How Does a Parakeet Drown?

Pork Chop (right) and Apple Sauce were hanging out in our back porch.  Unfortunately, Pork decided he wanted a drink of water.  He dropped down onto a pitcher (ewer) that we use to water our plants.  He slipped into the ewer and the curved shape at the top prevented him from flying out.  And so Pork is no longer with us.

The discovery of this gruesome tragedy was a fright for Sidetrack.  After our extensive search for our missing bird (Chester the cat was the primary suspect), we simply gave up.  Mamacita decides she would water plants, and when she went to refill the ewer....   SHRIEK!!!     Sure enough, there, in the bottom, lay Pork, dead as a door nail. 

So we welcomed Whisp (short for Whisper) into our house.

It's official!   Ellie has graduated and here is a picture (above) to prove it!   And yes, Maggot did indeed turn 15 (below).

Today is the last day of classes for Batty, Ick and Maggot.  Tonight the house will be full of screaming mimi's which is a standard for the last day of classes.  Seven teenage girls, a cookout and bomb fire.  This all assumes the rain lets up, and it appears it will.

Speaking of fires, the smouldering fire at the IC Landfill appears to be dowsing out with the rain.  The sanitation department covered one of the landfill areas with several layers of shredded tires.  Little did they think this would ever catch on fire (cause still unknown).  This burned for 5 straight days with plumes of thick black smoke wafting over Iowa City as the breeze goes.  Nasty stuff to be sure.

State Soccer is upon us.  West High Girls (Maggot's team) won their first match in "sub-state" and need to beat City High next Monday to advance.  They look good.  And so it goes...

Summer's Here...

"Summer's here, and I like that.  Got my rubber sandals and my straw hat.  Drinkin' cold beer, man I'm glad that it's here..."  - JT

You can always tell it's summer when you see these pics:

And so it begins.  Next up is Smelly's (left) HS Graduation!  This date just so happens to be Maggot's (right) 15th Birthday!  

And here are the gals at Smelly's grad party.  If you notice Batty is making a funny face.  That's because her sister told her she had something on her teeth a split second before I took the pic.  Ya gotta love sisters that way, huh.

Thanks to all our friends and family who made the trek to wish Smelly good luck at Kansas.  It was great to see everyone! And a special thanks to JoAnn.  She's our family guardian angel.  We don't know what we'd do without her

So looking ahead towards summer...  Pittsburgh project for all three girls.  Big Dawg has soccer camp, baseball and more soccer.  Maggot and Batty will attend a Business Horizons Camp.   Top Dog and I will travel to West Bend, Iowa to see a large pastry manufacturer (Country Made Butter Braid Pastries) to get a handle on equipment and technology needed to expand Woofables to the next level.

At some point we hope to make a family trek out to Sandy Bottom at the foot of Mt. Mitchel, in the Great Smoky Mountains.