I've been a little preoccupied lately.

First there was that one big event, followed by the catastrophe of the year, and then there was this:

Just wait 'til you see the treasure inside! (below)

It's a vintage Grundig Console Radio/Record Player! We're really quite thrilled about it. We found it in some junk heap just down the road. It doesn't completely work just yet. The lights will turn on when you plug it in, but none of the components (radio, turntable) seem to function. Tim says the wiring should be simple enough for him to fix. Now if he could just find the time…

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Since her birth, really, Bert has steered clear of the squawky intruder. And now that Juniper's much older and turned all hug crazy on him, he makes sure to stay on his pillow in the other room. Last night, Juniper dragged the pillow into the family room. This morning, when I walked in, this is what I found

The two love birds. They have a Pepé Le Pew and Penelope Cat type relationship, where Juniper is the former and Bert, the latter.

This past weekend, Juniper took Bert for a walk we let Juniper hold Bert's leash while we took the dogs for a much needed walk. If you don't already know this, Juniper is an accident-prone kid. I can't tell you how many times she's fallen and bumped her head. On this particular day, she tripped–no big deal… but she didn't let go of the leash when she fell… ERGO THE CATASTROPHE OF THE YEAR.

I can't even imagine the pain involved in having one's fingernails scraped completely back and ripped entirely off–I'm talking stuff you see in movies that they do to Russian spies or something–but the girl handled it like a rock star. She is one tough kid.