We have had a busy week. I had an open house on Tuesday for my stamping business, and decided to make cheesecake. Knowing that my oven tends to run hot, I set the temperature about 10 degrees lower than the recipe called for, and the time about 15 minutes less than what was called for. Even with that, the cake was WAY overdone .... so I ended up making a second one .... then got a few last minute RSVPS so thought I'd better make a
third one! The girls thought that was just great, as they love cheesecake almost as much as I do! They both had turns licking the bowl.
Then on Thursday night we went to a swim party at a local pool. Several years ago the park district started something that is kind of fun. After the last day that the pool is open for the season, they host a dog swiiming party that evening. In the past we have gone to a park with a large
wading pool .... plenty deep for corgis to swim, given their short legs! But this week, the they had both the big pool
and the wading pool open for dogs and their 'people' to swim. My girls are used to a lake, where they can swim to shore and get their feet back on solid ground, so they weren't very excited about the big pool. But it was hilarious to watch some of the large dogs
charge down the diving board and make a flying leap into the pool!!! For our part, we stayed over in the wading pool section and all was well until somebody decided they needed to bring their pit bull over there to 'socialize' (off leash of course) with the smaller dogs. I was
not happy about that. I have an opinion about people who own pit bulls .... ... Anyway, at that point, we decided to leave. But it was a fun evening. The pictures here were taken a couple years ago in a neighbor's backyard pool. My girls are very strong swimmers, and love the water. It's been so cool this summer that we haven't done a lot of swimming, but it's supposed to warm up this week and we're going camping next weekend so hopefully they'll get a few more chances to swim yet this summer.
One issue with having
two dogs is that toys tend not to last very long! Everything (ropes, sticks, Frisbees,
pillows) is viewed as fair game for tug-of-war. They can tear a normal Frisbee to pieces within minutes, but I finally got a Frisbee
golf disc which is harder, and we've had it for over 5 years. It's not in great shape with punctures and teeth marks everywhere, but they still love to play with it and it's held together - so far!
My brother Dan returns this week to China after a year in the US. It's been a fun year ... we got to see him several times and this week he came up for a quick day trip and chance to say goodbye. We took a long walk along the Red River and the time went way too fast. The girls have gotten to know him this year, and Princess even sleeps with him when he's here. (In fact, she snuggles up to him more than she does to me .... she has such a bossy personality that it's really hard for her to show anything that might appear to be 'submission' to me!) 
My other brother, Tim, sent these pictures of Elvis this week. I just laugh when I look at this photo of him in a deep hole at Au Train Beach in the Michigan Upper Peninsula. He will chase a stick anywhere ... even into a hole and especially if Tim eggs him on as he did in this instance! Like Dee Dee, he loves to have his picture taken and willingly smiles for the camera.
