Yummy!

Joey's homemade cone....

(photo by Kari)

+ Joey's homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream...

(photo by Joey)

(photo by Kari)

= YUMMY!

Micro Vision

This post was inspired by my sister Kim and her new camera lens. When I purchased my camera last summer, I purchased two lenses. One an 18-200mm zoom lens that I am addicted to. The other, a 105mm micro (macro for non-Nikon users) lens which, until today, I am embarrassed to say I had never even put on the camera. So, I took a break from gardening and tried out my lens (not new, but certainly never been used).

It was a lot of fun. It was an adjustment not being able to just zoom in to right where I wanted it, but it was fun getting REALLY close to things and still being able to focus. There were lots of bees out today just waiting to be models.

A chive blossom:

Foxglove in the cutting garden. I love how everything in the background kind of looks like an impressionist painting:

On this one I wanted to see just exactly how close I could get to something. I was literally right on top of this lavender rhododendron:

A peony bud in the cutting garden, no aphids or anything, awesome. The ladybugs were also out in full force today, but just not while I was taking pictures:

We have a brand new plum tree and this is one of the very first plums. I love how you can even see the fine lines of the cobweb:

Lilac blossom, oh they smell so good:

Here's looking at you, little bee:

Friends hanging out in the lavender patch:

Ah, a photo shoot at our house wouldn't be complete without a picture of Lily. Her eyes weren't even bloodshot today--Michael remembered the Claritin:

In Honor of: Part 2

In honor of a very special friend's very special birthday... which actually happened last year and for which we had a lovely celebration today--exactly one year later, I say

Happy Birthday Dana!

I feel very bad that I missed the significance of last year's birthday because Dana is a special friend who asks for little and gives so much. How did I let that day come and go without acknowledging its significance? Dana is that friend that is always there and always cares. She has picked up my kids from childcare, preschool, elementary school, synagogue, middle school & high school (even when her kids didn't go to that school). In an emergency, she has been there to pick up Lily from doggie daycare. She is on every one of our emergency lists across the city, right after my Mom and Dad and has been for over 10 years. She is a shoulder to cry on and a friend to laugh with--and we do laugh, a lot. I love to travel with Dana, we love bus tours and room service and laughing about the funny people we meet, especially on said bus tours.

A little story about one of my favorite trips... in early January 2004 a huge snow & ice storm hit Portland. No big deal except we were scheduled on a Caribbean cruise leaving out of New Orleans at the end of the week. Our flight was set to leave Portland on Wednesday with a stop in San Francisco and then on to NoLA. No problem except they closed PDX (which they hardly ever do) and I knew there was no way they were going to open it in time for our flight. I was devastated. I LOVE New Orleans, not to mention there was no way I was missing a cruise.

So I fretted and fretted and then I begged Michael to put the chains on the car. I called up the Melnicks and said "we're driving to San Francisco to catch our connection... are you with us" and of course--they were--and we did. We left Portland at 8:00pm on Tuesday night and drove all night and arrived in SFO with a couple hours to spare before catching our flight to New Orleans. It worked. And, they ended up not opening up the Portland Airport until Sunday... the day our cruise sailed. There is no way we would have made it. We got to spend our 4 days in one of my favorite cities and then we cruised the Caribbean stopping in Belize, Honduras and Cozumel.

We had such a great time on that trip and I wish we could do it again... tomorrow.

Happy Happy Birthday Dana.

(Oh, and Jeff, you did a great job today!)