Sorry I haven't been updating much. We've just been having too much fun. On Friday, Ed and Mark went to play golf and Stacy and I took the girls to Old Navy where we had some good shopping fun. We met up later for lunch at Super Burrito, a tiny hole-in-the-wall place that has my favorite burritoes of all time--chile relleno burritoes. Mmmmm! Then we went swimming for a few hours at my sister's country club. We pretended to be her, since she was at work that day.

That evening, we ate at a great restaurant called Marz. The girls stayed with Cherri and John so it was just the four of us eating--that was a treat. We watched a twilight parade, too. This is a small town in the middle of nowhere so the parade was interesting. It started out with antique cars then there followed some kick-ass muscle cars. Then we were temporarily deafened by the contingent of Harleys that road through. Talk about chest-rattlingly loud! Then there were some junior princesses who were called pageanterians. How's that for an ugly politically correct term?

We met Cherri and John and the girls at a coffee shop where John's friend was playing jazz in a small ensemble. He's a very good saxophonist--we were impressed. We stayed there until 9:15 or so then took the little ones home to sleep.

After Joey was in bed, we watched Men in Black and ate Jolly Time kettle corn microwave popcorn. That is some seriously good popcorn! I read my book off and on during the movie. This book is a serious page turner. I got lots of guestbook entries telling me how much I would like Pope Joan and you all were right. Trinity, if you're reading this, we're reading Pope Joan and the next discussion is the first Tuesday in September (which happens to coincide with the first day of school). Call or email me and I'll tell you how to get to the host's house.

Yesterday, Ed and Mark went mountain biking and the rest of us went to a road opening. Never been to a road opening, but it was fun. We got to ride our scooters on the the new freeway and there was a marimba band playing some great music and there was lots of free stuff--free face painting to make you look like a cat at the Humane Society booth, games at the Girl Scout and Campfire Kids booths, free soda and bottles of water, free Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and some more stuff that I can't remember. It was great. Just as we were leaving, a new band got on stage and they played some tropical music and tropical latin music. I loved it.

After the road opening, we went to Benham Falls and had a light lunch snack--bread from DiLusso bakery (my favorite bread of all time), sharp Tillamook cheddar cheese and crunchy red grapes. It was lovely. We fed the soft grapes to the chipmunks around us. They loved them. If you've never watched a chipmunk eat a grape, it's pretty funny.

Then we went on our hike. This is one of my favorite hikes, though it's more like a walk than a hike. They removed the railroad tracks and made a trail along the Deschutes river. It's got lots of shade and the river is so tranquil and nice. Until you get to the rapids and the falls. You go off the nice wide path at that point and go down toward the rapids. It's really beautiful. I had the great misfortune to twist my ankle pretty hard, though, stepping on a rock and it really hurt. It was the same ankle I twisted twice last August and September. I was in some serious pain and wasn't sure if I'd be able to walk the 3/4 of a mile out, but with my sister's help and a big stick, I did it. It hurt a lot, though. I ate a lot of ibuprofen and iced it a lot the rest of the afternoon and evening. When we got home, Cherri put a compression bandage on it for me and I elevated it and read my book. That part I liked a lot. :-)

We ate dinner out again and had some yummy food and Joey was a perfect angel. It amazes me sometimes how well behaved she can be. You can literally take her anywhere. (Then again, she can show me the complete other end of her behavior spectrum, too, as you know. But she usually saves that for when we are alone.)

We watched the Magnificant Seven on DVD last night. Well, I was in the room but I was mostly reading my book. I read almost 80 pages yesterday! Talk about a page turner!

Today we are going to take it easy--look at some houses, go swimming, maybe hit some golf balls, see a flick. Nothing too taxing for my still very sore ankle.

Thanks to HerWorship for the suggestion and encouragement with my writing. I will be able to get back to in in earnest very soon since Ed only has one week of sabbatical left and I've promised to help him with his last few projects. But I'll be setting some writing goals and keeping to a writing schedule. One thing I need to do which will grease the wheels a bit is to transcribe the last 3 chapters from longhand to Word. That always gets me in writing gear again. Thanks. You are truly an inspiration to me. I love to read about all your writing successes.

Later...

--L