I wish that I had my camera with me on our walk just now...a red fox ran across the road in front of Hurley and me! I'm pretty sure she saw it, but she didn't respond at all...but this did happen to be at the end of our walk when she was lying down refusing to go any farther.

On another Hurley note, if we wanted to meet people in this city, we should have found Hurley as soon as we got here! It is official: walking a really cute bloodhound mix puppy is the best way to have random people strike up conversations with you. We made two new friends at McDonald's when I was returning our RedBox movie!

Also, we think we may be nearing the end of our squirrel saga. I haven't heard it recently, but Joel has spotted it rearing his ugly head out of the hole above our garage door. Our landlord called in Animal Movers, and Mr. Mark The Professional Trapper came to scope out the situation. He found a hole that they had chewed into a plastic vent on the roof...

Evidence:
(the hole is in that thing on the right side of the picture)

...he placed two traps with peanut butter near their hole...
and a couple of hours later...

The Defendant in his trap:




And on to other news. I worked relief at a clinic on Friday as sort of a working interview. They aren't really looking to hire anyone right now, but I'm hoping I can at least get a few more days of work out of it every now and then. Joel had to work all day on Saturday, and then on Sunday afternoon, we built a pen for Hurley in the backyard (well, Joel did most of the work while I kept Hurley out of the way of the fence post driver). We haven't tried it out too much with her yet, as we're going to get a dog house, etc for it first.
(not sure how well you can see it...but this is her new pen)

Hurley playing with her tennis ball on a rope in her pen:



Not much else to report here! Some of the couples in our Sunday school class play Settlers of Catan, and one couple invited us over tonight for some friendly competition, so we're looking forward to that! Joel has his "Founder's Day" celebration on Friday...which means a picnic and soccer games for the company in Denver.

Joel and I have each made recent purchases for backpacking! I got a new pack at REI, and he has a new sleeping bag on the way! I was getting a little sore from carrying his external frame pack he has had since Scouts, and his old sleeping bag wasn't very warm (he figured if he was cold camping in August, he'll probably be cold every other month of the year!).
I loaded it up to try it out around the neighborhood, but Joel won't let me walk down our street with it on (women's Deuter packs come with the flower on a rubber band...it wasn't my special touch) .


And finally, your interesting Gazette article of the day:

2 earthquakes strike Colorado 1 day apart

August 18, 2009 9:47 AM

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CRAIG — The second earthquake to hit Colorado in two days has rattled the northwest corner of the state, but no damage has been reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the 3.7-magnitude quake struck at 8:50 p.m. on Monday. The epicenter was 11 miles north of Craig and 150 miles west of Denver.

Jeana Weber, a dispatcher for the State Patrol who lives about seven miles northwest of Craig, says she was reading in bed when her house began shaking.

She says her dogs were spooked and pictures on the walls shook.Weber says no damage has been reported to law-enforcement agencies.A 3.9 earthquake hit southeastern Colorado at 6:22 p.m. Sunday, but no damage was reported.

And a picture of Hurley on the fireplace next to her box of toys and a bulldog...
(she is getting really big).