Chipping

I spent the weekend at Timberwolf Lake, near Lake City, MI. It's a Young Life Camp and some friends and I were helping get the camp ready for this summer's campers. I pretty much chipped wood all day Friday, Saturday, and half of Sunday. It was glorious. I, too, got lost twice this weekend and both those moments of confusion were just on the way there. Unfortunately, it was too late (1a.m.) to call someone for mapquesting help, so we stopped in a 7/11 with 5 squad cars to ask directions the first time, and then the second time we just asked the cop who pulled me over for speeding. I was wonderfully happy to arrive at camp Thursday night, even though it was 1:45 a.m. Here are some friends who were there.

"Oh me, oh my oh. Look at Miss Ohio"

Jesse is in Upper Michigan this weekend doing hard labor for no pay and I drove to Cincinnati today for a friend's wedding. It was a beautiful day for a wedding, and not a bad day for a drive. I've forgotten how much I love driving. I used to drive to and from Toledo by myself multiple times a week. Now that I live and work in BG, I walk most places. I miss driving though...I don't miss buying gas, but I do miss listening to music and singing and feeling liberated on the road.

I made it to Cincinnati in good time despite holiday weekend traffic. I was pleasantly surprised with how smoothly the trip went as I exited the highway - that is, until I proceeded to get insanely lost in southern Ohio for an hour. I called my dad to mapquest my whereabouts as I frantically tried to make it to the ceremony I had driven three hours to witness. I pulled in two minutes late, there were no parking spots, and I illegally parked so I could make the wedding.

I made it. Just barely, but I made it. And it was absolutely beautiful: aesthetically, emotionally, spiritually. It was right at the edge of the river - you could wave to Kentucky on the other side (but why would you want to?) and the ceremony was one of the most tactful and thoughtfully constructed wedding ceremonies I've ever seen. I sat in the back, the potential towing of my car out of my mind, and just felt happy to be there.

After the ceremony, I went to check on my car. Thankfully it was still there. I saw a police officer on the way and I told her I was running to move my car. She directed me to a better parking spot. Relieved, I went back to the reception and sat with someone I'd met briefly but never gotten to know in college. We had a great conversation and I was amazed that she and her boyfriend met at the Iowa Caucus working for opposing parties. After a while, I left the wedding feeling like it was an excellent day, despite the fact that I was utterly lost in the spaghetti bowl of Cincinnati for an hour of it.

I walked back to my car and headed toward the highway. By this point, I had seen most of the city, so I had a good idea of where it was. I turned onto the main road I needed and hit a complete jam of traffic. There was nowhere to move. Everyone who had pulled in had to reverse out and find another route. I opened my phone and called my dad again to redirect me. About an hour and a half later, I merged onto I-75N.

It was a long day, but it was also a really beautiful one and I'm glad it all happened. But I do feel that after driving south and north down the western edge of Ohio and getting lost in one of its biggest cities for a total of 2.5 hours, I have legitimately earned the title : Miss Ohio. I have also earned the phrase "oh me, oh my oh."

(I'm sure Gillian Welch had this particular day in mind when she wrote that song.)

"News from Lake Wobegon"

It's official: I'm not cool.

Not that I ever honestly believed that I was, but there was the slight hope for a time. Not anymore. I've realized this week that I am not now, nor will I ever be, cool. Here's why:

I moved into my new office last Friday, as I've previously blogged. Monday, my assistant - a fellow English B.A. - moved into the office. We promptly created literary quotes to hang on the wall, talked about how much we both miss school, and brought in a radio to play continuous NPR.

This morning we were having a conversation when over the radio came a sweet prelude that I have long missed: the opening bars of the Writer's Almanac theme. We stopped mid-sentence and listened intently as Garrison Keillor read us a poem and fed us with nutrients of literary insight for a glorious five minutes.

Then it was over. And I realized: I am not cool...

...But I do have NPR in my office, so I'm completely fine with it.

*Note: I did a google image search of Garrison Keillor to illustrate this post. I had never seen him before. There's a reason he's in radio. I'll honor that decision of his.

A trip to the Zoo

Jesse here. I haven't contributed any entries yet, so today I'll give it a go.

