours in a weekend with a 24 hour, 1504 mile (equivalent of Milwaukee to Miami), 4 day, 3 state jaunt, but it was all worth it!



















Sally & Scott had their son Samuel Reuben Aho!



















We got the call at 2am on Thursday morning, and we were packed for the weekend and out the door by 3am. Mara got a great shot of the sun rising around Eau Claire, WI.














Our trip to Missouri was good; hot as hell though. One bank said 99°F, but the car said 96°F. We were cheap so we camped at Thousand Hills State Park. The sites are really nice for anyone interested, and we even found some time to hit Forest Lake with a paddle boat for a couple of hours. We jumped in a few times just to cool off! Night was a little warm. The last night the temp probably got down to upper 70's, since it was 77°F already when we got up at 8:00. We did have a really nice dinner Saturday night with an awesome grilled 12-grain, multi-grain bread, top round roast beef, and some Le Gruyere cheese, with a nice bottle of Merlot (I always have a cork screw in my camping supplies!). The raccoons that cleaned up after us had a good meal as well! About 2am they raided what was left (not much), and I think really enjoyed the Merlot since the bottle was dragged the farthest of anything.

All in all it was a great weekend! Congratulations to Sally & Scott, new grandparents Dan & Holly and Roger & Diane, and new Aunt & Uncle Debora & Josh!

Missing the puppies...

We (yup, Mike, too) are definitely missing the puppies, especially in the evenings. It's incredibly quiet without them around. But we have also been so busy that they wouldn't have gotten the attention they deserve and are receiving right now at "Grandma & Grandpa" Bacon's.

We are very lucky that my parent's could take care of them for a few weeks while we are between houses and living in an apartment that doesn't allow puppies. Thanks, Mom & Dad, we owe you!!!!

We were able to run up to Amherst this last weekend to spend time with the puppies and my parents. We had a lot of fun taking Lucy to the river, Linus still isn't sure that he's a water dog, but as long as we were there he stayed fairly close by. Lucy chased sticks for at least an hour and then we took her home and threw the ball until she had enough. It was great to play with them this weekend and we only have a few more weeks before we (& the puppies!) move to Missouri. We are getting pretty excited, hopefully the puppies will like the new yard, bigger than our old one, but smaller than G&G Bacon's. I think they'll adjust pretty quickly, they usually do.

Never Ending Saga

Did you hear that sound last Friday? It was Mara and I's collective F-Bomb after our buyers failed to close for the second time. Apparently their lender was involved in some shady business practices, bordering on predatory lending. Their lender went incommunicado last Thursday, and no one has heard from him since.

Luckily Mara and I got our bikes back and we vented our frustrations by going on a 16 mile bike ride, followed by a 6 mile bike ride the next morning, and then went to Nikki & Crawfords for a nice BBQ. It was a long 2 days, but we are glad we found an outlet for our frustrations.

The buyers, who we are losing our faith in, have one last chance, and are meeting with a lender that First Weber and REMAX both recommended. Should things fall through this time...to put it lightly...we'd be *blank*ed. But we'll know more by the end of this week, so keep your finger's crossed...