Miser Family update, Dog Days version

Life continues to be rich and full in the Miser Mom household.

We had a wonderful evening gathering at the pool, where I got to teach K-daughter the butterfly stroke for her new job at the Y.  Below, Baby-A models the latest in swimwear.  We're all gaga for goggles!

When you're this small, the goggles
work equally well
right-side-up as up-side-down.

N-son and J-son are both looking forward to the end of school (which won't be until June 14).  They're also still looking for permanent summer employment, although N-son has managed to snag some intermediate work in the neighborhood doing yard work. Weeding and mulching -- here in our rain-rich environment, one of the biggest jobs in growing plants is to kill the ones you don't want!

My husband went to a "die-in" over health care at Tuesdays with Toomey, and also to a March for Truth in Philly.  In between those two events, he got his Russian visa.  He's leaving the U.S. on Wednesday.  The boys are very sad to see him go, because that means they're stranded for a month-or-two with their vegetarian-wannabe-mom.  My husband has stocked the freezer with meat to take the edge off their loneliness.

This week, probably I get to have the family award for most news.  Here's a series of snapshots of my week:

• I went to the wedding of one of my former students, and
• I did 51 knee push-ups.  (Not full push-ups, but I am getting my strength back), and
• I printed out a draft of the book I've been working on---360 pages---and have edited the entire instructors' manual, and . . .  
• . . . we got a dog.

That last bullet point is actually the big new of the week.  Thursday, we brought home an adorable 1-year-old retriever, who has inherited the name "Prewash".  She's already lived up to her name, doing an admirable job of keeping food scraps from clogging up our dishwasher.  Unlike her predecessor, she's incredibly mellow and seems to be highly trainable.  (As an added bonus, her coloring matches my clothes, so her dog hair doesn't show on my pants!  Score!)  Here's a picture of her relaxing in the living room, with N-son and Baby-A observing, and K-daughter giving her some love.  

Indeed, we're all in love with Prewash.