The Adventures of Trevor & Marjee

Since Last year

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor&Marjee) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:36:00 +0000

Realizing that we haven't posted anything for nearly a year now I thought I would give a year in review of the Chmiel Owens household in photos. Far from any kind of comprehensive recap this is more of a walk through of some of our photos over the last year.

Dogs:
We were happy to spend this year with Bowser and Zelda, and we were also happy to spend time with the three dogs we fostered for a local small dog rescue. Luigi, Jung Le, and Yoshi were each great pets, and each found a great home. We are thrilled that Yoshi found his home with Marjee's mom.

Friends:

It was a great year for old friends and new. We visited some of our World of Warcraft Friends in Boston, and took a short new England vacation, we spent time at the Chmiel family cabin in Crivitz, and drove back and forth between Milwaukee and Chicago several times to visit with friends and family back in the homeland.

Home Improvement:
Started several projects, but still have plenty of work to do. Spent time with mom and todd framing the basement, and tiled one of our bathrooms.

We made monsters:
We also made some monsters. Marjee took a sewing class and we both had a bit of fun with the sewing machine.

Chmiel's In The Capitol

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor&Marjee) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:14:00 +0000

We were very lucky to have Marjee's mom and dad visit us a few weeks ago. After the wedding we left our pups with them in Chicago, and bringing the dogs back made for a great excuse to get them both to come visit us.

Marjee's dad had never done the whole nations capitol highlights tour so we made some time to make that happen. Our first attempt got rained out, we saw the Natural History Museum bought some panchos and got completely soaked as I forgot exactly how far away the Farragut metro stop was.

The next day we took a brunch cruise around the Potomac. As seen above the food was excellent. It was also a lot of fun to see the monuments from the water.

After that we hit the major spots, walked around the capitol building, the supreme court, the whitehouse, washington monument, world war two memorial, the vietnam memorial, and the Lincoln memorial. It was throughly exhausting and throughly enjoyable.

Sara Rashid reports from Grant Park

noreply@blogger.com (Marjee) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:16:00 +0000

Our very good friend Sara Rashid was able to attend Obama's acceptance speech yesterday. I wanted to share her take:

From Sara:
...it was a miraculously warm night out. Beautiful. I've never felt so comfortable surrounded by 100,000 strangers. I hate crowds and am always intimidated by them - so much so that, to my embarassment, I actually asked if we could stay home last night. I was scared. Coleman said I was welcome to stay home, but that if I did, I'd miss this century's "I Have a Dream" speech. I had to give him that one. It turned out to be like being with family. Absolutely nothing but good feelings, warmth, comraderie, and manners. In that massive heep of humans, any and every time someone's toe was inadvertantly stepped on you heard a prompt apology. That sh*t doesn't even happen in church. It was amazing.

We declined to push through the masses to be on the "ground floor" (eek! Oprah vibes!), and opted rather to stay on the sidelines. We had a perfect view of everything. Coleman's sister had her camera; promised to send me pics (which I will forward to you). We had a perfect view of the hotel Obama was staying at (allegedly) and you could see shadows of people on the giant front balcony. Coleman surmised they were Secret Service Snipers, and I doubt he was wrong. That + the amount of police + the constant helicopter rumbling made for quite an intimidating scene, but still, nothing but smiles and ease.

It stunned us how quickly Obama's victory was announced. He won Virginia (to a roar from the crowd), I texted you, and then BOOM! - the CNN screen we were all watching displayed his victory. It was so unexpected there was a pause in the crowd - and then elation. I cried. I think everyone cried. I'm sure we all had our different reasons. I cried because I was amazed at the possibilities in a lifetime. And because I was proud of him. And scared for him. And because I was proud of us. And scared for us. I cried because I was moved, and happy, and sad (thinking about his grandmother's death), and, frankly, because I was surprised. I really didn't have faith. But I do now :)

The trip home was gleeful, to put it mildly. People were honking their horns and playing frickin' bongos and dancing in the streets. Strangers were hugged and high-fived. Donuts were purchased from convenience store employees wearing Uncle Sam hats and screaming right along with the patrons. Every now and then, you'd hear a champagne cork pop. Believe it or not, not once did that sound make me jump. That's the calming affect this news had, joyous as it was. Suddenly, it felt like things might be alright. On that way home I also realized that not once in my life have I seen our president on T.V. or heard his voice on the radio and been proud. I am now. It's new and strange and powerful and very, very exciting.

