Awake

Fawnolita One and Two Hit The Road

It's Smoky In Here

It's another particularly smoky day in the Rogue Valley. We've had a lot of smoke off and on all summer long, mostly due to fires in northern California. But the Middle Fork fire in the Sky Lakes Wilderness (about 21 miles NE of Prospect) has really brought in the smoke...big time. Today was the first day I've started to notice its effects in my body. Eyes are burning, throat is sore, breathing is a bit labored. I'm not as bad off as the allergy-prone. Kelly's voice is almost gone and she appears very lethargic -- like someone with a severe cold.

It's time to shut the windows and turn on the A/C—something I should have done sooner, no doubt.

Adalie Looses Her First Tooth

Wow, they grow up so fast, huh? Seth sent this picture to me on my cell phone last night and I just squealed. So exciting!

I guess she was a great sport and let everyone (even her little sister Kylia) give her tooth a tug but it was her Grandma Sherry who managed to do the deed. Go Sherry!

Congratulations to Adalie on loosing her first tooth!

Pictures Posted from Weekend in Lacey

I've finally posted my pictures from last weekend up north. Included are pics from Adalie's birthday, our day at NW Trek, and a couple of pics of me and the girls too. Yay. Enjoy!

Set: Adalie's 6th Birthday

The Happy News

Let my silence of late on this blog only be an indication of the many things (mostly good) that have recently occupied my life.

First of all a very happy birthday to The First Niece, Adalie Grace, who turned 6 (!!!) on September 4. She is very excited to be six. And I think so far she makes an excellent six-year-old. She is reading very well. I am sure her skill is greatly encouraged by her enthusiasm for books. My sister-in-law Jackie and I knew this well and provided her with many hours of reading and re-reading enjoyment. Jackie got her some Junie B. books and I got her some Pigeon books.

I traveled north to Lacey last Friday and spent the weekend with The Fun Squad. Fun we did have. The rest of the family came up on Saturday late-morning. We went to Northwest Trek which was totally awesome. It is only about 35 miles of back roads from Seth and April's home and took us about an hour to get there. We saw many different animals in their natural habitat. It was a very enjoyable outing and we were all very impressed by the park. April is planning on getting an annual pass to both Northwest Trek and the Zoo.

I'll have pictures posted in a day or two.

In the world of small business, the tourist season is drawing to a close here in Ashland and business at the salon has definitely been impacted. We are gearing up our marketing for the long winter. I have a new intern (Rosie) at Sleepyhead City Web Works, a senior at SOU, who is a double major in marketing and computer science, and she is helping me produce all the postcards, ads, and brochures for the coming year. I'm very excited to have her helping me out. Though I'm mostly a web design company, I do end up doing a fair bit of print design as well, mostly business cards, but also postcards and newspaper ads. Rosie is passionate about print design so I am very glad to provide her with some "real-world experience."

In the world of the increasingly wide web, there is much work to be done. I have been learning and utilizing Drupal for most of my web development. It's been challenging but good. There is a lot of development activity done on Drupal all over the world and I sometimes find that just as I'm wondering about a certain problem, that same day, someone updated a module that is exactly what I need.

In the exercise world, I have been (finally) using my membership at the Y, working out several times a week. I'd like to go every day, but for now I'm going about 3 or 4 times a week. It's fun to have sore abs.

On a personal note, I'm still single and the men in my life continue to puzzle me exceedingly. The end. I think there is some Very Important Secret that no one has bothered to let me in on and as a result I am continually baffled by this crazy Quest for a Life Partner thing that everyone keeps talking about. But I'm enjoying the ride, however tumultuous, and refuse to be downcast by dead ends and mixed messages (that attitude is SO last decade). It'll work out in the end. Something will. Not sure what. Or who. But it will work out. Hopefully before I'm 80.

That's all the news I can think of. Oh wait! Last night, at about 10pm, I had just come back from the Y after a short workout spurred on by a dining out experience in which Kristi's birthday was celebrated and was sitting on my deck talking to Seth on the phone, enjoying the night air, when ALL OF A SUDDEN, two deer came tearing through my back yard passing right in front of me. (I've told you that I live on a deer trail, no?) It was crazy! Usually it's just Mamasita and Fawnolita One and Two quietly passing through, eating apples and rose leaves, or talking a little rest on the patch of grass outside my back door. Never had a stampede before. (Although now that I think about it, that explains some of the (until now) unexplained trampling noises I've heard in the middle of the night.)

Happy Thursday!