Day at the Beach

Today was a beautiful, sunny Saturday. We headed to Big Creek Lake for a day at the beach, Iowa style. After a quick picnic, we went down to the water. We played in the sand, and swam in the warm water. I got the chance to swim pretty far out into the lake, at which point I realized how far from shore I was, and how long it had been since I swam that far. Asher didn't go in the water right away, but once he did, he had a blast. Mostly, he liked wading and splashing in the shallows. After a while, he wanted to go out deeper. He was loving standing in the deeper water, up to about his armpits. Suddenly, he threw himself forward and was floating facedown underwater. For a split second, my thoughts were"wow, he's swimming", then I realized he doesn't know how to swim. I pulled him out, and he was very upset. After a minute, he calmed down, and we went back to splashing in the shallows. Much later in the afternoon, he said "I went under. It was SO dark, and SO green." I hope he didn't swallow too much Iowa farm water. Asher has a new way of telling you that you are saying something silly. He likes a series of books about "Skippyjon Jones", a silly kitten who pretends he is a Chihuahua. If I say something Asher thinks is goofy, he just looks at me quietly for a few seconds, then starts shaking his head slowly and says, "no, daddyjon jones." He also says the same thing to our two dogs when they do something bad, calling them "Libbyjon Jones" and "Rosiejon Jones". Tonight, we had a nice dinner of brats on the grill. It was a perfect afternoon for grilling. There are a few storms out tonight, including a "small" tornado that touched down a couple counties north, but it is still really nice outside here. We are watching the Olympic swimming, but I should be taking Rosie out for a "business walk". We bought a puppy training book and DVD today. It says that if your puppy has an accident in the house, you should roll up a newspaper and.... hit yourself in the face for not taking the puppy out sooner. Umm... yeah. By the way, here's today's random good thing about Iowa. Gas is $3.43 a gallon here right now, a lot cheaper than many places. Of course, it is 10% ethanol, this being corn country. I never thought that price would seem cheap.