And he makes it two for May!

Given the obscene amount of time I have not had for sitting at a computer, I'm proud that I am somehow managing to squeeze two blog posts into a single month.  Award, please.  In an effort to avoid a monthly "this is a list of what I've done since I last blogged" routine, I'm going to let you in on what I'm looking forward to this summer.

(1) Oliver eating solid(ish) food.  We tried that today and the results were...well...not for the faint of heart.

(2) Jordan and Alli getting married!  Memorial Day weekend was an awesome excuse for all 10 of us (+2 dogs) to collect in one place for 3 days.  From the hour long game of Signs to the cookout by committee, I enjoyed every minute. Naturally, we're excited to see everyone again in July--and to finally need one less air mattress!

At Logan & Emilie's Wedding

(3) Leaving behind the ridiculous end-of-days weather. The past 4 days notwithstanding, the latter half of May seems to have been one giant severe thunderstorm.  We lost power twice--always fun in a new place.  Monday, the power was out from 7pm to 3am.  Not too bad.  Go to bed early, walk around with flashlights/candles, hope you've shut off all the lights that were on before the power went out so they don't all come back on at 3 am., etc. Wednesday, however, the power went out at 11:59pm, not to be seen again until  2pm the next day. We realize this isn't especially terrible, but we did find it ironic that while we sat idle without power, the mailman delivered a box of 6 complimentary CFLs...from our power company. 

(4) Taming the outside.  The joys of home ownership are abundant. The joys of maintaining the home one owns, not so much.  Last Friday we finally got a fence installed on the side of the house.  Thinking this would now contain Toby, we let him out for some outside time.  One hour and a frantic hunt later, we found him wandering in the woods well down the road.  We have since wired in the bottom tier of the deck and done some other dog-proofing work around the house.  As you can see, we have not, however, deer proofed.  

Our next big task is to figure out why one portion of our yard continues to earn the nickname "The Slough".  Even recognizing that we've had two months of near record rainfall, we're still a bit baffled by the marshy conditions and persistent muck.  Fortunately, the best minds I know are mulling over potential solutions (thanks, Mom & Dad).  

(5) Summer tv.  We watch tv.  It's our outlet for decompressing after a long day and quite frankly, it's often entertaining.  With our fall/spring network standards on hiatus, it's back to cable with new seasons for Burn Notice, Leverage, and our new entry Franklin & Bash.  Of course, we'll miss favorites like Parks & Recreation...

Bye, Bye Li'l Sebastian indeed.  Hello summer.