The Sights, The Sounds, and The Rest

Hello to everyone out there!

Hope you are having a happy Halloween. Ours this year has been pretty quiet. We had two groups of kids come all night, so we get to have A LOT of leftover candy this year.

For those who noticed the change in the slideshows to the side, we uploaded a lot of photos recently. We finally uploaded the photographs from Jeff's birthday in Monterrey and San Francisco, plus we uploaded the photos from our recent trip to Seattle. Yes, October has been a very busy month for us.

First off, we have a new addition to the furry family. Jen's coworker had a pup that needed a home and thought we might be a good fit. Jen had wanted another dog to protect the house, and even though this was a puppy, we thought we would give it a try. Jacob (Jake for short) is a good fit for our dog-family. He is almost 8 months now, and is just a little smaller than Fox (but he is already heavier!) He is mostly husky but his face looks a little pit bull-ish. He is super sweet to us, but already is protective of the house and his friends. He also gets along great with Christopher, but bonded with Fox immediately.

The week before we left for Seattle, we found out that a lot of Food Network stars were touring the country and coming to our part of California for book signings. Within a week, we got to meet three of our favorites: on Monday we met Guy Fieri at his restaurant in Dublin. On Tuesday Jeff got to meet Alton Brown in San Francisco, and was a good sport about taking Jen to see him on Wednesday in Palo Alto. That Friday, Anne Burrell was also in Palo Alto at the Stanford mall, so Jeff met Jen up there for the signing, then had dinner in Palo Alto.

Then we went to Seattle. For those who wonder why, there were a few reasons. The biggest is that our anniversary is in November, but traveling then would not work. It's very close to Thanksgiving, and the weather likely would not be any good for us. So we opted to go to Washington in October. It was very much fall weather, and although it sprinkled a little at times, we had so much fun. We visited the local temple, went to the space needle, Tacoma, and even spent some time hanging in the hotel. The hotel was a studio-style room with a kitchenette that had a decent fridge, microwave and stove. During happy hour one cold evening, we hung out next to the fireplace in the lobby reading and munching in cookies that the staff baked for the guests. Washington was very beautiful, and we even got to play with Jeff's new camera. For a birthday/anniversary/Christmas present, we cashed in three years' worth of gift cards and points to get the camera, a Nikon D5100 with a telescopic lens and a nice backpack case. You can see how nicely the camera works by the photos, particulary of the temple and the space needle.

Aside from our travels, the same is still going on. Both of us are plugging away at school, as the terms are getting closer to ending. Jen is also starting National Novel Writing Month tomorrow, where the goal is to write 50,000 words in a month, so we will see how she does this year.

Until next time...

A Sneak Peek of What's To Come

We've had a busy couple of weeks in Perryland, both the week before our trip and the week of. We're still in Seattle (hence the change in background) but wanted to give you a sneak peek of our trip. Ready?

A visit from Alton Brown...

A puppy named Jake...

... and the view from our hotel window.

But you'll have to wait until we get home for the complete details!

Brief But An Update

Yes, we still exist!

There has been a lot going on in our hectic lives as of late, so we decided to go ahead and throw out another update.

Jeff has been getting better. His stomach issues are fairly resolved but he is still being seen by a doctor. There is no exact diagnosis and what he had could have already resolved itself, but still we are keeping an eye on things. He is also continuing to progress with school: So far his classes are going well, despite having four classes, work and everything else! Work is getting to be crazy; a lot of his staff have left for full-time jobs or school, so there is a bit of craziness there, but all otherwise appears to be well.

Jen has had an interesting few weeks as well. She has gone to the dentist a few times and come back in pain, unfortunately. Although she likes the dentist, her mouth just isn't used to being messed with! To make matters worse, last week she had a slight cold and had to stay home from work. Fortunately, she was able to get a lot of it done from home and only took one sick day (the day for the dentist). School is also going well. She just finished her third class and, although she doesn't think she got an A like in her other classes, she was just glad to get through it. It was a pretty tough class for her. Right now, she is only in one class with a professor she has had before, and she enjoyed being in his class, so she's anticipating getting back into her groove and getting her A again. She is also starting her next class next week, a research-based course, and her advisors have told her that her background and work will likely benefit her in this class, which is supposed to be one of the more difficult. She should finish her first class before our anniversary, and her newer class will be the last for the year! Next year she will have only two classes, one of which is an observational course, but probably just as much work!

We are also going on our anniversary trip early this year. Our actual anniversary is Nvember 17th, but we have been toying with the idea of going to Seattle. A lot of thought went into this. We both need the break, and going to Seattle is not an option in November. The idea first hit us on our way back from Utah. We had a 30 minute stop in Seattle and the skyline intrigued Jeff. With more research we fou d there was a lot that we could do there, so we decided to give it a try! We leave Thursday the 20th and come home on Monday the 24th, and this will probably be the last trip of the year.

Well, time to wrap this up. We hope all is well with everyone and hope to catch up again when we return!