Happy birthday, Emily!

Pene and I spent the night at the ranch last night with Mom. Pene thought it was all about her (maybe she's right). She got to visit all the livestock, nose around the pond, and have a fabulous time. We even took a dip in the lake and I made her swim - she's a natural, of course. I burned lots of brush which is always a good time, and Mom and I watched three straight hours of NBC prime time programming. We liked Chuck well enough to give it another week and of course Heroes was great. We started to watch Journeyman and were skeptical, but we got sucked in unwittingly and watched the whole episode. This morning we were picking peppers in Mom's garden and Pene was dashing in, grabbing them off the vine, and retreating to rip them up. Luckily she was choosing bell peppers instead of jalapeños.

On Sunday I got to know our next door neighbors' son Kyle. He came to ask to use the phone after getting locked out. He sat at the kitchen table and drank a Coke while waiting 25 minutes for his parents to let him in. Turns out he's an (almost) Eagle scout in ninth grade, plays basketball, and likes video games. He wants to go to A&M like his two older brothers (whoop!). Anyway, it was cool because he was a nice, well-spoken young man, and there's something that feels so neighborly about lending a phone and cool place to hang when a neighbor gets locked out. :)