my phone being fine after having an overnight at the bottom of the lake was only a temporary thing, which is really ok since i was able to back it up to my computer and all my very very important notes that i’d stored are now safely on amy’s old phone for now.  plus my video of sweet mollie.

things are very quiet and peaceful this morning, a refreshing change from the past couple weeks.  we are still having the garage sale all weekend, but besides having to get up too early, it’ll all be good. the forecast is for perfect weather, as opposed to yesterday and today, which is nothing but rain.

meanwhile…how is it september already?

here’s a smattering of photos from the remainder of july.

chester, looking beautiful and regal as usual.

deer snacking in the circle.  are there as many more deer as there seem to be this year?

another lovely sailboat ride.  i hope we get to do that again soon.

we have a few of these hollyhock, but this is the only one that bloomed this year.  i don’t know what’s up with that.

me, doing the very difficult job of steering.

mom enjoyed herself thoroughly on this sailboat ride.

and lester enjoyed lying in the dirt, next to his ersatz jungle gym.  finishing les’s outdoor jungle gym has been something i wanted to do all summer, but maybe i’ll have time and energy now that it’s not going to be blistering hot anymore.  theoretically.  maybe kevin will help me, because i still don’t have any definite plan about the project.  if we build it in the fall, he’ll enjoy it all winter long i know.

it’s been an eventful summer for amy and jim, dog-wise.  on july 17th, mom and amy and i road-tripped to lawrence kansas, to pick up a rescue italian greyhound.  it was a bittersweet event, because darling and sweet Numie had just passed away.

here’s mom and amy in the nice hotel we stayed at in lawrence, the Eldridge Hotel, a hotel built in the 20’s and beautifully restored.

we first stopped to have a visit with the dog amy would be getting, and the lovely people who were the foster parents had a total of seven italian greyhounds.  that’s a whole lotta tiny crazy energetic dogs in one place.  it was a crazy fun thing to see them – five of them are their own dogs!  still a lotta dogs.

Laz, the cute little guy who we were rescuing, is in the front.  i love their dog in the back there, with his cute tall pointy ears.

soulful eyes!

the other rescue dog there was blind.  we’d never encountered a blind dog before, and Izzy was such a good and energetic dog.  i don’t know what i’d been expecting, a dog with a cane and a seeing-eye dog of her own?  the owners said that Izzy was the most energetic dog of the bunch.

i think this is Izzy here with amy, but not 100% sure because she looked just like another dog they had.  amy decided on the spot that she wanted to get Izzy, too, and she called jim a lot and they discussed it, but they finally concluded that getting two dogs was too much right now.

here’s Laz, with their oldest dog, who is on the left and named Mollie.

amy taking laz for his first walk during a break on our ride back home.

amy took her three dogs for their first walk as a family. sadie, mincy, and laz.

tiny winnie, cuddling with a catnip stocking.

after we got back we had a belated birthday celebration for randy, and he liked the german chocolate cake i baked for him.

ok then, that summarized july, and soon i’ll wrap up august and there we’ll be!

ok ok ok,

mrs. garage sale will soon be over hughes.