Frankie!

My parents recently got a new dog and named him Frankie. Every time I hear his name I think of this old cartoon. This one is for Frankie, welcome to the family.

Texas

Way back in June I took a short trip to Fort Worth/Dallas Texas for another conference, where I presented another chapter of my dissertation. I didn't take many pictures on the trip as I wasn't really there for sight-seeing. The first two are from our motel (my dad and Rusty came with me). I thought the towel elephant was a nice touch considering it wasn't a very nice place and the chair in the lobby cracked me up.

I only took one picture as I was walking around campus and snapped the other two as I was driving away (which explains the quality of the pictures).

The last three pictures are of Rusty in his new bag, I have had the bag forever but have been reluctant to start using it as Rusty seemed quite comfortable in his old bag, but a Delta rep in the Las Vegas airport told me I really needed to change bags as Rusty had made a hole in the side of his old one- just big enough to stick his nose through.

Albuquerque

I recently (ok, it was waaay back in February) I took a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a conference, where I presented a chapter of my dissertation. It was a quick trip so I really did not get to see much of the town- but what I did see was beautiful.

Here are some pictures of Old Town-





















And here is cute Rusty waiting with me for the airport (or Sunport as they call it in Albuquerque) shuttle to come back for us after our flight home was cancelled. The ground was freezing and the shuttle left us waiting there for over an hour so I tried to get him to sit on my suitcase...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for Mr. Rusty and that my mom was willing and able to come celebrate thanksgiving with me. It's been a lovely day with tasty food and good company!

I think Rusty had a good day too-

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Normally I would post an adorable picture of Rusty in costume, but I have decided to forego that particular tradition as Rusty does not really seem to enjoy it and I felt a little mean, but perhaps next year I'll ignore his pained expression.

I also just had my first tricker-treaters- who goes tricker treating in an apartment complex? I was not prepared. Luckily I have fruit snacks so I didn't have to turn them away- but fruit snacks are a rather lame 'treat' to hand out. If Rusty had only been in a costume- his cuteness may have made up for it.

Rusty is a nester

Before-



After-

I'm an amazing photographer

Not really.

On a recent trip home I went to Swiss Days in Midway, Utah with my beautiful sister Robin. On the very lovely drive home I attempted to take a picture of Bridal Veil Falls. I say attempted because it turned out like this-


(Take note of the rearview mirror- if that was the whole picture it'd be much better).

Luckily Robin already had a picture of the waterfall and was nice enough to share it.



As you can see- she is a much better photographer than me. I wasn't a complete failure though- I did snap this amazingly cute picture of Rusty enjoying the ride (of course he makes that very easy by being so cute all the time).

The South

Recently one of my friends blogged about place-ness I've had some similar moments myself- most recently yesterday afternoon as I was walking Rusty. It had just rained and it was misty out and humid of course- but not unpleasantly so. It also didn't hurt that I was walking by Bassett Hall which is where the Rockefellers stayed when they began restoring Colonial Williamsburg.





The mistiness shows up a little bit better in this picture at the golf course-



And here is the obligatory picture of Rusty- here he is trying to sneak over to greener pastures- I'm not sure what he saw over there but it must have been very intriguing.



I've been dreading summer here. I've never been a fan of summer- the weather part not the vacation from school part (at least not since I can remember) and it's been even worse since I've lived here- summers here can be quite miserable. I had hoped to spend much of this summer at home but alas- one must work- and work I will. This summer is going to be an exceptionally busy one. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough money to pay the bills let alone cover luxury items- you know, like food. So in order to avoid standing on a street corner with a cardboard sign reading- "will lecture you in history for food" I signed on to 4 different teaching gigs- assuming that one or more of them wouldn't work out. Well right now it looks like they all are going to- I'll find out tomorrow for sure. I am really excited about the opportunities but I am also a little worried about managing it all!

Sorry- I got side-tracked there. I was going to say that it was nice to have such a pleasant walk and to enjoy living in the south. I will try to remind myself of that during the miserable summer months ahead.

Colonial Williamsburg

I thought I'd share some more pictures from my walks with Rusty- I kind of felt like I had posted so many pictures of our walks around CW that I had little new to share. But I am realizing that there are still many things that I am noticing for the first time or am seeing from a new angle and it has been kind of fun to start exploring all over again. And Rusty loves CW- so many interesting things to smell...

Lambs

It's springtime in Williamsburg, which means there is added cuteness to my walks with Rusty- in the form of lambs. Even Rusty will slow down and watch them frolicking. I was going to say play- but frolicking seems much more appropriate.


They are also cute when snuggling with their mothers-



Or when they are making new friends-




Ok, enough cuteness, back to reading about violence...

Checking in

I haven't posted for a while because I don't really have much to say and I've been preoccupied with school stuff- but I thought I should let you know I am still alive and well in Virginia.

Since I don't really have anything to say here are some cute pictures of Rusty enjoying his new pillow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am very thankful that my dad was able to come to Virginia for the holiday (Rusty's pretty excited about it too).

Now I just need to convince him that he wants to go to the White House of the Confederacy while he's here-I've been meaning to go for a while and it's always more fun with someone else!

Happy Halloween!

It's probably not fair that I dress Rusty up for Halloween, especially considering that I don't dress up myself- but thems the breaks...



In case you can't tell- he is a fish, though it kind of looks like he is being eaten by a fish.



And here he is curling up for a nap on his costume- so it serves two purposes- how handy!

Kill Devil Hills

My sister has been in town and I decided to drag her to North Carolina while she was here (she went willingly). I have been meaning to explore more of the East Coast since I moved here and have failed miserably- I really need to get out more. And recently a friend mentioned the Outer Banks and there was a lot of news coverage of it during Hurricane Earl- so that's where I decided to go. It wasn't really the best time to go to the beach as there was a fairly massive rainstorm yesterday and today but it was still beautiful. Here are some pictures....