Helping Out

This is Owen after a swim at our house last Summer. He just turned five in July.

His parents are very good friends of ours and you may have met them at our wedding.

They were shocked to learn when Owen was born that their first child had Down Syndrome.

It came as a complete surprise and they were totally unprepared for that kind of news.

Fortunately, they took the time to educate themselves about what life is like with a special-needs child. Today, Owen is the bright star in their life and he is the older brother to his sister and a new baby boy.

During this time, his mother Suzanne has gotten very involved with raising awareness and research funding for Down Syndrome.

She has worked the last three years on putting together a special fund-raising night here in California.

The event has been very successful the first two years. This year's event will be held on Oct. 11.

If you'd like to know more about how to chip in a little bit (with a good chance of winning some nice raffle prizes), check out the following information.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgfrqh67_21sczcckfm

Saturday

The Notre Dame Club of Los Angeles has hosted viewing parties at various establishments around here over the years.

Aimee went to the San Diego St. get-together a couple of weeks ago with one of her former classmates who was in town.

Today, we watched the game against Michigan State from the couch at home. This gives us a chance to take care of a few things around the house while the game is on and to forget about how it's going to be another long year for the Irish.

After the game, Aimee went to go get a haircut and Rosebud and I went to pick grapes from the yard. We have many bunches of purple grapes growing among some ivy in the back.

They are sweet and smell very good, but we won't be producing any Merlot anytime soon.

Next week, we'll tune in to the Purdue game and hope for a turnaround for ND.

Bath Time

Sunday was time for Rosebud to get a bath.

She gets one about every other week or so.

Sometimes it's in the bathtub and sometimes it's outside with the hose.

Either way, she's usually very patient and well-behaved for the process. The whole thing only takes about ten minutes or so.

Afterward, Aimee gives her a treat to munch on and Rosebud lies in the warm sun to bask in her cleanliness.

Labor Day

We went for a brief hike this morning on Labor Day.

Aimee did not work on Friday so she had a four day weekend.

She spent part of the time painting the living room and installing a new cabinet in the bathroom.

There's been no softball for a few weeks but that will change this week when the new season begins and Aimee is part of several different teams.