Better Late Than Never? And Better Random Than Not At All?

So, yeah. I've been a little lazy with the ol' blog recently. Sorry about that. Moving to Pennsylvania and job-searching for months on end apparently does that to me. I know that pictures are the easiest path to forgiveness in this situation, so here are some recent stories and pictures.

Our small beast (feline variety) was recently ill. Last week, she was listless and stopped eating, and when I took her to the vet, her temperature was more than four degrees above kitty-normal. We didn't get an actual diagnosis, but the vet said that it happens frequently to cats and they DO know how to fix it. Paige got a shot of antibiotics and a shot to bring down the fever. It took many more days than I'd like, but she is finally back to normal, as judged by my 4:30am wake-up kitty snuggle today. In better times, Paige is very fond of bags:

Darcy, in the meantime, has turned into a full-time bookworm. She reads constantly and FAST. In truth, many of her chapter books aren't very long, but she often finishes one on the drive home from the library. Or in the library, as seen here:
(Well, you would see that here if Michael had sent it to the computer from his phone, but since he didn't, you'll have to wait patiently while I get him to do that for a future post.)

In the meantime, you can have this picture of Darcy at her bridging ceremony. She is moving from Daisies to Brownies next year and these transitions are celebrated in style. Each girl walked over the bridge and then shook hands with all the Brownies, who welcomed them into that level. It was very hot (third floor of an Elks Lodge with over a hundred people), but very cute.

Many weeks ago, all of us volunteered at a Hands-on-History event at historic Millbrook Village, on the New Jersey side of the park. I told visiting students all about food preservation methods, Michael worked in the mill, and Darcy helped churn butter. Sort of. Mostly, she wandered wherever she wanted and harassed teenagers who happened to put on Beatles t-shirts that morning. But in theory, she helped churn quite a lot of butter. We were all in costume (mine was of the oversized-flour-sack variety, with an apron to give it some sort of shape) and had a family portrait taken:

A good time was had by all. I warned students about the dangers of scurvy on long sea voyages and explained that one way to keep bad bacteria OUT was by letting good bacteria eat your food first. I'm not sure they all bought it, but they paid attention. Except the kindergartners who were on their sixth station; they paid attention to the spider crawling on the sauerkraut. It was pretty.

And there is a very random blog post that gives small glimpses into our lives. In other random news: Darcy has hit the first pitch in both of her last t-ball games (they pitch to them in late innings, but go back to the T after five or six pitches); I picked 3.5 pounds of beets from our community garden plot today and many pounds of potatoes are not far behind; we had a full house with grandparents, aunt, cousin, and friends for my sister's birthday weekend; Darcy has become friends with both cicadas and fireflies this summer; we are having insane amounts of rain here, including some thunder now; Michael is brewing beer at a steadily increasing pace this summer; and if you haven't tried the game Qwirkle, you should.