Squamloonland

Vacation’s winding to a close, but I must say: the end of summer, time spent at work, and the umpteenth straight day of rain notwithstanding, today was a pretty good day.

Credit where credit is due: Chad Darnell invented the 12 of 12, I’m told. I do it because I’m a PodCacher listener. Actually, it’s gone beyond that now. At this point, I do it because I love it.

SquamDog pierced a AA battery with his teeth the other day, sending him back to the vet… sigh… anyway, here he’s waiting for breakfast, because it has to soften up before it can touch his ulcerated tongue.

After the dogs are fed, I head downstairs to feed the kitty. Here she is in P’s office, just after breakfast.

I went to work today. (And the commute was fun—but more on that in a second.) This is the state of my office space at school after leaving it in haste last June. Tough to come back to. (I realize there’s little sympathy coming from anyone who doesn’t get a lengthy summer vacation.)

I was worried I wouldn’t get any caching in today—for no good reason. A new cache along my commute was published while I was on that commute. What are the chances? For those die-hard cachers who like an exciting FTF story, here’s a link to the log.

During a break from my summer data work, I took the time to do a low-level organization of my office.

After work, it looked like it wanted to stay sunny, so I decided to go get an outstanding cache about 20 minutes south of work. Good thing my raincoat was in my backpack, because about a half mile into the mile-long hike up the hill, the skies opened. The warm rain was pleasant, though, and I was rewarded at the end with the shelter of a rustic boarded-up cabin’s porch, where I waited out the storm. (It’s pouring in this picture.)

Here’s the view back to the cabins as I headed down in the sun. I love New Hampshire.

The sun only lasted till I got back to my car, however, and I drove home in a thunderstorm. I stopped on my way home to get wine for dinner, but had to wait out the rain again, in the parking lot this time.

I had so hoped I’d have a finished deck to show this twelfth… but the fascia board and steps are on back order, and we haven’t yet chosen a railing style. It amazes me, looking back, just how many hours I’ve spent in this spot over the past few months. But like P says, “not bad for a French teacher”. Looking forward to showing a much prettier house a month from now.

It began to rain again, so P grilled the eggplant indoors.

She made some amazing grilled eggplant sandwiches with cheddar, mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and her latest discovery: baby green onions. (That’s what’s topping the salad too.)

This is the night that Michael Phelps became the greatest Olympian ever… and as I write this, it’s possible that the American girls will win the gymnastics gold. But I think the thing that impressed me the most tonight was these two Chinese synchronized divers.

Guess I’ll find out about the girls’ gymnastics in the morning.

See you in September!