Along with Jacopone, Mark & his family, and the Schaefers, we headed up to the cabin for Memorial Day weekend. It was nice to get away and the kids had fun together. As usual, my favorites were shooting (for which Zeus drove all the way up from Phoenix to join us) and chopping wood. Canoeing on the lake was ok. We also had a really good hike up the mountain across Hwy 64. We found an abandoned shed full of stuff - Mark got a cool belt, Kevin some old materials, Jack an old church lantern, MM a purse, and me a number of books (inc. some 1960s Catholic stuff), with a griddle for Bobbins. It was quite a haul. I was really proud of MM going on the hike with us and walking the whole way.
The first pic's are canoeing on Sunday:
The next pic's are having smores that night:
In that last pic, you can just make out the Dog hunting for rats. That's his favorite spot which he's obsessed with whenever we're at the cabin. Well, this time, he finally got one, which excited me, both for him and for the rodent extermination. Turns out he got a pregnant rat in the process of giving birth! He killed the mother but the babies came out ok. It was traumatic for our girls and a good lesson for all the kids. Thankfully Jacopone took care of them. It was pretty sad.
Owen was taking a nap during this group shot. After Mark Bunyan, the Dog probably looks the best.
Poor JoJo got struck by the chicken pox. And on vacation too. She seems to be taking it pretty well, like a trooper. Her sister avoided it again, which means she's vaccinated. JoJo, on the other hand, will have life-long immunity.
One night, while I was on a work trip, Bobbins took the kids to the new Taco Guild restaurant not far from our house.
Uncle Jacopone got the girls a new kite the other day.
Been having technical difficulties at home for almost a month now. The fan on our laptop went kaput, causing it to overheat quickly and shut down. Then our Blu Ray and streaming player went out. Got that fixed fairly easily with a google chromecast and a cheap new DVD player. Just last week caved in and bought a new laptop after Bobbins and I unsuccessfully tried to fix the old one. Bobbins actually got it working again, cleaning out the fan, but popped the keyboard in the process. I'm currently backing up the old machine to an external hard-drive. We should be back to full speed shortly, after vacation.
In the meantime, here's some quotes I enjoyed recently. From the Catholic Sun's article on the canonization of John XXIII:
"In reply to a reporter who asked, 'How many people work in the Vatican?,' he reportedly said: 'About half of them.'"
"He once wrote: 'There are three ways to face ruin - women, gambling, and farming. My father chose the most boring one.'"
"A Vatican official told the pope it would be 'absolutely impossible' to open the Second Vatican Council in 1963. 'Fine, we'll open it in 1962. And he did."
From a review of Marriage and Civilization: How Monogamy Made Us Human, a new book by William Tucker:
"Tucker closes the book by posing a question: Will we honor marriage or will we create a 'kind of state polygamy where women congregate around the major source of wealth--the government--while men slink off into their separate quarters to pursue a fading warrior culture--played out this time on video games?' Will we honor the most noble aspect of human nature--one that doesn't come 'naturally' but requires work and rules to make us flourish?"
