
Iceland – August 2019

Iceland – August 2019

In December 2021, I took advantage of a mild winter day to visit the Smithsonian National Zoo. The zoo is still free to enter, but passes are now required.

From our trip in August 2019


In July, Rion’s veterinarian discovered via an x-ray that Rion probably had a mass in or near his bladder. A specialist vet with advanced imaging equipment determined that he had a five cm inoperable mass growing from either his abdominal wall or his bladder. She very gently explained what we could expect as the mass continued to grow and how to keep him comfortable as long as possible.
Thursday morning, Rion ate his breakfast with his normal enthusiasm. Three hours later, something major happened internally, and Rion looked like a dog on the edge of collapse. He spent the rest of the day in what resembled a coma, and was euthanized by his vet late that afternoon, two weeks and one day past his thirteenth birthday.

Conservatory at the National Botoanic Gardens of Ireland – August 2019

When we had our house built, the builder asked us whether we wanted a gas stove or an electric stove. We went with gas, but never really liked the stove. After a lot of debate, we decided to get an induction stove. This is a stove with a glass top that uses magnetics to warm pots with certain percentage of iron.
Somewhat miraculously, the plumber to turn off the gas to the stove showed up the same morning the stove was delivered, so we were only without a stove for two hours.
Habitat for Humanity will be picking up our old stove.

We saw this garden tower during our trip to the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland two years ago.

My phone prompted me to this forgotten photo of Malahide Castle, taken two years ago during our trip to Ireland.

We are taking care of Polly for a few days while her people travel. For her first few hours here, she followed our Boston Terrier Bandit around. She knew Bandit from when her people took care of him for a while. Polly doesn’t see very well, but it didn’t take her long to figure out where everything is our house. She is a cheerful little soul, despite her first few years of mistreatment before she was rescued than adopted. There is nothing quite like having two Boston Terriers snoring in stereo.