Yesterday while Anna was hard at work training her new assistant, I went to the zoo with mi madre, Kelli, Ava, and the Rhizals. For those unfamiliar with my family, Kelli is my sister and her daughter is Ava. The Rhizals are comprised of my brother Ross, his wife Deb, and their two little girls, Emma Day and Maris Elaine. To your right you can see all of the above mentioned family members with the exception of Kelli, but she'll show up later. It was a beautiful day for the zoo. In fact, yesterday is what I'd call "zoo weather": sunny, but still jacket weather. It was no surprise that after stating this yesterday, other ideas of "zoo weather" were shared and mine was probably the coldest.

I have two favorite parts of the zoo trip.

1) Ross and I spent a decent amount of time reminiscing about our childhood together. I really enjoy talking about my youth, even if it's not all pleasant.

2)Momma Deb walking around the zoo with Baby Maris tucked away in her pouch. I can't think of a more zoo appropriate way to carry your baby. It helps that Maris is absolutely adorable tucked away with her little hood on.

There's not much else I have to say about the zoo, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

(I'm no good at layout.)


























Maybe Anna can save this post when she gets home from work.

Calling all literary masterminds...

I'm moving into a new office tomorrow which is excellent for a number of reasons. Once I move, I will break free from the confines of cubicle walls and I will gain a window - but not just any window, an EXTERNAL window. The walls are blank and my boss handed me 11 empty frames to decorate the room. I decided to fill half of them with literary quotes and half of them with bright landscape shots of some kind.

Herein is my need for audience participation. I sat down to choose my five favorite literary quotes. The first was simple and appropriate: "I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars" -W.W. After my initial breakthrough however, I experienced a setback in realizing that my literary taste is rather dark and although I would appreciate seeing "I heard a fly buzz when I died," and "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines" on a daily basis, somehow I think that others at the office might not appreciate my depth of literary understanding...and mental health.

So, please...help me out. If you can think of a brief literary quote that would be appropriate to hang on the wall of a company with "Judeo-Christian values," please comment.

Much obliged.

Oh, and "So it goes."

Padfoot and the Technicolor Dream Ball

Padfoot may very well have had the best day of his Mini Lop life today. He's had it rough. His first family didn't pay attention to him, then he moved to the Humane Society then he moved to our apartment, then to our house. Then, a rambunctious and ridiculous Lionhead bunny became his adopted baby brother and they had to share a room together. Even though he had a clean place to sleep and endless food, hay, lettuce, and carrots, he just wasn't a happy bunny.

We've been getting the boys out to run around the screened in porch - one at a time of course because Padfoot gets upset whenever Ron is near him. (Recently, Ron has taken to jumping up near Padfoot's cage trying to see who's in there. Padfoot does not like this.) We haven't been able to get Padfoot to come out of his cage because he freaks out whenever we try to pick him up, so today I decided to take Ron's cage out of the room, put Padfoot's cage on the floor, and open his door.

He came out right away. He ran around and hopped and sniffed and played. We got out a ball and he pushed it around adorably. I think he was the happiest he's been since he's been with us and I am pleased. He went back in his cage after about 30 minutes of exercise and exploration and assumed his favorite position...sprawled out in the corner of his cage.

The Boys: Photos

This is Ron and I on our first day home. The boys lived in the apartment for about a week in between our move. Ron and Padfoot were not getting along very well (i.e. Padfoot freaked out any time he saw Ron) so Ron was sleeping in our room and Padfoot was in the office. We quickly learned that we should have made opposite sleeping arrangements because Ron is a young bunny, energetic, and a giant mess. I gave him a sheet of cardboard to sleep on so he wasn't directly on the wire floor. At 4:30 a.m. we woke up and moved him to the kitchen due to the continuous chchchchc WHACK chchchchchc WHACK as Ron pulled his cardboard up, then stomped on top of it to knock it back to the ground.

Ron also did not appreciate where his litter box was placed in his cage, nor was he satisfied with the amount of litter in it. Thus, he moved it, kicked it, chewed it, and flipped it onto his head until he was satisfied and his box empty.



This is Padfoot, doing what Padfoot does best. Padfoot is still adjusting to having a loving home with a baby brother who lives across the room. He was taken into custody because there were too many animals at his former residence. I think he lacked attention and feels threatened by other animals. He thumps a lot and won't let us hold him, but I have "touch therapy" with him daily, where I sit and pet him for a time without attempting to hold him. Padfoot loves lettuce, but not iceberg lettuce. He will only eat organic spring mix. My boy knows what he wants.

