Friday, July 20

I've decided to create a blog to keep in touch with family and friends during my travels. I think this will be pretty no-frills, but who knows? Might wind up being fancy. I also have fantasies of somehow being witty and engaging enough in this that I'll be discovered as The Next Literary Genius and be whisked away to turn my clever posts into a book.

Today I am at home in Chicago with my kitty cats. Cat-haters beware: there will be a LOT of cat discussion in my posts, especially those that I write from home. Not only are the cats a big focus of my time at home, but they do something note- and/or photo-worthy about every 5 seconds (see above).

It's cooled off a bit here in Chicago, and I'm starting to mentally gear myself up for a longish run this afternoon. I'm running the Chicago Half Marathon on September 9 and haven't kept up with my distance runs. Bad Betsy. The race website is http://www.chicagohalfmarathon.com/, for anyone who wants to sign up and run it with me. (Randy, this means YOU!)

I was in DC last weekend for an all-too-brief stint. Got to see all of the parents, and took my 7-year old niece, Kate, shopping for her birthday. She did really great, but got a little indecisive in the toy section - not because she didn't know what she wanted, but because she apparently already owns every toy that Target sells. We got two sets of jammies (one, a nightgown with cute little cats on it), an outfit, the "Ella Enchanted" DVD, a Bratz girl and another critter for The Littlest Pet Shop. I'll be back in DC the weekend of August 12, the date upon which a certain Pancik patriarch will be celebrating a certain milestone-ish birthday.

While I was at home, I also got to see my old SVHS friend Renee Rabben in "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," a rock opera that is based on, well, Jack the Ripper. It was pretty campy but very entertaining. Renee still has such a superb voice, and has been seen in a number of local musicals recently. It's cool that I have friends who haven't abandoned their true loves! (As opposed to yours truly, but we'll just consider it an extended hiatus.)

I'm at home in Chicago next week until Thursday, and am then off to Vancouver for a long weekend with my dear friend, Wayne, to take advantage of a leadership award that I won a year ago. Basically, the award involves a free trip to Vancouver and a nice chunk of change to blow on spa treatments, decadent dinners, and many, many cocktails (unless the nice chunk of change is actually in Canadian dollars, in which case we're screwed).

By the way, this Michael Vick thing is really on my mind today. A special shout out to my sister and all of her Humane Society of the United States colleagues who have worked and continue to work extremely hard on this case - as I told Rachel yesterday, her little sister is proud. If you'd like to read the HSUS' reporting on the investigation, go to http://www.hsus.org/.

One of the things I'm hoping to use this blog for is to share pictures. For my inaugural post, I've attached a photo taken today of Dewey enjoying the dining table centerpiece.