the yurters welcome the mann family!

The shower speaks!

It's so nice having visitors! Moosalamoo shines in the company of the Mann family!

It's in the 90s, so activity has been limited, but we've had some adventures.

When the rents Mom & John arrived Wednesday we had a hot afternoon at Branbury State Park where we swam, rain came in, and we escaped to the yurt to cook burgers over the fire. We enjoyed the fire, Max was frightened by Bryan's hooting at the freezing cold shower, and we enjoyed having family there!


We met at Rosie's before I worked on Thursday and both sat down at tables for four in different parts of the restaurant. Pretty slick.

I had a long day at school where I felt like I got wrung dry. I got both my papers back, and while one professor wanted me to work on another draft to adjust my writing voice and word choice, I still got an A- on both papers. I'll take it! I was worried when he told me that, but I felt better when I got my paper back and he wrote A for ideas and B+ for writing. I shaped up a new draft which I think is much improved and I just hit send on the email to give it to him. The other paper I got back was the one of my Amazon warrior women research and the feedback was useful and the grade is solid. Good news!

I'm a little stuck on the starting of my final papers (12-15 pages). I'm still processing topics.

Anyway, after work we met Mom and John at the Chipman Inn where they have taken up residence because the heat and the mosquito infestation has made being alive her nearly intolerable. I mentioned this place in previous blogs, so you know it has a great little bar in it and some interesting history.  We headed into Middlebury to eat at American Flatbread, tried four more pizza flavors, had dessert, and lived the good life. Stuffed, we walked around Middlebury to walk it off a little. Then we went and had a drink at the Chipman.

This morning I had a chiropractic appointment with none other than Nick Cannon. For real, that's his name. He's great and now I have even more exercises to do on top of those I came into the summer with. Evidently my right leg is a good deal shorter than my left. Good stuff.

Bryan got us another job the other day in order to help out the Forest. The long-time campground hosts at Silver Lake (remember, they're in their 70s and have been doing it for 20-some years?) need some step-ins because the wife had to have surgery. So, we're taking care of their toilet paper stocking and campsite cleaning until they're back at it. I hope she recovers well and they can enjoy their summer again!

Anyway, because of this, we have the keys to all the National Forest gates and are allowed to drive in to the campground. Therefore, we drove in with the fam and the dogs and went swimming at Silver Lake today. I cannot believe the mosquitos that have infested the campground. The swimming picnic area is fine because of the big open spaces, but the campsites are hell on earth. Just sayin. When we got back in the car, I got out the bug zapper and zapped about 35 mosquitos. No joke.

On the way home from swimming at Silver Lake:
Klue is a nester. Here she has nested on top of
all our gear which has to be outside the yurt
because of our mold problems. She's stinking cute.

BRyan and I went back to the yurt to shower up and meet them for dinner, but then we decided that showering at the Chipman Inn sounded way better than another freezing one. That means today, for the first time in a month, I had a hot shower. It was splendid and I was tempted to stay in there all night, but dinner was calling. We had a delicious dinner at the Waybury INN (get it, John? :-) ). The Chocolate Bombe dessert was the best part! I wish the fam could stay forever....

This is a drainfield garden. They make them next to parking
lots so that the water draining off of them isn't wasted.
Cool!