Clancy's first 2 days home

New Puppy!

Meghan and I finally found a reputable breeder who had a puppy old enough to fit our master plan for the next few years. What do I mean by master plan? Well, the sticking point relates to moving to our next duty station. We did not want to have to move with a puppy who was 6months or younger. This puppy is a black female labrador retriever that we named Clancy - Meghan's maiden name. She was born on Oct 26th 2005. She is 14 weeks old. This means that she has spent some extra time with her siblings, mom, and their breeder. So she in VERY well behaved and already knows a few commands (like sit and stay). She is also on her way to being housebroken. I'll post the pics a little later today. We're off to church!

More New Years Pics

A few more pics of Meg and I from New Years.

New Years in Dallas

Meghan and I had placed a deposit down on a puppy and intended to travel north to Kansas through Texas and Oklahoma to meet the breeder and litter of puppies. Unfortunately, the litter died of a virus. However, we'd spent our dough on a hotel in Dallas as this seemd like a good halfway mark for the trip up and the trip back. So we spent the weekend in Dallas. Their mass transit system looks like trolley tracks, but it's really just a train system with the "3rd rail" overhead.

We visited the Book Depository Bldg. - the one from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy. It was amazing to be standing in the same place where he took those terrible shots. History is amazing! Of course it was also very sad to see all the assasination-related info, memorabilia, antique media equipment - but it was very inspiring too to hear about Kennedy's big influence as President despite his short term in office.

This is the famous "grassy knoll." Do you see any suspects?



This is the exact spot where Kennedy was shot. I am standing on it pointing the camera up at the Book Depository bldg. The second window from the top all the way on the right is the one that Oswald took the shots from. The angle and distance are remarkable to guage in person.

They actually had 3 white Xs marked on the street to demarcate where the shots hit President Kennedy. So I stood on the closest one to the building to get this picture. The museum is on the 6th floor and the floor is arranged in certain places exactly the way it was the day of the incident. They even had boxes of books made to replicate the arrangement Oswald made so tht he had leverage, support and cover while shooting. Absolutely fascinating to see.

Engagement

DAWN AND MIKE ARE OFFICIALLY ENGAGED! Here are a few pics of when they announced it to us Christmas Eve!

Christmas on the East Coast

Here are a few pictures of the Christmas holiday. We REALLY enjoyed being home for the first time in the last 6 months. The other times we were home in the last 6 months, it stunk...

Seriously, we really missed our families and just the East Coast in general. Sometimes I think a Visa should berequired to enter and leave Texas - it is just a bit different from USA and planet Earth as a whole now that I think about it:)

Meghan refused to be the photographer at her house for Christmas Day and the rest of the time we spent at the Clancy's. I think she's afraid that if she takes excellent pics and loads them on the blog, then everyone may expect her to do it more frequently. Clever woman...
















Oh, did I mention that Billy Idol came to Christmas this year in Northport. We expected Santa Claus to pay us a visit, but instead it appears he sent us Billy. We were confused at first but happy just the same!

Random Sunset

From our back door we enjoyed this one a few weeks ago.

You can click on any of the images we post (including this one) in order to see a larger, more detailed version.

Christmas

This is our first Christmas tree as a married couple! It was not as fresh as the trees we used to get in D.C. for the last 3 years, but it did the trick. For anyone who is not aware. Meghan CANNOT wait to open presents. GASP and SWOON! I know, none of you believe it - Meghan, having a lack of patience? That must be a lie. Well, it's not patience she lacks (at least in this isolated case). Rather, she lacks the ability to shop for others without immediately wanting to see their happiness when they open these presents. So, we opened out Christmas presents about 1 week prior to Christmas. I know, we're going to hell...but at least we will have had fun on the way! It was a big surprise that Jasmine liked playing in the bags. Can you spot her?

Our tree skirt was handmade by Dotti Atria. It is absolutely perfect! We hope to have it for years to come. See below.

B&B

Following the Thanksgiving holiday, Meghan and I planned a short trip into the Texas Hill Country (northwest of San Antonio) to stay at a bed and breakfast for the night. The hill country is sort of like California's wine country except dryer and the hills are smaller and rockier - not quite as green and rolling. But it lends itself to wine-tasting, cute little towns with great bed and breakfasts, and a relaxing, affordable time.

We went to this "vineyard" that produces olive oil. Just like wine tasting, we were able to taste several different types of olive oil with snacks and breads for free. We also learned about the process of making olive oil. It was a unique touch to our little get-away. The company's website is below - check it out!

http://www.bvranch.com/firsttexasoliveoil.htm

The place where we stayed for the night we were there was run by these really nice people, Donna and Dave. Dave had a fantastic British accent, and Donna made us Eggs Benedict that were UNREPLICABLE...man were they good. The website for their B&B is below just in case anyone wants to see the place.

http://www.prowdhouse.com/

And, of course, here are a few pictures of us that weekend.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we were not able to go back East to be with our families. We had hoped to host some basic military trainees (BMT) for the holiday who would otherwise be stuck in the dorms for the holiday. Unfortunately, we went on the wait list and there were no BMTs that needed a place to go. So it was unfortunate for us but we were glad they all had other homes to go to.

Dad and Diana decided to come out to visit that week. They knew we would be in San Antonio for the holiday and had wanted to visit us before their trip to visit Katherine and Phil in Laos. And, they also wanted to visit some close friends of theirs in Austin, which is only 90 minutes north of San Antonio. So they made a week excursion to Texas. Here is a picture of our table, equipped with all the beautiful china and crystal that our family members and friends GENEROUSLY bought us for our wedding, engagement, and shower. It was stunning!


We also had some friends from work over for the festivities because they were also not able to go home to visit their families. Stephen and Kari Stouder are from California. Craig and Sara (soon to be married as the Bryans) are from Indiana. The Stouders and Bryans brought some of the dishes and we made the rest of the food ourselves - with guidance from Diana. Dad made some great garlic mashed potatoes. Can you believe that considering we made the food, that not a single guest died of food poisening or anything! Actually, the food was very good. Nothing like Aunt Mary Lynne's Thanksgiving Day cooking, but it was the next best thing. She let me use her recipe and gave me guidance over the phone a few times throughout the process. I carved the turkey for the first time ever, usually my 1st cousin Billy does it. I'm learning...

Skydiving

In November a bunch of the residents went skydiving through a connection we had to this one skydiving place whose employees were affiliated with the USAF. Meghan was the one taking the extremely professional photographs of every skydiver EXCEPT me.

THIS IS NOT ME (above) BUT THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I LOOKED LIKE...EXCEPT MORE PROFESSIONAL - OBVIOUSLY!
Meghan could not skydive because she had just had her laser eye surgery done a few weeks before. Damaging one's eyes just for a little fun just did not seem worth it. Can you blame her?

More camping pictures

Not sure if you can appreciate the colors of the foliage or the water in the river, but these are the best we could get. Also, late in the day it became rainy while we were on our hike and we snapped this picture before getting back to the campsite.

More overdue items

Jeannine - Meghan's friend from high school came to visit us despite the fact that she was about 4 months pregnant. It was challenging for Jeannine though. She had a hard time keeping up with us. You see, Meghan and I like to be adventurous - to live on the edge of safety and reason. Dare I say we like to live dangerously??? "What," you may ask "do you two do that can be described as such?" Well, the answer is that we are hard-core, die hard, cut-throat Scrabble players. I know, I know, one would never expect to hear such a racey thing out of my mouth, but it's true. So this is a picture of our Scrabble game. Oddly though, Meghan and I found out that we are the worst Scrabble players ever! According to Jeannine (a very intelligent teacher) we cheat constantly, and we're pretty bad at it in reality. She whipped us! We're still licking our wounds...

We also took a camping trip with our friends Craig and Sara. Craig is a fellow resident with us at Wilford Hall and Sara is his fiancee. This was a HUGE step for Meghan because given the "trauma" she experienced the last time I took her camping (lightning storm over our heads, sand in the tent...and everywhere else, hot summer weather) it was a miracle of God she actually agreed to go. Anyway Craig and Sara's dog, Chico, also came. It was in mid November and it was absolutely gorgeous! Garner State Park is the place. We were there for 2 nights. We even got to go swimming in the crystal clear blue waters of the river that ran through the park.

We didn't have much trouble getting used to the idea that in November we could still swim! One of the pleasantries of being in Texas... Actually this is really the only foliage that we saw change color. You can kind of see it in the background of the next few pictures. All-in-all it was a great trip. Meghan's largest complaint was the fact that three skunks came through our campsite - though none sprayed us! She also complained of the smoke from the fire going in her eyes. Then she had some complaints about the bathrooms being kind of dirty. Not having a t.v. was another commonly heard complaint from Meghan. Is anyone noticing a pattern here???

Long Overdue Pictures

Here are a few pictures that are long overdue. They date back to October when (Meghan's 1st cousin) Sara and her fiancee, Shannon, visited us from Washington D.C. We took the ladies out to a very fun bar called Howl at the Moon. There is a stage with two "dueling" pianists eliciting singing, chanting, drinking, laughing, drinking, smiling, drinking, drinking, drinking, drinking from the audience. Oh, did I mention that people there drink A-LOT? The first picture is of the ladies. The next one includes the friends who met us there to help show the girls a good time.

And of course, this was our Jack-O-Lantern for Halloween! Oooooo scary...