Climbing into the car, originally uploaded by markksullivan.

As you likley know by now, Sachi's bro Mark is taking care of our dog Amos.  Amos is getting a little stiff these days and Mark has built him the old-dog assistance apparatus pictured above.  Perhaps this is to make up for the lawn incident? Either way, we know Amos is in good hands.

We owe Mark, Sachi's brother, a huge debt of gratitude for everything he's doing for us while we're gone.  First and foremost, he's taking care of our dog and our house.  Actually, I should say that he taking care of part of our house.

You see, he hasn't quite embraced yardwork. As we learned yesterday, he recently mowed our front yard- FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE OUR DEPARTURE 160+ DAYS AGO.

Poor dog, our Amos. Mark said that he stopped going into the front yard because the grass was so high. We have our fingers crossed for more lawn mowing this summer, lest our neighbors stop talking to us forever.

Sachi's brother Mark, also-known-as my brother-in-law, current roommate,  future house-sitter, Amos care-taker and all around great guy, ran the Seattle half-marathon this morning and finished in just over two hours.  Nice work Mark!

Even more impressive, he went almost directly from the half-marathon to the tailgate party for the Seahawks game today.  Oh, the kids today. ;)