Bean's swimming lessons ended last night and she actually swam a credible crawl for a few strokes. We were fairly proud of her after only 8 lessons. Of course, this means I'm going to have to haul her all over town to all my friends who have pools so that we can practice. Meanwhile, she's loving the bath. She makes me run the water extra deep so she can "practice floating."

We're off to Iowa for most of next week to visit the outlaws and go to the Iowa State Fair and see the Butter Cow. This year there is a special extra of a Butter Superman. It's never going to top the year we got to see the Butter Last Supper. In the words of the imortal Dave Barry, I am not making this up.

Interestingly, Dr Pig and I used to have annual tickets to a local lecture series and, one year, the speakers included Dave Barry and Pat Conroy. We went to the night Pat Conroy spoke, not expecting to be overwhelmed. I laughed my head off. He is the funniest speaker I have had the privilege of listening to. Dave Barry? Not so much. He pretty much recycled his columns. While they are truly funny, they don't have as much impact after the first time you've heard them.