La Vida Loca!

Kevin participated in the Pinewood Derby today with his troop. It wasn't quite the fiasco it was when Angelo did this twenty years ago, but it was close. When Angelo did it, Molly and I didn't realize you were supposed to actually make the block of wood look like a car; we just had Mike and Angelo stick the wheels on and off we went to the race. Big mistake. So, I knew better this time, but just didn't get around to making a great car in time. We were still painting the car this morning, and putting on the stickers. Kevin went on line and found cool hazard signs (radiation, poison, ect. ) which I printed on stickers for him.

To make a long story short, he came in 3rd from last overall in his division, so there's nowhere to go but up next year. He did get a nice participation trophy.

On a more positive note, Jumper is doing quite well. We went to see her after the race, and were happy to see that the IV drip had been removed from her leg, and delighted to hear the lab tech say that she had been up walking around earlier. She walked several times, each time eventually losing her balance and falling down. I think that is amazing. The vet keeps wanting us to take her home, but I want her to stay in the hospital until she 's a little stronger.

Normally Alex and T come over for dinner on Sunday, but T was sick on Friday night when I picked her up, and now it's Alex's time to be sick. I hope we'll see them tomorrow.

It finally happened. Jumper was hit by a car Monday night after one of her escapades. As everyone who knows her knows, Jumper loves to escape from the house and go for a swim in the lake down the street, or in a neighbor's pool. Normally she gets captured by one of us or one of our neighbors before she can get into too much trouble. She has even been returned on occasion by a police officer in a squad car. Her luck ran out on Monday when she jumped over a small sports car on Aloma and was clipped by the car's front fender. She's lucky she wasn't killed. She broke her pelvis in 5 places and has a big gash on her side.

It's going to be a long recovery. She's at an animal hospital, and the staff had to clear out a supply closet for her because she was too big to fit comfortably in one of the cages.

We all went over to the beach house yesterday to see Nora and Gene. We picked up T on the way, and then Alex came over later.

I've been meaning to post some pictures of the upgrades to the building and to our condo. The balconies were all cut off and replaced, and the smaller patio doors were removed and replaced with glass windows and doors that fill the entire front wall of the condo. It really looks spectacular, and brings the outside in. The beach is in pretty good condition. There is a lot of sand, and it is building up in front of the building, so much so that the sea wall is almost covered in sand and is only about a foot tall. After the hurricanes it was about 7 feet high.

Normally at this time of the year the weather is pretty cool, and I can't remember the last time the kids went swiming in January. Yesterday it was in the 80's, and Catie and T swam for hours. The pool deck was upgraded, and some fancy tables with umbrellas were added.