End of school-year excitement

Today was the last day of school. There have been a few special events leading up to this momentous day. First was the 20th anniversary party for Two Harbors Elementary School. In 1998 the school was established so the little kids in the community wouldn't have to ride a bus 90 minutes to Avalon and 90 minutes home. Many VIPs and former students and teachers showed up. It was a nice party, punctuated by the current school kids performing 26 Miles Across the Sea on ukuleles and singing You've Got a Friend in Me.

Soon after was the annual school sleep-over, which was combined with the awards banquet this year. We all went over to Howland's Landing, had some dinner, gave out some awards, ate some s'mores, watched improvised interpretive dance with a s'mores theme, got ready for bed, and then didn't sleep because it was so exciting to be staying overnight. The next morning, the groggy parents ate pancakes and then left the kids to have a day of fun at the camp. Everyone was exhausted after this one - especially the teacher (God bless her!).

This morning we had an early Father's day breakfast down at the snack bar and then the kids had a field day before cleaning out their desks until the fall. Mrs. Barney was an excellent teacher, and we're very glad she'll be back in the fall.

I should mention at this point that Sweetie has returned from her trip east mostly tanned and mosquito-bitten. It's very good to have her back. You can tell the Things are excited to see her becuase they're acting particularly crazy. Maybe I can convince her to post some pictures from the trip...

So what could top all this excitement? How about office furniture? My co-worker John and I got new office furniture, and, since we live on an island, it came unassembled so we spent the last week putting together desks, bookshelves and cabinets. But it's all done now and the office looks spiffy.

What? You say office furniture isn't exciting? Okay, how about a shed? Yes, a shed for our backyard. It also came unassembled, so as soon as I get the lumber for the foundation (which should come tomorrow) I will erect it in our backyard, and THEN we can clear the camping gear our of the office closet so we can put kitchen stuff in it! We will also be able to de-clutter the backyard!

Huh? That's not exciting either? Well, I've got one more project that even the not-easily-stimulated should enjoy: gardening. We got in seeds and planters and we're ready to garden up a storm in the backyard. I've even talked to the facilities guy about switching out the sprinkler heads for drip lines. This should keep us busy for a little while and may brighten up our barren dusty backyard until they install our patio.

So that's a lot of news for one day. Hopefully there will be some exciting news in the near future...

Wolf

Our final Pack meeting for the year was held the first Monday in June. Thing1 received his Wolf badge, three Arrow Points, and the Bicycling belt loop. He was very excited, as was Thing2, who found a kid his age to play with during the ceremonies.

Unfortunately, Sweetie missed the ceremony because she was still in the Bahamas. This also means I don't have any photos to post.

On to Bear!!!

Homecoming

So this post is a bit belated, but Kevin is back home. We went over to Avalon to pick him up on May 30 after two weeks at the vet's. I was expecting a really large bill, but Dr. Denney treated us as well as he treated Kevin, so much so, that I feel the need to encourage people to support his clinic through the Catalina Island Humane Society. If you are moved to contribute to this cause, please do so. Kevin and the probably hundreds of other cats treated by Dr. Denney thank you.

So we took Kevin home and Thing1 wanted to take him out and play with him immediately, but I thought maybe we should let Happy get used to having another cat in the house, so we kept him in the carrier for a few minutes so they could sniff each other. There was a little bit of posturing, but no real unhappiness, so we let Kevin out. Those two cats jumped right on each other and started rolling around, biting and chewing and chasing, and they kept it up for at least 3 solid hours. Happy was so happy to have someone to chew on, and Kevin seemed glad to see her, too. Then they fell asleep in a little pile of cat.


So now Happy is no longer attacking our feet, hands, hair, etc, which is pleasant news. Although both cats have recently begun climbing our legs when we're sitting at the table (or sometimes just standing in the kitchen). This is slightly painful when we're wearing jeans, and downright diabolical when we're wearing shorts! They are also moving away from simple wrestling games to chasing games, which are fun to watch.

One other thing I've noticed is that even though two cats only eat twice as much food, the mess in the litter box seems to have quadrupled.

Ah, kittens.