I'm glad we got all four cans out to the street last night - because despite it being a holiday there WAS trash and recycling pick up today. This morning I worked out front (swept the porch and driveway, and trimmed the mega lantana and olive tree shoots on the east side) so I was able to top off the two trash cans before they got picked up.  Now it's looking pretty spiffy out front.  Good thing, because triple digits will be back before the weekend, with little respite in sight for the next 4-5 months, making puttering in the yard less pleasant. 

  

Pokey did make a wet, sloppy mess in her oh-so-nice clean crate last night.  I'm afraid if I try to drag it out to rinse it off it'll just spill all over the nice clean porch, so I'm going to have to wait until it dries...which means yet more scrubbing later.  Just another minor annoyance I guess.

I've been working more on my vacation pix.  Here is the next batch.

Charlie and Harry have such an extended family that all the usual Grandpa names were taken, so somehow <g> Andy ended up being Grumpy.

Eddie quit smoking December 31! Emily wanted to do something to celebrate him now also being off the nicotine patch for a month, and brought the kids over to take this pix as a surprise for him.  I was the designated photographer, using Emily's, Sandy's, and my cameras, and (not surprisgly!) it took a bit of doing to get the kids to sit still for so long.  Harry is holding up the green "of" sign, but despite helpful suggestions from me it never did quite make it into any of my shots. 

Then I got this nice family photo.

But mostly, I got a bunch of shots of the boys hamming it up.

Then I freed the kids.

It's a happy bunch!

And remember I mentioned Oglethorpe?  Here he is, with Bana:

 

And here's his story: