back, by popular demand

okay, so things have been a bit busy. i will post photos of portland soon (i'm still waiting for my dear friend Cristina to send them to me), but will reply to the many requests we've received for more puppy photos for the time being. RuthAnn (although i still dislike her name) is an absolute doll. no chewing, no whining, and potty training's been a breeze. she's at least doubled in size just in the last few weeks--no joke! below are photos from her second & third weeks with us:

RuthAnn loves the snow!! she hops around in it like a bunny & digs caves to crawl in.


after a bath--nice & fluffy.


cuddling with our friend Jeremy (she's definitely too large for this sort of cuddling now).


interns from Spokane's "New Community Church" visited a few weeks ago & Drew hosted them for an afternoon/evening (complete with food at our favorite Indian fast food restaurant, a visit with Burundi refugees and meeting with members of the Reba Fellowship--an intentional Christian community in the Rogers Park area)... this was how she slept during their meeting, right in the center of the action. everyone had quite a laugh.


cuddles. see how big she looks??

meet RuthAnn.

i'm off to portland for the week, & will be leaving these two dolls (+ Tink the cat) behind. missed they will be, but i'm looking forward to this fun-packed week with two of my favorite people on this planet. Teenie & Mai, here I come!

voting disclaimer (scroll down for photos to help you vote)

drew has begged. pleaded, really. that i change the spelling to the right from"Ruth Ann" to the traditional "Rooth Anne", as well as explain its significance (i think he's trying to bias your votes):
1) yesterday was the birthday Straits' beloved black lab, Anne.
2) Anne happened to be named for Drew's grandmother, Anna, whose date of death was the same as Anne the dog's bday.
3) Priest Lake is one of the most significant places for Drew. at Priest Lake is a mountain, "Mt. Roothan", that holds particular meaning for him and his family. additionally, Priest Lake played a significant role in our relationship--serving as the site for our first kiss, engagement proposal and wedding itself!

i think you can tell who's rooting for that name...

the fluffiest straitlet

meet the newest member of our family! & help us name her via the poll on the right: we need your help!!

Pizza Party with the Felikis

Last Wednesday Drew coordinated a pizza party at our place with the entire Feliki clan (=7 kids, 2 adults), the Botts (=Nick & Jenna) & Jessica, who's been helping to tutor Zena & Sikola. If you don't know who the Felikis are, they are a refugee family from Burundi. As Hutus, the parents fled Burundi in 1978--part of the first exodus fleeing the genocide. You can read more about this history on Wikipedia (what doesn't wikipedia know?!). They spent the rest of their lives in refugee camps in Tanzania. Their entire families minus a sibling or two were killed in the massacre, so it was important for Kabura & Janeatti (Janet) to have a large family themselves, wanting their children to have what violence stole from them. Kabura, the Feliki father, was at work this night (he just got a job! yay!) but Janet brought a family friend, Japhet, to accompany her instead.

Here's the group, minus Drew (Mr. Photographer):


Eating PIZZA!!!!!!!!!! They only liked the orange soda, so we were stuck with 2 liters of coke & 7-up... I also made fried yucca, a tradiational Dominican recipe, in hopes that the yucca would serve as a "taste of home" (they eat it in Burundi):


Japhet, Janet & kiddos enjoying "Spiderman" on the couch:


The kids LOVE Tink--every time we see them, they say "we need to go to your house to see Tink!" Even Wilfred got some cuddle action:


What a blessing this family is to us! Thank you, Felikis, for allowing us into your family.

Happy Birthday to Alex Meets St. Paddy's Day

Saturday night we celebrated Alex's (insert number here)th birthday. We visited a local Vegetarian Cafe (Alice's, in North Chicagoland), giggled at all the "un-meat" alternatives (the un-duck proved quite tasty) and returned to the Strait pad for plenty of green beer. Let me just tell you, no one got pinched. Drew's green bow-tie lit up, Dana & Nick had nice shiny hats & Alex.. well, she was the bday girl, after all. The photo says it all. We have a history with Nick & Alex of celebrating St. Paddy's Day & Alex's bday concurrently, & this year proved no exception. Thanks, you two!

a history of modern war, from WWI to the present

brilliant. absolutely brilliant. the biggest **must see** of the season.

dancing for Barack Hussein Obama

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — "An Iowa Republican congressman said Friday that terrorists would be 'dancing in the streets' if Democratic candidate Barack Obama were to win the presidency."

think they'd mind if I joined in? I'd generously supply the confetti. and the streamers.

outside by choice

Do we all
Consider ourselves the outsider
Compelled by faith
to believe
Coming here again will forge
the connection
Bread and wine
the fire
within us, reminding us
He was outside by choice
We are inside Him
And we are together.

thou shalt love thine enemies... right?

