Another Tough Week

Well it was another tough week in our little St.Amant world. Our beloved family dog, Maddie, passed away this week. She was a tough little girl who traveled all over North America with me from Virginia to Utah and back again and she even made it to Canada for our wedding last year. She was a sweet puppy who was the offspring of our other family pugs, Tiger and Precious who both passed away a few years ago also. When I was living back at my parents' house, the year before I could move to Canada, she would lay in front of the door and wait for me to come home from work. She really loved my Mom and Dad. She became Mom's dog basically and companion when my Dad goes to work. And as much as I know he hates to admit his soft side, my Dad loved Maddie too. He would give her a snack when he got home from work and I know it was a highlight of her day (and his too). We miss her! In other news, and since everyone invariably asks...school is going well but very stressful. I decided to drop one of my classes this semester because the workload, in relation to the other classes I felt was too much and risked dragging down my work. So I'm hoping that it is addition through subtraction in a way. Otherwise I'm enjoying things and am really being challenged (especially in my Historiography class which deals mainly with criticism and theory...it's mindblowing trust me) Hey my Utes are undefeated!!! I miss Utah (I sound like a broken record I know). My lovely and wonderful friend Laura is having another baby out there and it kills me (and Shelley) not to be able to see her. (This is where normally I would take a cheap shot at Laura's BYU Cougars...but I'm not going to do that..nope nope nope) Heh. Home Project News...which seems to be one of the most anticipated parts of this post (except to Steve Snyder) Shell has been a busy little hobbit. She completely tore apart her workshop so that she could get it ready to use in the winter (which is fast approaching of course). She also finished working on my office and reorganized some things to create a better space, and got an awesome window treatment for it.


So since this is a long weekend here in Canada (Canadian Thanksgiving!), we are of course scheduled to the gills with stuff. Shell went garage sale shopping this morning all gussied up with her new hairdo...mmmrow Now she's working on her half of the basement trying to get it ready for sewing projects this winter. We are nearing completion of the living room and have apparently designs on a sofa from one of her co-workers. I'm still not allowed to take photos of the living room (I swear my wife has more rules than the Bush and Kerry campaigns about photo-ops!). However I'm confident that some will be coming soon. It has been painted and there is some decor, but not enough apparently to merit photography. Stay tuned. I have many thoughts on the debates and the election which will hopefully be coming your way in the next day or so, but at the moment...I've got some reading (Matthew Evangelista's Unarmed Forces: The Transnational Movement to End the Cold War) and some football (Notre Dame plays Stanford in an hour or so!) Until next dispatch!