Hi Jon and Jill,
How's it going? Not much new down here. Jay's going to a bar class today and I'm going to a memorial service for the families of our anatomical donors from the fall. Last night I went out with the wife of a friend of Jay's--trying to meet friends. It was fun. She lived and worked in NYC for two years, so that's a bonus. I meet a lot of people who have lived their entire life in AL. Not that that's bad, but there is more to talk about when you know other common places (at least more for me to talk about, because I haven't quite experienced AL). Life will be much better down here once I meet a few people. But, it's starting to stay light longer and spring is definitely trying to make a comeback, so that makes me happy.
Well, that's it from AL.
Hope all is well.
And to everyone else, this blog post will probably be a thousand years old before you read it, but hello to you too.
Kristin

Picture request!! Send me some pictures! Post them on this site. I could use a BLD kid fix :)
They are growing so fast--I saw a few glimpses on the Papsdorf site (kudos by the way, I always know where to look for pictures of Caleb). But, I want to keep track of Aidan and Mary Grace and Wesley and Amanda and Caitlyn. And any others that are slipping my mind, but not intentionally. Keep us posted.

And Jon, I always like to hear from you. You can post a picture of you--that's about all I've got too.

Hope all is well.

Kristin

Papsdorf Update

Sherlock went to live with my parents for a while. Then he's going to move in with Dan and Tania. He'll have a lot more space and another dog to play with. We plan to reclaim him as soon as we have a bigger home.

Caleb is 14 months old. Check out new photos and fun stuff on our website.

All really interesting news ends up on Caleb's blog. Josh and I are very boring. At least, I'm boring and Josh is busy keeping up with all the paperwork involved in teaching two classes of Fordham students. You can check out his professorial rating. So far, so good.

Did you know the spell check here doesn't recognize "blog"? Strange, but true.

No one has posted on here in a while. What is up with that? Well things are pretty good with me. I am not married and I have no children (that I know of) or pets. So I spend money on myself. That is fun. Swim season is almost over, which will be a welcome relief. Work is going pretty well - the Patriots winning the Super Bowl is always good for business. Family is healthy and doing well also. What else? Not too much. It's quiet here today because Neil is traveling to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. Must be nice. That's ok - I don't mind holding down the fort in balmy Cleveland. Only a short time until baseball starts up, so all is good in the world. Hope you are all doing well. JH

The party was wonderful and we loved seeing everyone. Baby Wesley is a dream child and we pray all future BLD children will look to him for guidance on 10-day-old behavior. Mary Grace and Aidan continue to inspire Caleb. He's already doing the Hokey Pokey like Mary Grace and pushing the Swiffer like Aidan. Jason, it was a pleasure to meet you and we look forward to many more New Years parties with you. Doug and Anne, we look forward to the next gathering in your honor!

To the Blders with kids, take lots of pictures this holiday season. I enjoyed looking at Caleb's website yesterday instead of studying biochem. I enjoy the pictures so much--you cannot send enough my way, in case you were wondering. I wish that we could rent a kid for Christmas--that would make it more fun, I think. Coal (our dog) tries to fill in, but he doesn't get that the wrapping paper isn't food. I think the people who have gifts under our tree are going to have slightly interesting expressions when they go to pick up their presents and they are a little soggy and sticky...he's enjoyed licking and sniffing them all.
Anyway, I hope that you are all doing well. My family is coming to Bama for the holidays. Should be fun. Unfortunately, my grandfather passed away yesterday, though, so I'll be making a trip to PA right after my exams this Thurs. The big bummer of it was that my brother and I had a visit planned to see him this weekend, since he'd been sent home with hospice three weeks ago. For future reference, when they say X number of months, I don't think they really know. At first I was really frustrated, because when they said 6 months, I kind of took it as 6 months guaranteed. But, then I realized how dumb that seemed, because they can't guarantee that he won't get in an accident on the way home or fall or anything. But, I was disappointed. Not to bring the house down or anything. In fact, given how much of a toll it was taking on my grandmother and how it was inevitable, at least now she's not hurting herself trying to lift him and everything. So, there's a silver lining always, I suppose.

Anyway, back to my original intention. Send/post pictures. Jonathan, I'm sorry to hear about you and Lindsay. I liked her very much, but maybe it really is just an opportunity for her to gather her wits and she'll be back. You really never know. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Have good days,
Kristin

If anyone is registered with Pogo.com, look me up. My screen name is rabbitseasoning (it's the name of a Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck/Elmer Fudd cartoon). I play quite a bit so odds are you'll be able to find me whenever, but I'm always logged in during lunch (12-1) during the week. It'd be nice to play with/against someone I actually know. My Dad & I have played cribbage a few times.

