"Borta bra ...

men hemma bast." That is, "Travel is good but home is best" (Swedish; and yes I know the final 'a' needs an umlaut but my ASCII skills just aren't up to it at the moment). We went last weekend to my brother and sister-in-law's for an annual visit, joined by friend C2 and sister J. Saint H and C2 returned here on Sunday while J and I stayed to visit an aunt. We detoured to visit J's son in Indianapolis on the way here. J leaves here on Tuesday for her home, stopping again to see her son and spoil grandkids on the way.

We've been trying to balance visiting and running around with resting and relaxing and, I think, we're doing pretty well on that score. But I really am happy to be home. Much as I'm enjoying the visit I will also enjoy the return of my old boring routine - I've been on the go pretty much constantly for 8 days now. But we've gotten plenty of reading and snoozing in, and Duke is reveling in all the attention.

I don't think Duke enjoys this, though - Jezebel (formerly called "Barney" before we got to know her better) is the resident barn kitty. In the past 2 weeks she's decided that she likes us. She's happy to be petted but a little nippy yet - probably got dumped out here in the country after being somebody got tired of having a kitten. I don't think she'll be an inside child but we'll be happy to take care of her - every barn needs a cat, after all.