Dog Days of Summer

So today is my father's birthday. I'm not sure if you remember but he has spent quite a bit of time volunteering for the Red Cross since his retirement. Currently he is in Iowa trying to help people bolster / rebuild enough of themselves to handle everything else they will face in their clean-up. Hopefully he will be home this weekend and I can catch up with him soon.
The world seems to be a rather turbulant place at the moment: floods, tornadoes, heat waves, wars... I think we're only missing a couple other key elements there to make this a rather biblical episode.

Okay, enough depressing CNN coverage.

Stace and I are good. We made it through our whirlwind 7-8 weeks of travel, events, and guests with nary a scratch. Now we get to deal with the blast zone that is our poor house: clothes everywhere, bags still unpacked, a neglected yard... Maybe we can sneak back to CO instead?
Lets see, how did that go? Nashville Country Music Marathon, White Lake Half Ironman, Kress and Sharon's wedding in Colorado, Paul and the family, San Diego Music Marathon, Zach's wedding in MO, The Man & Woman of the Year Finale, The Latta Tri... That's a lot of busy weekends!

And have I mentioned my dislike for Charlotte in the summer? Well, I have a dislike of summer in general, however I REALLY dislike it HERE this time of year. Gah. You know it's muggy and hot when you are drying off from your shower at 7:30 in the morning and you realize that you are already sweating. Awful.

The dogs are healthy and good. Seemingly happy, though Oscar is not too thrilled with the change in sleeping arrangements. Now that he's not in the bed with us at night he's taken to brow-beating us into at least snuggling with him on the couch for a few hours in the evening. A pouty pug is not a pretty thing.

Hmm.. What else is going on... Oh! Stace has signed up for two events this year - her first Triathalon and a Century Ride! These are later on in the fall-esque timeframe, but we're psyched. Who knows, maybe I'll be peer pressured into one myself sometime.

Other big news - The 3G Apple iPhone is set to be released tomorrow! Whoo hoo! I'm sorry, but that's just way too cool a gadget not to fawn over. Go play with one and tell me differently, I dare ya.

I noticed yesteday that there are already buds on the myrtles in the yard and that means blossoms! Of course they are a couple weeks away as ours seem to pop a little later then most, but still... And THAT reminded me that we've been in our house for 3, count them - THREE - years now. HOLY COW! Something about time and wings and such, but that went by fast!

Paul and the girls just got back from a trip to see family in the North East and they are writing it up. You can catch that here: http://themainediaries.blogspot.com/ . They recently spent some time with us - I'll post some pictures of that when I get home tonight.

Botanical additions

So we have a couple of new additions to our flower garden this year. The lillies are from my parent's garden last year and they did not bloom here.. I thought they died off, but this year they came back in multiples. The rose is the first full bloom from a bush we planted earlier in the year. The picture really doesn't do it justice although that is the closest in color I can get it.. That is Very close. Absolutely beautiful.