June 9 - john and joyce have just gotten home from a vacation to San Francisco, Monterrey, and the Napa Valley. Here are some pictures of their trip:

June 11 (9:30 AM) - Well finally! john and joyce sort of have a family of ducks. Yesterday, 13 ducks "appeared" at zenpond: 11 young females and 2 males. They are not ducklings, but young ducks. They don't appear to be able to fly. They stick very close together. joyce watched them hydro-planeing back and forward across zenpond yesterday. The 11 females stayed overnight and have taken up residence (or so it looks) at zenpond. joyce went out on the deck several times and john grilled last night. Nothing seems to bother them. Right now, they are all nesting in the PJ garden (memorial garden for PJ Muggins, john and joyce's first Maine Coon cat).

June 11 (1:07 PM) - The ducks are a complete riot!!! They are hydro-planeing back and forth so hard there are major waves created on zenpond! This is a game to them, but in reality it is how they learn to fly. They hydro-plane for about 15 minutes before getting too tired to continue. Now they are cleaning up before they take a major nap.

June 16 - john and joyce attended the badge ceremony at Fort Leavenworth for their 2004 -2005 International Officer. Claus is from Denmark. While here he not only went through the Command and General Staff College program, but got a Master's degree and his private pilot's license. He and his family also traveled alot and he has now been in all fifty US states. One busy guy! ... and VERY intelligent. john and joyce will miss Claus, Tine, Alma, and Conrad. john and joyce will meet their new International Officer family at the airport this Saturday. They are from Japan. john and joyce have sponsored Internatioal Officers for 30 years, but this will be the first time they have sponsored an officer from Japan. john is looking forward to talking to Shigeo about Buddhism.

Nine out of the eleven young ducks can now fly short distances. They climb the big waterfall and then fly off and land on the deck (not an aircraft carrier deck, just zenpond's deck). They also fly from the short side of zenpond to the deck at a very low altitude (definitely below radar). They no longer hydro-plane, but often stand on the deck and flap their wings so hard that they are standing on their tippy-toes. It is a riot to watch them. tucky watches out the window at them and just shakes his head as the silly birds eat most of john and joyce's potted flowers. With the large glass windows overlooking zenpond, tucky has his own "IMAX theatre" to watch the absurd goings-on.

June 20 - All the ducks can fly now. Some have flown out and returned to zenpond. Right now there are eight ducks napping on the deck. They regularly fly from the big waterfall to the deck and visa-versa. They still hydro-plane, kinda, because they are not on the water, but in the air.

john and Eddie are building a wall along the east side to prevent dirt from going against the neighbor's cedar fence. Eddie has moved the 11,000 pounds once and now he is moving them again to place them on the wall. Each block weighs about 85 pounds. Eddie says that the blocks are getting heavier the more he moves.

June 25 - For most of the week the number of ducks in zenpond have decreased. There were 8. Then 6. Then 4. And today there were 2 for most of the day. All of a sudden, there were ten. Eight flew in for dinner and the two remaining made 10. They ate then immediately got into one particular flower pot they liked. One stood in the pot while the others just ate from the deck. john went out and they all got into the pond. They are now nesting for the evening on the far side of the pond. Welcome home! It is evening and they will probably stay all night. In the morning there will probably be two.

john planted an Endless Summer hydranga this morning before it got too hot. Tomorrow morning he will plant another one. All is right with the world. It is evening at zenpond and a hush has settled over zenpond.

Tomorrow afternoon, john and joyce will go to a friend's retirement party. Toni taught 38 years at Shawnee Mission South high school. Gene, her husband, taught for 40 years. For 30 years, he was director of the Greater Kansas City Science Fair.

For the fourth of July, john and joyce's family from Japan will come for dinner and fireworks. Shigeo is buddhist, so john is anxious to talk to him about buddhism.

Basically, john believes there are two important things in life: love and knowledge. Love is the most important. Knowledge is used to enhance love. There isn't much more than that.