Almost-Summer Moonrise: Cat & Mouse

This morning heralded an the end, at least temporarily, of our area's "June Gloom". By 5:30, the eastern sky was beginning to glow a lovely yellowish orange. To the west, the waning gibbous moon (check out this explanation of moon phases) was on its way towards setting. (Click on these photos in order to better see the moon.) The direction of the approaching sunrise and setting moon reminded me that the Summer Solstice is just one week away!

As much as I love to stay up at night, I love the soft, quiet atmosphere that exists just before sunrise. Oh, that we didn't need to sleep!

So as I was getting the morning paper and taking pictures of the moon, I noticed that Bob was batting at something in the plants in the front yard. When I came back out to see if he wanted to come in for breakfast, he was at the side of the house by the new gate Kevin is building for us. This is what I saw:Since I'm a softy, even toward vermin and varmints that eat my koi and get into our garage, I brought Bob in for a breakfast of the Science Diet variety.
The little guy was gone the next time I looked.

June 11, 2:17AM - Tom Finishes His Master's Portfolio

(Don't forget you can enlarge pictures by clicking on them.)
After two years of Tuesday classes and many late nights of writing papers and fretting, Tom completed the last step toward his Masters degree. Naturally, our computer had been acting up for months and tried to die on him at least three times last week. I was able to resurrect it and copy his latest files onto a CD and Tom borrowed Jack's printer to print several needed pages. By the third "resurrection", however, we decided it was time to buy a new computer (yes!) and I spent most of Sunday afternoon and evening setting it up and updating programs and files. By 1 AM, I gave up and told Tom I was going to bed and he would have to finish printing his files by himself. He woke me up to say he was just about done and I told him he should take a picture of the portfolio before shipping it out in the morning.

I've used the camera's self-timer plenty of times, so if it had been me, I'd have taken my own picture. But Tom didn't think of that, so he woke me up at 2:17 to show me his finished product. Here's the picture I took of the happy man - the angle is weird because I didn't bother to get up out of bed ;-)

Reminders of Awesome Beauty

Funny that within a week, I was contacted by two separate people about using a copy of a photo I took back in 2004! Last Friday, a woman named Perrin Sparks called from Quadra Island to ask permission to use one of my vacation photos as a basis for a sketch she is going to do. She is an artist and her web site is linked here: www.perrinsparks.com. Then when I checked my email this morning, I found a request forwarded from the library web site, from someone in Dordogne! Marcus Smith is creating a web site about black bamboo and liked the photo I took at Lotusland when a group of us from work went over there a couple of years ago! It's pretty cool and amazing how "googling" for an image on the internet can connect people from so many places! (And while I'm in my "librarian still amazed at how information is organized and shared" mode, I find it equally interesting that Sam, who lives on North Lake Tahoe, uses this Quadra Island, British Columbia, sunset as his My Space profile photo!)

The Best Day of My Life

I haven't taken the time to update this blog lately, so here's something that I saved in my email but never forwarded to anyone. (I don't often mass-forward an email, no matter how good it is!) I don't know who actually wrote this, but I have Stan Kukawka to thank for sending it to me last year:

Today, when I awoke, I suddenly realized that this is the best day of my life, ever. There were times when I wondered if I would make it to today, but I did!

And because I did I'm going to celebrate! Today, I'm going to celebrate what an unbelievable life I have had so far: the accomplishments, the many blessings, and, yes, even the hardships because they have served to make me stronger.

I will go through this day with my head held high and a happy heart. I will marvel at God's seemingly simple gifts:
the morning dew,
the sun,
the clouds,
the trees,
the flowers,
the birds.

Today, none of these miraculous creations will escape my notice.
Today, I will share my excitement for life with other people.
I'll make someone smile.
I'll go out of my way to perform an unexpected act of kindness for someone I don't even know.
Today, I'll give a sincere compliment to someone who seems down.
I'll tell a child how special he or she is, and I'll tell someone I love just how deeply I care for them and how much they mean to me.

Today is the day I quit worrying about what I don't have and start being grateful for all the wonderful things God has already given me. I'll remember that to worry is just a waste of time because my faith in God and his Divine Plan ensures everything will be just fine.

And tonight, before I go to bed, I'll go outside and raise my eyes to the heavens. I will stand in awe at the beauty of the stars and the moon, and I will praise God for these magnificent treasures.

As the day ends and I lay my head down on my pillow, I will thank the Almighty for the best day of my life. And I will sleep the sleep of a contented child, excited with expectation because I know tomorrow is going to be the best day of my life, ever!

(These two photos partially illustrate why each of my days are so good!

Life After Cabaret: Sam and Skiing

After a fun wrap party at the Ottsen's, we packed our gear, shipped off the rented props to History for Hire, and headed north the next day. In spite of the rain and snow (and fears of failing levees on the news), we made it to Squaw Valley in pretty good time - driving up on Monday made all the difference. We even got to see a huge rainbow on the way up - before we caught up to the black clouds and the downpours.

Sam got us a great deal on a wonderful room at the Olympic Village Inn - we had a fabulous view from our suite's balcony! (Unfortunately, we didn't see this blue sky until the day we left, but it was still wonderful to watch the snow flakes (and the rain drops) coming down from our cozy room.) Sam took very good care of his parents - besides the great lodging and his personalized ski tours, he got us comp lift tickets at Squaw and Northstar! Here he is looking very much like a Jedi ;-) before taking us skiing.

The weather and snow were better the day we went to Northstar, in fact, we missed avalanches back at Squaw while we were away that morning. Northstar is still constructing their Village. Here are Tom and Sam preparing to go skiing (Use the Force, Tom!)
As usual, the three of us had a great time and Sam made sure we got a good workout before he had to leave for work!


Sadly, all vacations must come to an end, so after lunch together, we had to bid farewell to "our boy" and the idyllic place in which he lives!