Dylan broke his arm skim boarding at the beach today. He road the board down the beach and onto a wave, then came crashing down. Scout camp starts Monday, but he will be seeing an orthopedic surgeon instead. Too bad, this year they are going to a cool camp with rock climbing, horses, mountain biking and his favorite: shooting.

Saw this truck on the road while taking Dylan to a scout meeting: Obama “Hope” sticker says “Dope”, Obama “O” in Socialism, NoBama with communist hammer and sickle for the “O”, White Guilt ’08, Defend our Borders and “My Carbon Footprint is Bigger Than Yours”.

Obama lost healthcare reform this week and Lance lost the Tour de France.

I rode my second annual Tour de Beach, the 50 miler from our house to Seal Beach. We met some Bay Area friends there. It’s our favorite boogie boarding beach, but yesterday there was a life guard competition going on in the best waves. Last weekend I took Jack and Dylan to Corona Del Mar. A guy died body surfing near there Friday when he smashed into a rock.

This is what happens when 6 members of a prison-based gang are arrested in our peaceful neighborhood. We activate the alarm system and get a dog. Meet our new dog Glitter, a 3 1/2 year old Briard. She is a retired prize-winning show dog. Some friends at church sold their house before they could get in a bigger one, so they needed to find a new home for one of their 4 big dogs. Glitter is a perfect dog for our family: potty trained, happy inside, happy outside, protective, social and a running partner. She has a similar temperament to our English Setter, Lucy, but she doesn’t bolt for hours every time the door opens.

This year’s TdF has been fun to watch. Great to see Lance back in the mix. One of his key teammates, Levi Leipheimer, broke his wrist in a crash yesterday and is out of the race. Levi won the Tour of California this year and he was in 4th place overall in this year’s TdF. The Alps next Tuesday and Wednesday could decide the whole thing. It will be interesting to see if Lance can keep up with his teammate (and 2007 TdF winner) Alberto Contador. Right now Alberto is in second place overall, 2 seconds ahead of Lance. Two riders in todays stage were shot by pellet guns!

Ty was diagnosed 4 months ago and is 4 months into 8+ months of treatment. It has been a brutal 4 months. He is making progress, but still has a rough road ahead.

We will have a TEENAGER in the family next month!!

All three kids have been sick. Dylan had a bad cough for a few weeks, Grace got bronchitis towards the end of Powell and now Gavin is feelin’ ill.