Tom Has His Masters Degree!

I can't believe that nearly a month has gone by since my last entry! We've seen a lot since then, but most importantly, we saw Tom's notification of receiving his M.S. in Education this weekend! So here he is enjoying a glass of well-deserved champagne Saturday night.

Cal-Pac Annual Conference in Redlands

Tom and I left for Redlands after work on June 21 and arrived in time to check-into our Melrose dorm room (our annual U of R "home-away-from-home"), unpack, and get a pretty good amount of sleep before we were off and running the next morning. This was a better-than-average annual conference - it was shorter, daily Leadership Circles were added to the schedule, and Marjorie Suchocki gave us great Bible study lectures. Legislative sections only met once (I joined Johan in presenting our Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry resolution to the section voting on it) and although it was removed from the Consent Calendar, it was approved at the last plenary anyway.

I volunteered on the video team again, spending time engineering and logging. Tom and I sang in the Conference choir again, and although we were small (only three altos!) we did a pretty good job singing at the Retirement and Closing services.

Summer Has Arrived!

The Summer Solstice arrived at 5:26am on the 21st, so it is fun to note that we were skiing in the Sierras the day before . . . and sweating in Redlands the day after. In between, we were home in Ventura - in "paradise" - where we often have fog at some point during the day, but where we mostly have perfectly mild and sunny weather! Even the cat, plants, and fish seem very content with life here.

Mammoth's Endless Winter 2006: June 19 & 20

It is soooo cool to be able to ski on the two days before the Summer Solstice! (And although they didn't ask us, we heartily recommend the Mammoth Mountain Inn's package. Tom, Sam, and I got lift tickets for two days and a place to stay for $82 per person - nothing like walking out the door in your socks, putting on your ski boots, and walking across the lot to the non-existent lift line!)



Sunshine and snow with my two favorite men . . . life can't get much better :-)

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.