Summer Scrapbook Finale - Maybe

This summmer I have had many opportunities to scrapbook. It has been such a wonderful creative outlet for me. I am so close to being caught up that I can almost taste it! I imagine a day, where I can come home from some picture taking excursion and set right to work on the pages while the memories are fresh. Already, it's a strange feeling to list the ages on the pages and have it be their current ages! I don't have to do the math and get it wrong anyways.

I'm hoping this is not my final set this summer. I still have a week and a half left. I CAN DO IT!

One Dog, One Room, One Day

This is my dog Jasmine, whom I love very much, standing next to the pile of hair I swept up today in just the living room. I swept up yesterday, too. And the day before that. And the day before that.

I love my dog, but I HATE THE SHEDDING!

New You Can Use

I found this under the News You Can Use section of the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web blog. It made me laugh out loud. It's from the London Guardian, so that will explain the spelling and jargon.


Photograph: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

Peeing in the shower: the rules
Don't start until the water has – and never do it at a friend's

New television advertisements in Brazil are encouraging people to pee in the shower as a way of conserving water. Our own nation, you may remember, stood divided on the issue a few years ago during Big Brother 3 when Alex was appalled by Jonny's unwillingness to make a distinction between loo and shower basin. The new campaign, however, undoubtedly marks a new stage – or high water mark, if you will – in the world's development, and with new mores comes new etiquette. Remember, you may be weeing in the shower, but there's no need to be rude.


• Don't start until the water has. The water not only provides a cloaking effect, it also avoids lingering contact between the non-lavatory bowl porcelain and your urine. The idea is that it is whisked away down the plughole almost instantly, thus minimising breaches of basic hygiene and allowing maintenance of the pretence, even unto yourself, that you have not just peed in the shower.


• For similar reasons, it also behoves the micturator to do his/her business right at the beginning of his/her ablutions, thus providing a full rinse cycle.


• Don't do it in a friend's shower. Nothing ruins a friendship quicker than inappropriate urination. Keep it for post-pub antics in shop doorways where it belongs.


• Don't do it in public showers – for the obvious reasons, but also because public showers very often involve wooden slat arrangements and we are talking about an activity that should only be undertaken on very, very non-porous areas indeed.


• Don't get carried away. You may, if you choose, pee in the shower. But don't wash in the toilet, and never, ever poo in the bath.

Good-bye Grandpa Pete

My Grandpa Pete died today.

I guess it was to be expected. Apparently, he's been unresponsive for a couple of days. He had late stage Parkinsons as well as other health problems. He's been pretty bad off for quite some time now.

He used to live down the street from me. But that doesn't mean I saw him often enough. About a year ago, he moved to live with his daughter and finally to a facility that could take care of him in the best way possible. So it feels a bit surreal to know that someone who has been literally gone for a while is now really and truly gone.

In the Kingdom of God, he would not be gone. Just moved. But I don't know that my Grandfather was a Christian. It's not for lack of trying. Believe me, he knew the truth of God's plan for our lives. I just am not aware that he ever made the decision to live a life for Christ. But I certainly don't want to dwell on that thought. It's too sad.

Instead, I will remember him as my imperfect grandfather. I know he loved me in his own way. I never expected much from him, and he never expected much from me. He was always in my life, but since my daughters were born, I think he made a renewed effort to be to them what he never got to be for me. And I appreciate that immensely. I love that he loved my girls. That is enough for me.

Good-bye Grandpa Pete.