Unfortunately when I left off last month, I thought everything was over and done with ... but no such luck. LOL Lots of things continued to happen. So here are a few "left-over" pictures from June.

	First, as I ended last month, I mentioned that my $500 camera had died. I purchased a temporary $60 digital camera for a quick camera-fix. (I swear, I really was having camera withdrawal within hours!)
The first couple of pictures I took in the car while Jim drove us home after our stop into Office Max to purchase the camera.
Reading the instruction manual, like a good little "user".

I really only took my vacuum cleaner to Expert Auto because theirs just didn't suck anymore. So it really sucked. LOL Instead of a little light cleaning, we ended up painting, re-arranging, and cleaning ALL weekend long!!! But the results paid off and the place really looks good now.

Tara and John (from Collex Hail Repair - EAC is still doing a lot of business still our May hail storm) try to find all the "re-arranged" paperwork and files.

Amid all the cleaning, I also hooked up a new webcam for EAC. I'm planning to eventually move one to watch over the work bays; but for now both are viewing the office area. Yep, that's my head, as I get the cam going. MouseOver to see the webcam locations at EAC

Images of Early Summer in my Yard

My morning glories are climbing the Yard-Cam BirdHouse pole.

MouseOver to see who hiding in the shrubs!

For some reason, most of my burgundy Hollyhocks are coming up pink this year, while the Cosmos is producing hundreds of beautiful blooms

Gabby and Sheagra both love spending time outside.

Another storm brought another rainbow this month - and this time it was a double rainbow! (It's a little hard to see in these pictures; but the second bow is just under the wires on the right side of the picture.)
The storm looms into town		The sun comes back afterwards

Leftover pool pictures

	Jim adjusts the pool Cam

Wrapping the newer camera inside a baggie, we tried doing some more underwater pictures. The baggie, however, blurred all the pictures.
Still trying some more underwater photography, I got an EYE-FUL when Jim's Speedo came off!! ROFL A well positioned balloon has been added to retain a G-Rating

mIkIE @ the pool

Attacked by "Loan" (the Shark)

Playing around with the different resolutions on my new camera, I got this nifty picture. You'll see in the enlargement, a reflection in my sunglasses of Jim taking a picture of me, taking a picture of Jim, taking a picture of me... Oh crap! It's that stupid trick all over again. ROFL

And here we are finally able to start my chatting about the month of July - and boy howdy, has it been a busy month.

MouseOver to see Sarek in a playful mood

Tsunami broods about escaping the screen porch

This month, unfortunately, has some very, very sad news. I lost one of my best-est buddies when Showie, one of Jim's cats, passed away. During the last months, we had been noticing that although he was eating regularly, Showie was losing weight and getting quite thin. Showie lived a long, good life with Jim, and couldn't have wanted for more. For not liking cats too much, I sure miss Showie though. Frequently I've teased Jim that I was going to take him home to be MY cat. For now though, I guess Randy will have to take care of Showie.

Although, Showie's death was unexpected, Jim and I kept our plans for our summer vacation. This year, we took a weekend to go over to Dayton, Ohio to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum and then on down to Cincinnati for a day at Paramount's Kings Island amusement park. Of course, I've got pictures since I have two cameras now! Click the graphic below to open a new window and see what fun we had!

Through the last couple of years, DO has been having problems with her foot from several tiny tumors inside affecting how she walks. She had a surgery to remove these several years ago, and had to another small surgery this past week. Luckily, she's already back up and hobbling around. With the stitches out now, she'll be in the pool soon!
MouseOver Special
	And speaking of the puppy (well, I implied in by that "MouseOver Special" above ), Kiwi is doing well. Now that her eyes have opened she's beginning to recognize shoes and people. And, as you might have inferred, she's already got a name from her new owners (who own her daddy) - Kiwi!

Since the weather had still been nice, Jim and I took Ritchie and Kerrie up to one of our favorite places - the Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State park. Usually we've gone on this hike in the Fall as the leaves are turning. Summer in the woods was much different. Instead of beautifully colored leaves throughout the woods, green moss covered the rocks and ridges, and mosquitoes were everywhere. Thank goodness, they were so huge they couldn't bite us! Click the graphic below to open a new window and see what fun we had!

