NW Girls in the South

The girls of our NW office (which is the whole office, except for our boss) headed to our Little Rock headquarters this week. We had a great time--heading out on the town, touring LR, meeting folks at HQ, & enjoying a quick trip to Heifer's Ranch.
Here we are, enjoying the beer sampler at a brewery on the Arkansas riverfront.

Great fun, but I am looking forward to boarding my plane in a few minutes & being back home!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads...

especially my own.

Weekend

Great weekend, we're all tired, quick update.
Saturday was the annual trip to the Museum of Flight for Father's Day.

Friends from DC came into town & we headed to the Ms game with a whole crowd of people.
Here's Eric & Levi & Nick, all Spokane boys.

Our wonderful weekend guests, Eric & Nicole.

Seagull view from the top of Safeco.

Sunday we headed up to B'ham, hiked Oyster Dome & enjoyed dinner & beer at JP & Elyse's house.

Hope everyone got out to enjoy the sunshine...finally!

June 10 on 10

Today was another round of the 10 on 10 photo journal. While I love participating in this, I've come to grips with the reality that I am not a great photographer & I get much more pleasure seeing the amazing photos from the other participants. See them yourself here.
I also hope that July 10th holds something more exciting for me, as I had a hard time coming up with interesting topics while working from my desk all day long!
This month, I decided to take photos of things on my right--I recently had an optometry appointment & my awesome doctor fitted me for a new contact lens that will give my right eye (my bad eye) almost 20-20 vision again! Hence, the perspective from my right side.
My day starts off with Calvin, who is almost always at my side, right or left.

To my right in the car on my way to work.

I am outgrowing my small, though thoroughly appreciated, office space & now this is on the floor to my right--our global map & the milk & egg cartons I use for visuals at elementary presentations.

And of course, my mouse. I am left handed, but after using shared computers so much in college, I am now more comfortable with the mouse on the right side.

The beautiful roses I pass on the right side of the street on my walk to the Tangletown Market. They smell so good!

Mug of tea for my right hand while I look up a project in Romania for a donor interested in funding work that directly benefits children.

My treasured Betty LaDuke print, Peru: Tree of Life, on the wall to the right of my desk (Sidenote: I will hopefully be heading to Ecuador next spring to visit projects!)

A note from my delightful co-worker & fellow Elfquest fan--this sits to the right of my phone where I can glance at it often & laugh.

Holding my shopping list in my right hand as I head home.

Meatballs for dinner!

That's June!
Looking forward to seeing everyone else's 10 on 10.

I heart Ballard

Much of my weekend was spent in Ballard, the Seattle neighborhood I grew up in. Friday I was thrilled to have an afternoon with my cousin who just moved back from Colorado. We hit our favorites--Ivar's, Gasworks, coffee (from Cafe Fiori) & Shilshole Beach.
Saturday was Demolition Day at my mom's house. We took down the old garage in the backyard, which was built in 1930 when the house was going up (the first owners likely lived in the garage while the house was being constructed).
As we were watching Bet wield the chainsaw, sawing through the beams all rough & tough, Boo comments: "This is the same guy who likes bubble baths." :)

The final wall is down!

It's amazing how much this changes the backyard--my mom is very excited to expand her garden. The ground apartment next door will be razed later this year (as well as the house behind it) & townhomes will go up--the view from the back alley will likely change dramatically by next spring.

We uncovered all kinds of bugs & spiders during demolition, which was fun for me. We found possibly the biggest European House Spider I have ever seen. Testing out the macro setting on my camera, here's a nest of newborn spiders making their way into the world (Elyse, skip this photo).

And I couldn't resist climbing the apple tree again. This tree was my access to the top of the garage. As a little kid I used to pack a backpack with a snack & a couple books, climb the apple tree, & "run-away" to the roof of the garage.

After much accomplished at my mom's (but more to do), we headed to downtown Ballard for the Second Ascent Twilight Crit--always a great series of races. Here's the mens Category 1 coming down Salmon Bay at around 32 mph.

Today I biked to church & then met Levi at home to go check out a cruiser off Craig's List (yes, I want another bike) & looked at a few open houses along the way.
I hope everyone had a great weekend--hopefully the next one will be sunny & warmer!