The sexy plumber came to solve our leak trouble this morning. He has acquired a metal bar through his left eyebrow since his last visit, so he now looks less A&F and a little more badass. It suits him.

The problem turned out to be relatively inexpensive (not totally � he is a plumber, after all) and did not involve cutting a hole in our ceiling. Both big pluses. The car is still at the shop but should be repaired by afternoon, at which point it should have two shiny new shock absorbers (Hah! My amateur diagnosis was correct!) and a new water pump � because it is not possible to go to a mechanic and have them just fix what you brought the car in for (ooh! A double dangling preposition!). The car, alas, was not less expensive than I expected, but neither was it as bad as the worst case scenario. In any case, we spent $700 this week that we weren�t planning on. Easy come, easy go.

The plumber came a good 30 minutes early and was gone by 10. This enabled AJ and I to get to the library for new books and videos, head across town to buy wine for my ever-dwindling book group meeting on Sunday, and still have time to go look for turtles.

On my run on Sunday, I ran to the forest preserve adjacent to our neighborhood so that I could tackle a big hill on an unpaved trail � my knees always appreciate this particular consideration. The trail runs between a bluff and the river. At the river, I stopped for a rest and to walk on the narrow strip of sandy beach. As I walked, I noticed something small swimming near the water�s edge. It looked a lot like a walnut hull, which were numerous as I was standing under a walnut tree, but it had a long tail. I turned out to be a baby snapping turtle. As I continued down the beach, I found more. There must have been 20 of them moving between the shallowest water and the sandy shore. I watched them for a while before I ran home through the woods. I took AJ back this morning, but the turtles were gone. Instead we tossed rocks in the river and walked back to the fields of wildflowers which were covered in butterflies. We passed one milkweed plant in particular that was barely visible because there were so many monarch butterflies perched on it. We watched them for a while, slowly opening and closing their wings, until the sun got to be too much for us and we headed home for water and lunch.

This afternoon I�ll be slogging through more diss revisions. I can�t wait to be finished.

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