Weekend with Hobbes

Here's a photo of Lucas, Masha, and Hobbes the weekend we took care of him for Fer and Maggi.

They played very well with each other although Masha and Lucas did gang up on Hobbes once outside so we brought him in and let our dogs chase each other for a while. Paul and I were a bit out of our element that night when the 5 of us were going to bed. We realized that we were outnumbered and if the dogs decide to revolt we would probably lose the battle! Yikes! Hobbes was by far the best sleeper of the three, though that is not a hard prize to win in our house between Lucas snoring the whole night and Masha growling at you in the wee hours of the morning when she decides it's time to get up!

The Meandering Melissa By-Way

Oh yeah!

Here's what P did in October/November. Our neighbor Mike, who envisioned and crafted the bamboo railings, named it the Meandering Melissa By-Way, and what do you know, the name has stuck. Instead of walking out our front door and walking all the way around our house to walk up the hill to campus every morning, we now go out the back door and up the By-Way.

Check it out. It Rocks. What did your husband build for you today? Uh huh. I thought so...

October in December

My last post got us to the end of September and since I can't remember for the life of me anything exciting we did in October, I can only suppose it is because we were trudging through very difficult semesters for both of us.

I was "super smart" and decided to take 4 classes while teaching a new course 4 days a week, tutoring two nights a week, and working part time at UNC Press. I am happy to report the semester from Hell will be officially over on Friday (I just have one take home exam to finish)! It was a great semester, albeit busy, and I am looking forward to teaching Spanish and Women's Studies in the spring with only 3 classes and no part time jobs!

Paul successfully defended his dissertation prospectus on Dec. 6 and has the green light to start dissertating as soon as he finishes grading 65 Spanish essays on the "Discovery" of America. I guess I can say good-bye to our lovely-looking yard for a while!

Here are two photos of our October. We had warmer than usual temperatures and I made Paul carry our dining table onto the deck so I could study outdoors. (Today we took the dogs hiking in t-shirts in 80 degree weather. It's December 12th!!)

We didn't do anything for Halloween. I had a busy week that week with a paper due the next day and I had to teach Thursday morning at 8. Ugh! Maybe next year...

More Soon,

M