Greetings fellow astronauts. I hope all is well with you as we zoom through the outer reaches of space, under our very own moon, which just happens to be full at this very moment. It’s lighting up our back yard as if it’s lined with tiki torches. I really don’t have any experience with tiki torches other than the ones that were lit in our presence while visiting Hawaii once.

… and tiki torches are as much fun as the company we keep while in their presence … I was in heaven …

So, here’s what the moon looked like, kinda. It’s ‘kinda’ because the photo is from June 22nd, the last time I took a picture of the moon. I’m not often compelled to take pictures of the moon because I see it all the time. When it’s not cloudy, anyway.

All of the foregoing was from last night. I had to quit and go to bed because Diane told me to. We had a date with the vet for Breezie to catch up on her shots. She spent the night inside last night, which was unusual for her. But, the weather is changing, getting cooler, and she’s not dumb. She knows it’s OK to spend the night outside when it’s warm, not so good when it’s cold. Her appointment was at 0900 so when she went out with the dogs, at 0600, I cautioned her to be back before 0830 or she would be in deep kim chee. There’s nothing worse than that, in my humble experience.

As the morning progressed, I lay snoozing in my favorite spot in the living room. Then Diane’s phone beeped, and my iPad beeped, alerting us to the pending trip to the vet. I let the dogs out again, with explicit instructions to bring the cat back, but they didn’t. Apparently they couldn’t find her anywhere in the back yard. I didn’t believe them, but it turned out to be true because not long after they returned to the house, Breezie came slinking through the fence where the dogs can’t go. I should have believed them, I guess, but they generally aren’t very truthful in situations like that because their main focus is to get a treat for just going outside when I ask. They expect it every time, but only get one on the last trip before bedtime. You’d think they would learn.

So, the cat’s back, her kennel is clean, and we head for the doc. It was a fairly quiet trip with only an occasional “Roowaaar” indicating her displeasure about being locked up. At the vet it wasn’t a problem. She weighed in at 10 lbs, which surprised Diane because she looks skinny. She took her shots like a man, and even gulped down her pills without much fuss. Then we took her home and set her free.

Apple released IOS7 yesterday for all their hand-held devices so me, being on the cutting edge of technology, and not in the least bit afraid of change, immediately downloaded it onto my iPad and broken iPhone. I also put it on Diane’s iPad. We both like the new look and functionality. I couldn’t put it on Diane’s iPhone because there’s not enough memory available to do it. She’s got too much stuff on her phone. It is, however, one with the least memory available at the time, 8 GB, I think, so all I have to do is just start deleting random things until the update can be installed.

You needed to know all of that.

Now, the day is about done, and we’re both almost in our jammies. I’m not, she is. We just got home from leaving the dogs alone for almost 8 hours today. Lots of stuff got done and I just can’t wait to tell you about it.

Our first stop of the day was the Restore Store in St. Helens, but we didn’t find anything we had to have, so headed to the VA Hospital on Pill Hill in Portland where I got a new picture taken for my new VA card because I lost the one I had. I also lost my ACE card at the same time. They just fell out of my wallet someplace so I removed everything from that wallet, which I purchased at a flea market in San Diego. Now I’m using one Diane gave me that Avon sells. It works well. Everything fits nice and tight. So far.

After the VA we worked our way over to Hillsboro to do a little looking at their Restore Store. Diane found a bunch of bottles of cleaning ‘stuff’, and we each got a different chair for our computer tables. The ones we had were OK, but too big. The ones we bought, $10 each, were from some business that apparently replaced all of their conference room chairs. They had a bunch of them.

From that store we worked our way toward 73rd and Frances Street to meet up with Rick and Jodi at their home. We planned to be there by 3 pm, but a pool supply store got in the way and required me to buy some new temp sensors for the hot tub. Not a cheap stop, but if it resurrects the hot tub, it will be worth every penny.

We arrived at R & J’s about 3:06 pm. They were sitting on their front porch looking at their watches when we drove up. We joined them and visited for a while, then investigated all the work Rick has done around the house. Their house, incidentally, looks brand new, and the hot tub has its own house that matches the big one. Diane wanted me to see all of that so I would feel bad about our yard, but it didn’t work because there’s really no comparison. You see, where we have lots of grass, R & J have lots of rocks and cement. They do have a lawn, but I bet it almost takes longer to get the mower started than it does to mow it. This sounds bad, I know, but I don’t think Rick will mind. Their place is awesome.  It would be fun to have a yard that we could clean up with a leaf blower to dust off the rocks once in a while.

OK, Rick, now I’ll apologize for that outburst. It wasn’t justified, and we love you both dearly. You know that. My fingers just get out of control some times, ya know?

OK – after visiting for a while, we headed out to Bugatti’s for dinner. This is the one on Cornell near the Tanesbourne Mall area. The food was outstanding, but the visit was better. When we were seated, the place was nearly empty. I ordered spaghetti with prawns, Diane had a piece of dead chicken nicely splayed and arrayed on top of some green rigatoni, Rick has a HUGE meat ball sandwich with really good french fries, and Jodi had an artichoke sandwich with chicken, I think. I’m the only one who ate everything. Everyone else got  boxes to go. We visited all through the meal and Diane didn’t once reprimand me for speaking with my mouth full of food. Then we visited for about an hour after we were all done. By the time we were done visiting, the waiter had made about 10 passes with the water jug, silently urging us to depart. By this time the place was packed. Totally. I guess it was time for us to leave, so we did.

We drove home, without stopping, and were greeted by the two barky dogs. Panzee is just so overjoyed to see us, whether we’ve been gone a minute, or a week. Ozzie? He barks his hello, but he just walks on past us, barking randomly, making his way to the front yard so he can relieve himself. Too funny. Breezie was sleeping on the back porch and has ignored us since we got home. No doubt she’s sleeping off the three shots she got this morning.

Once everyone was settled down, I checked the front porch and guess what? Diane’s new iPhone 5C was laying right there in the open for anyone to snatch. But they didn’t because no one comes up our street unless they live there. Nice being on a dead-end. Her new phone is yellow, her favorite color. I’ve been trying to figure it out since we got home.

Now it’s 10 pm and time for me to quit and go to sleep.