Uncle Scary swears.

That's just a warning, because he sent me the Mabel update I asked for, but it has swear words in it. It's our mom's fault, really, my older brother and I were not allowed to swear but Scary was because he "is so good at it!" Really. Oh, that quote is much better if you do it in an English accent (Granny has one). You can imagine how pleased my older brother and I were that the baby got to swear and we couldn't.

From Uncle Scary:
"Okay Mabel update:

A: She is very, very, very, smart
B: She is currently sitting on top of Sophie's head
C: She has mad social skills.
D: The devil lives inside her, DO NOT PISS HER OFF
F: she knows many commands, but not her name
E: She loves Castro and when he growls she wags her tail faster and faster
F: She learned about cats in one meeting. Yep, don't fuck with cats.Check.
G: she is very quiet but if she growls, well, there is satan again.
H: She has a huge mouth: Tennis balls easily fit there.
I: She is afraid of cars, joggers and bikers and will run in the opposite direction, sit and watch them.
J: She is going to see T.B.G. this week and going to the farm.
K, I gotta walk these fuckers."

Thanks dude. You really are good at swearing. : )

T.B.G. = "the big Grandma," who is really quite small. Not sure why we call her that. I think it has something to do with a Christmas stocking? Huh.

And the farm, well, you can read about that here.

No pictures, Castro doesn't like cameras. Remember?

Until next time!

The Farm

There is a most beautiful piece of land that my family has owned for several decades. It has a river running through it. It is full of trees and grasses and deer and sunshine. We all refer to it as "the farm" even though the part of the property that is a working dairy farm is no longer owned by my grandmother.

Last weekend, Buzz and I drove to Wisconsin and went camping on the farm with my brothers and our cousins.

Buzz was miserable the entire time.


He could not pursue any of his favorite activities like running in the woods...


or wading in the river...


what's more, there was no one for him to play with...

[Some of you will recognize that guy as my baby brother, AKA Uncle Scary. He's holding his dogs Sophie (the hound) and Castro (the border collie mix). If you look closely, you'll see Sophie in the picture of Buzz in the woods and Castro's tail in the picture of Buzz in the river.]

Going to the farm was torture for Buzz, he rolled around in agony the entire time.


The poor thing. : )

In other news, when I got into this...

...we discovered a couple of things: (1) Buzz can, in fact, do more than wade. He can swim. (2) Buzz will swim after me if I get in the canoe and paddle upstream. (3) Buzz will not ride in a canoe. (4) It's probably easiest if I just don't canoe when the dog is around. (5) My brothers don't think it is funny when I recount the tale of Buzz's swim by singing Carole King's "Where You Lead, I Will Follow" and doing an interpretive dance.