Well, we made it back from vacation safe and sound... two weeks ago.  And, of course, as is always the case with us, we've been busy ever since. 

Only one plant died while we were gone.  Not bad.  And both bunnies and both cats were none the worse for their time without us.   Naturally, one of the cats had "accidents" while we were gone, which are really "intentionals" because she gets mad at us.  But...  carpets got cleaned, and we've moved on. 

Probably my least favorite part of vacation is the day after - it's filled with laundry and grocery shopping, and putting stuff away, and getting back into the schedules of reality.  Bleh.   This time, some of that was broken up by a visit to the doctor with Jack.  Just a follow-up to the orthopedic specialist, who officially released him from wearing his boot.  The leg's healed and looking good.  AND, even better, she doesn't see any underlying problems.  Ya-hoooooo!

Jack's birthday went off without a hitch.  He gave us his birthday wish list a whopping three days before the big event, and I almost prefered that.  There wasn't time for lots of additions and changes, and revisions - those get confusing sometimes.  We can't go shopping too far in advance, anyway, since that just means hiding gifts, and more time for him to search and potentially find his surprises. ;)