I’m getting ready to call it a night.  The house is clean and David’s winding down (he usually stays up later than me, but tonight I’m waiting for him). 

We had Pastor and Daisy over for dinner tonight – what a sweet time!  I love those two so much, and have been wanting to spend some time with them for a while (personal time – not time in passing after church or during a big event with folks surrounding, but honest-to-goodness quality time).  It was good timing, too, I think.  For us and for them. 

It’s been a rough week.  Janet, this funny, sweet old woman from church, died Wednesday.  It was unexpected, and we’re all missing her already.  The funeral was sweet – was joyful, in many ways – but it was still a funeral, a goodbye.

I was glad to have Tom and Daisy here – it was a chance to relax, to be in quiet fellowship - and to laugh!

—

We just moved the dog’s crate into the basement (it had been in the dining room, but I hated it there, in the room where we eat and have company) and tried to get him to go down and get in it, but that didn’t work out.  At first, he wouldn’t go downstairs.  Then he whined and whined.  Then it dawned on us stupid humans that the poor dog probably thought he was being punished.  Dark, quiet, alone… this is the most effective time-out environment for dogs, say all the books.

So we moved the crate back upstairs – now, it’s in a corner next to the piano.  Still out in the open, which I don’t like, but nestled into a relatively unobtrusive spot in our least-used downstairs room.  We’ll see if he likes this any better (I’m betting he will – he’s never really liked the basement).

Wish us sleep.  We may not get any (because we’ve changed Jake’s sleep environment).

This has been a funny week.  I have another story. 

We went “camping” this past weekend.  A friend was finally finished with a semester of a full-time grad school program, taken while working full-time.  As a celebration, she decided to organize a group of friends (10) for a camping trip.  She had her heart set on Turkey Run, so made reservations at a campground just outside the park.

David and I were the first ones on the road.  Which meant we were the first ones to the park.

We pulled into the campground at Turkey Run and asked the woman at the gate if she had reservations for our group.  She said no, and that they weren’t taking reservations at all.  We pulled out the piece of paper with directions, saw the name of the place we were supposed to find, and asked her how to get there.  She pointed us up the road.

We drove up the road, passing a canoeing outfitter we recognized (a couple of years ago, we went canoeing with another group of friends, and rented the canoes from this place).  Just past the canoe place, we pulled into a gas station.  We were stopping to ask for directions (we had been out in a state-parky area, but now it looked like we were driving back into a town – we’d just passed a high school), but lo and behold…  There, in front of us, stood a building with a sign proclaiming that it was the place we were trying to find:

… the “Up the Creek Boat-ique.”  (Yes, we made faces, too.)  This place’s decor was Hooters meets Cheeseburger In Paradise – painted fish totem poles, fake ponds, light-up palm trees, music piped over the speakers…  (It’s actually a neat little place – just not quite what we expected for a camping trip.)  We were… suprised… that Bethany reserved camping sites here.  We thought, “Surely we won’t be camping HERE!”  Yes, we would.  And don’t call us “Shirley.”

Here’s David’s I’m-so-excited-about-this-place face:

We walked into the store and asked the teenager there if she had reservations for our group.  She called an older woman over and, laughing, said, “There’s some tent campers wantin’ to know if they’ve got reservations here!”

We asked a few questions, told her Bethany would be along shortly to fill out the form (who knows what was on it?), and they gave us directions to the campsite.  Relieved because it sounded like the campsite was a distance away and secluded, we took off in the car. 

30 seconds later, we arrived at the campsite.  Which was the backyard of someone’s [abandoned, now] house.  The yard was fenced in by trees and barbed wire.  You could see the canoeing outfitter through the fence.  You could hear traffic from the school/roads.  You could hear sirens from the town.  And you could see that bright orange, light-up palm tree from anywhere in the “campsite.”

David and I laughed for the entire first half hour.  Here’s our tent site, which was at the far back corner of the yard:

It was the funniest “camping” trip we’ve ever been on.  Bethany got there and was mortified - turns out the website and the lady on the phone did a good sales job.  Beth had already paid for the sites, so we all “camped” there.  We had so much fun (both just being together and teasing her – she’ll never live down her reputation as “event planner”) – what a great way to end a tough semester!

It’s smelly in here.  =) 

I’m dogsitting for the Gardners, and Jake and Chopin have been playing for over an hour.  They’re both hot and panting, and our house smells like dog. 

Not that I mind.  It’s fun for me – the more the merrier, as long as they’re not trying to kill each other.  These two are getting along well (as long as Chopin doesn’t eat or drink in front of Jake). 

I’d take pictures and post them so you could see these two playing, but my camera is broken.  Don’t know what’s up, but I can only take or look at a couple of pictures before the camera’s software locks up.  Nothing I try fixes the problem!

=(

I’ve been shamed into posting again.  =)  But guys, now that I have a dog, it’s more fun to spend my spare time OFF the computer.  Especially since I work on one every day, all day long.