"He's not gonna change when it comes to taking on the enemy," Bush said of the senator from Arizona [John McCain]. "He's gonna be a president who will bring determination to defeat an enemy," Bush said. Bush said McCain would be steadfast to one of his [own] administration's policies.

Great. Just what we need. Someone else who can be "just like Bush." We should all be careful with the conceptual framework that we inherit along with our word choices. Enemy is a big word. Not to sound cliche, but we all share the same planet here. How about making our choices accordingly? Defense does not necessitate an "us" & "them" mentality.

On another note, exactly how old (or young, I should say) is McCain's wife? & what number is she--5? Right. I really want someone in the White House who can't keep a marriage healthy. Now that signals great leadership skills.


Please. Obama. Clinton. Whoever.

two little eskimos & an ice sculpture

brrr--it's cold! Drew & I celebrated in true winter style last weekend, taking the opportunity to track the timeline of a new sculpture erected down in Grant Park. The ice sculpture was built by the same artist who made the one for the Salt Lake City Olympics.



As spring comes & winter fades, the ice will gradually melt (gradually, because the icy backdrop is embedded with refrigerator coils). The colors are arranged to bring about a brilliant transition.


(note the bean peaking through in the background!)




the cute couple. who says you can't be newlyweds forever?




well, hello Drew!


we always have to say hello to the bean before leaving Grant Park. it never fails to make me smile.

The drive home reminded me, yet again, why we love Chicago. The Navy Pier is more fun at night!

Viva Obama!

This video gave me chills. I don't know if it's my involvement with hispanic communities that made this so impacting, or the overall historic disengagement of U.S. hispanics when it comes to elections. Rarely have they welcomed a candidate as they are Obama. If a candidate can return hope to minority populations like this... wow. Viva, Obama.

Hopefully you can follow the Spanish subtitles. The lyrics are what make the song so impacting.

welcome to my sunday afternoon

Physics. Lab reports. Sensory Neuroscience. A Schenkerian analysis (music not pictured). Not to mention completing my first article (publishable? hopefully...) & revisiting my data.

The fun of last night should carry me through the day: thank you to both Baba Reba & Nick and Jenna for a lovely evening of tapas, sangria & merlot-chocolate ice cream. Conversations of what it means to be a "follower of Jesus" in every way--with an emphasis on the financial & relational (meaning our physical lives must be overhauled to accommodate the underdog)--continue to challenge me today.

I spent 45 minutes surfing the net yesterday for testimonials from adult women who started ballet & progressed to dancing on pointe. Some have done it!

New Year's 2008

Tapas. Meaningful conversation. Good friends. Cocktails. A giant beer. Sparklers in the snow. Celebrating things past & things to come. What do all these have in common? They contributed to the celebration of one of our favorite New Year's yet! We enjoyed a lovely Tapas meal at Nicky & Eric's place--complete with planned activities, formal menus & more food than we could have hoped to eat, followed by the trek over a few blocks to Julian & Kristin's (after the kids went to bed) for more fun, friends & sparklers (oh, & more food too). I hadn't played with sparklers in quite some time--we were quite the thrilled group of adults shivering out in the cold, bringing in the New Year!

Below is a photo of Drew & Eric, playing with the huge beer we brought from Trader Joe's... yes. It's big.


Throughout the evening we drew cards from a large bowl, each with a question to be answered by each of us. Nicky had organized the activity & we enjoyed it so much, we ended up out of time & had to leave these two cards for next year.

nothing like time with family

We had such a good few days away from Chicago (although we did miss the city). We flew into Knoxville, TN, on Christmas day & were immediately escorted to Mamaw's house for a big family dinner: green beens cooked with bacon, sweet potatoes with pecans, country ham, mashed potatoes & plenty of pecan pie (literally, pie after pie). Now that's a southern Christmas. Unfortunately, we couldn't find our camera while packing so the only photos we have are those taken by my parents while we were visiting Cade's Cove, a pre-Independence era pioneer settlement in the Smokies. We have ancestors who settled the area back in the early 1800's and it was neat to once again visit their graves and homesteads.

Below is a shot with the Mama at the mill supposedly built by someone in my papaw's lineage.


This church below was a favorite of mine, with the two doors used to separate the men & women.


As it turns out, that was a good idea for couples like Drew & I...




Although we were sad to say goodbye to our loved ones in the Smokies, we are happy to be home again. Tink was in desperate need of some cuddles after our 5 days away!