It’s hard to believe it’s already August! We’ve had a few busy weekends along with a couple downright lazy ones! Jason returned from his convention last month with plenty of stories to share. His convention goodies were housed within a purple sack (like the cloth-type grocery bags). Kiki has claimed the purple bag as her new favorite plaything. She’s sort of like a toddler that is more interested in the playing with the box than with the actual toy. She goes tearing around tangled up in the bag-handles causing a bit of laughter along with fear for the safety of our feet…but of course, never when I have my camera handy. I did manage to snap one picture of her with her new favorite ‘toy’ though. 
A couple of weekends ago we attended the annual caver-geek summer picnic. Mike and Carol were gracious hosts as always, and although it was a smaller than average crowd, there was plenty of good food and stories to share. Jason commented he felt there were slightly less stories this year, since he had just spent a week at convention with most of the group. I, however, had an excellent time.
Football season is upon us! I’m glad the lockout ended, and it was actually quite exciting to have all of the usual summer trading condensed into a short week-long time-frame. We set up a fantasy football league this year amongst friends and it will be my first time playing fantasy football so wish me luck! Apparently we draft our players Tuesday…and although Jason has been reading and studying up, I plan to go with a novel approach I call ‘winging it’. I’m sure it will be fun even if I’m not winning.
In a few weeks my brother and his girlfriend will be visiting us in Salt Lake City. Although she’s travelled all over, this will be her first trip to the Wasatch front. I’m hoping we can show them a good time. I’m also hoping for nice weather, a troupe of elves to show up and clean my guest room, a new mattress to be picked out and delivered for said guest-area, my bathtub cleaned and refinished, and the wiring fixed in the office all in the next 2 weeks. Wish us luck! (Sometimes having a deadline is the best motivation however).
After the initial bumper pea crop, our garden is finally starting to produce tomatoes. Jason included one picture in a previous post, and I’m certain we’ll have more pictures of the new varieties next month. Just when we thought we had tried all of our heirloom seed possibilities, we visited our local farmer’s market and picked up 2 more kinds for next year! Woot! My dahlia’s are also beginning to bloom, and my mums look like they all survived the winter. With any luck we’ll have some fall color here soon.
We recently got new neighbors next door. In addition to 2 somewhat yappy disobedient dogs, they also have 2-4 cats. I say “2-4” because 2 of them have collars and look very well taken care of, but two other collar-less ones showed up about the same time. Today Jason announced he does not like these cats because ‘unlike the stray cats who have the decency to poop in the bark mulch, these new neighborcats poop right in the grass’. Boo for new neighbor-cats. Here is my most recent picture of my usual porch-fed strays for your enjoyment.
I’m thinking I will make a trip to WI around Christmas this year. Donations toward my plane ticket can be mailed directly to our house 😉 I’m looking forward to seeing everyone back there again soon!
Take Care! S.~