Neit is a...

According to the BioPet vet lab, via a DNA breed identification, Neit is a...

Rottweiler
and
German Shepherd

Neit has anywhere between 37-74% of his DNA from a Rottweiler, and somewhere between 20-36% of his DNA from a German Shepherd or German Shepherd lineage. This probably means that one of Neit's parents was a Rottweiler, and the other was probably some short of Shepherd mix. Is that what you were expecting?

Rottweiler: Calm and reliable, devoted to their family, the Rottweiler is extremely protective. They must be firmly trained or may become overly aggresive. They are natural guard dogs. They are highly intelligent and hard working. They can be aggressive toward other dogs.

German Shepherd: The German Shepherd dog is intelligent and eager to please. They are extremely loyal and protective of their families, and suspicious of strangers, especially in the company of their masters. They are devoted and fearless. They have a high learning ability and are extremely responsive to training. If not properly socialized at an early age, they can be unruly due to a lack of self-confidence. If timid, they may be prone to fear biting.

In summary,

+
=

Thanks to the Smith's for the DNA kit, which was a super cool Christmas present!

We've gone geocaching

Have you heard of geocaching? Well apparently people hide little boxes here and there, and then enter their GPS coordinates on a website. Then, you can use your hand held GPS to find the little boxes, open them up, leave a little note, take a trinket, leave a trinket, etc. I bought Ian a hand held GPS for Christmas, as you may know, and today it got up to 50 degrees. We took this opportunity to go to Pandapas Pond, as we have done so many times before, but this time we were searching for caches. It was actually pretty fun. We spent about 2 hours looking for four different caches. We sucessfully located 2 of them. It was a little difficult because there was still quite a bit of snow in some places so we hare happy with finding two out of four. Maybe we'll go back this summer to find the ones we could not locate this time. Photo time...

At the frozen pond before we started our search

On the trail, in search

Spotted the first one...

Here it is...
So once we found it, we opened it, signed a little book, and put it back. So, interesting day. It definitely spiced up our hike a little.

Happy New Year from Hokieville!

Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully our holiday visit is still fresh on your minds. We managed to pack a lot of stuff into those few days we were home. I didn't get pictures of everything, but here is our visit in pictorial review.

We started the visit off at Judy's house for Christmas eve and Christmas morning. We enjoyed a few eggnogs while we were there. Next we headed to the Bacon Christmas. Unfortunately I did not get any photos from these events. I guess I am a little camera shy with the Bacons/Danielsons. Sorry about that, I will try to get better. For our third Christmas of the day, we went to my Uncle David's. Here we see Dad and David excited about the new loot Dad got for his man cave.

We spent Christmas night at Kalow and Mandi's due to its proximity to David's house. Here we have the Huff siblings enjoying their Christmas night.

The next day was Christmas celebration time at Mom and Dad's. Our newest tradition is to go bowling, which we all enjoy, followed by dinner at the Hacienda which also all enjoy. Look how much fun we are all having.

Here is Mandi after throwing a rock.

I must have thrown a rock here myself.

While we were back in Indiana, Ian and I wanted to head back to West Lafayette and hit up our favorite restaurant from our golden years.
Here we see Ian found his way back to Purdue.

And then found his way back to our favorite restaurant, Khana Khazana. Mom came with us, and we met up with Frank and Allison for this delicious Indian lunch buffet. Thanks again to Frank for treatin us.
I convinced Mom to stand by the fountain and get her picture taken, but I had to promise her fame on the Hokieville website. She took the bait.

We had a few days of nothing much planned to hang out in Indy. We spent a lot of time at Andy's house, and a little time at Judy's. We were sure to be at Judy's for her dog Lucy's big birthday celebration. Lucy has lived with Judy and John for an entire year now. Here is Lucy blowing out her birthday candle.
And here is her pretty cake.

Lucy wasn't the only one with a birthday celebration. We all ventured out to the Golden Corral for Judy's birthday lunch on New Years Eve. Later that evening, we went to dinner with my grandma Rosie, and then headed back to Mom and Dad's house for a relaxing New Year's at home. Here are some folks who are really excited to celebrate New Years in the fancy hats that Mom made.
We then moved the New Years party out to the man cave. Hey, there is a lady in the man cave! Don't worry, shes allowed.
Also, Kalow made some last minute desparate attempts to make it on Hokieville. Here we see him waving goodbye, and also holding a purse. Welp, he made on Hokieville alright.

