Kitty adventures this week. Not good ones. On Monday Iris brought a snake to the back door. Not a good thing to do around here. And Opal's constant peeing on the carpet in the corners, behind the entertainment center, or anywhere she wants if we block those places came to a final end Tuesday. The other day she peed on the couch, and that was the official last straw. I declared her no longer welcome in the house, and she was put down Tuesday. I love my cats but I was not sorry to see her go. So far, Iris does not seem all that freaked out to not have her around either. Wednesday was the kickoff meeting for the Cub Scout popcorn season, which I'm leading up once again. Brad is having surgery and will be out of commission, so this year for a while I will be acting Cubmaster, as well as leading the den meetings for the Tiger Cubs. Saturday I had a nice bike ride (I'm back to running, but biking is nice too, especially for benchmark hunting) before we headed to FW to meet the Purvis' at the new splash pad at that one park by the interstate. I was also going to pick up the coffee table, which has now been fixed (not well, as it turns out, but oh well). Coincidentally we ran into Jeff from Iotron at the gas station near the steel mill just before getting to FW on the way there. Anyway, the splash pad is really nice, and the kids had a great time playing there. It seems like it's not well known yet either. Patrick and I even got some geocaching in.

The first week of the 2012-2013 school year is in the books, and it looks like it will be a good one. Missy likes Miss McMillian, Alex loves Miss Zellers, we're good. Except on day #2 on Tuesday we got the 'I don't wanna get up' act from both of them. Anyway, that coffee table Beth and I bought a couple weeks ago was delivered last week, and Wednesday it went back to where it came from because the tabletop was all bashed up. Wednesday I got my first patent plaque at work woo hoo! and it was parent's night at Lincoln. We like Missy's teacher too, she seems like she'll do fine. Saturday there was a Cub Scout activity at the Miller's house building the Cubmobiles for the upcoming race. We're building some new racers and trying to improve the ones we already have, and all the material was donated by Lowe's, which was pretty cool of them. Today we went to FW on a geocaching run and threw in B&N and Red Robin to sweeten the deal. Oh, and I got my replacement phone this week!

We are now moving very rapidly towards the first day of school. Alex will be going into 4th grade, Missy into 3rd. Alex has the same teacher as last year but Missy has a brand new teacher, teaching her first class! She seemed to be all right at the open house though, so hopefully it'll be a good year! Beth got a gold crown last week, to replace a tooth that cracked a while back. Seems she has her father's teeth; he cracked teeth too but never ever had a cavity. He however had cracked teeth pulled because he never had a dental plan. I also finally found a replacement garage door belt to fix the one that shredded itself a few weeks back. Friday the ladies had a garage sale at the Boschain's house in town. Our big item was the chest freezer. We were trying to sell it but it did not go. We sold a few other miscellaneous things, made a few bucks. Saturday we all went to Judy and Neill's cottage by the lake in Michigan. It was a beautiful lake day and we were having a great time until, while the kids and I were out in a rowboat, Alex got stung on the arm by a wasp. We had just pulled up to a raft, and there was a nest underneath one side. Up to that point, the kids were really enjoying rowing and being outside. That ended that. Today, I was out for a morning run / geocaching expedition and dropped my phone. It landed flat, screen down, and the glass shattered. Looks pretty cool but it isn't really practical any more. Luckily I have the full replacement warranty, so I'll be making a trip to the Verizon store tomorrow.

Once again, work sent me to Vancouver, British Columbia this past week. I don't mind. It is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I went to work on some validations but since a) there was some extra time built in to the trip just in case anything had to be re-done or went wrong, b) everything went perfectly the first time, and c) their manager kept saying 'why don't we just keep going' instead of 'we really need to get back to production' I was done with over a whole day to spare. A day I spent hiking the Grouse Grind for the third time (finally achieving the goal of less than one hour...made it in 55 minutes) and geocaching, because Vancouver. And a little road trip to the border for another cache that involved seeing the border markers (and a faux pas that a kind passerby pointed out when I stepped to the other side of the monument, and crossed the border into the US. He told me, 'I just saw border patrol go that way. They don't like that very much eh.' At least I had my passport with me.) I also started running again after about a month off, with the new shoes mom bought me while she was visiting at home. No ankle pain, 5 miles. Good start. Anyway, I got back Friday, and on Saturday we all went to Pine Lake with the Cub Scouts. Fantastic time on the slides, zipline, teeter-tottery thing, and though it was cloudy, the weather held just enough. A light rain started just as we were packing up, and by the time we hit the road, it was driving rain sideways. Fun day though.