Summer Gardening pictures

For some odd reason, after eight years, some of my Hollyhocks are coming up pink this year; while half of them are still the regular maroon color.

	The morning glories are growing well underneath the birdhouse-webcam. MouseOver the picture below for a CloseUp.

Questions for my Visitors

	"This" is growing in my flower bed, along side of and entwined with the morning glories, with shiny leaves and tiny beautiful blue flowers. Do YOU know what this plant is? If you do, please email me the name.
Here's a plant I got from Jim. It's big, and deep red with fuzzy fronds. Any idea what this red monster of a plant is? If you do, please email me the name.

mIkIE's "field" of cosmos

Since I'm growing a lot more cosmos that I did last year (I only had 4 plants last year), I'm also harvesting alot more seeds. We planted some along each side of Jim's driveway and are anxiously awaiting for some late-blooming cosmos for his yard. I'm storing the rest of the seeds until next Spring, when I'm sure some of my friends will be getting cosmos for their gardens too. LOL

Another Question for my Visitors

	Here's a plant that grows over at DO and Cliff's house. He got this for her several years ago and doesn't remember what it is. Do you know? If you do, please let me know.

Recently, when at a local Chinese restaurant, Jim and I came across this very cool "Lucky Bamboo". Actually it's not bamboo, but a relative to the corn plant. It grows nicely in nothing but indirect light and distilled water.

Speaking of bamboo, Jim's been growing some in his yard for several years. (Actually, we have just read some "horror" stories of trying to contain bamboo! And much to our surprise, we have found that Jim's bamboo is starting to venture out into his yard too. ) Billed as a "natural fence", we've transplanted a bunch of bamboo, pulled from Jim's yard, to the very back edge of my property. Hopefully within a year or two, I'll have a row of nice greenery to block me from the neighbors and the school.

I had to do some repair work to my front yard pool this year. A small leakage of water was easily corrected when Jim painted the dried-out pool with some polyurethane (that I had leftover from re-doing my kitchen cabinets several years ago). I replaced the fountain that broke towards the end of last summer, and once again, the sounds of splashing water fills the front garden.

Things have been a little strange over at Expert Auto lately. First they were getting quite slow, then we had a hail storm and they got busy for a while. Now things are tapering off again and not looking too good. But they did hire me for about 15 hrs a week to file and answer phones so that Tara could take care of the business that's still in the shop. I'll have to let you know what happens. Along with that business, I've been working over at Waikem Ford a bunch. I accidentally erased passwords from the owner's computer; but he was using a spyware program (Gator), so he's better off now anyway.

Since DO and Cliff are having birthdays and an anniversary, Jim and I got together to give them a gift that can really help - a security light for their backyard. I've loved mine for years (it has a dawn-to-dusk dim mode with motion-detector auto-brightness) and with the burglaries that they've had, this seemed like a great gift. Oh yes, our gift included installation services too! MouseOver for a night time view.

Of course, we had to return later in the evening for final adjustments. I took this picture, while hanging out of the attic window, of Jim setting off the motion detector for the light.

EEK! At the first of the last month, I check previous years in this log and saw that I had complained that every June was cold. Well, this year is different! June was nice and warm, while July has been getting colder!!

Here's an update on the morning glories climbing up the pole. pretty soon you'll be able to see morning glories up close on Yard-Cam. LOL

I also picked up a second security light when I got one for DO and Cliff. (I told you that I love them!) After returning it and getting a new one, and getting through a big shish kabob cookout for DO's birthday, Jim and I finally got around to installing it on the side of my house.
a view of both security lights turned on

Sorry that this update took so long to post; but as you can see, I've been pretty busy this month. I'm planning a birthday pool party for Jim this next weekend (the 31st or 1st), so except another update shortly. (Yeah! maybe I'll get an update online next month really early!)