Family of another sorts

 We have this thing going, with Lauren and Michael Paul, that I call family dinner night. Most of the time it includes me and Lauren cooking, and the boys looking at us like they want to help, but can't figure out how. It is nice though, sitting down together to eat. Casey told Lauren earlier this week that if we're ever rich we'll be her sugar-couple. This idea morphed the next time we saw Michael Paul. Now we are planning a commune, and he will be our handy man. If the commune gets big enough I will start insisting that everyone call me "Mom" and call Casey "Pops," no matter their age or relation to us. Tonight, Tracy (we joked that she was "cousin Tracy") joined us for dinner and we agreed that she should join, too, if the commune ever starts. She'll be our nurse.
We have a new neighbor! He stopped by after dinner, and like paparazzi, we crowded him and Casey took pictures. See!

All of the owl fun was interrupted by water bugs, which henceforth I will refer to as roaches because, let's be honest, that's what they are. Holy crap they were all over the back yard! We must have seen ten of them (and killed at least six). I don't know if it has something to do with the rain we had today, or if it is just their mating season, but I finally went inside the house because I couldn't take it anymore. Turns out this type of owl is not interested in eating bugs. If so it would have been a feast for our friend.

 After the nasty roach session, I had an urge to clean. So I did the dishes, swept and vacuumed. I did some more anti-flea chemical warfare, too. I just needed to get away from the smell, so I am taking a break.