Musings

Today's garden harvest (from upper left corner, clockwise): Thyme, sage, chives, chocolate mint, purple sage, lemon thyme, nasturtium, squash blossom, peppermint, salad greens, rosemary, cream carrots, greens, oregano, (middle, from left) berries, peas, spearmint. The herbs are doing very well in the garden this year. The warm weather plants (tomatoes, peppers) are struggling in our cooler, wetter than usual summer.

And speaking of struggling, the Seattle Sounders Soccer team more than struggled against Manchester United last night at the Seattle stadium in front of 60,000 people. They were annihilated 7 to 0! But we still love our Sounders. Go green and blue!

Anni had a rare day when she had no appointments. Alex, Ari, and David were busy with school and college; so Anni and I had a girls day in. We got up late, had a leisurely breakfast, gave each other oatmeal facials, picked and ate raspberries, read Winnie-the-Pooh stories, and made cranberry cupcakes. It was great fun!

Life in pictures

Here I am in Pasco, WA at Radcon 5C. I was the science geek (I mean guest) of honor. I participating in the opening ceremonies (here with Radcon Bob), gave the science keynote presentation, did visits with two high school classes, was a member of 11 panels, and briefly modeled for the auction. Phew!

Fellow writer, Jay Lake, just had to try my hat on. He bares a striking resemblance to a Star Wars ewok. (sorry Jay).

After nearly a week of con food. I arrived home craving organic veggies. Here are the fixings for homemade pizza!

Two veggilicious pizzas about to hit the oven. YUM!

Anni getting cozy with the tea cozy!

She thought Alex needed a turn too.

The snow decided to make a reappearance in Western Washington.

At first it was just a few flakes.

And then a few more.

It began to stick

until the ground was covered

and so was the greenery.

The guard owl was not amused.

Barkley? Are you out here?

Today, it warmed up just a bit and melted some in the sunshine. Sending warm thoughts to all of you.

And finally...

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS!!! to Ellie and Joey on the birth of their beautiful baby girl!

Colds and Cold!

After a full week of sneezes and coughs, the A team is back in action. All of us had monster colds except for Alex. He credits his immunological defenses to a 'healthy' diet of nachos! (Kidding!) It's also been very cold outside with more chances of snow this week. We had a light dusting this am.

In other news, we found a new fun and free activity! The second Monday of each month, the Pacific Science Center does Science Cafe at one of our local pubs. I took the older future farmers for a talk about crow and ravens. It was very informative to learn about these exceptionally smart birds.

Finally today, we'd like to send a big shout out to our Auntie D. Best wishes for your upcoming surgery! We're sending all our best wishes and blessings your way!