Parade of Nations

We are sitting here watching the opening ceremonies from Beijing. The "parade of nations" has been going on for a couple of hours. It is a beautiful evening outside, and the weather has been perfect the last few days. We did have a nasty storm a few nights ago, with nickel-sized hail and incredible winds. We had to bring Asher in to our room, since the noise scared him. It kind of scared me, too. I thought the windows would break. On Tuesday night, we went to the ballpark to see the Iowa Cubs play the Salt Lake Bees. The San Diego Chicken was there, and he was hilarious. The next day, Asher was still talking about funny things the chicken did. We had a fun, but trying first week with Rosie, the puppy. She is a wonderful dog, but is definitely a puppy. We are dealing with problems with chewing, nipping, and...um.. surprises around the house. Today, she removed and ate a hidden but critical piece of weatherstripping in the master bathroom shower. She is also driving Libby insane, following her around nipping at her. She is no longer afraid to follow Libby into the basement. Libby growls and barks at her, but shows a lot of patience. We have to keep them separated during the day. We don't have any plans for this weekend, although the Iowa State Fair is now in full swing. It may be a bit too busy for us this weekend. We'll see. There were 101,262 people there yesterday, on a Thursday! The local news channels are all broadcasting from the fairgrounds, which led to a pretty ridiculous live TV blooper last night.