The kennel cough has spread to one of my neighbor's dogs. Paden, Art's Pomeranian, got sick last night, so now he's had a vet visit, a shot, and he's got medicine to take, except he got pills instead of drops. There is a vaccine for this, according to Art, which Paden had in May, but it's not 100% effective. I know now why I didn't have children and pets at the same time.

I got a sweet note from Tarah today, along with some pictures they took when they were here last fall. I thought this was a good picture of this beautiful niece and her twins, Sawyer and Griffin. This was made a couple of months before Cyrus was born. We were at the nursing home visiting Mother.Here's one of me and the grumpy old man I live with, made on our family excursion to the Jackson Zoo.Thanks, Tarah, for the pictures and the invite. I would love to visit Boston sometime. It's on my list of places to see before I die.

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I got a haircut, a manicure, and a pedicure today, so I feel feminine again, amazing what a little pampering can do. I've lost another pound, too, so that's a total of 7 since June 7th. The exercise really does help, in case any of you skeptics out there doubted it.