When I walked out back this evening I came across this lone rain lily that had popped up since the weekend’s rain.
How do you like the black-and-white-with-a-touch-of-yellow treatment? I’m playing with image editors.
May 17, 2010
May 16, 2010
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.
May 15, 2010
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.
May 14, 2010
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!
May 13, 2010
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.
May 12, 2010
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.
May 11, 2010
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.
May 10, 2010
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.
May 9, 2010
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.
Why do weekends go by so fast?
May 8, 2010
This weekend Asha, my friend and roommate from grad school, was in town with her family. They’re spending today and tomorrow with us. We put them to work making pizza. It was DELICIOUS! You can find Monte’s pizza dough recipe here, if you want to give it a try.
We had a great time, and are looking forward to taking a sail tomorrow before they have to head home.
May 7, 2010
Friday!! Monte went to a hockey game tonight and brought me a t-shirt that he caught from the t-shirt cannon. I went to dinner with Jen and caught up. Looking forward to a nice weekend at home.
May 6, 2010
When Noreen was visiting, she gave me a very nice hand-colored print of an Irish greeting that she picked up during her visit to Ireland last year. Tonight I finally got around to matting it and putting it in a frame, and this is a pic of how it turned out.
The greeting reads:
Céad míle fáilte
pronounced (sort of like): KAID MEE-lah FALL-cha
which in English translates to:
a hundred, thousand welcomes
I like it! 🙂
May 5, 2010
You know the song “Time Passages” by Al Stewart? For some reason it’s been playing in my head for the last day or two. I’ve been on conference calls all morning. And it’s still playing! So, when I went to the kitchen to forage for some lunch, I caught a glimpse of the clock and the pendulum and well, thought I’d get a shot of this to go with the song in my head.
If you’d like to hear it, too, here is a youtube link.
….years go falling in the fading light, ooooh, time passages……do-do-di-do…..
May 4, 2010
Working from home this week. It’s still nice to stop and notice the pretty things. This is a shot of the leaded glass windows on the front door. On mornings earlier in the year, when the sun is a bit lower in the sky, these windows are especially lit up and cast little colorful light spectrum patterns on the wall. No so much today, and at this hour. But still nice to look at.
Sheila365 