Draco!

We used to have a problem with Draco jumping on the couch while we were away from home.  I think this is mostly for two reasons:  1.  He didn't have a soft comfy bed of his own were he could relax and 2.  When we first got him, we may have let him up on the couch once to see how it was.

As you all know, Draco is really hairy and sheds enough hair to make me think he could be Bigfoot, who I image has to be the hairiest beast of all time.  Anyways, we let Draco on the couch ONE TIME and immediately decided it was a bad idea and we would never do it again.  And then we paid for it big time!  Every time we would come home he would be on the couch.  We would holler at him and make him get down.  But he kept doing it. He got clever (so he thought) and started to jump off the couch when he heard us coming. Unfortunately for him, the warm spot and hair he left behind gave him away every time!  We had no other choice but to block the couch every time we left home, which was a pain but at least it kept our couch free of dog hair.  

This sounds sad, but fortunately for us Draco is older now and his legs aren't what they used to be.  He can no longer jump on the couch! Also, now he has a really ultra plush bed to sleep and lounge on. It was custom made by Heather and Draco loves it.

 

We were getting ready to change the sheets on our bed the other day and in a moment for silliness  we put Draco on the bed.  We figured, he could never get on the bed himself, so we wouldn't ever have to worry about the problem like we had with the couch. Surprise surprise, he LOVED it!!

When Tim reached to lift him off the bed, Draco stood up faster than we've seen him move in a long time and ran to the opposite side of the bed. Tim walked over to the other side of the bed and again Draco sped over to the other side! We couldn't stop laughing! It was very clear Draco really liked being up there and was not interested in coming back down.  

That's all for now folks!

We're back!

Hello blogosphere! It's been a few months since we've shared our adventures with you. I'm sure that most of you are aware of at least a few topics in this post, but probably not all. So, enjoy this update from the Davis household! Brace yourselves. This is a pretty legit blog submission.

For starters, we are going to be staying here in Nashville for a few more years!  I'm sure everyone has already heard....but Tim has been accepted to the Ph.D. program at Vanderbilt! Graduation from the Au.D. program is in just 2 1/2 short weeks and then we are FINALLY moving to a new home at the end of May.  We had been thinking about moving out pretty much since the first week of living here. Long story, but it took us two years to actually make the move. We'll be moving into a much nicer duplex down the road and are really looking forward to living in a nice neighborhood.

We took a short overnight trip to Memphis to visit our friend Brittany in February (oh my goodness that was forever ago - this is what happens when we don't post for 4 months).  Much to Heather's delight, we did the Gibson guitar factory tour! Sorry, no pictures were allowed.  But, we got to see the parts of a guitar in various stages of assembly which was really cool.  We also stopped by the famous Peabody hotel for the duck ceremony .  Wait, a ceremony for ducks? Yes, it's a real thing. Allow us to explain. They have these ducks that are trained to march down to a fountain in the lobby in the morning, swim all day and then march back in the evening.  Apparently they have their own suite in the hotel where they sleep at night. We caught the evening show where this guy comes down into the lobby, gives a speech about the history of the ducks, and gives them a signal to get out of the fountain and march into the elevator.  It was a little lot corny, but fun... And when in Memphis, right?!?!? The trip was mostly about the good company, and it was definitely great to see and spend some time with Brittany.  

In mid March, Tim and I decided to pick up and take ourselves to Chattanooga for a day trip.  It is 2 hours away from Nashville and we hadn't really had a chance to explore south of Nashville yet.  The main things we had in mind were to check out the aquarium and the historical Incline Railway.

Turns out we enjoy the aquariums!  We knew the one we visited in Atalanta would be hard to beat, but Chattanooga was great!  The first two pictures below are of the butterfly room.  You can't tell from the pictures very well, but there were butterflies everywhere flying around,  landing on you, and sitting on nearly every plant.  It was beautiful and a really cool experience. Some of you may be wondering why they had an exhibit on butterflies in the aquarium. So were we...

This exhibit was like the exercise facility at your hotel, with mirrors on most walls to make it seem much larger. It would have been really cool to have a tank that stretched for 100+ feet full of jellies, but it was actually about 20' long.

We spent all morning at the aquarium, had lunch, and then headed to the Incline Railway.  It is a 1 mile long incline railway car that takes you up to Lookout Mountain.  It was been in operation since 1895 - with new trains and technology along the way  - thank goodness.  The views from the train and from the top, were beautiful.  The track starts out quite shallow in slope and gets steeper as you approach the mountain. At the top, the track is on a 73% grade. It felt a lot like being pulled backwards up the big drop on a roller coaster. Fortunately they let us down pretty easy...

