Not as charming at Tom & Jerry

The appearance of a mouse at 7 Vernon Street in Brookline, MA in late 2004 was the reason our cat Sadie came into our lives. The idea was to introduce a natural predator to eradicate the rodent(s). Since that point we had never seen another mouse. But we had also never seen our cat sitting triumphantly over the corpse of one of those little buggers…until now.

Sadie practices predatory behavior.

We were relaxing and watching a movie in our house when suddenly a game of cat-and-mouse developed (in the the most literal way) right at our feet. Sadie stalked and chased the mouse around the house for 15 minutes while Trevor pondered intervention and Ashley danced nervously on our bed. Eventually we looked over and saw the result of the battle: the overturned body of a titmouse in need of disposal. It may have been the greatest moment of Sadie's life, or just the most confusing. Regardless -- Sadie 1, Mice 0.

Off-campus adventures

I'll try not to start every blog entry this year with an explanation about how crazy things have been, but it just doesn't seem possible that we arrived at Camp for our year on winter staff just three weeks ago. (With up to three different groups of camp visitors here each week, each of those weeks seems like 4 weeks in itself!). Amongst the busyness, we've been lucky enough to enjoy the company and setting of camp itself, plus have two days off each week to enjoy our new Southern California location.

A sunset in "Upper Meadow"

Outing #1 took us along a winding Highway 79, through the beer-brewing town of Alpine (beers sampled at Alpine Brewing Company included: Pure Hoppiness, Mandarin Nectar Ale, Nelson New Zealand IPA, Wily Vanilly and Captain Stout) on our way to San Diego, where we spent an evening/morning celebrating the 95th birthday of Ashley's Grandma. After a celebratory bottle of champagne (oh right, and orange juice), we headed to La Mesa, California, where Trevor's brother and his family live. Being close to Nathan and Megan and their three kids, Nolia, Donovan & Pippa, was one of the big draws of relocating to Southern California. These pictures can barely even attest to their sweet adorableness:

Donovan shows us how high he can climb.

Pippa plays with some boats.

Outing #2 was about 18 hours back in the California desert at Ashley's parents' house. Ashley's mom has recently started dog-sitting, and every other week or so, they have some pretty quirky 4-legged visitors (Sample: At Christmas, it was a Chihuaua, Cha-Cha and his Lhasa Apsa pal, Lulu.). This time around it was a beautiful Portuguese Waterdog named Sailor, and a truly ridiculous French Bulldog named Ruby. No, seriously. Truly ridiculous:

Ruby, a snorting, panting, altogether adorable French Bulldog.

We'll be out there even more, now that it's “cooling down” (read: barely cracking 100 degrees each day), and can hardly wait to meet some more of their furry houseguests.

Home sweet home

Our home at camp is St. Catherine's, affectionately known as St. Cat's. It is one of the oldest buildings on camp property, featuring a land line (key since our cell phones don't work), extensive wood paneling, and not one, not two, but three porches. Ashley lived in this house when she was on summer staff in 2001, as did her sister before her, and Trevor's brother and sister-in-law before that. Aside from all the Grahams, Wilcoxes and Graham-Wilcoxes, it's hard to imagine all the other residents this place has held. One from this summer left us Tupperware filled with cultured (pickled & spicy) vegetables, so Trevor's a fan.

We've been at camp now for almost 2 weeks - and eventful ones they've been! With training and a 4-day wedding extravaganza to host, we're not 100% settled in, but our DVDs are in place, Sadie has her favorite spots, and the fridge is stocked with California beers, so we're certainly on our way.

Sadie keeps an eye on the wild turkeys.

Thanks for keeping up with the blog - more pictures and details to follow shortly!