3/19/08 and 3/27/08 Elf and the Dog Beds

Any port in a storm . . . Elf will sleep in Benny's dog bed, in his own bed when it's stacked on top of Benny's dog bed, . . .

Elf has a new friend

I haven't made my bed yet. Look who Elf found to snuggle with. :-)

dogs at play

MRM came home one night and found this in the den:

That's the chandelier with a dog toy hanging from it. It has a little kite tail on it and it's meant to sail through the air, but who knew the dogs could throw it so hard and so high that it would get all the way up there?!

Saturday, 8/11/07: Adventure #3--Kayaking!

Yeeehah! Adventure #3 was my first kayaking trip! MRM and Creston loaded the kayaks on the car top. The plan was to leave both dogs at home, but as soon as Benny saw the kayaks going on the car, he jumped in. MRM kept telling me he loved kayaking but I thought that maybe he just put up with it. Now I believe her that he really loves it.

We went to Wilson Lake that is very nearby. It was near sunset, so the waters were smooth. Apparently, they had been rather choppy earlier in the day. We had to share the boat dock with some motor boats, but they were very kind about it. The look on their faces when Benny jumped into the kayak was priceless. MRM had to answer a lot of questions about her kayaking hound dog before we got out of there.

Kayaking is so fun! And so much easier than canoeing. I fell in love with it right away. We stayed near the water's edge since we didn't have lights on our craft. We got pretty far out when we saw this loon. We later saw another adult and a teenager nearby, so we assume it was all one family. None of the three of them ever did any calling, but some loon somewhere on the lake with a really loud voice made up for their silence. We listened to the call of the loon all the way back into the dock.

As we were loading the kayaks on the car, a family walked by. The mom stopped to talk to MRM and the other three went on. The mom wanted to know all about how to rent a kayak and how to learn how to kayak. The two of them talked for quite a while. I finally finished up my side of loading up and went around the car to where they were talking. "Meet my roommate," she said. "She works at UMF, too!" Turns out, the future kayaker's son is new to UMF this year and the family had come to help him get settled. Pretty soon, the rest of the family came back to get mom and she immediately introduced us to Brian, her son that will be in new faculty orientation with me. It may not quite be a full 5 degrees of Theresa Overall encounter, but it was a fun "small world" event.

Saturday, 8/11/07: Adventure #2--Flint Woods

From our local hideaway, we headed to our second adventure, Flint Woods. It was a flat hike through some piney woods. The dogs really enjoyed this one. At the summit, there were 2 lawn chairs sitting there in just the right place to enjoy the view. MRM said they're there year round. They were in really good shape. How cool that no one had damaged them or removed them. I would have loved to have seen the person/people hiking in carrying those chairs.

I took a picture of the "kindle no fires" sign because it cracks me up. Why not just say, "No fires"? It took a long time for me to even understand what was being said after I saw one of these the first time when I was snowshoeing. We so rarely use the word "kindle" as a verb in Texas.

Thursday, 8/9/07: French's Mountain

After MRM got home from work, she asked if I wanted to go on a hike. You bet! I actually had time to do something fun. During the spring semester, between it being my first semester and sunset being so early, I rarely did anything on weekday evenings but work. Whooop! Let's go hiking! Well, it's really walking in the woods . . . a tennis-shoe hike. I have to bring my hiking boots from Dallas for "real" hiking.

So we hopped in the car and took Benny and his new brother, Elfie, with us. We drove to the Belgrade Lakes area and took a 10 minute trail to this spectacular view:

The closer lake is Long Lake and the further lake is Great Lake. Supposedly, "On Golden Pond" took place on Great Lake. From someone else I heard that the opening scenes of the movie were from Great Lake, but the rest of the movie was filmed somewhere in New Hampshire.

Benny is a good role model for Elfie as to how to be a hiking dog. MRM still keeps Elfie (the little brown and white dog in these photos) on leash in the areas where a wandering dog could get into trouble, but Benny (the black dog in these photos . . . he's got enough Huskie in him to have one blue eye and one brown eye) knows how to stay on the trail.

Notice how big and smooth the rocks are. It looks like a paved path, but that's the natural rock. This sure ain't the Rocky Mountains!

March 25, 2007: But Wait! There's More

As if a 3 mile walk around the lake (with Benny and Cassie, the dogs, in tow) and all that traveling weren't enough, we went to a concert that night. It was actually MRM and I that attended and Creston joined us. It was really good. It was a concert by a French Canadian music group (which sounded an awful lot like Cajun music to me and they even played some Cajun music) with a local fiddling group as their warmup.