The view from the top was fantastic!

Here's the motor that makes it all possible. 

A quick video showing the wheels starting to turn.

One more shot from the top before we head back down!

The windows in the ceiling came in pretty handy!

Finally, 2 weeks ago we went to Anaheim CA for the annual American Academy of Audiology conference. This time, it doubled as a mini vacation for Heather and a great little reunion of almost all of Tim's classmates.  We were also fortunate to get to spend also got to spend half a day with Tim's sister Cami, husband Dave, and sweet little nephew Jack.

Loved the palm trees outside the convention center!

Tim's favorite flower, bird-of-paradise.

Cami and Dave were nice enough to drive us all the way to Long Beach to the Aquarium of the Pacific. I loved how the natural light shined through into the water here

Isn't he cute??

And that, our friends, is pretty much all for now! Graduation is rapidly approaching and we are all so excited to have Tim's family here for a few days. I'm sure that we'll put a post together after that! Until then...

Merry Christmas!!!

I could come out and tell you that we are leading the way into this crazy internet age by putting our Christmas letter on our blog 'cause it's the cool thing to do, but I'd be lying. We just didn't get this silly thing written in time to mail it out. No big deal! 

There isn't a whole lot that is new in our lives this year. I am still working on my Au.D. degree and am in the middle of my 4th and last year. I'm working full time at the VA Medical Center and have been enjoying clinical work very much. It's been a real honor to serve the Veterans in this capacity and I will definitely miss it this next summer when my externship ends. Speaking of which, Heather and I have decided to stay in Nashville for about 3 more years while I pursue my Ph.D. in cochlear implants. Vanderbilt has a great cochlear implant research lab and I'm really looking forward to being a part of it for a few years. Heather is still working hard as a case manager at Zander Insurance here in town. Now that I'm working full time too, I'm so impressed at how strong her work ethic has been this entire time! She's always been a hard worker, and continues to impress me with her endurance. 

As you probably know, our plans for Christmas did not include being in Walla Walla this year. While not our first Christmas away from home, it is our first Christmas being just the two of us. We decided to make a trip home (Bellingham) in October and got to see our family and friends then in lieu of a trip home for Christmas. At the time, it seemed like a good idea. And it was! We had a wonderful time there. But as the Christmas season neared, we found ourselves wishing we were going home to be with our families. But alas, this year we will be doing our own thing. Working on establishing our own traditions. We got our tree set up a couple weeks ago and it has been slowly but surely filling up with presents! 

Looking into next year, I will be graduating from Vanderbilt with my Au.D. in May. It will be a great opportunity to have family gather in Nashville for some celebrations! Heather and I will also be looking to move out of our apartment and into a rental home this summer. After 8 years of apartment living, I think we are both pretty tired of having neighbors this close and no private yard space for the dog. We'll be keeping an eye out for a good property and will obviously post on this blog if/when we make the move! 

We hope you all are having a most wonderful holiday season and that you have a very merry Christmas, where ever you may be. 

Catching Up

Sheesh, is it November already? What's that? We're practically half-way through November already?? I'm not sure if I should be excited that the holidays are so rapidly approaching, or afraid because I can't seem to keep track of time!!Ok ok, I'm way more excited than afraid! Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away! Like most, Heather and I are just nuts for the holiday season. Since we went to Bellingham a few weeks ago (read our last post about that trip if you haven't already), we won't be going home again for the holidays. We've done both Thanksgiving and Christmas day with just the two of us before, but never both in the same year.  I'm sure we'll come up with some fun stuff to do so expect a few blog posts in and around those days! It's been about 3 weeks since we last posted here. I guess you could say a few things have happened since then. Halloween came and went, Hurricane Sandy battered the Northeast, and Obama was elected to a 2nd term. For some reason, the national news only covered the storm and the election. So I'll go ahead and fill you in on our Halloween costumes!

This year, Heather and I dressed up as Popeye and Olive Oyl! Heather made me a sailor shirt and painted some anchors on my arms, and I bought a hat and pipe to complete the outfit. Of course, Heather made her costume as per usual! Not bad eh?

