Bye, Gonzo.

Gonzo - the first time I met you was first semester senior year. You came into the apartment at Presidential along with the rest of the family, and were SO HAPPY to be included and hear kind words that your tail whipped everyone and everything it came into contact with. Our coffee table was cleared very quickly by your tail, and we laughed.

I'm sorry, Gonzo, that we electrocuted you. I wasn't just a witness to this, I was the enforcer! I helped bury the invisible fence line with Dad-Bob, took you around the perimeter to "teach" you, and then had to watch as you excitedly bounded towards the woods to go on a walk, only to get jolted backwards in shock and confusion. At least you knew who was boss then - us. You seemed to appreciate the boundaries... but I still feel guilty about killing your joy with pain.

Thanks for being so patient with Jakey as he poked your eyes and pulled your tail. You knew he meant well.

The way you "played" with The Pup (Mustard) was hysterical. I hope you got some joy and fun out of putting up with his energy in your old age.

Gonzo your spirit was so good. I'm so glad that Kristen and Bob rescued you and spent the two years you needed to become a good dog. You WANTED to be good, no one had helped you before. Hopefully later this morning, your spirit will be free and happy and painless, though I'm sure it will steer clear of bathrooms, large men who yell, and any kind of water that requires swimming.

xo 

casey

"Someone's gotta supervise this pup"

Whatever you want, Casey! I just want to be included in Christmas!

Williams Fitzsimmons Wedding Website!

In case you want to be a creepy stalker, or if you're actually invited to the wedding, here's a link to the Williams Fitzsimmons Wedding Website: https://sites.google.com/site/williamsfitzsimmons/home. I'm trying to get our domain (http://www.caseyandterrence.com) to redirect to the Google site, but have thus been unsuccessful. I spent like 156 seconds trying to do it, arf. :-P

Update: It now works! Go ahead, type in "caseyandterrence.com" and you'll find our website.

My family!

Gratuitous Mustard Photo

Family Time

I call this past week, "Family Time."

Or the phrase that just rolls off the tongue "Ruckordellailliams Reunion", a combination  of my mom's sister's family's last name and our last names.

Super fun times. And.. mustard learned how to jump off the dock! And T and I show our canoe skillz. Not captured in pixels: Mustard's jumping through the hula-hoop skillz. That dog is smart. Or motivated by food, perhaps.

Missing from the photo: Phoebe the Australian Veterinarian. She was the photographer.

T is quite pleased with the outrage he has inspired in me. Mustard is just confused. 

We go nowhere quickly. 

Later, Mustard realizes how exciting jumping of the dock is. Mostly he just wants to show the lily pads who's da boss (it's him).  

Trying to complete the Ayer puzzle. Impossible.

Until next time, Ruckhs, Tordellas, and Williamses! Not to mention all of the significant others.. ;-) Jackie - we missed you!!!

Aerobed Review - 0 Stars

Dear Aerobed,

You disgust me.

That's right, I totes went there. Right for the insult.

You see, I'm bitter. Eight years ago, I slept on my first Aerobed ever. It was after a night sleeping on a camping pad on a tile floor in my friend's apartment in Nicaragua. The Aerobed was the most comfortable thing ever. And it stayed inflated - something I had never experienced with an air mattress. I was sold - except for the high price.

Fast forward a few years. Now I'm no longer a recent grad with $0. I'm a yuppie living in Boston. But not so yuppified that I have a true guest bedroom with a real bed for guests. And my boyfriend and I go camping frequently. So... we have a few air mattresses. I'd say we'd go through one or two a summer. Coleman air mattresses, no-name generic air mattresses, another Coleman mattress, and finally an Aerobed (which apparently is owned by Coleman now). That Aerobed lasted one summer, the same as the others, but I was satisfied enough to pay the premium to buy another Aerobed at Target when that first one stopped holding air this year.

I'll admit - we were not always the easiest on the air mattresses. One of my boyfriend and my first experiences on an air mattress was camping in a back yard on Cape Cod. We left our tent windows open... sprinklers turned on that afternoon... and everything was soaked. So I cleverly propped up the mattress with a foot high hollow plastic gnome (Gnomey, as he is affectionately known) to help it dry out.

Later that night, we had our first fight. In a fit of anger, I sat on the air mattress and rolled over... and the Gnome popped a huge hole in the mattress. Whoops. It made us laugh and forget the fight. So thanks, Coleman air mattress. I'm not even bitter that we had to sleep on the ground that night.

