So nice to hear things are going well for both of you. I'm fine, my wife's fine, together we're fine. Can't ask for much more than that. Well... we could ask for a smaller number of little insect jerks. I'm down for that! 😄

Emma, I was SO close to buying one of the yard sprays that reduces (cuz nothing gets rid of those jerky insects) the population, but too many new plants and my dog.   I know it probably won't harm either if I follow the direction, but sometimes I just get uber paranoid about things.  But I was close. 

This year seems well though, it has been unusually dry here and the total population of bugs has been manageable, as opposed to something outta a horror movie, swarms upon swarms like that last several years.  One year the fleas were so bad EVERYONE had them, didn't matter if you had animals or not.  When you looked outside at the grass you could see creepy black waves of them moving around. 

Nikki managed to lose one of our window air conditioning units.  LOL  I'm sure it's somewhere in the house, but at the time of it's removal from the window I was still somewhat limited in mobility (unexpected abdominal surgery in July taught me a lesson in how very MUCH your abdominal muscles are involved in movement wise, even reading hurt), so I have no idea where it got stashed. 

We are working on a project for next summer, when we only have to coordinate his schedule.  We're replacing all the camping gear we lost back in 07 after the flood (I know, it's been forever, but camping was just one of the things that fell by the wayside getting everything back up after the flood and all that came after).  There is a place I went with my Grandpa nearly every summer growing up, called Assateague Island off the coast of Maryland and Virginia.  It's a lovely barrier island, they tried to build a town on it once but it didn't last as the island is VERY mobile.  You can see the remnants of the streets on the dune trail.  On the Maryland side you can camp on the island itself, there is a National Park (Less expensive, showers have cold water only, but three lovely trails to explore) and the state park (more expensive, but warm showers!).  On top of all the usual camping fun, Assateauge has something special, PONIES!  Yup, a large herd of wild ponies that have been there so long no one really remembers how they got there.  There is a story of a spanish galleon carrying horses to the new world going down and the survivors made it to the Island, but it's considered somewhat unrealistic given that the Spanish influence was much further south.  The more boring theory is that the island was used as a natural corral and somehow they got forgotten. 

They're not actually ponies genetically.  Once  year the Virginia side has a great festival called Pony Penning Day where they round up the ponies, swim them across the small channel, herd them down main street, and auction off the foals as a combination population control and the money goes to supporting Chincoteague.  I got to see the festival once, it was great fun.  But if you buy a foal and give it a proper diet, you will have a full horse.  It's the overly salted food of the island that stunts their growth and gives them the distinctive Assateague pot bellied pony look.    I can't WAIT to show Nikki around all my memories.  Maybe not crabbing, Nikki's tolerance of seafood is even lower than my nearly non existent one, but crabbing was so much fun with Grandpa.  LOL

Hi Veronica!  Cottonpocalypse occurred here two, for two days it looked like it was snowing outside.  I don't think I'd ever seen that much before, I suspect the wind was an unusual direction and I was in the right place at the right time.  It was beautiful, but allergy people in that area of town were so not happy.  Cottonwood isn't one of mine, so I was able to stand out in the white fluff and watch it fall.  I'm paying the allergy reaper in other ways, the cycling humidity is doing fun things to the mold/fungus counts here and that is getting me.   

Are you all settled in and unpacked from the move now?  How is the new place working out?