you either want to be with me, or be me There's a new way to keep cool over at the compound - a lovely inflatable pool for the kids. I sort of suspect some of the adults might just be taking advantage of the new facilities one of these days as well. I know I'll be tempted...

When I arrived at the compound yesterday to pick up Devin (he'd been at the rodeo, don't you know), Keri was just nearing completion of pumping up the pool with this dinky little hand-pump. He asked if froo had a better pump, and by coincidence I happened to have the raft pumps in my car, so I quickly went and got them. After taking nearly an hour to inflate the pool, the last bit took merely seconds. If only I'd arrived sooner..!

We had a family barbecue on Saturday. Dalt's son and three of his friends were in town from BC, as was my cousin Ryan from NB. Dalt's nephew brought his family, I brought Persuade, and we had quite the large group gathered in the backyard for some of Dalt's famously scrumptious burgers.

Ella had a Dora napkin that she kept insisting we make into a hat. When I showed her this picture on the viewscreen of my camera, she said "that's NOT what it looks like!" - as though the camera was lying to her. Funny.

Since Persuade and I were abiding under a self-imposed de-tox, we headed into the kitchen for coffee after dinner, and when somebody ran inside for tequila and limes, we sensed that might be our cue to leave. I'm not sure how long that craziness went on...

And now we're back to real life and real work.

Pics from the weekend are here.  | ¶ 1:12 p.m.