I saw Paul, who's on the Univ. Culture Comm. with me, at the concert. Turns out his daughter is one of the fiddlers. They're going to Ireland in a few weeks and this was a fund-raising event for them as well as a concert for us. The guy who plays fiddle in the quartet is a music teacher at the local school and the director of the Farmington Fiddlers.

The concert was in Nordica Auditorium at UMF, named for a famous opera singer from a long time ago. The acoustics in the room are fabulous and the woodwork throughout is gorgeous. I only wish the chairs were a little more comfortable. ;-)

I really enjoyed the music and even bought a CD!

March 23, 2007: Playing Hookey

Friday afternoon during class my phone rang. It was MRM. I had to silence it but couldn't wait 'til class was over to hear her message. I was hoping she had some fun plans for Friday night. I was thinking I would go to Faculty Seminar because it was going to be at The Homestead which is a great little restaurant.

SIDEBAR: The usual seminar leader sent an email that since only 4 people attended last week's seminar, there wouldn't be one this week. Well, she must've left early because when I got there there were 4 people there and then 4 or 5 more came throughout the evening. I thought it was quite enjoyable. Well, anyway, only a few minutes after that email came through, another one showed up that said "Faculty Un-Seminar will be at The Homestead at 4:30." I thought it would be fun to see who showed up for that.

So when class was over, I listened to messages as I was walking across campus. There it was: "Hi Roomie. Do you want to play hookey? RBF, Benny, and I are out walking and were thinking about going to Gifford's. We wanted to see if you wanted to go with us. I immediately called back to say, "YES!" but the call went to voice mail after several rings. I left a message then called the house but no one was there either.

About that time, my phone rang and I assumed it was going to be MRM but caller ID told me that it was Hank! Whooop! I took that call. I had been heading up to my office and had gotten as far as the front doors of the Educatioin Center but when I knew it was Hank, I sat down in the lounge in the front foyer of the building because I didn't dare want to lose the signal and I did want to sit in those comfy chairs and enjoy the phone call. We had a great conversation, well, it was mostly me telling him how much I was enjoying Maine, so I guess it was a little one-sided conversation.

Then my phone started making noises and I looked and it was MRM calling. By the time I figured out what it was and how to answer it, the call had gone to voice mail. So Hank I kept talking. I had been telling him how much fun it was to have a great roommate and that I felt certain that was a big part of why I felt so comfortable already in my new town, when the phone rang again. This time I told him who it was and knew how to answer it. Shwew! I caught her. She and RBF were 5-10 minutes away and would pick me up at the front doors of the Education Center.

I "swapped" back to Hank (that's the word that shows up on my telephone display to go back to the other call) and continued the conversation while walking up to my office to get ready to play hookey (are you supposed to plan ahead when you play hookey?). Unfortunately, I did lose the signal when I got to the stairwell. I tried calling him back but to no avail . . . I kept getting his voice mail. I went ahead and packed up my stuff and put on my coat and headed back to the front of the Education Center. Then I got the signal that there was a message and sure enough it was Hank saying how fun it had been to catch up and he would call again. I called him back and got voice mail and so I left a similar message. Next call I need to let it be one-sided on his side 'cuz I'm dying to hear all about seminary and to find out when his ordination will be so I can be there.

And then I waited for MRM and RBF and Benny. As I stood there, I saw one of my students that had NOT been in class just an hour earlier. He crossed the street and I was wondering if he had seen me and was avoiding me. Then a young man crossed in front of me and started looking around and then called out in the general direction of that young man and called out his name. Now he had to look in my direction, though he only looked at the friend calling his name. They both walked towards the corner but then had to cross back in front of me. I said hello and called him by name as he walked by. He just smiled and said hello back. Neither of us said anything about his missing class.

About that time, I heard my name being called! I looked behind me and there was the gang. The four of us walked to Giffords. I ordered a cup of the featured new flavor, Maine birch bark. It was vanilla ice cream with white chocolate chips, chocolate covered cashews, and caramel swirl. It not only sounded delicious but I could see how they named it birch since birch trees are mostly white with some black (the chocolate covered cashews) and lots of bumps in the bark (the white chocolate chips). It really has more of a black swirl going through it, not a caramel colored one, but then I prefer caramel to chocolate, so I was thrilled with their choice. And indeed, it was quite delicious.

