It's Joe!!!

I love Joe Biden. He's an amazing man and will be a wonderful addition to the ticket. Yay, Little Blue State!!!

Ruby on the Rocks

Yes, sports fans, Ruby went rock-climbing with the family. Now, you must understand that my family thinks I am the biggest scaredy-cat around, and they're right, but they're right for the wrong reason. I'm not afraid for myself, but when I see their beloved little bodies on a precipice, I panic -- and sometimes I cry, because this is what I'm watching!!!





The fingers on the edge of the cliff (shriek) belong to eight-year-old Nature Boy, and the pictures below are of Witter and Nashy.

Let the Vacation Begin...

Our family is in Bar Harbor together for vacation... but first I got to spend two nights with my friend Songbird and her family. After many delays, we were joined by Mary Beth.
Here we are at Songbird's.

We laughed and talked and I was very happy to see them both.

Meanwhile, Garden Girl, Nana, Shiny and Nature Boy hiked in Acadia National Park, but not without incident.

Yep, that's right. They got the requisite visit to the ER out of the way on the first day.
More pics tomorrow . . .

Ahhh, Vacation

We're on vacation with almost all of our very large extended family (we miss you, Bethy)

We've got Big Kids --



We've got the Great Aunt Ann, who will soon be 90 --



And my sister, Annie Boo --



And little children hard at work --



More later, when I get back to the real world --

Looking for Suggestions

We're headed to Rehoboth Beach on Friday for a week of vacation. Yay!! Among our party are seven children between the ages of three and nine. (Yes, you read that right, seven children under nine! As you might guess, we never travel in a small group.)

Our night-time routine at home includes reading a chapter (or two or three) to our eight-year-old, but the current book, Watership Down, is too long and too difficult for us to read with the above group of children, so I want to bring some books to read at bedtime that other kids can enjoy.

Any suggestions for books for ages 4-8 that can be read in a sitting (or two or three)?

Thanks, everyone.....

Disparate Houseguests

So the blog's been a little quiet, eh? That doesn't mean that the Old Stone House Gang has been lolling around. We've had Houseguests.

First, we welcomed our old friend Mary Muffin, her husband John, and their adorable baby boy, JackJack. Sorry, no pictures, but take my word for it. That is one.cute.baby.

Then Grendel arrived. He's a really big Bearded Dragon lizard, who eats lots of crickets every day. (Garden Girl calls the cricket cage "Village of the Damned.") He'll be with us until the end of the summer. We're watching him while friends move to a new house.

Then came the puppies! One plaintive phone call to my office was all it took for Garden Girl to persuade me that we could foster seven three-week old puppies and their mom. In no time, Lily and her puppies, Raven, Winston, Ringo, Gracie, Peach, Echo, and Bernie arrived to spend a few weeks with us until they're ready to be weaned and sent on to permanent homes. And no, we didn't have the heart to let them all go -- Lily will stay with us. And we found homes for a few more. Ringo will go with a cousin. One will go to Nashy's beau, and our neighbors are looking them over every day, so we hope one will go to them. One of them will stay with us, though we're not sure which. Which means we'll go from two dogs to four, but it won't feel like a big change, since we passed through being a ten dog house first.

Hendrik Hertzberg on the Death of Jesse Helms

Hendrick Hertzberg said it better than anyone --

Dropping the Helmsman

Far too late for it to do anybody any good, Jesse Helms has died. He has done so on Independence Day, which, since he was born too late to own slaves and in too liberal an age to allow him to outlaw sedition, will forever be his only resemblance to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.