The Boys: Backstory

We recently adopted two pet bunnies, whom I affectionately refer to as "The Boys." Here's the story of their joining our household:

I grew up with rabbits and left them at home when I came to school in BG. As time has passed, all of my home bunnies have gone to rabbit heaven. For quite some time, I'd been begging Jesse to let me have a bunny, but he insisted that our two bedroom apartment could not fit any pets (touche). For graduation, Jesse took me to Build-a-Bear and made me a bunny. Neville Longears has been with us since December and I've loved him much in that short time, but I still desired a live bunny.

Then came "The E-Commerce Pet Rescue Sqad." My coworkers are both pet rescuers. One is in denial because she doesn't want to become "the cat lady," but if you ask anyone else, her fate is sealed. A few weeks ago, my other coworker (who has also rescued a cat and took personal responsibility for the well-being of a stray dog who wandered onto the company property) came into the office and said that a black bunny was hopping around outside the apartment complex. We were immediately concerned because a black bunny is a domestic bunny and wouldn't stand a chance outside.

Naturally, not being able to leave work, I called Jesse and kindly asked him if he would walk to my coworker's apartment building (I had the car at work with me) with a box and attempt to catch the bunny. Meanwhile, my coworker decided to contact our office manager and request to leave work to go assist Jesse. So Jesse met my coworker for the first time on a pet rescue mission. The bunny hopped away...at which point Jesse discovered a cage with an open door...

Well I got to thinking. We got on petfinder.com at work and I found a picture of "Cocoa," a mini lop bunny at the Hancock County Humane Society. After realizing that Hancock Co. is a kill shelter, I immediately called Jesse and asked if I could adopt "Cocoa."

He agreed...and then I was on the website again and I saw an adorable lionhead bunny named "Humpty" (he came in with Dumpty...how unfortunate...I had to help). Jesse said I could only have one but I showed him the picture and he was sold.

Jesse went down to Hancock County while I was at work and met the bunnies. He brought them home and after initial personality assessment, we renamed "Cocoa" Padfoot and "Humpty" Ron. Now we have three boys: Neville, Padfoot, and Ron (NPR).

Times and Changes

A brief update on changes and new beginnings of the past year:

After our wedding in June, Jesse and I spent the summer relaxing, working, and attempting to figure out the future. I entered my last semester of undergrad at BGSU this fall and finished my degree in English in December, at which point I crawled into bed for about two months and only woke up to watch Rachel Ray and The View. I had initially planned to spend my post-collegiate months doing home repairs at my parents house in Toledo until said repairs were abandoned by their sudden decision to move. I signed up for a pottery class at the Toledo Museum of Art and threw pots for two months. It was fabulous.

In February, I was hired as an SEO copywriter for the e-commerce department at a local marketing company that sells custom printed products. As the only writer at the company, I write anything from product descriptions to executive bios and company historical profiles. My primary responsibility is filling all of our websites with well-indexing keywords which I derive from keyword researching and website analytics. It sounds lame, but I enjoy it...and "would you like custom printed tags with that?" is definitely a step up from the "do you want fries with that?" that I had anticipated after receiving a BA in English.

In other news, after a month of refinishing hardwood floors, painting, and cleaning, Jesse and I moved into a three bedroom rental house. Jesse was working as a property manager for student housing in the campus area of BG. We're happy to be "across the tracks" and into more of the residential part of town. (There is actually a literal "tracks" that divides the town between campus and residential. It's been tearing up our car actually...) We're enjoying the space, and welcoming new additions to the family...

...Not what you're thinking. We just rescued two bunnies! Their names are Ron and Padfoot (if you follow Harry Potter, you'll appreciate those names). Photos will be coming, as soon as I unpack the USB connector to our external hard drive. Jesse is currently looking for a new job doing something more life-giving than managing college rentals.

I think that just about wraps up the whirlwind tour of the past year...which is nice because it feels somewhat awkward to publish an autobiographical recap on the internet. Plan to check back for (hopefully less self-involved) updates semi-regularly.

Welcome to the Daly Kauffman

Welcome to The Daly Kauffman, the non-daily publication of the Daly Kauffman family. We've decided to create this blog as a means of communication with friends and relatives and because Anna is glutton for writing web copy...or something. Please anticipate sarcastic tidbits, shameless plugs, and everyday ramblings. Enjoy.