Oh yes, as I'm recalling it all I should say that I thought McCain's concession speech was dignified, respectful, wise, and kind. It should be noted that our crowd applauded him. To my delight, it should also be noted that our crowd booed Palin :)

I woke up this morning unable to process how I felt. I've never felt a grand-scale optimism like this. I'm so glad Obama's speech mentioned the failures and "missteps" that will undoubtedly occur, because I don't want anyone in the world to think we misinterpret this man as a diety. He's just a man. But quite a man he is.

Marjee and Trevor's Election Picks

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor&Marjee) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:59:00 +0000

To make election night a bit more fun we decided to each lay out our picks on a state by state basis. For the record here they are.

Marjee's Election picks: Obama 306 McCain 232

Trevor's Election Predictions: Obama 353 McCain 185

Our first night in Athens

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor&Marjee) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:14:00 +0000

We had quite a bit of fun on our first night in Athens. After checking into our hotel we took a quick walk to find some food. Here are a few shots.

A year with dogs

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor&Marjee) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:51:00 +0000

As we approach Bowser's one year anniversary I thought I would play a little with iMovie and stitch together some of the video clips as a little gift for Marjee.

But soon the sun with milder rays descends

noreply@blogger.com (Marjee) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:05:00 +0000

Everyone says planning a wedding is hard work, but it has not really caught up with us until this summer.
Our wedding is in three weeks. We have our cocktail napkins. The moms, the flower girls, and I all have our dresses. Our flowers, cake, and cake topper are set, and we are looking forward to a wedding at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
We've even got more music than we know what to do with ready for instant DJ-ing loaded onto our computers. I'm really excited about all of that. But there are a few stumbling blocks. For one, we found out that our rings are really late! We ordered custom rings from Absolute Titanium. We had pretty rough luck with them for my engagement ring, so we figured we'd have to be proactive about making sure the wedding rings got to us on time. Lets just say that it was a good thing that we've been aggressively in touch with them. Apparently, the canceled our order by accident. They confused us with another "Owens" that ordered the same style.

We've hardly had time, this summer, to take any fun pictures. Of course, we have the obligatory puppy shots, because that is what dotting dog owners do. The puppies have been enjoying a bit more outdoor freedom now that we have installed a short fence. It is tall enough to keep our little guys in line, but still short enough to maintain our view of the woods. They still bark at everyone that walks by. Why don't dogs understand property lines?

The summer highlight for sure has been the wedding of our friends Ben and Amanda. The wedding was at an amazing vineyard outside of Amanda's hometown of Staunton, VA. A gorgeous little old town that deepend my appreciatiuon for my new home state. Take a look. The bride, groom, friends, and scenerly were all picture perfect:

The wedding was a rare confluence of great friends, great booze, great food, and amazing scenery. Utterly unforgettable. The best part was that it was the puppies' first hotel stay, and they did smashing-ly well.

Hectic times make for great memories

noreply@blogger.com (Marjee) — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:23:00 +0000

April flowers have brought May showers to our neck of the woods. A balmy April somehow turned into rainy May days.
Zelda wore the weather well...

....but our two guests this month, Marie and Dave, had to be willing to put up with some muddiness. That worked out pretty well in both cases. Marie joined us for a pretty fantastic Mother's Day breakfast (if I may say so my self!) and some small-town site seeing:

We did get to see some fantastic "wildlife"!

