The Best Rowing Movie Ever Made...

Today Paul and I watched a movie we got from the Bloomington Public Library called Miracle at Oxford. The review on the back said it was "the best rowing movie ever made". I'm not about to doubt that claim, but it was pretty good. Since both Paul and I have rowed (and Paul at Oxford), we were probably a little more interested than most other people would be in the film. But it was still really neat to say "ooh, I know that street!" or "Hey, isn't that the butcher shop we liked?" It also had some interesting commentary on how Americans are perceived in the UK.

What was a really bizarre coincidence is that one of the main actors, Dominic West, also starred in Mona Lisa Smile, which was filmed at Wellesley College while I was a student there.

So now I'm thinking it might be a good time to watch Breaking Away again - that's the movie about bike racing in the Little 500 in Bloomington, Indiana. It's always fun to watch a movie about a place you've lived, and now that I've been in Bloomington for over half a year I should be able to recognize some places!

Thanksgiving in Indiana

This year it was just us, but we still went all out with the turkey and all the fixins. Even Binsey got to eat the innards.


Post thanksgiving, we had turkey sandwiches, turkey soup and turkey stir-fry. 13 pounds of turkey goes a long way between 2 people!

Right now I'm in the middle of final exams, which is all long papers I have to write. I just turned in my long theory paper today (I've got a short theory paper due later), so that feels good. What doesn't feel so good is that we're both coming down with a cold. I guess spending time around 40,000 or more students tends to spread germs no matter how careful you are. I'm just happy that libraries are now all online so I can be at home to study.

A note on Rhode Island from James Morone

For my Health Policy class, I've been asked to read Hellfire Nation by James A. Morone. So far, I've read the introduction, where he laid down this nugget:

"The Puritans...sent heritics packing to Rhode Island ('the latrina of New England,' even then)." (p 9)

Excuse me, Mr Morone? And you happen to be a professor at Brown University in none other than Rhode Island? What kind of comment is that? Calling your home state a toilet? And what does that make you?

Needless to say, I'm not too eager to read the rest of the book after that comment.

Sayonara, Grasshopper!

Binsey is an avid hunter. She likes to chase bugs, and until recently enjoyed eating them. Now, she just likes to pick them up, taunt them and then crunch them in her growing adult teeth. Here's one that she decided to sneak into the house in her mouth (still alive!). It lasted about a minute before she crunched on it and spat it out. So gross!



At least I know I'll have someone to kill bugs when Paul's not home.

Packing on the Pounds

Guess who's tipping the scales at almost 25 pounds now!


She eats so fast we have to give her her meals in that green/purple thing next to her. It's a food-dispensing toy that she has to push around to get her kibble. It's great because this way she has a "job" to do and it occupies her for up to 45 minutes - much better than the 15 seconds it takes her to inhale a meal from her bowl.

That's Pants!

You might not be familiar with the phrase "that's pants" since it's used only in the UK. It means "That stinks" or "that's awful". Well, it certainly applies to things around our house right now as Binsey is learning not to jump up on us. We took her to her first puppy kindergarten class this Saturday, and the trainer said she acts just like a normal puppy, but when she jumps up she also tries to bite and tug on our clothes, frequently ripping our pants. Not so much fun. In fact, that's pants!

And related to the puppy class, once again we were the only ones in the course. That sounds like a good thing, but really the classes are important for doggy socialization etiquette so you really want to have other "students". So the trainer gave us a private lesson, but signed us up for a different class that starts next week with at least 3 other puppies. We've already started to notice a difference in her behavior since that lesson, so we feel really good about this trainer!

Halloween

I can't believe it's November already! Halloween was pretty fun around here. We way overprepared with candy for trick-or-treaters because or neighbors said it's huge around here, but we still had about 150 or so come by. Boys seemed to be favoring spiderman costumes, and girls ran the range from princesses to Harry Potter.

Binsey, not to be outdone, was a bee

From Fall09

Paul was "karate man" (as some little boys called him) and I was Princess Buttercup.

From Fall09

Later in the night, Binsey had a hot date with Romeo...
Here they are laughing about something


Which led to some paw holding and noseing