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This is Winston. At about 2am this morning, he and Charlie decided to wage a battle on and around my bed in the guest room. I suspect that the other two cats–Molly and Sasha–were egging them on from the shadows.

Yeah, they purr, but they are plotting our overthrow!

And we’ll be easy prey too. I was on the phone today with a client, so I was pulled over in a parking lot for about 45min. I watched as a white minivan drove by, opened its driver-side door (while moving), and threw out a McDonald’s bag full of trash! Who does that? What has become of our society?

Maybe the cats ARE the superior species? We are the ones who scoop their poop, after all!!

If yesterday was about imagining I was a pirate, then today was about imagining that I still have the metabolism of a teenager…or even a twentysomething.

Today, after watching the kids sing in church, we did a July 4th weekend tradition here in Muskegon, and visited the annual downtown art festival. The temperatures were perfect to stroll through the park.

At lunch, caught up in the sights and smells of ‘fair food’, I cashed in a few months at the end of my life to try a Deep Fried Twinkie. Who invented this! It is just a twinkie coated in powdered sugar and batter and then deep fried. Oh yeah, it is dusted (again) in sugar and the drizzled with hot fudge. I described the taste as “a doughnut wrapped around a twinkie”.

Tradition #2 was our nightly ritual to Whippi Dip for really yummy soft serve ice cream.

All I know is that if we go back to being pirates tomorrow…I’m going to sink the ship!!

[Oh the photo. Well, I can only post from my Treo, so this is an attempt at some abstract flower art!]

One of the most important lessons I learned from my father was how to be an introvert and still have fun at a party. The trick is to have a job that allows you to weave in and out conversations. Normally, my job is being the photographer. Today, I was the pancake maker…and I had a blast AND talked with every single guest at Matthew’s graduation party.

Jeff and I also got to spend a large chunk of the day with his young nephew Dominick and neice Natalie. Their topic du jour was pirates…with some ocean-going robots somehow thrown in there.

In one corner of the yard, beneath a dwarf pine, we discovered a “moster’s cave” full of pinecones that they declared to be “coconuts”. We must have collected 100 pinecones…to fight the sharks…or was it the robots?

Maybe Disney will buy this plot for Pirates of the Carribbean 3!

Jeff and I are in Michigan this week. In addition to doing the traditional 4th of July festivities, we are toasting Jeff’s nephew, Matt, who graduated from high school in June. (Congrats, Matt!)

So, hopefully, we’ll have some updates of the fun in the sun. But these photos come with a pretty steep price. In all my haste (and procrastination), I left the camera battery charger at home. And frankly, there is no cheap solution. Almost every charger is unique…and pricey.

Its quite the scam. (Up there with cables and connectors.)

Anyhow, have a happy 4th. I can’t wait to dig through some more of my old photos.

I gave a TON of details on the beautiful chateaux along the Loire and Cher Rivers in central France during our ONE, TWO, THREE days driving from site to site. So check out those entries for more specifics. This is the photo portion of our tour.

We begin our photo journal with our own tiny chateau–Le Manoir Les Minimes–situated in the cozy town of Amboise on the Loire River.

Above the town of Amboise is its very own Chateau Royal d’Amboise with flags-a-waving. The town of Amboise makes a perfect launching pad to the surrounding countryside.

Our second chateau was the majestic Chateau de Chenonceau, which actually straddles the Cher River and has beautiful formal gardens.

Next was Chateau de Chambord, an enormous 426-room “hunting lodge”.

Next visited Chateau de Cheverny with the 70+ hunting dogs (which made quite a smell).

Then is was the quaint Chaumont-sur-Loire, built in the 15th and 16th centuries with its classic pointed towers and a working draw bridge.

One of our favorites stops was Villandry, a Renaissance-style chateau with stunning terraced gardens, including a tranquil water garden with large pools and fountains, ornamental knot gardens of boxwood borders with flowering interiors, and the expansive ‘kitchen garden’ that uses flowers and herbs and vegetables to create colorful, intricate patterns. Oh, they also had a gallery with some freakish paintings!