i have a couple of quick things to say before i grind out more copy. for the record, it is 3:30 on a tuesday and i am STILL writing and getting ready to sink my teeth into a nice piece for my neighbor who owns a pheasant preserve. this guy is the king of all neighbors. he loans us huge tractors with air-conditioned cabs. he loans us bobcats. he blades the snow out of our driveway. he works in our yard even when we aren't home. he GAVE us a hunting dog. we have run out of gift cards and cases of beer. it's time to do something serious, so bobbi and i are going to make him a pheasant preserve brochure that'll knock his socks off. no pressure, bob. his preserve is actually something like 3,000 acres of prime SD land with two huge hunting lodges on it and clients that fly in from virginia...so it is actually a pretty cool place. we love our neighbor. the coolest, most casual good ol' boy you'd ever meet. and you know how i love a good ol' boy.

yet i digress.

the couple of things to say.

*i am reading an awesome book. it's called The Help. i think it's going to be a movie, or is a movie, who knows? i'm a little out of touch. but the book is perfect.

*we decided to play tennis the other night at about 10 pm. we played under the lights while swarms and swarms of mayflies landed on us and around us and under us. it was like a mayfly snow globe. good thing they are cute bugs or i would have been freaked out. the nice thing? not a single mosquito bite all night. mayflies rule.

*little j has the best hockey picture ever. i tried to scan it, but apparently my scanner is on vacation. the picture is for his AAA team...13 boys and 1 girl. all 13 boys are not smiling, simply glaring and looking tough into the camera. little j looks like the biggest punk on the planet--his solo picture is priceless. but the girl? she is grinning from ear to ear. i love it. i will seriously treasure this picture forever.

*speaking of girls. we had a surprise visit from the husband's brother in washington and his family of four little girls. well, it was surprise to us only because we never answer our phone. anyway. the little girls are just...wow. all of them have this crazy wild totally curly hair and they are so outgoing and full of life, just beautiful. i got to watch the two-year-old while the rest of the crew went tubing and she just made my day. we are both sporting bright blue toenail polish right now and i'm not taking it off even for a client meeting tomorrow. ah. a girl fix. funny how much i needed that.

*we were in sioux city (more hockey) on sunday and on the way back we decided to detour through yankton to see the famed gavins point dam rushing with water. we were giggling the whole time because the first sign we came to said "Dam Road Closed." that started a snowball from the peanut gallery. "Dad, how come we took this dam detour?" "Dad, where did all this dam water come from?" you get the picture. for the record, it was dam impressive.

*we are gearing up for some serious waterpark action. going to water world on saturday--the biggest water park in america. located in denver. then a couple weeks later we will hit noah's ark at wisconsin dells, and possibly the waterpark at valley fair. my fingers are raisins just thinking about it. i bet bobbi wishes she could come :)

*i really think i had more to say but my internal buzzer went off and i do have the cool brochure to write. i may or may not talk to you for a long time. school starts august 17 and i promise i'll be back. dam. where did summer go? (that was for you, deann).