Another Happy Belated Birthday - Cousin Andrew

This past Sunday was my cousin Andrew's Birthday. He is my favorite elder male, cousin from England (tough category to win first place in). Here is my photo tribute to Andrew:


He has the navigational skills of Magellan.


He puts Martha Stewart to shame in the kitchen.






He is a connoisseur of fine foods, like ice cream and cookies.


OK, I don't know what this pictures says about Andrew or my dad. Oh well, he once caught a fish that was this big.


I hope you had a great birthday and I hope they let you eat the entire plate of cookies this year.

Happy Belated Birthday Bogey!

We almost forgot an important birthday; Bogey turned 1 the day before my birthday, September 6, 2007. Happy Birthday Bogey or as Becca says Bow-bow or Badgie. It’s amazing how big she has gotten. She could fit in the palm of your hand when we first got her. I think she now weighs 23 or so pounds. She’s actually much bigger than Sandi now.

Bogey on October 21, 2006


Bogey with her brothers and sisters.

Bogey September 19, 2007.

Sandi and Bogey are good friends now. Bogey will scratch Sandi's back for her, which Sandi loves. Originally they weren't so friendly.


This use to be as close as they would get to each other. Now they sleep ontop of one another.

Back to the Grind

So, a lot has happened since I last blogged. We lost our little house guest (who I like to call Satan Dog – a.k.a. Lola).

Peter, April, Kayla, and Sophie had a great time in Portugal.

Heather, Sandi, Bogey and I just returned from our mini-vacation to Baltimore and Ocean City. On the way down we stopped at my old Alma Mata, the Johns Hopkins University, on Saturday.

Heather and the dogs resting on the upper quad on a really hot day - 94 degrees and humid.

We all walked around campus and it has changed quite a bit. The quads around each undergrad dorm are now gated with security guards; they use to be open where just anyone could walk up to any dorm. The closest I have ever been to being homeless was living in my fraternity house for my junior and senior years. Here is proof of how bad it was.

(Alpha Delta Phi House and our old rusting grill – 2000)

I was glad to see that Hopkins has contributed to the beautification of Baltimore by tearing down my old fraternity house (coincidently the rat/mouse population in Baltimore has decreased recently). It looks like they will be making a new apartment or a parking lot on the site.

(Former Alpha Delta Phi House – 2007)

If you know me you know that I love hamburgers, in particularly Fuddruckers Hamburgers. Heather and I went to Baltimore to see an Orioles vs. Red Sox game but to also have a Fuddruckers Hamburger. When we got to the Inner Harbor to have our Fuddruckers burger we discovered they weren’t there anymore. This was not an auspicious start to our trip. My birthday was on Friday and Heather got me the best birthday present available – a good old Red Sox butt whoopin. The Orioles thrashed the Red Sox 11-5. The big blow in the game was a grand slam by Scott Moore, a rookie. It was Moore’s first hit and homerun as an Oriole. The bonus to the night was that the Yankees won and the Mariners lost.

Heather getting the sand out of her sandels.

A nice calm day on the Maryland Coast.

Part of my birthday present from Heather was that I got to golf a couple of times while I was on vacation. I played Rum Pointe and Nutters Crossing. Rum Pointe was really nice, you could see water from 17 of the 18 holes.





Along with real golf Heather and I played some mini-golf.





Look at what happened to the sky while we were playing.

Heather and I tried walking back during a lull in the storm, but it started coming down again. I got soaked running back to the hotel to pick-up the car while Heather was able to wait in a store. On the bright-side I ran the 0.7 miles back to the hotel in really good time.

It's hard to see in the picture but the rain is literally coming down sideways.

Happy (Early) Birthday to Me!!!

We went over my parents house to celebrate my 29th+1 Birthday! O.K. I guess it's really my 30th Birthday.
Everyone was there Vicky, Rich, Becca, and Richie. Becca was kind enough to help me blow out the candles on my cake (I really think she thought it was her cake).



Above you can see how excited Becca got when we told her we were having cake. But, Becca was really excited to see Bogey again, she loves Bogey. They were playing tug-o-war.




Becca was winning here.


But it looks like Bogey eventually won.