Goats, Dancing, Bowling, Etc.

I will try to catch up on our last few days.  (I have a feeling I will be typing those words often as my opening sentence.)

Luke, five of his sisters, Dad and I went star-gazing with Bill Suriano.  Bill is an amateur astronomer, though his photos of galaxies and nebula look like something out of National Geographic, like the image he took of the "Bubble Nebula", below:
 

He set up a couple of 8-inch telescopes at a park in Riverside.  We were able to view the full moon; in fact it was so bright we had the image etched into our retinas for several minutes afterward. 
Sofie moved into her new studio apartment this weekend.  She also had some good feedback from her boss.  He is concerned that Sofie is feeling stressed out so he offered her a work computer and generous down-time/vacation-time...he says that she is in the top 1% of his employees.  Way to go, Sofie!

                                                  Sofie's Kitchen
Logan and Carly celebrated their 3rd anniversary this week. They celebrated by going bike-riding, watching episodes of Psych, and going out to a sports restaurant where Logan said he ate the best burger he'd ever had....a pig burger? hog burger?...something related to swine, topped with bacon and pulled pork.  Mmmm, meaty.
Bridget was at the Dodgson's house helping Mrs. Dodgson and Rebecca price items for the missions' trip presentation on Friday.  Mrs. D. brought back jewelry and other handmade items from Uganda; all the proceeds will go back to the orphanage there.
Jackson began tutoring a new boy in algebra today.  He also spent a couple of hours playing tennis with Steinie and playing basketball at church.
Emma, Annaliese, Linnea and Sonja went bowling with the Quandts.  They also helped me take care of the three and a half goats and five chickens at the Ioders.  I am getting the hang of milking, actually find it enjoyable, and the girls are great goat-wranglers and hay and water providers.

The goats will eat anything they can get their mouths on, including the little garden placed en route to their day pen. 

I was a bit worried yesterday when we could only locate 4 chickens, especially jittery since the guinea pig fiasco, and therefore overjoyed to count 5 chickens this evening.  Don't know where that last chicken was hiding. On Sunday we took Graqndma Betty to view the goats, then we walked to the community garden and around the neighborhood to admire the stately old Austin homes.

Emma, Linnea, Sonja, Sarah and I went to the resale shop in Cary to buy a tea cup for a surprise tea party/birthday party this week.  The girls had fun looking at the fancy dresses and high heels and we ended up buying Disney Trivial Pursuit, a pair of church shoes for Sonja, and a I Love Mom-type mug for Lisa.  Lisa was up and able to visit with us some, though she is still weak. 
Annaliese, Linnea, Pat Larson and I went English Country Dancing at the 19th Century Women's Club on Monday night. I grew up square dancing.  ECD is the sophisticated cousin of square dancing.  Think Pride and Prejudice.  A and L were the youngest dancers there, though there was a wide age range of dancers. It leaned heavily to the female...I was a male all evening :) Some were beginners, like us, and others were more experienced and were able and willing (mostly) to steer us in the right directions.  The girls loved it!  (And I thought they were quite graceful and were quick learners.)