I just realized that we did a couple other things recently that never made it into a blog post. We went to the annual Nashville Oktoberfest celebration in Germantown. This is the 3rd year in a row that we've gone and we have a great time every time! This year we bought shirts to add to the authenticity of the thing! We both got quite a few compliments. :)

Another thing we did recently was that we went to a new gun range in town. Up until now, we've been driving out to Greenbriar or Hendersonville to go to Guns n Leather to shoot. They have great ranges and a nice store attached to each one so we don't really mind going there, but we've always thought it would be nice to have another option closer to (or in) town. One day in September we were driving down I-65 and we saw a building called Nashville Armory! Eureka! We checked things out a few weeks ago with high hopes. Unfortunately, the overall experience wasn't great. While the facilities were new, well lit, and clean, some staff was not well informed, prices were too high, and we got this persistent feeling that we were getting nickel and dimed at every corner. Also, this place was LOUD!!! I didn't realize the effect that the acoustic treatments at Guns n Leather have on the overall sound levels. 

Here's a picture of Guns n Leather. Notice the acoustic treatments on the walls and ceiling, the carpeted barriers between shooters, and the partial walls after every 3rd shooting lane. Even though the range has about 15 lanes, you really don't notice the blast from shooters that are outside your section.

In contrast, here's the range at the Nashville Armory. Notice all the hard reflective surfaces, plexiglass barriers between shooters, and lack of isolating walls between groups of shooters.

Here's an example of the nickel and diming at this place. If you click on the picture above, you'll notice the white spacer between the target and the track. They told us that if we shot the spacer, they would charge us $9/hole. Yikes! So much for going for head shots. I wasn't about to let one get away from me and cost me money!

Lastly, Heather mentioned to me a few weeks ago that she would like to learn to play the piano. She took lessons for one year in junior high, but has since lost her touch. I was so excited to hear this as I too have been missing the ivories. I quickly got to work shopping around for a good deal on a keyboard. So for the last week or so, Heather has been working through a great level 1 book that covers theory, technique, and lessons. At the end of her last lesson, she played Jingle Bells! Yeah, you can just imagine the size of the smile on her face after that one! Definitely looking forward to much more of this.

And that pretty much covers things for now. Hope y'all are doing well and are getting as excited as we are for the holidays!

Bellingham

Wow. I can't believe it has been three weeks since I've posted here! A big part of the reason it's been a while is that Heather and I went to Bellingham for a much needed vacation. The rest? Well, laziness I suppose. :)
I think most of you are friends with us on Facebook so you've probably already seen a decent chunk of the pictures from our trip. I'll probably put up another 10-20 pictures in that album and will include a few highlights in this post. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time!

The night before we left Nashville, we were thinking about things we may want to do on our first day there. We were flying into Sea-Tac so we had the option of doing something in Seattle on our way to B-Ham. I wondered if the Mariners had any home games left. Turned out, they had their last game of the season at home that next day! So we bought tickets for the best seats we could get and got ready to feast on our favorite thing at the field... garlic fries!!

The weather was spectacular. The air, crisp and fresh. The sounds, exciting. The smell, baseball-y. It was, the absolute perfect way to start our vacation!!!

Oh, and we ended up renting a car that we've had our eyes on for quite some time. We got a Chevy Equinox LTZ! The thing was loaded with options and was a real treat to drive!

We had most of Thursday to ourselves. We rented a 2-bedroom condo in Bellingham to make lounging around more comfortable. The place was great! If we ever vacation with other people again, I'll definitely try to go the route of a house rental instead of a hotel. It made such a difference having a living room to relax in, and a kitchen to cook in! We easily saved the difference in cost by eating some meals at the condo. We'd definitely recommend it if you have a chance. We used www.vbro.com to find our rental.

We spent part of our first day walking around Western, and being by the water as much as possible.

Check out the album on my (Tim's) Facebook page for more pictures!

Oh, when we got back to our place on Thursday afternoon, we found the outside pane of our patio door was broken. It wasn't us! We called the property management people and they said a rock hit the window when the landscapers were mowing the grass. Lucky it only broke one pane!

Seth and Emily were the first to come visit us. As always, we had a great time catching up with our best friends. Seth and I went Sumas to a really legit go-kart race track. These were not your ordinary go-karts you find at a mini golf/batting cage place. These were on a huge outdoor racetrack. They hold sanctioned league races there. We had to start out with the slowest go-karts but they still went 40-45mph. Not bad! We've had a few chances to race each other before and we seem to be pretty level in terms of driving skill. Good times! While we were out racing, the girls got a mani-pedi and some coffee. Just like ol times!

My parents, sister Cami, and her son Jack were next up to Bellingham! This was just our second time seeing Jack and he was absolutely beautiful! Lots of fun to play with, and so darn cute!

