The End Of A Rope - Update

(Reference Here)

There has been an amazing turn of events for my friend at work who's wife has been very sick for the last year. She has started to recover! She is learning to walk with a walker, so she is regaining movement and feeling in the side of her body that wasn't working. She is also getting her memory back. They found a dead spot in her brain that might have been the cause of everything, but the brain is an amazing organ and is apparently working around the dead tissue and "re-wiring" itself. She still has a way to go before things are great but she is now at home with I believe minimal supervision during the day and over all things are looking up. Chris was able to go ahead and sell the house with just enough to pay of the mortgage and Realtor, but at least it didn't destroy his credit.

Chivalry, Anyone?

I have always believed in being polite and even chivalrous when it comes to the fairer sex but there is one thing that has always been kind of a gray area.  Of course when you are with a lady you open the door for her, that much is simple, and if a woman is right behind you, going into our out of a building you hold the door for them also... but how far does that courtesy extend?  If they are five feet behind you, yes get the door.  If they are ten feet behind you, yes get the door.  But what about 15 or 20 feet?  This happens all the time at my work and I still don't know what to do.  If I just open the door and walk through letting it close behind me I feel like a jerk, but if I stand there and hold it open, what always happens is the woman then feels rushed and has to hurry to get through the door so that they don't inconvenience you too much... and I end up feeling like a jerk.   It seems like a no win situation.

This is just one of the many moral dilemmas that face men on a daily basis.  Another would be should we put the toilet seat back down in a public bathroom?  My feeling is, if it is a male only bathroom leave the seat up but if it is for men or women put it down.
 

Lost and Found

Mason (our dog) slipped out of the house on Friday afternoon while my mom, sister and brother were here. He used to run away at every chance but about 2 years ago he spent a night in the dog pound and then stopped running away... until the last few weeks. He ran away twice 3 weeks ago but he had on his tag which had our address and phone number on it so people found him and brought him back. When he ran away on Friday Rachel was pretty upset but Jenny and I said someone will just bring him back like they always do. We didn't bother to go looking for him because that has never worked in the past. Later that night my stomach sank when I put the boys to bed and found his collar sitting on their dresser! No one would be bringing him back that night.

Rachel and I went looking for him for about a half hour with no luck. Then I came back and made the above missing poster and Jenny and I put about a dozen of them up along the nearest major road. All that was left was to sit around and wait.

The next day I saw him come trotting out of one of the bedrooms, where he had presumably just fallen asleep and not heard us call for him... but alas I awoke to find it only a dream.

The dog pound would open at 1:00 and we could call them then but thankfully right about 1:00 I got a phone call from someone that had found him and saw one of our posters at the same time. He was still out roaming the streets almost 24 hours later. They picked him up and brought him to our house within a minute of calling us. It was a big relief for the whole family.

Sorry it has been so long.

Here are some pictures from the zoo last Saturday.

Not sure why Rachel is not in this picture.