Auburn Weekend #?...I can't remember.

This weekend I made a quick trip to Auburn for Katie's baby shower and birthday weekend. Katie's a leap year baby so she didn't officially have a birthday this year. The shower was really nice, and Baby Auden got lots of nice outfits and toys. Jill, Tiffany, and I counted a dozen bottles of champagne, three types of china on the buffet, two sets of antique doors around which the house was built, and about four dozen women with thick and mesmerizing Southern accents. It was a true Southern shower.

After the shower, we changed clothes and ate Big Blue Bagel for lunch and shopped a little at GAP. Then we saw Katie's new house which is great. Auden's room was freshly painted and looked like a perfect nursery. Next was a quick visit with Meg and Hollan. We celebrated Katie's birthday by going to Perch (a jewelry making store) and Amsterdam Cafe for dinner. Yum. An action packed and fun day in Auburn.

Me, Tiffany, Katie, and Jill at Katie's fancy baby shower.

The loot!

Holding Hollan...she's gotten really big.

She loves me.

Tiff and Hollan.

The girls at Perch for Katie's birthday. Perch is a store where you make your own jewelry.

Katie making her necklace. Looks like she's bending wire in order to connect a bead.

Tiff was the first one done. She make some awesome earrings.

Jill working on stringing her pink pearls onto a silk thread.

Modeling our new, handmade bling. Best pic of the weekend.

8th Graders

Here's a piece of dialogue that Katie sent me a few days ago with a few pictures for reference. Katie put the above picture of The Outsiders cast on the screen in her classroom.

Student: "Mrs. Rainer, where is Darry?"

Katie: "That's him, right there." (Pointing to Patrick Swayze.)

Student: "That doesn't look like Darry."

Katie: "What do you think Darry should look like?"

Student: "Isn't he a middle-aged black guy?"

Katie: "Well, he's Ponyboy and Soda's older brother, and they're white, so I'm pretty sure that Darry is white too. Also, he would be in college now if he'd gone, so he's just 19 or 20."

Student: "Are you sure?"

Katie: "Pretty sure. Why do you think he's a middle-aged black guy?"

Student: "The Darryl on The Office is, so I just thought this one was, too."

Darryl from The Office.

Rural King

Here's a picture of an ad taped to the wall outside of Rural King. Rural King is like a Wal-Mart for farmers and people who think Wal-Mart is "too fancy." The best part about Rural King is that they have an old-fashioned popcorn machine right when you walk in...it's free!! So you can stroll around, eating your popcorn, while you pick out a new Wrangler shirt or saddle for your horse. Here are a few items that you could purchase in one trip to this fine establishment:

1. Carhartts

2. goat feed

3. baby chicks

4. gallon containers of food (possibly expired)

5. vaccines for dogs

6. boots

7. movies for $6 (I got Disturbia there.)

8. go-carts

9. sheds

10. and apparently wolf pups (see below)

Schnitzelbank!

Friday night we met up with our buddy Jim in Jasper, Indiana. Jim is currently working on his PhD in history at Indiana University. He's so close but we don't see each other much so the boys wanted to think of something interesting to do. Nathan and Jim share a fondness of all things Germanic so we drove north and Jim drove south to eat at Schnitzelbank - an infamous restaurant in nowhere IN. All three of us ordered off of the "German Specialties" list rather than the "American Specialties" list. I had wiener schnitzel (fried veal). Check out the menu cover below. Yikes. Head to the restaurant website but be sure the volume on your computer is turned up. Enjoy! Schnitzelbank Restaurant

Side Story - When Shawn, a vet school buddy, got back from his months of world travels, he said to Nathan, "Everyone in Germany looks like you." A true Kunze!

Snow and Skunk

The predicted 2-3 inches turned into around 6 or 8 inches last night. No school today. Probably no school tomorrow. Millie was having issues walking through it. She's hidden in the second picture below.

Last night, Greta played with a skunk in the yard and when she walked into the house the smell hit us like a wall. Three baths and a strange mixture of household chemicals that Nathan mixed together kinda got the stink out. Still today, the bathroom smells a little skunky.