Erickson is really, really loud.

I couldn't think of an appropriate post title, so I will start off with my thought of the hour. And I mean REALLY, REALLY LOUD. There you have it.

Moving on, I am happy to report that Mike returned home safely last Friday and life is slowly returning to normal -- whatever that means for the summertime! When he left his Dad was well on his way to recovery and was moving around quite freely and feeling well. We survived his week away and were all happy upon his return!

Saturday night we celebrated Michael's birthday by going to an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet - or Heaven, as Michael prefers to call it - for dinner. I think I had at least three plates of sushi and crab legs, yet still managed to have room for dessert. It was one of those dining experiences where you stuff your belly too full, hang your head in shame and then vow not to return for a very, very long time. On Sunday we took the canoe out to a great little lake not far from here for an enjoyable afternoon of canoing and fishing. Both Mike and Erickson (yes, his hair is in desperate need of a fresh cut thanks to a horrible cut a few weeks ago) caught some bass ...and we had close encounters with both a swan and a beaver...On the way home we stopped at a little dive of a pizza joint called Arena Pizza for a tasty pizza pie. The building was a horrible little hole in the wall in what seemed like the middle of no where, complete with broken front screen door and questionable cleanliness, but we were hungry and a good 25 minutes from home so we stopped anyway. Surprisingly they seemed to be doing a pretty brisk business and the food was thankfully really good.

In other news, we have been able to keep Yogi for a few extra days as the family he was to be traveling to next has some kind of virus passing through it. The mom felt a little overwhelmed (two sets of twins all under the age of 9 and the husband is out of town) so I volunteered that we could hold on to the Yogster for a few mores days. I wish I could say it was just me offering to help someone out of the kindness of my heart, but I fear the ulterior motive of not wanting to have Yogi leave and having "our" puppy around for a few more days is probably more likely! And did I mention that Yogi loves me?