We headed to the lake for a sail today. It was very windy out, but Ryan and Mary both tried their hand at the helm and did great — first time sailing for both of them.
We anchored up in Arky south and took the first dip in the lake of 2010. The lake temperature is about 73 degrees, and was a bit chilly for the first 5 mins or so, but it was great to be at waterline again. 🙂
Lori, Dave and Jake showed up a bit later on Camelot. And Marty & Sue tied up to them on Caribbean Hug. It’s beginning to feel alot like summer!
We’re having visitors this weekend, from San Antonio – Mary and Ryan. Ryan’s birthday is today, so I baked this cake last night. We will celebrate when they get here this evening.
The cake was staring at me as I was making coffee this morning. It’s calling my name. It won’t leave me alone. I must be strong.
Our basil is booming. In anticipation of lots of pizza feasts in our future, we have 2 patches of basil plants this year. This patch was planted from seed. Well, actually, there were probably about 5 times this many plants that sprouted, but Monte has been thinning them down to a managable number.
Bleh! Dental appointment for twice-a-year cleaning today. One of my least favorite things to do. But do it, I must. At least this time they didn’t break off a part of one of my tiny teeth while cleaning them. Sheesh.
I’m always glad to get out of there. To make it seem like a festive occasion, they always send me home with a goody bag of dental supplies. woo hoo.
I’m a big fan of perennials. They make gardening a lot easier. I’m sometimes surprised at what comes back every year. This petunia is 3 years old. It sits outside every winter and dies back to nothing but dirt in the basket. This last winter was particularly cold. I didn’t think it had survived. Yet, every spring I’m pleased to see it pop back to life with one little green leaf. It doesn’t take long for it to fill up the basket once again.
I think I’ll get a bunch more of these in lots of different colors — since I am apparently unable to kill them.
Headed back home today. Went to mass at Gonzaga this morning. Had breakfast with the fam, who dropped me off at the airport before they headed back on their long drive back to the other side of the mountains. It’s a little longer trip home, since I did not get the direct flight from Seattle. I’m flying Spokane to Portland to San Jose to Austin. I’m flying Alaska Airlines for the first time this trip, and I have to say it’s not bad.
This is a view from the plane of Eastern Washington farmland on the flight from Spokane to Portland. I drove back and forth across his landscape many, many times back in the day. Brings back memories.
It’s a beautiful weekend in Spokane. I’m really glad I made the trip. I’m enjoying spending the time with my sisters, mom, aunts, cousin and another 2nd cousin that lives here.
Today we left my mom and her sisters together to visit, and my sisters and I spent the afternoon on the Riverfront Park. It’s a beautiful place along the Spokane River. You probably don’t know or remember that the World’s Fair was held here in 1974. At that time, Spokane was the smallest city to ever have hosted a World’s Fair. This is a picture of the structure for the United States Pavilion that was put up during the Fair to house many of the exhibitions. It originally had a white covering which made it look like a big white tent growing out of the ground, but they have since removed that leaving the 150′ steel mast and 4+ miles of cable that made up its supporting structure. It has become a Spokane landmark.
Earlier this week I decided to join my sisters and mom on a trip to Spokane to visit an aunt, and to meet up with another aunt and cousin flying in from California. I was able to swing it without having to take time off by leaving late on a Friday afternoon and coming back Sunday night. A short visit, but it should be fun. I’m looking forward to seeing my aunts again. It’s been a while.
Spokane isn’t the easiest destination to fly into, but it’s not too bad. I fly direct from Austin to Seattle and then on to Spokane.
I’ve flown by Mount Rainier, outside of Seattle, too many times to count, but I am always awed by how beautiful it is. I always have my nose pressed up to the window like someone seeing it for the first time.
This is a shot of my favorite mountain on our approach to Seattle today. Enjoy the view!
Last night we saw the fireflies for the first time this year. They dart around the back yard from dusk to dark. Tonight I went out back to see if I could get a picture of them.
As I’ve been doing this capture-a-moment-per-day project, I’ve started experimenting with free photo editing software. Picasa is nice because its easy to use, but it doesn’t do much. Last weekend I wanted to try creating an animated gif, so I downloaded gimp. After messing around with it for a while tonight, I figured out how to make an animated gif from a selection of photos. Unfortunately, when I tried to post the animated gif, wordpress didn’t animate it, it just displayed the first frame. So, now I’m going to try out wordpress’s slideshow feature, which displays a slideshow of multiple images embedded in a posting. I think the drawback is that it will take a longer time to load, as the images are full size, as opposed to a streamlined gif file. But I’ll give it a try so you can see my little fireflies flitting around. I hope it works!
Update: Ok, it sort of works. If the delay between frames is too long for your liking, you can mouse over the image, and advance the frames manually by clicking on the arrows that show up. Boy, that was alot of work. I hope you enjoy the fireflies.
Well, let’s see. It’s mid-May. Temperatures have snuck into the low 90s only once or twice this year. We’ve had so much rain in the Fall/Winter that the lake is full (yay!).
The Earth has a short memory, though, because things are looking very parched already in the way back part of the yard.
Let’s see how it looks after another, long summer of 100 degree temps and little rain.
When we bought this house I was happy to see that it had 4 red yucca plants in the yard. They are a native plant here and you can see them all over. They are a spiky green bunch of leaves for most of their life. When they bloom, they put up tall stalks of these pretty orangey flowers.
Unfortunately, in my yard, they only do it when they feel like it. I’ve only seen each of my plants bloom once, and not in the same years. So I was psyched to see 2 of them putting up multiple stalks this Spring.
I took a walk in the way back after work tonight. Just about all the wildflowers have dried up now, and have gone to seed. It’s just about time to mow them down.
There were a few late bloomers, but even they are on their last legs. These are the last ones of the season, which I plucked and brought inside to enjoy for the next day or two.
Happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful moms!!! Where would we be without our mothers?
Crepes for breakfast – yum! Then we went for a sail with our friends that are visiting before they had to head back home.
For the rest of the afternoon, we hung out and enjoyed a slow-paced, mostly overcast day on B-dock fishing and visiting with Joe, Marty, Sue, Wally, Tony & Michelle. Jim and Teri made a drive-by to say hello before going out on their mother’s day cruise.
Sheila365 