We hope you are prepared for the onslaught of cute that follows. You have been warned.

Monday afternoon we headed toward Gettysburg, PA (a quick 2 hour road trip) to meet and pick up our new puppy Basil. He is a 10 week old Black & Tan Shiba Inu that we purchased from Rodel Shibas, a show quality Shiba breeder. From the moment we saw this cutie, we were hooked.

So far, he has been extremely well behaved, slept through the night, let’s us know when he needs to go out, and wants nothing more than to play with Captain. They are still working out their boundaries but we have high hopes for them being best of friends. He is still getting use to his new collar and the general concept of a walk.  He thinks it’s walk/sit/run/sit.

Kate and I are so happy and excited to welcome this new addition into our hearts and home.

Without further adieu, Basil.

Being trained by a puppy,
Brett and Kate

Update to the missing car saga…

As it turns out, the car was stolen.  Just about 3 weeks into the 4 week wait period (30 day wait to get paid by the insurance company for a stolen car) I got a call from the police saying they found my call. They had picked it up 8 blocks away and caught the guy who had taken it. The guy was so smart that he was robbing local Rite Aid stores and then stayed in the area.  (*Note – my car, while a basic black SUV has Red White and Blue Illinois license plates – making it rather noticeable even from afar in the state of Pennsylvania).  The guy had smashed the passenger side window and then used a valet key (where he got this we don’t know) to get the car to run and make the robberies. My insurance (Progressive) picked the car up from the tow lot, had all the repairs made and less a week later, I had my car back.

In general, all the big things were fixed, but Kate and I continually ask ourselves what this guy was wearing because the seats are a little extra worn and there are little dings in the door panels; small enough that they aren’t noticeable at first glance.  The car runs just like it did before the incident and I have 100% faith in it. (I was nervous I wouldn’t trust the car after but that doesn’t seem to be the case)   My brother Chris and my Dad went and got me a car “club” to lock the steering wheel and also acts as a serious deterrent. THANKS GUYS!  So far so good.

Ill be taking the car this week to a professional detail shop to get it polished up inside and out (covered by insurance as well).

Not parking there anymore,

Brett and Kate

Yup, it’s true. The city of brotherly love showed me its kind heart this past week.

I parked my car Wednesday evening and when I went to go pick up our friend from the airport Friday morning, my car was no where in sight.  The spot where I parked the car is on a street that has 10 ft brick walls on either side and its well known to not leave anything of value to the car – just in case.  Who thought they would just take the whole car?!

Called my insurance company Progressive to find out the steps to file a claim and then on to the police to file report it. First time I had to call 911. I think that was the most nerve racking part of the whole ordeal. Philly police sent a squad car over, he took all the info I had, checked to see if it was towed, and then we went for a ride around the neighborhood to see if it was anywhere.

As I hoped in the back of the police car (the back seat was hard plastic and anything but comfortable) and we drove around, sure enough I passed a couple neighbors who peeked in the back of the car and had a perplexed look as I smiled wide while we drove down the street.  Looking forward to telling that story when I meet up with the neighbors again.  Im sure the rumors are flying.

We did not find the car in the vicinity, so the cop wrote me an incident report and I had to file the official claim with the insurance company.  My agent stopped by to take a statement this morning and now we just wait; 30 days actually.  30 days from last friday and if the car doesn’t show up, they cut a check to my bank and I get to go find a new car.

The insurance covers a rental for the next 30 days so as of now, I am sporting a sweet Kia Omtima 2009.  (not the nice new one)

Im personally torn – while, I do miss my car and liked it very much (Subaru Forester 2010), Im not sure how I feel about getting it back if someone did take it. The other possibility is that it was towed and hasn’t been registered in the system yet.

We shall see what happens. Maybe a new car for my birthday.

Waiting patiently,

Brett and Kate

I couldn't convince Brett to make a fort with me

Hopefully no one has been as distressed as I have been about not blogging in almost a month – I sure have missed it! Being busy is no excuse, but barely having time to sleep means having extra time to blog hasn’t really been an option. The first week of this month marked the beginning of my second quarter in the program, and boy is it a doozy! 9 classes + 2 days at my clinical practicum = 17 hrs of work, 17 hours of class, 25 hours of homework, and maybe 30 hours of sleep a week. Needless to say, we haven’t been up to very much in the “fun” department, but in general we are still enjoying our time here, getting to know the city and slowly making a few friends along the way.

The biggest news of the week is the snowstorm I’m sure everyone has heard about by now. It was kind of neat to watch it all coming down last night, & it reminds me a bit of the lake-effect snow from back home, which is nice…but in about an hour I get to truck my way through it while I walk to my class at 2:00 (since the buses aren’t operating and we can’t move our car!) Oh well, at least morning classes were all canceled, giving me time to finally write this!

That’s all for now, but we promise to keep this more up-to-date in the coming weeks/months.

Wishing this snow day could have been a ski day,
Brett and Kate