Anyhoo, wedding plans are coming along nicely. I'm finally going to book the hotel & flights for the honeymoon this weekend. All the other big stuff is out of the way. Hopefully, you all received a Save-the-Date email a loooooong time ago, including those I resent it to. It's April 16, 2005, if you didn't know.

Anne & I will be in Philly/NJ on the 30th, so we can also pick people up at the airport on the 31st if necessary.

Jon, I apologize for posting a message in your blog without clearing it with you ahead of time. Hopefully Ohio State's thrashing of Michigan this afternoon has put you in a good enough mood to forgive my presumptuousness.

ha-doug

PS. The NHL is dead, long live the NHL!

What, do you all work all day long? No time to post on the BLD blog? I am just declaring a coup right now. This blog is now my personal diary, although I may grant the rest of you limited privileges to publish posts if you make a formal request.

For those of you who are interested, I have made my reservations for the New Years trip to Philadelphia. I will be arriving early in the afternoon on Friday, December 31st and departing late morning on Sunday, January 2nd.

Hopefully you are all coming. I have only missed one of these soirees, and Rob will forever be able to mock me for it. No, I don't have children to raise, but taking care of myself is probably more difficult than raising a precocious BLD child anyway. So be there.

OUT

Go Cardinals! It used to be go Red Sox when they were playing the Yankees, because the only team I dislike more than the Red Sox is the Yankees. (Such feeling of animosity are well-justified, I believe, especially considering that the Indians' payroll is around $40 million compared to a Red Sox payroll of $127 million and a Yankees payroll of a ridiculous $184 million.) Regardless, it appears that my powers as a fan are now spiraling out of control. I am unable to stop the Red Sox juggernaut that I created after the first three miserable games against the Yanks. Where were such formidable powers when the Indians were in the World Series in 1997? Why was I unable to overcome the dastardly Jose Mesa? These questions will plague me to the grave.

In an unrelated topic, I had the pleasure of visiting Conor Dugan '00 in Silver Spring MD this past Saturday afternoon. We grabbed brunch, I got to know his wife Laurel, and also got to meet his 2-month old Gianna. I then headed to Richmond to visit the Walshes. They prepared a wonderful meal that evening, but all that goodness was almost undone when we decided to play the board game, Battle of the Sexes. It is, quite possibly, the worst game ever. It did not help that Kevin and I were soundly defeated, either.

That is all.

Go Red Sox!

We even let Caleb stay up to watch. He clapped and danced with the best of them after the game. Then he got grumpy and we sent him to bed.

Happy Birthday to Dan Mazzucco today.

Given the frequency of my posts on this site relative to everyone else's, I get the feeling that these happy birthday messages are not an effective way to spread birthday cheer.

In Dan's case, that probably doesn't matter, since he is such a cheery guy to begin with. But it could have an effect on other people.

Hey Dan, is Aidan bigger than you yet? He was almost bigger than me when I saw you in February at Rob's wedding.

Happy birthday, Mr. Kevin Walsho. Hope you have a great day today. How is the new job going? JH

Too many people have birthdays around this time. Of course that is not a good excuse for forgetting to post a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our own Maurissa Horwitz on September 23rd. So sorry, Mo Dee. I hope you had a great day on your birthday and a great weekend too.

1) Congratulations, Kristin. That is exceptional news.
2) Happy Birthday, Rob - one day late, as always. Oh well. It's the belated thought that counts, right?
3) Congratulations to Doug and those silly Canucks for winning the world championship in hockey. too bad we may not be seeing any NHL games for quite some time though.
OUT

Congratulations Kristin!! That's awesome! Hope medical school is going well for you. You can tease them all that you're already a doctor...but that might not be the best way to make lots of friends.

Caleb had to go to the emergency room again this week. (He's fine.) Nine months old, two visits to the ER and he hasn't even started walking yet. Yikes. Josh says I have to get used to it because a) he's a boy and b) he's a Papsdorf. Apparently, Papsdorf men go to the emergency room a lot.

We just spent the afternoon with Rob and Devon, Ryan and Bo and Devon's mom and stepdad in New Jersey. Rob and Josh amused each other with stories of Lincoln (and other college antics). We hear they visited the Mazzuccos yesterday. Aidan went from crawling to walking in 60 seconds...It made us wish we could see them more often.

Kevin? Aren't you on vacation? Shouldn't we be hearing from you about the new place?