Mary Mary Quite Contrary

I don't know how Mary's garden is growing these days, but ours is absolutely flourishing! Well, most of it is flourishing. We've been rather disappointed by our sunflower's inability to beat the heat, but other than that our garden has done well.

Our orange tree, which was on the brink of death before being re-potted and moved outdoors, has more than doubled in size and continues to grow daily. If it keeps up its current rate of growth, it will need to be re-potted again before it's brought inside for the winter.

In other news, Melissa and I are getting ready to head back to the U.S. for three weeks of R&R and I thought this would be as good a place as any to post our schedule:

• August 5^th Arrive Colorado Springs
  
• August 16^th Fly from Colorado Springs to Maryland
  
• August 26^th Depart Maryland for Warsaw
  

Unfortunately, our schedule doesn't permit us much time to travel around to see family. We originally tried to schedule in short trips to see as many people as we could, but when we calculated the travel times involved we realized that we would end up spending our entire vacation on the road or in airports. As a result we've decided to let family come to us¹.

Anyone who would like to see us while we're back, which I'm sure is everyone, simply needs to contact a booking agent at either of our respective "hotels" for reservation dates, room rates, and local site seeing information. I'm told that the Chateau 'de Dave's Parents has a newly acquired tour bus² just aching to get some use.

Now, does anyone know where I can get some silver bells and cockle shells?

-Dave

¹ What can I say? We're generous like that.

² Tour bus. RV. Tank. I'm sketchy on the details.