Boys' Night In! Sarah is out tonight, so the boys rule the house. Kenzie's upstairs though, keepin' it chill...

I just can't get enough

Okay, so setting up this blog has made me realize how far online communication and networking have come in the last few years. I suppose I just stopped paying attention, but I'm excited about the opportunity to reconnect with friends and family.
But now I can't stop searching for people, interests, things to post. I'm looking forward to building my "wishlist." Feel free to take a look under my profile. Just contact me for shipping information... kidding!
I can't wait to figure out how everyone has added all kinds of lists and links to their blog pages. In my world of 5/3 retail banking, I have a reputation as the "computer expert" which I think is derived from the fact that I know how to format the "auto sum" formula in Excel and I know how to use a font other than "Comic Sans." Beyond basic program functions, I'm actually pretty clueless.
So stay tuned for updates. I have a feeling we are just getting started.
Later.

The wrist bone's connected to the ...

On Thursday, I had an MRI on my left wrist. It has been hurting on and off for about 6 months, and activities like excessive typing, carrying heavy objects, opening jars, etc. aggravate it. I saw a hand specialist a few weeks ago, and he x-rayed it, but didn't find a break or fracture. He thinks it may be a tear in the cartilage (called TFCC), which would only show up on an MRI. I know nothing about MRIs, so I assumed that they could just scan my wrist by sticking my arm in the machine. But I had to change into scrubs and go completely into the machine and lay totally still with my wrist in this special cuff for 45 minutes. It was hard because I was really tired, and they encouraged me to relax, so I kept falling asleep. But I was really scared I was going to twitch or jerk and move my hand, so I tried to stay awake, which wasn't relaxing at all. The machine was incredibly loud and made weird noises (like an amplified ink-jet printer), but otherwise it was a fairly easy procedure. I visit the doctor to get the results on Wednesday. If it is a tear, I may have to have surgery to repair it. I hope that I don't, but I'll also be frustrated if he can't find a reason for the pain. I'll post the results next week.

Today, it's rainy and Kevin is feeling a little under the weather, so he's watching movies and entertaining the dogs while I do household chores. But we have great news: Trevor has been adopted! A couple with three kids came to meet him yesterday and loved him. They're very busy with sports and like to camp, so they wanted a little dog that they could take everywhere with them, and Trevor fit the bill (his super cuteness helped too!). They have 5 acres and an older dog, so Trevor should be in heaven. He needs to stay here until after his vet visit on the 6th, so we've arranged for them to pick him up on the 8th. It was in the 50s here yesterday so we took him and Gilmore for a walk, which they both loved.

My Next Car... someday

Around this time every year the world's automakers gather to show off their latest models and concepts. And around this time every year, I get to work on figuring out what "my next car" is going to be. I have no intention of actually buying a car, but I LOVE to look.
This year, I hit the big show, the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Sarah opted to stay home this year, unfortunately she doesn't share my passion for new cars. So my friend Matt Hood went along. We had a great time checking out just about every new car on the market and and what's coming.
The Chevrolet Camaro Concept is awesome, as is the new Dodge Challenger Concept .
But for me, I narrowed it down to a "Top Four" that I would like to own next. Sarah has reminded me that I am not actually going to buy one of these, but I love to look, so she indulges me.
So here they are, let me know what you think!

The 2006 Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan
The 2006 Mercedes Benz C230 Sport Sedan
The 2006 Volkswagen Passat
The 2006 Acura TSX

While you're checking out the TSX, take a look at what I found for "Sarah's next car," the RDX. It'll be out later this year
After doing some "research" when I got home from the show, I think I've decided on the TSX right now. I still need to talk Sarah into taking a test drive with me, but I think she'll come around.
Later.

Tiny Trevor

For those of you who haven't heard, we're fostering a dog through the animal rescue organization that Katie is involved with, HART. His name is Trevor, and he's a 10-pound, black-and-white terrier mix who's oh so cute and spunky. He and his brother Travis were at a shelter in Kentucky that was underfunded and understaffed and was going to have to euthanize half of its animals if they didn't get help fast. HART came to the rescue (literally) and took at least 30 of the dogs, including Trevor. His original foster home didn't work out because their other dogs were mean to little Trevor. So we agreed to take him in temporarily.

He's been more of a challenge than we expected, but we're enjoying him and learning a lot from him. He's not neutered, so he tries to mark his territory in the house, and he's not completely housebroken. We've got little pants on him in the house, and he's making great progress on the potty-training (cheese treats are a great motivator for dogs). He's also still getting used to his crate, so we had a few restless, bark-filled nights at first (Trevor would get Gilmore going, then they just fed off of each other), but it's going better now. Gilmore wasn't sure what to think of Trevor at first, but now they're great buddies. The cats don't seem fazed at all by him.

We'll have Trevor until at least February 6th, when he gets neutered, dental work and booster shots. But a lady with three kids is coming to meet him and possibly put down a deposit to adopt him this Saturday, so we're very excited. From this experience we've learned:

• We definitely don't want another dog. Adding one more into the mix suddenly makes our house feel like a zoo.
• We don't want to foster dogs in the future, but we're glad we were able to help with this unusual circumstance. We prefer our Save The Animals Foundation shelter work and giving to HART in other ways.
  
• Kevin and I have learned to work as a team and be nice to each other, even when we're sleep-deprived and stressed, which is harder than it sounds.
  
• Gilmore is a really great dog!

Here we go

Kevin and I always have lots of news and photos to share with our friends and family, but don't always find time to keep everyone up to date. We thought a blog would be a great way for us to share the day-to-day details of our life with our loved ones. We hope you like our little corner of the web and visit often!