August 23, 2010:  Hey again, how's it going out there?  We're out here and doing our thing as always, just at a different address.  A couple weekends ago we went out on the river again to finish the float trip that we started the day of the fire, and to cleanse ourselves of some demons associated with all of this.  We gathered up 12 or so of our friends, plenty of beer, some food and hit the river.  The water was quite low so it ended up being a nice long cruise that took 6+ hours to finish.  I'm told that I exercised the most demons out of everyone, the 12-pack of FatTire cans were a big help.  The 50 degree mountain water that I jumped into numerous times off of the 10 foot high log jump near the end of the day cleared out what the beer didn't.  All in all it was a great day with some amazing friends.  This weekend we took Stella to another lure coursing trial and as always she didn't disappoint.  She won another major and beat her brother Leroy for Best in Breed.  To be a Field Champion a dog needs 2 major wins and 15 points, she ended up with 3 majors and 18 points!  We didn't go on Sunday but heard that Leroy took the breed, if we keep this up nobody will want to go if Sweet Creek dogs will be there!  Yesterday we spent the day running a couple small errands and cleaning up around the apartment.  We picked up one of Lisa's replacement bikes and I spent the rest of the day working on one of mine.  I just received a call from the insurance company and the first check for contents replacement is in the mail, we'll have to squirrel it away for after we get back into the house, well, after we replace the bikes anyway :)  I'm still waiting to get my Vespa back, they tell me it will be this week but as always I'm not holding my breath.  I should get some work done, hope you have a great week, we're sure gonna try to. 

August 7, 2010:  Hello again everyone, sorry as always that it's been so long but for the first time in a while we have a real excuse, we had a fire at our house 2 weeks ago tomorrow and haven't been living there since.  I'm sure most of you reading this have already exchanged emails or phone calls with us since the fire so you know the whole story so there is no need to through it again.  We weren't home at the time but the dogs were, a very kind neighbor that we've never met let them so (so we're told) and after some running frantic around the neighborhood they both eventually found their way home safely.  We have been living at our friend Isabela and Eric's place in a nearby town ever since that afternoon.  They have 5 acres, horses, Stella/Mabel's mom, Stella's brother, an most importantly a very cool guest apartment above their barn that we will be calling home for the next 7+ months.  So far the insurance company has been great, the crews they called in were able to save most things on the first floor as it was mostly just smoke damage there.  The second floor was for the most part a complete loss, they may be able to save a couple pieces of furniture but we aren't holding our breath.  The house has since been completely gutted right to the studs and is currently drying out while the restoration contractor gets permits and has an engineer and architect draw up the roofing truss plan to get them ordered.  For the most part the entire top of the house has to come off and be replaced, including the new 50 year shingle roof we just put up.  The fire department said that if it wasn't for that roof the entire house would have likely burned to the ground, so that made us feel better, if only for a minute.  I have uploaded a set of pictures I've taken through out the last couple of weeks here and I will eventually start a new section under house projects to track the renovation but nothing is really happening yet so I'll get to that when it does.  In the meantime we're just trying to enjoy the summer with the dogs and our friends, replace some things that were lost, and be happy that we just lost a house that can be rebuilt, and stuff that we can replace.