Davis 2008

Cheers!

Well, it looks like visiting Ben and Mary during Spring Break is becoming a Bennington tradition! We just returned from another lovely trip to Davis, California where my best friend Mary and her husband Ben live with their host of pets Leia (cat), Barley (cat), Guinea (guinea pig), and "Despy" (Desperado the snake). We spent 6 days with them in their magical land of endless parks and flowers; Davis was nearly empty (all the college kids were gone) and the weather was absolutely gorgeous - 73 and lots of sunshine. We spent most of our time playing Thurns and Taxis (a very tedious, yet extremely fun board game), eating good food, drinking good wine, walking our doggie, riding bicycles, soaking in the hot-tub, and Mary and I even got in a good game of tennis (well, we don't really know the rules but we managed to hit the ball back and forth a few times!) It was a delightful trip and we look forward to another one next Spring!

Back to School

I (Holly) am delighted to annouce that I will be, yet again, a student of French. During my final year as an undergraduate at UC Irvine I took three quarters of French and was enamored. I didn't really have the time (or energy) to continue it during my Master's program, but now that I am teaching Spanish part-time, at a college, in a Foreign Language Department... I can finally resume my passionate affair with la langue francaise! In fact, the class I will be taking next quarter begins right after I finish teaching, and is just down the hall! My plan is to take the entire 200 level, and then... qui sait?

Good Bye Pebbles!!!

We recently had to say goodbye to our 20 year old cat, Pebbles (she has been in my life since I was 9 years old). I "Googled" cat age conversion to human years and she would have been 96 years old if she were a human. Not a bad run at life for only seeing a veterinarian 3 times (once for a broken leg when she was a kitten, and twice in the last year). She will be dearly missed. I included some photos of Pebbles at Christmas 2007. The first is of Holly and Pebbles enjoying a glass of wine together. The second photo is of Pebbles with her catnip cat toy she got for Christmas. She chased that little fish around the house like she was a kitten. The last is of Pebbles stairing off into space (as she became accustomed to doing in her old age). Goodbye Pebbles, we love you and miss you. - RB

Memories of Our Chickens

It was about one year ago that we found an abandoned mama and baby chick by the Old Mill District and decided to take them home. Although we only had them for about 2 weeks (before we gave them to someone better-prepared for chicken children), we had many fun experiences with them. Here's Mama and Baby Bird bathing in the dirt, and a little clip of Baby Bird following me around in the backyard.

Jodi's Baby Shower

Jodi and Thomas (and the cake!)

The ladies working on their pages

Our scrapbooking efforts

Our friends Todd and Jodi from church had a little baby boy two weeks ago. Although a lot of couples find out what they're having ahead of time, Todd and Jodi wanted to be surprised, and now have little Thomas Ryan. We decided to have a baby shower for Jodi after she had her baby so we'd know if we should buy all-things-pink or all-things-blue:) So we all went to Amber's house today for the shower and had such a fun time! We had a delicious lunch, played a very fun baby-themed version of Catch Phrase, Jodi opened her gifts, and each of us designed a scrapbook page to make a little album for pictures of Thomas.