Where to Begin?

One, I don't think I have seen the Tuckers since your wedding. I was glad to see them in the ongoing wedding celebration party photo because I was starting to be concerned that they were just a figment of my imagination, along with Michal and Paul! Inhaling all the house construction dust and debris starts to addle the brain over time, you know.

Two, the house is being stuccoed even

as I write! How exciting!!! It was a spontaneous decision, instigated by the fact that Chris and Colleen are getting their house done at the same time, by the same company. There was a serious meeting between the DeSilvis-Campbell and the Clancy-McCormick contingents to discuss colors. After much negotiation (and confusion as depending on location of the sun they all looked exactly the same), we all decided that they get the dark gray, and we get the light.

Three, I am tiling the second floor bathroom. I believe I started this before you left, which means I am moving at a rate of approximately 3/4 of a subway tile a day. It is a new record, and professional tilers have been harassing me for tips on how to prolong their jobs. However, your potential visit in November has lit a "get this finished!" fire within me, so I'm going to up my rate to roughly 10 tiles day in order to complete the job.

Four, I visited my sister in Nicaragua a few weeks ago, and arrived to discover that her freshly adopted Nicaraguan street dog had been hit by a car and was limping horribly. Using my Talula expertise, I assessed the situation and said "Perro medico - inmediatamente!" So to the vet we went, where the poor dog's leg was diagnosed as shattered in about 200 places. He suggested putting her to sleep. I took a deep breath and demanded "Quite la pierna!" (remove the leg), whereupon my three small blonde spanish speaking nieces looked at me in horror and burst into tears. Even the vet was taken aback. However, apparently the dog was returned to them much happier: its tail wags so fiercely that it falls down (it's still learning balance).

(In the background, you'll see the vet, trying to get away from us. As an aside, I marched into his office waving xrays and babbling something about how I couldn't really speak spanish (in terrible spanish) and he looked at me, smiled, and calmly said, "No problem - I speak English. I got my degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.")

That's all for now! xo