Starting the Second Quarter of Quarantine

It's true folks. We've been doing this quarantine thing for three months already. To give ourselves some cheap entertainment, we recently got a hummingbird feeder. The birds visit the feeder often—so often that pretty soon some of them are going to have either diabetes or a pot belly from the amount they've been eating.

Maybe you heard there's a forest fire near Tucson. I took my car in for service yesterday and on the way home thought the fire looked more like a volcano. Our house is 5-7 miles to the right so we're far from the fire and, so far, we're far from the smoke too.

On Sunday the three of us drove up to Sun City to visit Brad's mom and dad. Allie likes to visit her grandma and grandpa's house. She knows she's special since she gets to go in the house, while Brad and I have to stay on the patio.

On Saturday John and Troy and Sirius met up with my sister Kathy and her kids Lauren and Brian for a six mile hike near Boulder. Sirius has come a long way from being a St. Louis couch potato to now being a Colorado hiker.

Here's the whole group.

I've been making masks. Thanks to my mom's donation of some of her quilting fabric, I have lots of fun fabric choices.

One of John's summer internships is with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. He's working remotely all summer, but for one morning this week he had to go in so, good son that he is, he sent me a first day at the office photo. Thanks John!

This week I went on my longest bike ride in years: 24 miles. My destination was Saguaro National Park East. There's an eight mile loop around the park.

I've been there before but never on my bike. It was hilly, but pretty.

(Mom, if you're reading this, oops sorry for the bug.) This week we got introduced to the mesquite bug. This is him/her in his/her I'm-still-not-a-grown-up form. My research tells me the bug will turn from red (still a juvenile) to completely brown (an adult). They're apparently harmless and definitely very interesting to look at.

And stealing the show is Peter and Jessa's new cat, whose name I'm still not sure of. But it doesn't matter. With great boxes and a willingness to stick her head through a hole, this cat has a bright future.