There were quite a few people setting off fireworks in our neighborhood over the weekend, but these are pictures of what we saw through all the trees...

And this was a picture taken down our street.  Not sure why they were setting off fireworks with all their house lights on.  It was also very humid and you can tell my lens was fogging up on the picture below.

The cats ruled the house this weekend.  Here's a picture of Bella successfully hiding from George & Wilson.  I think she aged 2 months over this 3 day weekend.

Rob finally sent out pictures from our last party.  I really need to learn to take pictures while people are here.  A few of the highlights:

L to R: Cherrie, Laura, and Becca on the playground...

I'm really not sure how I slept through this, but at some point apparently Christian jumped me and Rob shot a flash in my face after I had already gone to bed:

The damage after the weekend (thank goodness there were a LOT of people here):

And the kicker for me....  out of all the pictures Rob took, this one turned out upside down.  I am curious to find out...  was Rob hanging upside down on the monkey bars?  Or do pictures of Crazy just turn out upside down for some reason?  The world may never know...

Here's a funny picture we just took of Wilson:

It looks like we will get some devil kitty love this long weekend - Wilson is coming to stay with us.  Maybe I'll end up with some more bizarre pictures to post here...

I am very excited...  they seem to have the light poles up at the exit I usually take to get home in the afternoons.  This will make my drive home WAY easier and faster once they get it done.  Let's just hope it's soon.  It looks like they have all the wires run and just have to hook things up.

This is the one clear picture taken last weekend at our party...  we're waiting on Rob to get to Sacramento so he can find his data cable and send us the pictures he took while he was here.  Good luck in finding a place to live Rob.

Laura and I gave my mother this cow last year for Christmas...   it is now peacefully sitting in her garden area of the back yard guarding all the plants.  Nevermind that the slacker cow has let poison ivy grow up among the plants.  Bad cow.  But it makes such a good lawn ornament...

This is crazy and his new Avalon.  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

This is Rob's foot.  People were mean to him while he was sleeping.  Now he's using fingernail polish remover.

My latest freebie project...  update our homeowner's association web site.  I only spent a few minutes on it this time around but hope to have a lot more dynamic content soon.  We'll see how that goes.

Thanks to all of you that showed up over the weekend.  Everyone seemed to have a really good time.  Laura and I enjoyed seeing all of you and hope we can do it again soon.

A better picture, as promised.  This one is even clickable for a larger version.

Rob is a very bad man.  He didn't tell us he had an exellent view of downtown Birmingham.  In fact I had no idea of what his place even looked like before Sunday.  He asked me if I'd come over and take a good picture of his view instead of this one with my phone camera, so hopefully I'll have a better copy to put up here soon.

Those of you that knew Crazy at his previous job would apprecaite what Laura and I did to the keys to his (Kia!) rental car. 

Crazy had a wreck a few days ago.  He is 100% ok (or at least as ok as he was before the wreck).  His car (humbly called the "POOmobile" due to the way his license plate reads) was not however.  Credit goes to Toyota for him walking away from this one.  Notice the trunk is as destroyed as the front but the center part is just fine.  His clothes are even still hanging in the back window.

I believe our subdivision put a dock in before I had a blog...  this was one of the most bizarre things to watch them construct.  The little construction crew created two 4'x6' platforms and drove in 2 posts...  anchored one end of the platform to the posts then drove two more posts (in the water - using a sledgehammer from a canoe) in to hold it above water.  Then they took the other platform and submerged it at the end of the other one and then drove in two more posts at the end of that platform.  So the end result is more or less an underwater platform (which I assume is for embarking/disembarking on the long voyage around the tiny lake).  Maybe I should buy a kayak.  Not sure why they don't want anyone to use them though.  I wonder if this sign will be permanently up.

The original freak is back in true hissing form.  He should be here through Sunday.  Bella is so happy.

Crazy.  You know who you are.  For those that don't know, here is Rob's drawing of him from a Maccaroni Grill table cloth:

I have been waiting to post this since I wanted to see them in action, but it has been a couple weeks now and I haven't been stopped by a train yet.  A few months ago, someone was killed at the railroad crossing near our house.  I suspect that because of this they installed new railroad lights and gates.  It was previously just the white "X" sign and a stop sign that nobody ever stopped for.  Since the gates and lights went up, they pulled up the stop sign, so it will probably be a couple more months before I remember to not stop there.