I think the only really interesting and out-of-the-ordinary things we’ve done lately happened the last couple of weekends.  We had a couple of football-watching shindigs – for the AFC Championship game and for the Super Bowl – where 25-30 people (at a time) crammed into our house for dinner and the game (or to play games – turns out we had several games of chess, some Jenga, some Fluxx, and some Cities & Knights of Catan going on).  We ended up bringing two extra TVs for the big game because there were so many people here that we just ran out of chairs, sofas, floorspace, and standing room in the living room.  (Jake LOVED the crowd.)

Before the games, because I got a raise, David and I were, then weren’t, then were, then weren’t, then were, then really weren’t going to and so didn’t buy a bigger TV.  We just had folks watch the games on our 15-year-old, small, but perfectly fine, TV. 

I loved having people over, even though it was a lot of work.  I like being surrounded by the people I love – it makes me feel connected in a way I need.  I think I get that from my Mom.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it.  It’s been blisteringly cold here, and it looks like the temperature will just keep going down.  It started snowing this afternoon and already there are 2 or 3 inches on the ground with no sign of stopping.  David had class in Anderson today so he’s staying the night.  I have a deacons’ meeting later – it’ll be fun getting out in that mess…

But, on the plus side, Jake loves the snow.  He short-haired and skinny so he gets cold quickly, but he loves running around out there.  Check out my flickr pictures (flickr.com/photos/taukerman) to see a couple of new dog pictures.  I’ve finally been able to take a few that show you what he’s really like.  =)

We had a *stack* of people over here on Sunday night. 25 or so. This get-together accomplished two purposes: 1) it was our 2nd annual pumpkin-carving extravaganza with the Gardners (and expanded to friends and family from all over), and 2) it was a great opportunity to show off our house, to give everyone the “tour” at once. =)

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, so I won’t spend time talking about the shindig. (I disagree with that saying, by the way.) Here are some photos:

The first bunch

 
Trogdor rage (he did a Trogdor pumpkin)

 
Racoon rage?  (she did a racoon pumpkin)

 
one of my favorite pictures.  this is one NEAT kid.

 
Robin’s yuck-this-is-gross face

 
mmm…  this was Rosita’s (left) first pumpkin carving experience.

 
Trogdor and Rather Dashing

 
my very favorite pumpkin design – James’ Zim and Gir.  isn’t this amazing?!

 
Most of us.  Check out James’ head (on the coffee table)!

We went on a camping trip this weekend. I’ve been trying to post about it for a couple of days now, but more urgent things like sleep, church and work keep coming up. Hopefully, though, you’ll enjoy the pictures. =)

We (our good friends Steve and Rachel Elwood, and David and me) have been talking about going camping for a month or so, and when we first discussed it, set aside this past weekend as the date to do it. We Aukermans slacked on the planning, though, so the Elwoods picked up the slack the day before we left. We went to an Indiana State Park none of us had ever been to before:

On our way to the park, David and I stopped and bought bicycles (and a bike rack for the car). We’ve been talking about it for a long time, and since mine got stolen, neither of us has been able to ride. We thought it would be nice to have bikes for short trips to the Roger (our local Kroger’s K doesn’t light up at night, so we call it the “Roger”) and a great way to get some exercise, and since S&R were bringing their bikes, we thought, “what better time than now?” We LOVE our bikes, and loved riding them this weekend. We also realized that we’re a little out of shape. =)

Because we waited until the last minute to reserve a campsite, the only available sites were electric… Meaning running water, warm showers and flushing toilets about 50 yards from our tent. We didn’t really rough it, though we were truer to the term “camping” than our neighbors, who were all in RVs watching TV. =) Here are a couple of pictures from the campsite:

Steve playing the guitar

Rachel listening to her hubby

David unwinding after a long bike ride

We biked over to the Camp Office to see about renting a canoe and a couple of kayaks (the park’s website advertised them), and found out that all they had to offer were rowboats and paddleboats. We rented a rowboat, thinking it would be better than not being on the water. It was… interesting. Rowboats are infinitely slower and less maneuverable than canoes and kayaks. Our aspirations of exploring the [big] lake quickly dulled to just making it to the other side of our little leg. =) We had fun, though:

Steve taking his turn

Putting his back into it

Rachel enjoying the ride

Dave taking his turn

We made our way to the other side of our piece of the lake and pulled out on the tiny beach there. There was a steep bank just above the sand at the edge of the water that we climbed – at the top, there was a pretty grassy area, and a neat path into a wooded area:

(switching camera from manual to automatic = washed-out image)

We had a great time this weekend. =) I never remember just how much I love camping until I get back from a trip. Hopefully we’ll get to go again this season. We’ve got a busy few weeks lined up – hopefully it won’t get too cold before we find ourselves with a spare weekend again.

We visited our friends Jason and Robin last week.  They’ve been a little out of the social loop because they just had a baby, so we thought we’d drop by with some pizza and soda and socialize a little.  David got to feed Autumn Elizabeth, who is the tiniest baby I’ve ever seen.  She’s gorgeous (and he’s not so bad looking himself):