January 2007

Happy New Year!! We greeted the year on Mammoth Mountain in California with good friends, a little bit of skiing, and a lot of red wine. As many people do, we also came up with a list of resolutions for the upcoming year. Topping the list were buying a house, starting a family, and getting a book published(we assume this means John but you never know).

It just so happens that home ownership arrived first and it happened shortly after we returned from California. On January 10, we made an offer on a house in Lexington. It's a cute house in the Chevy Chase neighborhood that allows us to walk to parks, coffee, and restaurants. By the end of the month we had signed a contract and set a closing date of February 16. This is a picture of the house from the front.


January also brought a visit from Jay and Taffy Bowes. In the days they were here we tried to show them all that the Bluegrass has to offer. We made a trip down to Berea, had some lunch, and looked at some artwork. And on our way back, John showed off the hallways of his new home at Eastern Kentucky University. Here they are enjoying the friendly confines of Keith Building outside of John's office.



The visit also included a trip to Keeneland, home of the finest horseracing in Kentucky. And yes, we do know Churchill Downs is in Kentucky. Keeneland is better. No racing in January, but we did get to enjoy some of the horse auctions taking place at that time. We all forgot our checkbooks and were unable to make a proper bid.

But our time was not always filled with outdoor adventure. During their visit, Jay and Taffy also had the opportunity to enjoy some of the finest cuisine in town. Here is Sarah displaying just a sample of the food served up at our apartment.


Everyone enjoyed the pumpkin bread. As you can see from this picture, some enjoyed it more than others. In any case, we loved having visitors and cannot wait for the next time.