Zelda graduated from her puppy obedience class:

...and we got a little bit closer to finalizing our wedding plans:

First Vos Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor&Marjee) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:56:00 +0000

We have been quite busy. I'm busy finishing up classes, working full time and taking six credits is always an adventure, and Marjee has been digging in at JASON. Two weeks ago we went back to Milwaukee for my cousin Nicole's wedding. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Marjee is ready to go

Nicole and Ben

Pre-reception coffee with aunt Kath and uncle Scot

Sitting down for dinner

Beer cozy keepsake

Ch ch ch changes...

noreply@blogger.com (Marjee) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:19:00 +0000

...What a crazy past few weeks. We've had a lot of unaccomplishments recently. Mr. Bowser has graduated....

from his intermediate doggie class. He was also named as "most improved" so we were really proud. This is a really spoiled dog, folks, So his accomplishment makes us proud."

In other news, Trev is doing great in his job. Marjee took a new job, but not entirely leaving PBS. She still works as a consultant there, and in the mean time, is taking a role in shaping the direction of educational games.
Stuff around us is changing too...the season is amazing here!

This had to be posted...

noreply@blogger.com (Marjee) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:32:00 +0000

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

My week as a single puppy parent

noreply@blogger.com (Marjee) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:17:00 +0000

Mr. Trevor is off in Portland this week for a conference and a quick visit with his father. That means I'm managing my last full week at PBS along with two puppies. It is amazing how labor intensive they are! I certainly feel the work when Trevor is around, but somehow the calculus is such that minus Trevor they become quadruple, rather than simply double, the work. I've also noticed that their dynamic is somewhat different when Trevor is not around. For instance, I took Bowser for his obedience training yesterday and he was very vicious toward other dogs(it is as adorable as it sounds). The trainer thinks Bowser is extraordinarily protective of me, so without Trevor around, I saw a different side of Bowser. He was a maniac, but it is hard to take a 7lb killer seriously. Especially one with such a pretty coat.
Anyway, it has been nuts. I'm either cleaning up an unspeakable mess or trying to get someone to stop chewing on something. They are a handful. The thing is, as all dog lovers know, moments such as the one pictured above more than make up for it. I've been sick this past week and on my days home from work, they curled up next to me and were my partners in rest and recuperation. I would walk with them to China and back in a heartbeat.

It is official

noreply@blogger.com (Marjee) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:05:00 +0000

I've accepted an offer to be the Director of Digital Media and Technology at the National Geographic's JASON Project. It is a great chance for me to get involved with science media, especially science education games.

I am really going to miss many of the folks at PBS. It is always hard to leave friends and talented co-workers behind. That said, this is an amazing opportunity.

Winter pups

noreply@blogger.com (Marjee) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:30:00 +0000

Trevor and I were able to spend some time in Milwaukee and Chicago for the holidays. The drive over was pleasant, and while we got a beautiful snowfall....

...it made the ride back home sort of rough. Plus, we had a young pup who was used to Virginia snow, which is different from WI and Chicago snow...

...so he had a little bit of a learning curve with his otherwise very successful training. Seeing Bowser interact with other dogs (or try to interact with other dogs who might not be interested in him) convinced us that he would do well with a buddy. For some time I had my eye on a pretty little lady who was rescued from a puppy mill, just like Bowser. So we welcome little Zelda, who will be 4 months old next week:

Zelda is half Pom, like Bowser, but she is also half Pekingese. She looks more like a Peke as you can see in the picture above, after her first bath. While she needed a bath, Bowser expedited the need for the baths because he got himself into something STINKY after a trip outside. Here is Zelda after she dried off, being a daddy's girl:

As you can imagine, we have our hands full now that our family doubled in size, but we've also been having a blast. The two have such different personalities and they make us laugh. They tire each other out in a way that we humans can't. It is good to see their progress as they grow into good canine citizens.

Trevor starts his classes again this week, and we look forward to our birthday season and the emergence of spring.

