Alan missed Sunday Morning Life Group and worship, because Ophelia thought we were never coming home and decided to break the fence.  Naturally, Shooter decided to follow and terrorize the neighbors (Chipmunk was already in the truck, but only because I thought Alan wanted to take her and he thought I wanted to take her).

Fortunately, Shooter is chipped and Ophelia was patiently waiting at the front door, so Alan received a phone call and picked up the dogs.

And then he spent the afternoon fixing the fence.

chipmunk's first haircut

We gave Chipmunk a haircut on Monday.

The hair around her ears was starting to get matted because it was so long (which is a breed trait), and she desperately needed a trim.  She has a tendency to pick up all sorts of debris while exploring the backyard.  The fur around her paws was also really long, so she looked kind of like The Grinch/Gremlin.  And now she sort of looks like a boy with a bad mullet.

Or "a" mullet.  Is there such a thing as a "good" mullet?

All I have to say is that hair styling is not in my future and it's a good thing that puppies don't bully each other because of their haircuts.

At least it'll grow back.

great britain is reassembling the empire + there's actually water in texas

Who wants eslaamboli polow?  Or, better yet, who wants to  pronounce it?

Yesterday, the Soldiers' Hospitality House hosted a "Taste of Nations" in honor of the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics.  Families signed up to bring dishes from different nations.

We took eslaamboli polow (chelow), an Iranian lamb and rice dish.  (Didn't see that one coming, did you?)  I couldn't form a nice tadiq, or crust, on my rice--mainly because I forgot making rice is a +2 hour process--so it was sadly not totally authentic.  Oh well.  Lamb makes the world a better place.

And so does my husband.  He made rice in a South American pot after I told him about my tadiq-less rice.  I have no idea why I did not know about this pot earlier, because yesterday was the first time I had crispy rice since 2007.

Anyway.

The food and fellowship were a blessing.  As was seeing London on television.  We had the opportunity to try food from Norway, Indonesia, Peru, Japan, Korea, Greece and a few other countries.  While representatives from various branches of the armed services raised the Union Jack, one of the soldiers at the house joked, "Your stripes are upside down!"

Unfortunately, we (at least Alan and I) were tired by the end of the night, so we only stayed long enough for me to watch the South Korean team enter, and then it was time to head home for prayers, summing up the day and bed.

We explored the neighborhood this afternoon--or rather, we explored what's behind the neighborhood.  There's a small stream bed with lots of fossils nearby, so we took Chipmunk and Ophelia and I charged the battery for the Nikon, all ready to take the first photos of summer with something other than my phone.

And then I realized that I left the battery at home.

So, I carried around an expensive necklace and took photos with my phone.  We also picked up some interesting fossils, some of which I plan to ship home to my dad.