Did our fun at home stop there?! No, it did not. We still had a wedding to attend. My good friend Ashley got married on Jan 2nd. Here she is looking beautiful at her ceremony with her new husband Matt.
And at the reception we all got little tiny Colorado Blue Spruce tress to plant to remember the day. Cute idea, huh?

Well, I know that was a whole lot of postin' about our time at home, but we sure did do a lot while we were there. We were really glad we got to see everyone. We had a great time and we can't wait to see everyone again. Miss you already! Happy 2010!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas in Hokieville

Its been all holiday themed festivities for the past week. Last weekend was Ian's work party, which was themed Casino Night. On Thursday we had the food science Holiday lunch. Friday we had our friends get together for a game night. The weather has been very cold, with even some snow but mostly frozen rain. Every one seems like they are in the holiday cheer frame of mind. Especially me, and I have pretty much mentally checked-out at work. Thats okay because I have reached all of my mile stones for the semester. We have another Christmas party at Ian's friends house this coming Friday, and a potluck dinner at my friend's house on Saturday. Ohhh...and then we get to come home. Yay!! Would you like to see some pictures???

The only picture I took at Ian's Christmas party. Isn't he lovely?

The morning after the Christmas party. Ian may have been in a little bit of pain.

This is where Ian's work party was held. We woke up the next morning to look out of our window and see this.

After the snow, we got some ice. Disastrous driving conditions, but very pretty!

Lots of ice on the trees.

We were thinking about getting a Christmas tree. We haven't gotten one yet. I got impatient so I just made my own fireplace with stockings to make it feel a little more Christmasy. Happy holidays! See you soon.

Gone caving

This weekend we decided to do something a little different. We drove to Luray, Va and checked out one of their main attractions, the Luray Caverns. I haven't been to a cave since we went to Mammoth Caves, like 20 years ago. It was a lot of fun. I wish I could show you how awesome it was via pictures, but the cave environment is not exactly ideal for capturing memories. I did get a few good ones, which I'll share now.

In the cave. Sure is dark!

Ian checking the place out.

Not a crazy cave floor, but a perfect reflection in a cave lake. Very impressive.

Here is a dramatic colum made of stalagtites and stalagmites connected.

Peeking inside the "stalagmite curtains"

Karleigh in a cave.

A "veil" in the cave.

Cave lake turned into a wish well. Pennies turn the water green.

And a garden maze outside of the cave.

Also, I made a six pack caddy for Sabrina's birthday. I think she liked it. It turned out pretty cool, although I am not sure it is very practical.

Well, we are excited to see everyone for Thanksgiving. See you in a day or two!

Recreation at Rocky Knob

Hey family and friends. Last May I bought Ian an awesome book detailing hiking trails off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Well it has been sitting around, collecting dust, until this weekend. I found a 3.1 miles loop that turned out to be pretty awesome. It was about an hour drive from our place, and about a 2.5 hour hike. I think if anyone visits in nice weather, we will probably take you here. Have a look.

Rocky Knob is right off of the Blue Ridge Parkway

Along the trail were the remnants of an old house or something.

We had to blaze up this extremely steep old logging road. So it doesn't look so steep here...but it was.

After a little confusion with where exactly the trail split, we eventually got to this ladder over a fence into a cow pasture. The trail continued on the other side of the pasture.

Neit had no problems with the ladder...

And then frolicked in the field until we got him back on the leash.

We had to watch our step...cow plop.

And once again got confused as to which blazed trail to follow back. Here is Ian consulting our book.

Some nice views before we got back to the beginning of the trail.

Here is Ian.

Pretty cool find huh? Maybe we can take you here next time.

Party time. Excellent.

Halloween party at our house! Ian made some potent punch, and we got some dry ice to make it look spooky. The punch pretty much made the party. Because everyone drank it. And we had fun. This was our first attempt at mixing social circles, as Ian invited his friends from work and I invited mine. It worked out pretty well. Pictures tell a thousand stories, or something, so here you go...

Your excellent hosts

Bill Cosby. He ate all the pudding pops.

Nick and Mona as B.B. Wolf and lil' R.R. Hood.

Sabrina and Jerry as Axel and Slash

Mitch and Heather as P. Imp and T. Fairy

Marnie and Fred as 80's Prom and Zombie bicycle enthusiast

New friends Becky and Heath as Cat and Star Wars guy

Dan and friends. Note repeat pimp costume. How embarrassing.

The canines.

Ian was sober enough to figure out how to use the timer on my camera. Group shot. How adorable.

And here Neit personafies how we felt the next day. All tuckered out.

Good Halloween. Unfortunately, no trick or treaters. But hey, maybe next year.