Stress-Free Vacation (Mostly)

Taking the easy life for the last few days in Vermont has been wonderful. I miss my Monkey so much, but not changing diapers or having to wake up at 4 AM for an entire two weeks have made it worth it. After a flurry of packing on Monday morning (and then an unfortunate pissed off twenty minute wait for a man to come move his double-parked car so we could actually get out of NY), we finally hit the road. Rupert promptly threw up (de rigueur), but since we were stopping quickly by Alix's father's house, we were able to clean up and drive the next six hours without any more emissions. Unless you count Tucker's frequent howls as emissions, in which case, our six hour drive was full of them. We stopped in Northampton, MA as a halfway point and ate lunch at one of my favorite old college haunts, indulging in shawerma on lavash (I know, not very vegetarian of me, but I've literally been dreaming of this lunch since I left college in May). After a quick walk through campus for Rupert to do his business - this included semi-frequent fawning by current students over his excessive cuteness - we were back in the car and heading further north. The snow started about an hour later and continued, getting worse and worse until we finally arrived around 7 pm (although it felt like it was at least midnight). Exhausted, we scarfed pizza and fell into bed.

The next day, though, we were up bright and early to shovel the entire driveway - take that Jillian Michaels! I don't need to do your workout twice a day if I burn 311 calories per hour shoveling snow! We did some grocery shopping and then allowed Rupert out for his first true romp in the snow.

He LOVED it. He couldn't believe how high he had to jump to get through it (a foot of snow is practically chin-level for him) but also how fluffy and utterly romp-able this delectable white stuff is. Alix and I had a blast watching him run off-leash, for once, and having the time of his life. And then, tragedy struck. Rupert, despite having previous experience with water at my parents' house, seems to forget that it is not land and found himself unfortunately tumbled into the semi-frozen pond next to the house. We sprung into calm, efficient action: Alix waded thigh-deep into the freezing water to grab our gasping puppy while I held tightly to the back of her coat to prevent any additional swims. She passed our soaked pup to me and we ran into the house where we dried him with towels and cuddled by the fire until he crawled shamefaced off my lap to go chase the cat. Clearly a full recovery was had.

We did our Jillian Michaels last night and will do it again today, probably twice. We're still doing Level 2 since we took such a long break from working out at all. Also, we're both scared of Level 3. I think I might die doing it and that wouldn't be so fun. The plan is to do Level 2 for the rest of this week and then see how we feel about moving on to Level 3 once we are back in the big city (where there is no snow. Sad.)

As a side note, thanks for reading everyone. I love writing this, and I hope you like reading it. Hope everyone's holiday (and finals!) season is going well so far. XO