Pleasant Weather

Today is the seventh anniversary of the Swann Family News.

We have had the most excellent weather this weekend. Actually, it's been nice all this past week. I think it's supposed to heat up again in the coming week, but that's okay because it feels like summer is starting to run out of gas. I just hope we get to enjoy a long season of fall weather instead of jumping right in to winter.

AM I GETTING OLD? I've been asked to run sound for weddings at church for around 15 years now. I did one a couple of weekends ago and another this weekend. One thing I've noticed -- these brides and grooms keep getting younger and younger each year!

This weekend's event was the Paige Martin - Jesse Cooper wedding. Paige is the daughter of our church secretary. Their reception was held outdoors at a neighbor's house where a large tent was set up, dinner was served, and guests could dance to a live band. They couldn't have asked for a more pleasant evening.

THE FAIR. Last weekend I worked the Fairest of the Fair as I have for 13 years now. For the last several years we've been too busy to make it to the fair itself, but this year we made some time to go. (We think Nate was in a stroller last time we went.) Unfortunately, something I ate during the day disagreed with my stomach so I wasn't feeling well when I walked in the gate. Everyone else, however, had a good time riding rides, playing games, and running into friends.

PEANUT AND 36. We are now a two pet family. A couple of weeks ago Rick Robinson and I found a stray kitten at church. Since Rick and Sharon have plenty of cats I took the kitten home. He's an orangish red cat with a hint of tiger striping.

In trying to decide what to name the cat we posted a picture on Facebook and asked our friends for suggestions. Two people suggested we go ahead and call him Roadkill and be done with it. The kids decided Peanut was a better name. Hopefully Peanut will have enough brains not to become roadkill.

My suggestion was to name the cat TC. This is short for Tree Cat. This is because he spends most of his time in the maple tree beside the house. I've even joked that I need to build him a small treehouse.

Our second pet is a goldfish. Ben won the fish at the fair. The kids spent $5 for 36 ping pong balls. Then they got the throw the balls at a table full of small bowls with fish. Anyone lucky enough to get a ball in a bowl with a fish wins a fish. We've named our fish 36 because Ben landed a ball in its bowl on the very last ball.

(Actually, Vicki and I call the fish 36D when the kids aren't around. This is because we were standing back about five feet behind the kids when they were throwing their ping pong balls. When Ben scored his hit we both looked at each other and said the D-word under our breath.)

AN ENJOYABLE LABOR DAY. We had a very relaxing Labor Day at home today. This evening we grilled hamburgers over at Aunt Mar's. After supper Mom got out old pictures and we had fun looking back in time.

Joe