Well it's been almost a month since my last post so I thought i should check in. July is a busy month when you live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We've had lots of guests, Nancy and Larz, Randy and Mary (a first visit from them) and J-Fay and the D.

dowstudio gallery has had 2 open houses, and a visit from the Society of Arts and Crafts Boston crowd. CAF had her thumb fixed so she hasn't been able to use her right hand for the last week but the stitches are coming out today. TT took her to Elsworth.

There has also been a lot of activity at the School. The big summer auction, the board meeting, the Conference and 2 sessions.

I also experienced a lot of personal loss in July.

My Ipod died (old friend of 4 years), our cell phone had an untimely death (Steven's juggling episode), our faithful electric coffee pot stopped working (please) and both of my cameras died, one I dropped and one fell in the ocean (see happy boat ride 4th of July). Oh and my computer crashed.

So here we are several weeks later and I'm trying to put all the pain behind me. Thanks to on- line shopping we have a new coffee pot (first things first), I have a new Ipod (120gig-a tough decision to go with room for lots of music or the slick cool Itouch. I am pleased with my choice -room for 28,ooo songs since I maxed out my 30gig a long time ago). One camera is repaired (seems it was a Sony recall, so fixed at no $. The other I replaced and last weekend I drove to BGR and got a new cell phone (same #). Steven fixed my computer, although I lost some music picture and doc files as well as some $.

That catches you up.

Oh and the sun finally came to Maine after 100 inches of rain (maybe).