A few more bowser videos

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor&Marjee) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:20:00 +0000

Meet Bowser

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor&Marjee) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:22:00 +0000

We are are excited to debut our newest family member. Bowser, is a 5 month old pomaranian. It was quite a adventure to get him, traveling to the border of West Virgina and Ohio. Here is a bit of footage of him being a puppy.

Coming to terms with the end of October

noreply@blogger.com (Marjee) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:16:00 +0000

Holy Crow-where did the time go? Trevor and I had a whirlwind of a month. We booked our florist and reception/ceremony venue. We'll be working with Urban Sense florists in Milwaukee and the wedding will be at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
We were really happy with the folks we met at both places and are confident that they will be great to work with. We are trying to involve our friends and family in ways that will showcase their talents. More on that later, but I do want to plug a new website set up by our friend Lisa, who will be making our guest book. Check out her gallery as her work is stunning.

After that, we were able to vacation a little at my parents' cabin in Crivitz. The weekend was a blast and we are so grateful to everyone who braved the trek up there and missed a few folks who were unable to make it this year.

Aunt Kath Drops In

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Owens) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 23:58:00 +0000

Last weekend my god mother dropped in here are some of the photographic highlights.

We caught a performance art thing at the Kennedy Center.

And passed a few notable buildings on the way to dinner.

Then we went back to our house to call it a night.

The next day we stopped off at the farmers market to pick up some lunch.

And then we stopped by my office to show my god mother where I work.

and then we visited the Occoquan craft fair. (It was very cute)

All in all it was a great weekend!

In other exciting news...

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Owens) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:35:00 +0000

There was a neat article on using Science in Virtual Worlds in last weeks Science

Best part though comes in the citations....

How cool is that!! Now if you go to Sciencemag.org and search for Chmiel the 4th hit is Marjee! That is really awesome.

Remodeling, cleaning, etc.,

noreply@blogger.com (Marjee) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:31:00 +0000

It seems like forever since our last post. Trevor and I have been really busy settling into the new house. I had two work-related trips right before and after our closing. My mom came up for a week to help us clean the house and later Trevor's mom and Todd came to help us move. It has been exhausting, but the place is really starting to feel like home.

We recently had our hardwood floors installed and renovated the 1/2 bath on the main floor. As the dust settles, we'll post some before and after shots on this blog, so stay tuned!

Better Floor Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Owens) — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:50:00 +0000

So yesterday we closed on the house. We can start moving things over on Tuesday!!

As part of closing we got a better set of floor plays which we have avaliable here.

Engaged

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Owens) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 01:05:00 +0000

So last Friday I supprised Marjee with a trip to Baltimore and at dinner I gave her an engagement ring. We spent the weekend and had a blast. Here are some pictures.

This is the resturant I proposed at.

Here is the view from our hotel room

And here are some pictures from the rest of our trip

up_stairs_photos

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Owens) — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:56:00 +0000

As promised, here are pictures of the upstairs.

Master Bedroom: 11x17 (you can sort of see into the master bath on the first picture.)

Here is the second bedroom 11x13

Third bedroom 9x9

And here is the other full bath on the second floor.

Oh I thought I would throw in some other photos of the 'hood. You can see the pool that is just down the road and some of the other roadside trees and such.

Do you have stairs in your house?

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Owens) — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:25:00 +0000

As I promised, here is a more extensive walkthrough of our house. We wernt able to get photos of the second floor, ran out of time. But we do have a pile of other neat stuff!! (Click on the images to see the bigger pictures and then click "all sizes" to see the really big versions) and if you have any questions on what something is feel free to ask in the comments part.

(our house is the second to last one)

This is the floor plan.

Pictures of the first floor.

And some shots of the basement.

As I mentioned, we do not have pictures of the second floor, but those will follow soon.

We Got the House!!

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Owens) — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:57:00 +0000

Pictures to follow!!

3 levels
3 bedrooms
2.5 bathroms
1428 sq feet (about 2000 if you include the walk-out basement)

You can see it here, it is the one with the chimny and the solar panals.