Updated pictures of Apache here

Now, onto the fabulous and busy weekend I had:

British driving

So, Karen will be pleased to know, I had my first British driving experience right here in the U.S. of A. Specifically I am house-sitting this weekend, and sharing the duties with a visitor from Britain - Julia, who is an Astrophysics Ph.D. student and coordinating the Space Generation Summit as a volunteer for her summer vacation. More power to her, I wouldn't want that job! She needs to raise $400,000 in the next 3 months, which I think could be interesting.

Anyway, this is her first trip to America and she has never driven on the righthand side of the road. Gavin, who's house we're sitting on, left his car behind for her to drive (very trusting soul). So last night, we were going to do driving-101 in Gavin's car, BUT the battery was dead (we jump started it afterwards, and it was dead again this morning -- so I had to drive Julia to work, and we're going to have to buy a new battery.)

Let's just say it was very entertaining. First of all, Julia had never driven an automatic before. She actually really appreciated it, though several times I had to stop her because she had her left foot on the brake and the right foot on the gas. Scarily, she would accidently hit the gas instead of the brake because of the positioning. But after we got the hang of that, I freaked her out by telling her to turn right on a red-light. (Red means stop, right?) And then, there was the left hand turn issue, which is ok, in that she can make a left hand turn, but she had to consciously remember that she was supposed to stay on the right side of the road while doing it. Anyway, it wasn't so bad. She had actually had one driving lesson before me, but it was in a standard, and she was having trouble concentrating on both the clutch (which I guess was sticking or something) and driving on the right side at the same time, so she was worried. Now, she is definitely a capable American driver :).

Sailing

Yesterday I had my first sailing "solo", a trusting members of the Clear Lake Sailing Club lent Cari and I their two Sunfish (which are small, single-handed boats) and use of their bay in front of their house for Cari and I to sail in. As I pulled away from the dock, I was just delighted that I was moving forward (the more experienced sailor called from the dock "That's what's supposed to happen", very confused that I would be surprised it would happen). I definitely was getting the hang of things, and the light wind helped, though several times I ended up doing circles accidently, covering all points of sail in the process - the boom was VERY low so I was completely convinced I was going to get a concusion one of these times around, but I didn't. It was quite fun. I am up to averaging sailing twice a week. Now, I need to get that average for flying, and I will be a VERY content person.

Puppies galore

After sailing we went and walked Cari's 5 border collie puppies (7 weeks old) that she is taking care of for the weekend (one of the litter is hers, the rest are still looking for owners). They were so adorable. But, what a handful!! And unbelievable amount of work, it made me happy that I got Apache fixed. I am totally convinced now that Apache's parentage is part border collie, because they all had the same funky submissive posture she has - which is lying on the stomach, spreading their four legs in different directions and slinking across the ground. Cari also told me about "sheep herding" school, which the mother-boarder collie had been too. I think I am definitely going to enroll Apache in that, I think she would have tons of fun - especially with her overly keen herding instinct.

And if you are still reading - Signs

I went and saw "Signs" this weekend. I was very entertained. Mostly because it was worth it to see Mel Gibson standing beneath the sign to Newtown Jewelers (the source of pretty much all the jewelery I own) and eating at Mom's Pizza. Now, I will be better able to explain Bucks County to other people when they ask where I'm from and I say "Philadelphia.. but not quite". Actually, they depicted the area as much more rural than it actually is. I imagine that's the way Bucks County was when my aunts were growing up there. But that's when they road horses through farm fields to Goodnoe's ice cream -- now if they tried that, they would get run over by a semi- or something! Now, the farms are definitely all gone - my mom's reaction to it was "Where'd they find a farm to film that at?" because there are so few. The only major one left near our house is Shady Brook farm, which my father told me (this is very funny) carved crop circles into their corn this weekend to host a Signs-premier celebration. I think there are some more farms near my Aunt Julie's at Peddler's Village/New Hope area, but I'm not sure. Its funny, I read a review with the director, M. Knight, and he said he picked Bucks County because he was always impressed by how beautiful it is, and thinking about it, I guess it is beautiful, but its not something you think about when you live there -- and everything is more beautiful than Houston, anyway! But I had so many other complaints about Bucks County, like how ultra-50's-suburban and how sheltered the people there are (like Bucks County is the only place in the whole world and why would you even bother living elsewhere), that I never really appreciated that. Of course, after living in Atlanta, I can no longer complain about conservative Bucks County -- it actually made them seem fairly liberal. Ok, anyway, that's my ramble about Signs, which got my review as an "Ok" movie.