WORK
As you all know, a good deal of our existence revolves around our work. We are currently in the process of hiring an exam assistant. We are very excited to have a little extra help around the office!
In addition to the new hire, we have changed up our hours. We start seeing patients later in the day and finish later in the evening. The difference is that we'll be able to leave when we've seen our last patient for the day...which will be much earlier than what we experienced previously.
OUTINGS
We had occasion to go a friend's wedding at a winery just outside of Ames. The winery was lovely, the bride was beautiful, and a good time was had by all. The food was spectacular and there was lots of dancing (which we both enjoy). We also enjoyed the chance to spend some time with friends from California and Minnesota.
There was also a trip to Kansas City to visit a college friend of Tony's. His friend and his wife were hosting an open house and we took the opportunity to get out of town and see their new diggs. Lovely place and lovely party. Also lovely to spend some time in our favorite city and eat at our favorite places.
HOME
I was holding out for photos, but laziness took over and so you just get a plain wordy report. Sorry! So a big THANKS goes out to Ma & Pa Hocker for all of the accomplishments about to be listed.
As is usual with a Hocker-based event, there was a lot of planning. The execution went well and everyone was quite happy with the results at the end of the weekend.
The work started on Friday. Ma & Pa arrived and got to work before we even made it home. Saturday there was a whole lotta driving as we made a trip to IKEA for office related stuff and to visit the household things we plan to buy someday. Tony managed to get a couple boxes of dubblachocolateflarn (sp?) cookies into the cart. IKEA knows what they are doing by having several jars around the store for you to sample. Yum!
By Monday morning, there were 8 or so stumps removed, which involved a whole lotta grubbing. The screened in portch received a thorough scrubbing and some fresh paint. To top it off, we installed some plastic tiles to help with wear and tear on the not-so-new decking. Looks a whole lot better!
There was also a whole lotta cleaning. Floors were scoured, trim was cleaned, and the biggest surprise of all was to come home from work on Monday and find that Ma & Pa had tidied the garage and shop (which were a complete disaster)! I still marvel at how tidy it is!
Meanwhile, Ma & Pa solved the mystery of the gnome spilling. Turns out it was indeed the lettercarrier who was assaulting Gnomey...who then falls over and assaults a hosta. Mystery solved!
Finding this out made me resolve to move the mailbox. We are very happy with our new mailbox and it's location at the bottom of our front steps on the opposite side from Gnomey.
We also have a new critter that hangs around our house. I remember the first sighting disctinctly because I was napping when it happened. I was awakened by a very excited Tony telling me to hurry up and get down here (to the family room). I promptly got up an ran around like an idiot. I couldn't find my glasses and they were very necessary to identify what kind of new critter had just been spotted. I was momentarily thrown off by the length of the tail...but a groundhog it was and is. We promptly named him Coolige Drive Calvin.
We've watched him all summer long trying to decide what to do with him. He's kinda neat. This past weekend we found out from our neighbor across the back yard that he also hangs out at her place. We hadn't seen him in a couple weeks and then he turned up again on Tony's birthday. He's a busy little critter and has munched and dug his way under the screened in portch deck as well as at least one of our other decks. He's gotten a little destructive and it's time for him to enter the Davis Animal Relocation Program.
So, we set the have-a-heart trap with some grapes and left it out overnight--so did our neighbor. When I got up to go on my run the next morning it was too dark to see what we'd caught, but I could see the flaps were down. I woke up Tony so he could investigate.
When I got home I went out to see for myself and to check out the neighbor's trap. The neighbor's trap had been sprung and knocked over. In our trap was a small (not a baby, but not full grown either) raccoon. It had started to rain right as I'd started my run and I felt really bad for the little guy. We moved him under the eaves to keep him dry until he could be picked up by Tony's dad and set free.
We have decided we can't leave the trap out overnight anymore. It will be interesting to see how long it takes us to catch the groundhog...and how many other things we catch instead.
Hope that you all have enjoyed your summer! We'll try to do something interesting soon.
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