Yes, I am still Alive

I have been told by several people that I have not been blogging enough and have been instructed to get back to it as soon as possible. So here I am. August was quite the busy month for us. With Camille's exciting birthday weekend - fancy dinner, movie, and day at Knott's Berry Farm - followed by fun 6 day trip to Gen Con, and now happily the expected arrival of my sister, Kristy, tomorrow morning for a fun filled weekend it has definitely been an exciting month. Squeezing into that a combination of strange allergies/colds that Don and I have been suffering from (more so Don) and thankfully a job that is finally picking up the pace a bit, I haven't had as much time to spend blogging as I did the first couple laxidaisical months here.

With the start of September things should be slowing down a bit - at least on the social front. So far we don't have any other traveling plans scheduled likely until at least the holiday. With Kristy here this weekend, we will finally get the chance to do a little bit of touristing around town that we have wanted to do but haven't made the time too. Kristy gets the honor of being the first family member to come and visit us in our new home. Any takers for second place????? Actually, Don's Mom, Grandma, Sister, Dad and Step-Mom have all talked about planning a trip out sometime in the fall but nobody has settled on specific dates or bought plane tickets yet. Of course we are excited to see people and share with them our lovely home and life here.

The weather has definitely kicked into high gear here the last couple of days - in the 100s and upper 90s. I had to move my basil plants over to the shade this morning because they were starting to suffer. The dogs don't seem to mind the heat. Even when it is 100 degrees outside, the first thing Cordy does when I let her out in the evenings is, well obviously go to the bathroom, but the second thing she does is find herself a nice spot in the grass to stretch out on and sunbathe her little bare belly. Seumas on the other hand spends his time inspecting the perimeter of the yard and hunting for insects in the grass. Between the heat and the allergies we have been working through, we have definitely suffered on our training routines with the dogs. I am hoping that while Kristy is here we will be able to be more consistent with walking them in the evening since I will be excited to show off our neighborhood anyway.

Don put up some posts about our trip to Knotts Berry Farm and our week at Gen Con so you can read the updates on his blog. However, the one thing he did not mention was that we got to meet and spend time with the accomplished actor Jason Marsden in the new upcoming animated Dragonlance Animated Feature to be appearing on the SCI FI Channel. Jason Marsden has an IMDB list about a mile long and if you check it out you will see that a good majority of it is Voice Acting on many well known shows (my personal favorite - the Gummi Bears!). Well, when we met him we realized why. Because the guy is about 4 feet tall. I am taller than Jason Marsden and I'm not taller than anyone! Anyway, he was a really neat guy. He came to our showing of Dorkness Rising and absolutely loved it and said he would be thrilled to work with us someday. Apparently his wife and he own a Yoga Studio in Burbank which he invited us to come and check out sometime.

So tonight is gaming night. Everyone is on diets now so it makes it more difficult to just run home and order pizza for everyone. I actually have to put a little more planning into it. Don put out a couple of steaks to thaw this morning (I think he forgot we would be feeding 6) so I am going to pick up some chicken from Costco on the way home and we will BBQ Steaks and Chicken and people can decide which they want. I will probably just pick up a ready made marinade also or something. And maybe even a bagged salad. Don said he has a bit of prep work to do for the session when he gets home as he has been working very long days this week, leaving the house around 5 am and working to about 5 pm. So it looks like I will probably be Grill Master tonight.

Well, I've got some more work to do and want to get my desk cleaned up before Kristy gets here tomorrow so it looks nice when she comes to visit me at work. I'm sure by the end of the weekend we will have lots of pictures to post from her visit. Have a nice Labor Day everyone if I don't talk to you before then.