Jeff and Beth came over the other night for some cards and hookah. It was an interesting discovery that when we opened up the book we always use to keep score – I’m undefeated in every recorded game! So needless to say it comes as no surprise that when Jeff and I took on Yunuen and Beth in spades, it was an easy victory!
About a month or so ago we were given Abraham’s dog Tila to watch for a couple weeks. Tila is a brown husky who exhibits a personality mostly opposite of Scouts. She is extremely affectionate, but also stubborn and much more vocal. After those two weeks it was decided that Tila might be a better fit to stay with us so she moved in permanently. She has proven to be a great match for Scout. They spend all day playing with each other in the backyard and now we have twice as many holes that are twice as deep! You would think our hard soil would be a deterrent, but apparently not. Scout has picked up some good habits though from his new friend and one in which we particularly appreciate is his learning how to bark. They are not excessive barkers but do put us on notice when someone is near the house. Tila is a great dog and she’s a great addition to our house. She clearly prefers Yunuen to me (because I discipline her for which she’s very deliberate in showing me her resentment), but that’s ok because I am obviously Scout’s favorite human.
Occasionally we take them out to the desert so as to be able to have them chase my truck for long distances. Scout is very impressive with how fast and long he can sprint. Tila is much slower, but she tries and in time I suspect she’ll be able to keep up.
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Through Matt’s inspirational use of Windows Moviemaker – I put together a 3 minute video of photos from our recent trip to Turkey…(yes, it actually works now). Be patient, its a large file even a lightening fast transmission rates. You’d be best to hit pause after hitting play to let it buffer a bit so it streams smoothly. Also, you can double click on the video player and it will maximize to your entire screen. Enjoy!
As I approached the house on the way home tonight (~7pm) I was passed by 5 sport cars and SUVs that appeared to be in a hurry to our neighbors house. When the vehicles arrived at the house, a number of plain clothes police officers wearing kevlar vests got out of the vehicles with their guns drawn and surrounded the house. Yay! We live in the South Side! A few moments ago a news reporter from Channel 4 News arrived for a live broadcast and since I couldn’t get a good photo of the broadcast, I took a photo of the TV instead.
Apparently there was a tip for a drug bust which turned into a discovery of a drop house for illegals instead. There were 23 men, women, and children inside in pretty miserable conditions. I suspect they are on their way back to Mexico now contemplating how they can raise another $2,000 to hire someone to get them across the border.
Liam turned me on to the GI Joe PSAs some time ago – they are too funny.
I have nearly completed Ron Paul’s “The Revolution” – I have enjoyed it immensely and highly recommend it. Here is a nice quote that speaks to our present stellar fiscal and foreign policies:
“…we are borrowing from Europe in order to defend Europe, we are borrowing from Japan in order to keep cheap oil flowing to Japan, and we are borrowing from Arab regimes in order to install democracy in Iraq.”
| The Gross National Debt |
Fourth of July weekend has begun! It was a scorcher today and is supposed to be the same throughout the weekend. Yun and I are planning to do some serious work around the house and backyard over the next few days. I have hopes to be able to complete the perimeter wall! I took Liam to the airport late last night as he is off, once again, to the Middle East for his fourth tour in two years.
The plants in the backyard look as though the sun is taking a serious toll, but I did discover buried among the vines of my cucumber plant a few massive cucumbers! These are Armenian cucumbers which apparently do pretty well in our climate. Yun and I ate some a few minutes ago and were quite pleased with how sweet they are.
Scout seems to be doing ok during the day enduring 9-10 hours of sun. We’ve built him a nice sun shade which we hope eases the burden. He usually prefers to be outside (even in the heat of the day) which suggests he’s not bothered much by the temperature.
Lis organized a sweet party for a bunch of us that have June birthdays this last Friday at Liam’s house. It was good times.
Yunuen and I returned to Nogales yesterday for another Mexican work day. Jeff, Greg, Tod, Jaime and I spent most of the day roofing – which of course is a bit ironic. We had a good time but were pretty exhausted at the end of the day. We were able to accomplish a fair amount of work. Our next scheduled work day is the weekend after next when we will be installing a new front door, a new water heater, and two new windows.
We had quite the impossible task of removing a massive iron structure from roof. Jeff and Greg were pretty adept at lowering it down to Tod, Jaime, and I below.
Jeff did a great job with the roofing; however, he did need two supervisors to function properly as the video below testifies.
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