Donohue Family News

An update from the clan Donohue …

Brian’s semester ended mid-May and he started working a summer internship doing ontology engineering (he can explain what that is when we visit). Some days Ellie and I drive him to work, which is only a couple miles down the road, so we can have the car and go shopping (usually at Target; I’m addicted). Actually, yesterday we went to Michael’s just for fun and then Petsmart so Ellie could see the fish and hamsters (but not the snakes because EEEK).

We’re enjoying the spring weather to the fullest and looking forward to the Best Summer Ever (officially dubbed thus by me). The Farmer’s Market is open every Saturday in the park across the street, and Ellie and I enjoy getting farm-fresh chicken and other goods. We’re outdoors all the time and both getting nice and golden-brown.

We’ve befriended an Orthodox family who live down the street from us. He’s a young Orthodox priest, actually, and he and his wife Katie have two little boys. The younger one, Gregory, is only two months older than Ellie.

I’ve been keeping busy planning my history class for this fall. I already have over half a dozen students enrolled and anticipate more. European history is so much fun – I scurry away to my work desk as soon as I put Ellie down for a nap or at bedtime. Most weeknights, Brian and I will work on our respective projects for an hour or two, then relax with a mixed drink (Fuzzy Navels being my usual choice, of course) or wine. Weekends, we’ll watch a Netflix or Redbox movie together.

I’ve been jogging roughly every other day since late April. At first, I did a combination of jogging and walking in small spurts, but now I’m comfortably jogging for 20 minutes (2 miles) and this week, I’m bumping myself up to 2.5 miles. I’m running a 5k with my friend Heather on June 26, so by then 3.1 miles should be more than doable (I might even be able to improve my pace!)

Brian and I are very excited to be visiting Nani and Papa next week! We’re driving down Sunday and staying for most of the week. It will be Ellie’s first visit to the farm and she’s looking forward to seeing Nani and Papa, Uncle Luke and Aunt Missy again, AND Aunt Julie, Uncle Drew and her cousins William and Teddy! On Tuesday, she gets to hang out with Nani and Papa because Brian and I are going to see Florence + the Machine at the Merriweather-Post pavilion. Brian surprised me with tickets as an early 2nd anniversary present 🙂 Then I told him the last time I was there, it was to see Nsync in ’97. (I like to make myself sound mature and sophisticated, but in actuality, I was only 7 at the time … and the loud noise made me cry …)

Tune in next month for more shenanigans!