Kinako cruising

Not the best pictures I took that night, but definitely the funniest. Scoot's pug Kinako riding a toy horse. I can only imagine how she trained her to do this.

Catching the breeze on the tongue

Check out that pimped out ride 

Barn Life

Stephanie came to visit me this weekend in order to break up semester apart in half. Yesterday we drove to Veedersburg, Indiana to visit her old horse trainer. You may remember that last time we were there, Steph's cat Ninja decided that he'd rather run wild than live in my apartment in Champaign. Well around Christmas time, he showed back up at the barn and has been living there ever since. He now goes by the name Tux and is living well off of barn mice and birds (and actual cat food now and then). Steph and I are happy that he is living a life he seems to enjoy and that he can exercise his killer instincts on real prey instead of us. Steph and Ms. Leitha chatted a lot about horses, while I spent most of the time taking pictures.

Scooter chills in the barn

Toma/Sneakers/Ninja/Tux living wild among the green peppers and basil

Summer Stroll

Somehow in the four years I attended the University of Maryland, I neglected to pay a visit to Lake Artemesia, so Natasha and I took an afternoon walk around the lake and snapped some shots. It would be a great place to do a portrait shoot if it weren't hot...so I'll have to go back someday. Because Alina was upset that I didn't take many pictures of the horses at Assateague, I made sure to get some shots of the geese and goslings that were also taking a walk on the path.

Lake Artemesia

Roll Call

Baby Steps

Taking a Break

Monkey Business

Joe and I did not spend our last night in Champaign-Urbana packing and sleeping in preparation for a 12-hour drive the next day. First, some ARCHies and MATESLers (and Derek) had burgers at Firehaus. Later, there was a kidnapping, field goals in Memorial Stadium, surprise serenades, and a puppy. I won't go into too many details, but at the end of the night, we hung out at Lauren's, had some drinks, played some games, and enjoyed the company of Monkey, her poodle.

Monkey and Lauren looking sharp

Monkey is really excited about something

Monkey and Joe get comfortable

Easter in Lakewood

I drove up to Lakewood, IL (near the Wisconsin border) to spend Easter with my cousin Jane and her family. It was nice to get away from Champaign and see them. I hadn't seen Ate Jane in 4 or 5 years, and Tori was only a baby then.

Milo (left), Ate Jane's dog, says hello to Scoobs

Tori (Ate Jane's daughter), enjoys the nice weather.

Rainy Museum Day

The forecast called for rain for most of spring break in the Bay Area, so Steph, Vlad, Alina and I spent a day at the California Academy of Sciences museum in Golden Gate park.

It can be easy being green.

Fishies!!

Embrace

Ok, it's been a while since I've posted. I'm going to blame the furious laziness that comes with the realization that I have 15 weeks of school between now and summer break. I haven't had much occasion to take photos--I wanted to mark the coldest day of my life (Friday) with a photo, but I didn't want to take off my gloves to tweak the settings, so the day will have to remain in my memory.

I'd talk about how today I attempted to run with my new Garmin watch for the first time or how yesterday Joe and I made a massive beef stew, but this is neither a running blog nor a food blog. Instead you get pictures of Mica's dog and tango.

Aileen & Bodger

Kuru and Windy

One more night...

I'm heading back to Champaign tomorrow. To be honest, I'm more excited about my awesome boarding number (A20 woot!) than actually flying back to Champaign. However, I welcome the idea of having productive stuff to do every day. I've been sitting around too much.

Here are a couple shots of my last night hanging out in DC.

Glenmont Metro

Amanda and Leela