Time for some updates!

Since February, our lives have been topsy-turvy. First, Lola came to stay, but only for about ten days. Lola's picture is in the blog previous to this one -- a very smart, very bitchy little Chihuahua who just absolutely despised Lusso. Our hope was that Lola would become friends with Lusso, but she just wouldn't go there. She wanted us all to herself.

So, after much painful deliberation between ourselves, and then a couple of painful bites from attacks by Lola on Lusso's neck and back, we decided to throw in the towel. Lola went back to her foster home, but then was quickly adopted by a nice couple, and all is well with her in her new home. Lusso, on the other hand, took weeks to recover. He's much more docile now, and that's kinda nice, actually.  He began to perk up and become more of his playful self just recently -- here are the "before Lola left" and "after Lola left" photos. Judge for yourself.

Then March rolled around. Shortly after celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary, Elliott learned that suspicious lump on his neck was metastatic malignant melanoma. The roller coaster ride from Hell soon began, as we scrambled to get the medical attention he needed, and as quickly as possible. The full story is on another blog I started, Once Again, With Feeling. At this writing, we still don't know what the prognosis is, but we are trying to live each day as it comes. Life is good.

Sylvie and Nick came to visit in early April, and they gave us a huge assist with yard work and spring cleanup. We were having a roof replacement done at the same time, so there was lots of activity at the house -- and we had just beautiful weather too. In fact all the trees and flowering shrubs and flowers have exploded in all their glory, a full five weeks early this year! Both Sly and Nick rode motorcycles -- and I think they now have "the bug". We'll see.

Tomorrow, Rodney and Rosemary Miller arrive for a short weekend with us. We're looking forward to their visit -- they always cheer us up!