Anyway, I digress. I purchased that second Aerobed pacifically (yes pacifically) for my dear cousins' visit this past April. I did not want them sleeping on a sinking mattress - especially since Margot was/is preggers, so I bought what I thought was the best - a battery-powered, built-in-pump, queen sized Aerobed.

The next morning I anxiously awaited their review - "Well, it was ok. We had to pump it up once in the night." Ok, not terrible, but not great. Apparently the following two nights were better and did not require a re-pump.

Now, it's tonight. (Ha. That sounds funny.) I take out my barely used air mattress as I have another few cousins staying over (what can I say, we love each other but live far away and don't like hotels). I turn on the pump. The mattress pumps up, kind of. I remain optimistic. Afterall, it's an AEROBED. The BEST. And it has only been gently used, inside, for three nights. We put the sheets on. And the special Summer Mom quilt. And tried to pump it up. The thing would not stay inflated. Or even really get inflated. And yes, I know how to use an air mattress. We checked all the valves, etc.

Please consider this an ANGRY letter to you, Aerobed. And to you, Target, for selling this piece of crap. It was a complete waste of my ~$75. No, I don't still have the receipt, or I'd return this shit. I will never, EVER, spend my money on an Aerobed product. Even our $30 cheapo air mattress lasted longer.

To top it off, I feel like a horrible hostess since my guest had to resort to pulling cushions off our couch to sleep. So thanks for that too.

Sincerely,

Casey "Air Hater - no wait, I mean - Aerobed hater" Williams

UPDATE: Initial reply

Coleman Consumer Service to me

(This automated response has been generated to let you know we have received your message.)

Thank you for contacting Coleman, The Outdoor Company. We appreciate your interest in Coleman products and will be in touch as soon as possible. We encourage you to help us keep the volume of E-mails down and our response time up by waiting for our reply to your initial inquiry. We thank you for your patience.

A Customer Service representative will review your e-mail and send you a personal response as soon as possible. If you need to send a follow up message, please use the question reference # listed below.

In the meantime, you may find the following topics and links helpful:

Browse close-out items

Buying guides 

Sincerely,
Coleman Consumer Service Team 

No thanks, I don't want any more coleman or aerobed items.

Three Musketeers Hit a Milestone

I would like to take a moment to say:

I am so excited for my cousin Margot's wedding this weekend!

Margot is just 3 months younger than I am, and though we didn't grow up in the same city - or even the same state - whenever we got together we had a blast. Along with my cousin Liz, a year older than us, we were known as the Three Musketeers.

To say that our families were (slash are) frugal is an understatement. We were not allowed to use paper towels when I was a kid - not because of green concerns, but because they cost money and hand towels or rags are just as good! So: Why send a kid to camp when you have perfectly good relatives with kids the same age? The answer is that you wouldn't. You would get them a ride with your co-worker, drive them down and leave them there, or in extreme cases, put them on an airplane.

I got to fly to visit Liz (and my aunt and uncle and two other cousins) in Wisconsin one summer for 10 days. It was pretty much the best thing that ever happened to me, mostly because of the airplane. I remember picking out my blue and white swiss polka-dot Easter dress and matching hat to wear on the flight. No this was not last week, it was when I was 7. But do swiss polka dots ever go out of style...?

That summer visit was particularly memorable not only due to the plane ride, but because I fell of the back of the swingset horse thing and got the wind knocked out of me for the first time. I was holding a grape popsicle. I hate grape popsicles, probably due to that incident.

I digress.

It seems that every other summer or so we would spend two weeks with each others' families. This didn't end when I was older - in fact I lived with Margot's family for two summers in Arlington, VA when I interned at the NIH during college.  Entire summers. I began referring to my aunt and uncle as my "Summer Mom" and "Summer Dad," and Margot was my "Summer Sister." I re-named their dog - Cody - to Coco. I miss Coco.

 I have ~30 cousins, and 7 second cousins, but only 2 musketeers. And now we're all growed up. Well we've been grown up with jobs, etc for a while.. but weddings are a milestone. One that I'm so happy to be present for.

Congrats, Margot & Nathan! You can be sure Liz and I won't be too far behind, as usual. Or so I hope. :-)

L-R: My mom and me, Aunt Mary and Liz, Aunt Jean, Kathy, Sue, and Erin (Summer 1981)

L-R: Me, Liz, Margot, Nicole - Summer 1998-ish at a family reunion

L-R: Liz, Me, Margot - March 2005

L-R: Me, Margot, Liz - Summer 2006 at our cousin's wedding (Mike <3 Heather)

L-R Margot, Liz, me- Summer 2009 At Margot's brother's wedding (Ian <3 Darci)