We had a few guests this month. Our friend's niece and her husband stayed with us. They were very cool. She is a doctor and he was a pro hockey player who now stays home to take care of their kids. We planned to go camping at the beach for July 4, but it was rescheduled to the following weekend. We were only able to go during the day since we had guests, but it all worked out and it was still fun. Buddy and Louie were pretty lonely because the normal pack of dogs were not there, but what we lacked in dogs was made up in kids. There were lots of little kids and I wish I would have taken a picture of the whole lot of them trying to stuff themselves into an old fashioned metal wash basin. We are steps away from the beautiful blue Pacific ocean and at least twenty calm, child safe tidepools and they all wanted to get in one bucket of water. Kids ... We had a family from Schuykill Haven stay a week with us. It must have been Pennsylvania month because on the same day we had a nice couple from California arrive. The day after they left our place they were moving to Philadelphia for the husband to attend grad school at U Penn. They were very sweet. At first they were scared of Louie and Buddy. At the end of the week they liked Louie and later sent an email that they were building up courage for next time to get used to Buddy. Some people just aren't dog people. The only way Buddy would hurt you is if he breathed on you. He needs to stop licking Louie's and his own butt. Our last guests this month were from Santa Cruz California. They were a fun couple and we ended up talking with them so long one night that we missed going down to the beach.

     The first weekend of July was the Cultural Festival at The Place of Refuge. It is free and they had all kinds of Hawaiian crafts and skills being demonstrated. There was hula, lomilomi massage, weaving, net fishing, canoe carving, traditional healing, and lots more. I made a haku lei (a head lei) and that was very fun. I also tried to make a woven palm leaf bowl. The grandpa and his granddaugters were teaching. I arrived at the weaving hut sort of late and they were all getting antsy to go for the day. They still tried to help me, but they were giving the instructions quickly and I had a palm with some unusual number of leaves so my bowl had to be taken to grandpa several times. Todd even came in and tried to help. I think I need remedial weaving. I have a new appreciation of those woven bowls. This month Louie was diagnosed with puppy mange. The vet told us that every dog has the mites that cause mange, but normally their immune system keeps it under control. Poor Louie didn't keep his under control and he has spots where he lost his hair. He does seem to be hurt in any way other than the localized hair loss and a general hair thinning. I have white Louie hair all over my car. The roomba has been working overtime to clean up the Louie hair in the living room. It has become the tradition that Todd lets the dogs in the house in the morning to come visit me in my office. They scratch, yawn, lick themselves, put hair in my office and then go lay on the couch to sleep. They have such hard lives. So anyway, my office is full of Louie hair too. He has antibiotics and cream for the spots. The vet said it is not contagious so Buddy will not get it and neither will people, but it could take months for Louie to get better. In fact, some of the spots may scar and he might not get his hair back. He is still a cutie.

     Todd went fishing with his friend Jim and caught a thirty pound ono. He was so proud and had a lot of fun. Todd loves fishing and to go fishing all day on a boat is a perfect day to him. He took this fish down to the beach to cook it out on the grill. Well this fish took forever to cook, but everyone down at the beach said the ono was ono (Hawaiian for delicious). I finally saw Honaunau bay full of frolicking spinner dolphins. The are called spinner dolphins because they jump up and spin out of the water. It was amazing to see them jumping up and flipping backwards over the snorkelers. I have yet to be close to them in the water, but everyone says that you can't follow them. They will come to see you when they want to. So I will be patient for when Flipper and his pals decide to check me out. I don't think I mentioned it before but the Capoeira classes are over. The instructor and his girlfriend moved back to California. It is ok, since the classes started to not be much fun anymore. They were very disorganized and always different people so there was no consistency. I started a bellydance class and it is lots of fun. The instructor is terrific and the the people in the class are really nice. The hour long class flies by and it is a good workout. At the last minute Todd found out his wrestling team was having a wrestling clinic with a guy from Iowa that wrestled under Dan Gable. So he went and said it was a good experience for the kids.

     Since we had a break before our next guests arrive, Todd started to put in a new floor and a new toilet in the Tree Top apartment bathroom. Nothing ever goes easy. His friend Jim is the guy that put in the apartment and told us that the plumbing pipe for the toilet needs to be redone so that there is an adequate drop. Right now, the pipe makes a sharp turn and therefore the flushing power of the toilet is dimished. Oh great. Another seemingly straight forward project is going to take longer, be more complex and cost more. This sounds like a familiar story. Poor Todd is still waiting for DR to send us the right part for his lawn mower. It is scary, but he knows the people that answer their phone. They keep sending him the wrong parts. Soon we will have enough to build another lawn mower.

     Happy Birthday to my sister, Lee Ann. Happy Birthday to my dad. We will see you next month. Happy Birthday to Wallace. Wallace's kids got together and bought him a trip to Vegas. It was a surprise, so his wife, Linda asked Todd if he would feed the chickens and dogs while they were away. I went to help to do this once. It was an adventure. I would pour the chicken feed in their dishes and those buggers would come over and take the feed cup right out of my hand. They would walk away with it and I had to get Todd to retrieve the cup. I always tease Wallace that his dogs are too skinny. He says mine are too fat. So when he went away, I said that I was going to fatten up his dogs. The dogs didn't get fat, but I was ready to make dinner out of some of those chickens.