Update

In anticipation of going back to a hot classroom I decided to chop my hair off.  Yes, this is a bad picture that I took by myself, but oh well.

I have been on hcg again for two and a half weeks and I am down 17 pounds.  All of a sudden none of my pants fit any more.  I bought a pair of jeans, but it is still so hot I can't imagine wearing them to work.  I searched high and low for a pair of capris or shorts today and I only found one pair that will work.  They aren't great looking, but at least they won't be as hot as long pants.  I tried on a pair of size 6 jeans at Ross today and they fit great.  I have never been a size 6 in my life, so I am really happy about that.

Buffalo, NY

Mom and I spent a few days in Buffalo visiting the fabulous Barnes resort.

Here is a front view picture of their cute home.

This is the only interior picture that I took.  I know that they are planning on doing a lot of painting in the next few weeks, so I decided to let them post the before and after pix.

On Saturday after our architectural tour we stopped at a park with a waterfall near their house.

Later that day we did some grocery shopping at Wegmans.  For those of you who have never experienced Wegmans, I feel sorry for you.  Forget Niagra Falls and those other hokey tourist destinations, if you happen to be near  a Wegmans make that your priority.  I really wish we had Wegmans in Utah.

Here is Liv modeling in front of just one of the many cheese displays.

Mom, Lex and Nate again in front of one of the many cheese displays.

Here we have Liv in the elevator at Wegmans.  Yes, Wegmans has an elevator.  None of the stupid grocery stores that I shop at have an elevator.  Unfortunately my pictures from the second floor didn't turn out very well.

On Sunday we went to the lovely village of Niagra-on-the-Lake.

Everyone wanted a picture of the Amish woman, so here we have Liv posing with the Amish woman in the background.

We passed this fort on the way to Niagra-on-the-Lake.  They were doing a revolutionary war reenactment in the field next to the fort, but Nate didn't want to stop.

After Niagra-on-the-Lake we stopped on the American side of Niagra Falls.  The falls were okay, but who are we kidding: the main purpose in stopping was to find some ice cream, and they had some delicious ice cream here.

Here we have both Lex and Live posing on the statue of Nicola Tesla.  Tesla was an electrical engineer and contemporary of Thomas Edison.  Although many of his inventions were just as revolutionary as Edison's, he was very eccentric and made a lot of wild claims which later earned him the reputation of a mad scientist.

Happenings

Summer is plugging right along, and I feel like I'm just as busy now as I am when I'm at work.  Between my morning hikes, yard work, house work, geneology, and Thursday's with Ava at Cherry Hill I don't end up having a lot of down time.  At least I get to sleep in most days, and that is fabulous.

I got a letter from the County this morning informing me that I have been selected for jury duty next Friday.  If I end up having to sit through a trial I hope that the defendant is as colorful as mom's "Silky Smooth".

One great find this summer has been the Ogden dog park.  I met a lady a few weeks ago who told me about it, and I have since been up there a couple of times each week.  Most of the people seem to be there on a regular basis and I am getting to know the other dogs.  Sometimes the other owners are chatty, and other times we just sit and watch the dogs play.  Shady is just as interested in the other people as she is in the dogs, and she makes sure to go around and let everyone have the opportunity to pet her.  I just wish we had a dog park a little closer to home.

I found this little guy on the trail the other day.  Luckily for him, Shady didn't notice him as she ran by, or he wouldn't still be alive.  When I came upon him he was just sitting there on the trail and he didn't seem to be the least bit concerned about me.  When I paused to get my camera out he did meander under this dandelion, but when I lifted up the leaf he just sat there and looked at me.  He was so tiny, about the size of the top of my pinky finger.

Here is a random photo that I like to call "Coonhound Among Wildflowers".

Fun at Lagoon - Sort Of!

Wednesday was Steph's work Lagoon Day and she kindly invited her sisters to join her.

The day started out okay.  It wasn't warm enough for the water park, but it was pleasant.

Since we had small children we spent most of our day in Kiddie Land.

Poor Ashlyn did not really enjoy many of the rides.  Even rides like these made her cry unless she could sit next to someone.

Grace and Ava enjoyed somem of the more "grown-up" rides.  This was Ava's favorite, but somehow I didn't manage to get a picture of her on it.  Grace would have ridden the wild roller coasters all day long.  I made it on the Spider twice and the Wild Mouse once, and that was about all that I could do.  I didn't enjoy either of them at all!  I am old, have a sensitive stomach, and I am afraid of heights.

Puff the Magic Dragon was my favorite roller coaster.

At lunch time Denise and her students joined us.  Ava and Grace enjoyed these rides too.  Ashlyn was scared.

Ash did actually enjoy this ride.

This would be Ashlyn's favorite ride.  She spent most of her day like this.

We figured that this was the reason that JoLyn didn't join us.

At about 3 pm the winds picked up and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees.  It was really miserable, but since they were serving Famous Dave's for dinner we decided to stick it out until 5:30.  Dinner was good, but I'm not sure it was worth the misery leading up to it.  As soon as we finished dinner we were out of there, and not a minute too soon.  As we were walking out to the parking lot it started to rain.  Here's hoping that next year's Lagoon Day falls on a day with better weather.

Shady's Biopsy

For anyone who cares, Shady's biopsy showed that the growth was not cancerous, so I don't have to put my dog through chemotherapy.  Hooray!

Sweet Freedom 2010

We finished up the school year on  Friday and I have a whole summer of freedom to contemplate.  I enjoy my job,  but I enjoy sleeping in and persuing other interests too, so I am lucky to be able to get the summer off. 

The summer is not starting out on a great note, however.  About a month ago Shady started bleeding from her rear-end every time she had a bowl movement.  I took her into the vet and Eric said her anal glands were really full.  He cleaned them out and said that she shouldn't have any more problems, because big dogs don't tend to have gland problems.  Unfortunately she continued to bleed.  When I got back from Mexico I took her back in to have her glands cleaned again.  Eric was surprised that they were already full, and he put her on an antibiotic just in case an infection was causing the problem.  After about a day on the antibiotics I could tell that she felt a lot better, but she continued to bleed.  We finished the antibiotics and I took her back in on Thursday because the bleeding continued and this time he finally found a tumor just inside her anus.  My poor coonhound will be going in on Monday for butt surgery, and hopefully this will take care of the problem once and for all.  Eric says that the chance of this being cancerous in a dog so young is very slim, but he also seemed surprised that she would have this problem at all.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that I won't be losing another dog to cancer so soon.  Keep your fingers crossed for the coonhound!

Look What I Found!

Shady and I took the steep trail up above the Fernwood Picnic Area this morning.  We had hiked for about an hour and I was about ready to turn around when I noticed that Shady had taken little side trail.  I decided to follow her for a minute and see where the trail went and just a minute later I stumbled onto this cute little old cabin.

Inside I found several pots, pans, utensils and a phone book.  I'm not sure why the phone book is there, since there is definitely not a phone here.

Outside a pipe was streaming water into this little trough.  I wondered if the water came from a spring, and since I was really thirsty I was tempted to try it.  Since I have to work for another week I decided that I'd better not risk it.

This waterfall isn't in the Fernwood area, but I had the picture on my phone from last week and since it was pretty I decided to include it.