Summer 12: The Happenings

so, needless to say, it's been awhile since i've posted anything.  i have been delinquent, yes, but it's because a lot has been going on! dan and i took a big trip to south korea from july 15th-july 24th, and the weeks leading up to that excursion were full of activity and non-cookery.  indeed, the extent of my cooking this summer is best represented by the following picture:

no, those are not home-made waffles.  yes, that is a home-sliced organic banana.  yes, i definitely meant to spend way more time cooking and chickening and gardening and writing this summer, but alas, it has not been.  now i have two weeks left before science teaching starts again, and so we'll see what happens. here are a couple things to catch up on...

this sweet little chicken was in our lives but briefly. back in early june, she (mighta been a he) was acquired as a new flock friend after the untimely demise of dear twitter.  everything was going great (for like 2 days) until she met the SECOND snake to plague our coop this summer.  turned out that snake had a taste for more than just eggs, and so she was murdered.  in a fit of hammurabian rage, the murderous snake was also murdered.  it was not the most shining of TUF moments.  but, live and learn and live.  she wasn't even around long enough to get a permanent name, so she will live forever in my memory as "Lil Bitz."

earlier this summer, we took another trip to Port Aransas like we did last summer, and stayed at the same place, although it's now called Amelia's Landing. this time we brought both dogs, and they were salty beach dogs for the first time!  great fun was had by all, and though there was a plethora of beautifully scary and goopy man o' wars (men o' war?), no one got stung.  yay for the beach!







i have no pictures of this at the moment, but we attended my beautiful sister's wedding shower in dallas july 14th.  she's getting married on september 2nd, and i'm the MaidTron v.2012 of honor.  ("matron" sounds too...well, matronly. and old and fat. and i'm trying to avoid those kinds of connotations.) i also partied (gently) at her bachelorette shindig on july 28th.  i am so excited for my darling closest relative's celebrations!  and i'm so honored to be her MaidTron.

then of course came the Big Fancy Trip we had been planning for some time, to South Korea.  thank goodness for the family and friends who looked after our zoo while we were gone.  a dear friend from school took all the rodents and reptiles into her BRAND NEW HOME for the 10 days, a responsible kid from the neighborhood was on am and pm chicken duty, another dear friend from the neighborhood and my beloved uncle came to check on the cat and house, and the dogs got to go to camp at the Canine Hilton down the street.  what with all the animal accomodations, we needed to make this one count.  AND WE DID!

huge market close to hotel in seoul

seoul street art

beautiful architecture

awesome hair and beaches in pusan

secret buddha

it really was an amazing journey.  and so, two more weeks of summer vacation!  what else might happen?

how about this enormous stick bug that dan came in to tell me about AS I WAS TYPING THIS VERY POST?