MRM ordered a double cone with one scoop of the Maine birch bark flavor and one scoop of Grape Nuts. She liked the birch bark but thought it was too sweet. Then she let me try her Grape Nuts. She said people in Maine really like Grape Nuts. I wondered if this was like people in Utah and their lime jello. I tried the Grape Nuts but it tasted more like vanilla ice cream with Grape Nuts in it. Wait, that's what it was. I don't really care for Grape Nuts, so even though the vanilla ice cream was good, the overall flavor was not so hot.

MRM also ordered "a dogbone sundae" which is a cup with one scoop of plain vanilla and a dogbone shaped dog biscuit on top. That was for Benny! I knew this was a great place if they had a treat for doggies.

I saw one of my students in line after us. That's still fun for me to run into my students in different places. I think some professors don't like it or think of it as an invasion of privacy or something, but I think it's fun.

We sat on the benches for a while to eat our ice cream, then decided to eat while walking on the way home. The sun was setting and it was getting chilly. We had a delightful walk home and I was very glad I had agreed to play hookey.

March 15, 2007: a visit with the dogs

I was working in my office today and looked up to see MRM standing in the doorway. She and RBF were out walking the dogs and were "in the neighborhood." "Benny and Cassie are downstairs and would love to see you." So I put on my coat and went downstairs with MRM. There, standing in front of the Education Center was RBF with the two dogs. It was so fun to see them! But as soon as I stepped outside, my focus changed to the weather. It was really cold!

It was in the high 30's and raining when I left the house this morning, so I wore my REI windbreaker/rain jacket. Yesterday, the lows were in the high 30's, so I was fine walking home at night, but I already knew (it was about 5:30 when they stopped by) that I was going to be cold walking home even if I left right now. And I would be REALLY cold walking home if I left at my usual time. So I petted Benny and Cassie and thanked MRM and RBF for stopping by and went back to my office to finish what I was working on and pack up. I actually left my office by 6:15 which is really early for me and headed home in the daylight. It was cold, but not much colder than when I visited the dogs (and their people). Fortunately, what little wind there was was at my back. I made it safely home. I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have if I had stayed at work, but it was so nice to be warm inside and not have to worry about that cold walk home.

In Texas, we always say, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute." I said that once to one of my students who told me that's what they say about Maine. Today was my first time to witness that.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

A phone call from the luggage people at US Air woke me up at 7:30. I thought I must've set the alarm clock on my cell phone and that's why it was ringing. Fortunately, they called back after I "turned off" the alarm (a.k.a., hung up on them). I called Enterprise at 8:00 to check on my car. They transferred me to another office and that office told me that cars were coming in and they didn't have anything right away. I told them my plans to go shopping for warm clothes, so they offered to take me where I wanted to go while we waited. First stop Target, then I checked out A. C. Moore Arts and Crafts across the parking lot. Still no car, so they picked me up and issued me a temporary car. I went to Dress Barn (my favorite store but no plus sizes at this store), then DSW shoes (I had a coupon but didn't find anything I needed), then Catherine's (I found 4 things that were on sale and when I checked out, they were 30% off of the sale price: a sweater dress, a sweater and skirt outfit, and 2 pairs of pants for $104 including tax. Not bad!). Next was Macy's but no luck there. Then I had a late lunch at Weathervane, a local seafood restaurant. No lobster but the baked stuffed haddock was quite yummy. I next made a stop at AAA then to the airport to pick up my delayed suitcase. At 2:30, I was back at Enterprise and they had a car. It was his fourth choice of the cars coming in but I just didn't think I could wait until 3:00-ish for a PT Cruiser, a Dodge Vibe or whatever the third choice was. So I took a brand new Nissan Sentra that gets 40+ miles to the gallon and got on the road.

There was no snow in Portland but as I got closer to Farmington there was some old snow on the side of the roads and in the fields. I easily found the house. The dogsitter was in the house as promised. I met Cassie and Benny as well as the dogsitters dog, Laquita. The dogsitter gave me a tour of the house. It's fabulous: hardwood floors, big windows, beautiful wooden archways and door jams, staircase with wooden banister (and a knob like "It's a Wonderful Life" except this one doesn’t come off in your hand), and on and on. My room is the "front room" on the second floor. It's pentagonal!! There are two windows on the side of the house and a big window on the front of the house. My roommate has an antique dresser in there with 4 drawers and tonight we're going to move a single bed in there from another room. I unloaded the car (and hauled all that stuff up the stairs . . . I think I'll get more exercise living in this house) and put a few things in the dresser.

Sure enough, she got home and we moved the bed in there. I'm all settled in! (It's pretty easy to do when you only have 2 suitcases worth of stuff and a few Target bags. Tomorrow, it's off to WalMart! Then there will be more settling in.)