Home Invasion!

Amy and I went out for a drive today to look at houses and, specifically, to visit an Open House in Simsbury. We cruised around for about 3 hours driving past houses that Amy had found online (and that fit the unwritten description of "our house"). Then after stopping for lunch, we drove to the Open House in Simsbury.

The Open House hours were 1:00 to 3:00, and we arrived at 1:02. I was was worried that we might be too early, might have beaten the Realtor, but there was a car in the driveway which wasn't there when we drove by earlier. And as we walked up the driveway, we saw that the front door was open, the Realtor lock box hanging from the doorknob.

Amy was first through the door, opening up and stepping in. I was a couple steps behind her and, turning to my left, I looked through a window and saw the Realtor sitting at the kitchen table, spooning side salad onto a plate. We are early, I thought. The guy's trying to eat his lunch before anyone arrives. Hearing us at the door, though, he looked up and saw me. I waved. He waved back. And I stepped in following Amy.

We were in a foyer/hallway. Amy started to walk down the hallway, calling, "Hello," when, from somewhere in the house, a dog started barking. Hmmm, I thought, that's odd. The Realtor, walking out from the kitchen, called back, "Hello?" When he stepped into the living room and saw Amy eight steps into the house with me not far behind, he said, "Welcome." Amy told him we were here for the Open House and the guy said, a bit confused, "There's no Open House here today."

The dog continued to bark.

Amy looked at me. I looked at Amy. We had just, as strangers, unannounced, casually walked in to someone's house. Amy told the man--not the Realtor, but the owner of the house--about the listing online that his house had an Open House today. He said no, but he thought there was one down the road. Then he added, "You're welcome to look around if you'd like." We didn't like. Instead, we apologized and hustled off, listening carefully for the sound of police sirens or gunfire. Behind us, the dog continued to bark.

Back at home, we checked online--just to be sure it was entrapment and not an out-and-out home invasion--and yes, that house was listed as having an Open House today.

That poor guy was in for a long two hours.

The scene of the crime:

80 degrees

With it being the first really warm day of the year, Amy and I decided to go out and enjoy the sun. We walked down the hill and crossed onto a trail that winds through the woods. At one point, the trail circles a pond, and it was there that we found we were not the only ones out enjoying the sun.

Turtles, lots of turtles.

Lazing in the sun.


Three turtles and a baby.


There are eight turtles here.


And 15 or so in this picture.


On the way home, we decided to honor the turtles as we walked back up the long hill. So we walked slowly, slowly.

Visit with Annie

On Sunday we went to visit Erica, Mike and Annie. Annie is 19 months old now so she can talk and sing and say our names! It's adorable! We had so much fun.

We played with her Little People Castle and Zoo and then moved on to letters and numbers. If you ask Annie for a letter she can find it. She can make the sound of the letter too! It's amazing how much she's learned in the past month or so since our last visit!

We hung out in the sunbeam with Monker (the cat) for a bit and after lunch we read a few books. If you ask Annie to find the dog on a page in the book or to point to things that are blue she can do it. It's so much fun to see her learning new things!

Here are a few more random pictures. We had such a great time!

Highlights of our day

We took our daily lunchtime walk today and found that some of the flowers are blooming! Yay!

We were going to try to get a picture of the turtles that sit on the log in the middle of the lake , but they were elsewhere. You'll have to wait to see the turtles. We did, however, get a picture of the one-legged goose. He's a miracle of nature. I don't know how he stands like that.

We're hoping that one day we get to see him venture into the water so that we can find out how what happens when he tries to swim with only one leg. Don't forget to take our poll (it's up on the right) and let us know what you think will happen....

Mr. Fantastic Bubbles

There hasn't been too much news lately, so here are a few pictures of our goldfish, Mr. Fantastic Bubbles.



I know what you're thinking, Mr. Fantastic Bubbles? Well, you can thank the kids for the name.



As you can see here, he's a bit shy and doesn't like to be photographed.



And yet you should see him strut-swimming around the bowl ever since he found out about this post with photos of him. He thinks he's all that and a bag of baby brine shrimp.