My dad probably had the best time of all playing with him...

Seriously... the kid is cute!

Just FYI, Bellingham has the best farmers market ever.

Last but not least, Heather's parents and brother came up!

As expected, seeing our family and friends just made us miss living closer to home more than ever. If you haven't heard, I've decided to pursue a Ph.D. at Vanderbilt once I finish my 4th year of the Au.D. this Spring. When we left Bellingham in 2009, we told ourselves and our families "It'll just be three short years. We'll move back to the PNW for our 4th year. It won't be that bad!" And here we are, preparing to commit to living in Nashville for another 3-4 years. I definitely never imagined being in school for quite this long. But through this all, I've learned that you just can't predict with full certainty the road you've yet to travel. Going to Bellingham was an incredible trip for the both of us. Restorative and relaxing. And we've never missed being at home more than we do now!

Bang Bang!!

Most of you know that I enjoy target shooting. I grew up in a family that enjoyed taking a few cereal boxes and pop cans up into the mountains to poke some holes into them. Like most kids, I learned to shoot with a .22 rifle.

I started on a Winchester Model 60 (pic below) which is a single-shot bolt action rifle. What that means is that it only holds a single bullet at a time. You have to open the bolt to insert the round. Then, close the bolt and pull the hammer back to cock it. Pull the trigger, Bang! 

Winchester Model 60

Not sure what a .22 round is? Allow me to explain! You've probably heard of a few different bullet sizes before (9mm, and .22 being the two most common). The number refers to the diameter of the bullet. Some pistol rounds are referred to in millimeters (9mm or 10mm), while others are referred to in inches (.17HMR, .22lr, .380, .40, and .45ACP). Assuming a bigger diameter means more power, now we know which rounds are the more powerful ones, right? Not hardly. Here's a picture of a .22lr round next to a .223 round. Same diameter bullet. 

Hmm. So there that is. LOTS of powder in the .223 round on the right! My point is, it's all about the powder. More powder equals a bigger boom. How much force you feel after pulling the trigger depends on how much powder is burned and how much mass is in the gun you're shooting. A heavier gun will soak up more of the recoil and will make things easier on you. Lighter guns leave more of it up to you to absorb with your arms, shoulders, and back. 

So that's enough bullet education for now.As my sister Nicole used to say, back to me! I have a .22 rifle of my own (Marlin Model 60) that I like to shoot, in part, because it is very economical. Bullets are about $.03 a piece. Bullets for my .40 caliber pistol are about $.32 a piece. Here's a picture of a .22 round next to a .40 caliber round. Quite a difference!

 Ever since I bought the pistol, I've been trying to get Heather into shooting. She also grew up in a family that respected firearms but enjoyed recreational shooting from time to time. The trouble is, that .40 caliber round is really powerful, and subsequently delivers a lot of recoil to your body. It's kind of scary for a new shooter! She has done well shooting my .22 rifle in the past, but had only fired a .22 pistol once and it was a very big and heavy revolver. So, a few weeks ago I saw a Groupon for two .22 pistol rentals with targets included at a local gun range. I thought, this is it! What a great opportunity to take Heather to the range to shoot the relatively small .22 round in a pistol that fits her small lady-like hands! So on Saturday, we went to Guns n Leather in Hendersonville, TN. She shot a Ruger SR22 and I shot a Ruger Mark II 22/45.

Surprise Surprise! The Ruger SR22 fit her hands very nicely! She felt comfortable with the controls and shot pretty well! Lookin' good babe with those pink ear muffs!! The gun I shot jammed a lot while chambering the first round of a magazine. Once I got past that, it shot very nicely and had a really smooth trigger.

 I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't hear it with my own ears. As we were walking back to the car, Heather said to me, "Well, I think I want a gun!" BOO YAH!!!! You got it babe. Well, not quite yet. There are 4 or 5 .22 pistols that I want to consider. Unfortunately Guns n Leather only had the 1 model available to shoot that day. I'll be keeping my eyes open for some of the others. Sometime soon, Heather will have her own pistol! It's a win-win for us. It'll mean we can go to the range more often, and start to enjoy another hobby together. 

So that's what we were up to this last weekend! Many of you know that Heather and I are flying to Bellingham on Wednesday to spend a few days with family and friends in a town that is very special to us. I'm sure we'll create a bunch of blog-worthy material, so stay tuned in the next week or two!! Until then, I hope you all are enjoying a nice transition to Fall!