Recommendo

Dogs... what to do with the dogs? Normally we would impose upon friends or family to take in the poor little critters, but we're talking about three weeks here, and, lets face it, these are not the best house guests. Its like having a pair of hairy, coked-up frat boys who think every sound outside may finally be the dealer, finally, and maybe he's lost, so they let him know. "Hey, hey, hey, hey!!! Over here!!! Bring that coke over here!!! Hey!!" They are cute though.


So, we need a dog loving house sitter who can be trusted to inhabit our house for a whole three weeks without robbing us, burning the house down or treating the animals like animals. But where do you find such a person? The answer, for us, was a website called "House Sitters America".


"House Sitters America" puts people who want to house and pet sit together with people who need their services. The homeowner simply provides lodging for the sitter. Symbiosis! I just posted a description of the house and area (no address) and the basics of our timeline. Interested potentials started responding in less than a day, and within a few weeks of correspondence, we found the perfect people! They are retired couple of librarians who love animals and are enthusiastic about Denver. It's all been really easy and probably saved us about $1,000 in boarding costs for the animals. Maybe Deirdre and I will become housesitters ourselves one day. It seems like a great way to save money while traveling the country.

Our European vacation plan

We are taking the kids on a tour of western Europe this Summer! The trip route is basically North to South, starting in Oslo and ending up near Florence.

First, we'll will fly to Reykjavik, then to Oslo, then Amsterdam. From Amsterdam we head down the Rhine valley by rail to Zurich and then on to Venice and finally an agritourismo just outside of Florence for a week!

I'm going to try to keep a journal here. I'll post pics and hopefully little stories about our adventures.