Goodbye, Our Fine Furry Friend

Yesterday was the big day. After almost 4 years with Terris, we decided that the one-bedroom apartment life (with no yard) was not going to work. It was harder to give her up than we thought, but we are comfortable with her new owners--Aaron's family--and know she will have a good life.

Thursday we did a "tricks photo shoot." In about 10 min, I took 89 pictures. Here are a few of our favorites:

"Sit and stay." We're aware that every dog can do this, but Terris will seriously sit and stay forever, even if she has food right in front of her.

"Beg." Thankfully, the only times she did this was when we told her to.

"Stand." This trick was my favorite to watch. I felt like I was at a circus.

"Shake."

"High Five."

"Let me see your toe-toes." When Terris was an inside dog, she often came into the house muddy. Brady started saying this to her so he could clean off her paws before she ruined the floors.

"Crawl." This trick took her forever to learn, but now she can crawl all the way across the yard without standing up.

"Find it." Brady would often hide treats in our house, and later our yard, and make Terris sniff them out. She was pretty funny to watch, drooling all over the place. The treat she is sniffing out is in the branches.

Here's just a few more pictures for closure.

Things we'll miss: nightly walks, her crazy (although rarely heard) moan-of-a-bark, running with her, taking her to BBQs and to the park, playing catch, feeding her, petting her, wrestling with her, camping with her, and basically just thinking about her during the day.

Of course I could make a list of things we won't miss (like finding a dog-sitter every time we want to get out of town), but that seems a little wrong right now.

I guess we have to think of a new title for our blog...

The True Meaning of Easter

Yesterday, Brady and I, Roni and Coleman, and Coleman's parents got together for our traditional Easter Egg Derby. The derby involves a NCAA style tourney of competing eggs. To participate in your own derby, follow these steps:

1. Boil your eggs. Unfortunately, despite great care for this instruction, some of our eggs ended up a little mushy inside. They made quite a splatter on contact.

2. Decorate your eggs. This year, Coleman's mom taught us to use rubber bands.

3. Rank your eggs based entirely on looks. This year, Brady's egg won (see "Stripes" above), and was seeded as a #1 pick.

4. Sit across a short table, and push your eggs together. A scientific law states that only one egg will break on contact (unless they aren't actually hard-boiled, in which case they will splatter egg guts all over the table). The egg that does not break goes on to the next round.

5. Declare a champion. Here is the picture from the championship match between me and Coleman's dad. After never making it to a second-round, I actually took the title! We renamed my egg "Cinderella."

6. Enjoy a hearty feast of egg salad sandwiches, fruit, freshly squeezed strawberry lemonade, and the best chocolate cake we've ever tasted.

The Most Expensive Brownie We've Ever Had

And no, we aren't into "special brownies."

Tonight we went to Matt and Emily's for brownies as sort of a last family hangout. Unfortunately we did not double-check the signs, and parked in a tenant space instead of a guest space (one space short of guest parking). $121 later, we retrieved our Altima.

You know, this sort of thing wouldn't be as irritating if it was the first time. Sadly, though, it is not. When Brady and I were dating, Brady was towed from his OWN COMPLEX. Then it was only an $80 blow. We were told that the raise in prices was due to "higher gas prices." I'd say!

Just One More Reason to Avoid Chiropractors

Check out this kookie fellow:

Chiropractor Claims to Travel Through Time