Well, after many Tuesdays of silence I'm back online Sunday afternoon. My computer has been crashing lately, I likely need a new motherboard, which saddens me. The cats have been mostly good, though somehow they wiggled open the screen one evening when Josie and I were watching a movie. After the movie we eventually found the cats outside on the deck hiding on/under patio furniture. Pongo would not be taken easily, and ran underneath the deck. He was apprehended shortly after.
Other news: I've been on call last week and kept pretty busy. Looking forward to a normal sleep schedule. My sister is now a Doctor, which is good. My sister in law was not well congratulated when she became a Doctor... her Grandma (trying hard in her own way) wrote, "We are very proud of you for becoming a Doctor, of course, we would have been just as proud if you had become a janitor." So Kate-- congats and you should be waaaaaay more proud than if you had become a janitor.
Weather News:
Lots of storms! Our street flooded decently, we are near a drain and had a small lake above the drain where water went past the sidewalk. Luckily no water in the basement [other than through a skylight which is apparently structurally good-- this was minor and is being cleaned up by insurance etc. -- but lots of fun]. Another major effect of the storms is that my task of staining the deck is delayed, yet another weekend passes with the task undone. Also, as always Josie and I obeyed the television and donned our bike helmets as tornado protection.
And yes, we survived. Thank you television. We also learned that "it is a bad idea to go outside to get pictures of the storm, but if you get any good ones, send 'em on in!" We tried to obey this command but were confuzzled.
So this blog is not updated that much, but maybe 2 weeks ago Mom & Dad visited. Here we are enjoying a Verona brewpub. Slow service but they had sweet potato fries and good root beer so all was well.
Made some good oven food, rasperry walnut chutney on chicken breasts, asparagus, and sweet potato:
And a spinach, pomegranate, and walnut salad. Pretty solid. 
The highlight of the visit was the infamous escaping cow- the vicious, wild cow (possibly mad) that Josie single-handedly corraled back into its pen. Yes, she is a cowgirl. Even Claire was properly impressed with the escape and subsequent retrieval. I am certain that others would be impressed, too, had they been awake during the wee hours of the morning during which this happened.
Josie found a recipe for poached balsamic chicken, it was pretty good actually. I think I prefer baked or grilled to poached but the flavor was excellent.
And when I got tired of walking there was a nice bench.
We also hit up some apple orchards and found some really good honeycrisps. All in all a good day.
