I posted more photos to flickr recently–they are of wildlife from when I went with my students to Northwest Trek. I tried to link there but my site got switched to a different server and well, it didn’t work. Anyway, check those out!

Right now I’m just enjoying summer (or what’s left of it). We’re cleaning the house today, or at least doing all those de-cluttering and purging things that people do when it’s summer. We’re getting rid of lots of tech stuff we’ve been keeping for no real reason and I’ve started some new filing systems. All in all, I’m feeling more organized, even if it feels like we’re moving and a million boxes are still in the hall.

On a more fun note, I’ll probably work on one or more books this evening and possibly lesson plan a little for this week. I recently started Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s book Love in the Time of Cholera, and I’m almost finished with Eat, Pray, Love. I’m reading so much more this summer than I usually do, and I hope to be finished with 10 books by the end of summer (I’m only at almost-4 right now).

Other plans for this week include:
Wii game night (and chicken curry dinner) Monday
Bela Fleck concert at the Zoo Wednesday
New Soccer Season starts Thursday
Film night Friday at Daniel’s

I want to start knitting again, as this stopped for me in April. I have plans for a baby kimono for Joanna’s little girl, but I think I need yarn for it. This will be a perfect project for our road trip.

I also want to start running again, which is not perfect for a road trip…I haven’t really run since last fall. I’ve been relying on indoor bikes, 10 lb weights, exercise videos, and soccer to serve as my workouts, but there’s nothing like a good run. We’ll see how that goes.

Well…until my next post…adieu!

Here are a couple of photos from this year’s prom at the top of the Pike Place Market.

My hair is curled, so it’s really longer than this, but you may notice it’s lighter–I got highlights a couple of months ago.

Jesse’s Birthday Party 029, uploaded by amybaeder.

I put some photos up on Flickr from Jesse’s birthday party. Dawn took most of them (thanks, Dawn!), including one awesome photo of Elaine’s piroshkies. Highlights of the evening: Lukas winning Settlers, Jesse’s awesome borscht, my new set of old-skool primers from Daniel, Jesse’s Walden-photo book from Justin (as in Thoreau’s Walden Pond), getting to see friends (of course), checking out a REALLY old Seventeen magazine of Elaine’s, and drinking Justin’s (now Jesse’s) Intelligentsia Black Cat coffee (french-pressed).

Easter 2007_Vancouver Trip 212, uploaded by amybaeder.

Our first stop after our hotel in Vancouver was Stanley Park, a huge city park for hikers, bikers, roller-bladers, tourists, Sunday drivers, and, apparently, raccoons. This little guy was the least-wild component of wildlife I’ve ever seen. He climbed right over the fence at Stanley Park onto the stairs. He’s not nocturnal anymore, and he’s somehow lost an eye. He was traveling with a buddy whose photo is on flickr, too. After visiting the raccoons, we spent a couple of hours on the trails and driving about. Recently, the park suffered major damage from the windstorms–it lost over 10,000 trees in December, which will take a large sum of cash and several years to fix.

This is brilliant, especially if I lived in SoCal or someplace where I could wear sandals for more months out of the year. This woman started a business where you can wear a new pair of shoes every day! They’re like swatch watches for your feet. You buy the soles, which come with three interchangeable ribbons. Depending on the occasion, the color of your outfit, or whatever it is that people base shoe choice on, you re-lace (or re-ribbon, in this case) the sandals and you have a different pair of shoes. Some of the color and style choices of the ribbons shown in the gallery are questionable, but the fact that you can tie them in different ways, choose different fabrics, widths, textures, and colors of ribbons makes this exciting…but not for me, as each sole costs $185. Maybe I could justify this when I become a wealthy teacher and move to the tropics, as all wealthy teachers do.

DSC_0025, uploaded by justinbaeder.

I’ve had this orchid for a while and it hasn’t bloomed in 2-3 years. I don’t feed it or take great care of it, but it decided to bloom recently. I’m happy each time I look at it now.

I posted photos from our trip on Flickr, although they are in “backwards” order. Please let me know if you need them in any other form. I’d love copies of photos from Rach, Dawn, and Bethany, too!

If you need help with access to my Flickr account, let me know.

This should be named after the kind of weather we’ve been having–it’s been in the 60s and cloudy for too long. However, the post refers to a photo I ran across today in my 2 hours of investigating all of the photos we have through Picasa.

I know the intention of this set-up in the park: to provide our park (in Heber Springs, AR) with a nativity. The nativity was funded by Wal-Mart. What it looks like, though, is that if you follow Sam’s Blvd., you will find the Messiah, courtesy of Wal-Mart. Heh. Always low prices. Always. In this case, however, I think the price was pretty high.

*Hint: Click on the photo and select “Open New Window” to view.

Justin and I went on a photo walk Saturday, and I recommend this highly to any couple looking to spend a beautiful afternoon together without spending a lot (or any) money. Here is the result of one of my “shots”–I played around with it in Picasa.

Last night Justin and I went on a 3 hour grading/grad school homework date to Victrola Coffee house, and I bought a $3 chocolate bar. THE best dark chocolate I’ve had was last night/this afternoon (it takes me a while, OK :)  ) when I was nibbling on Theo chocolate, made here in Seattle.

Here’s the scoop:
“We are proud to be the first roaster of Fair Trade Certified™ cocoa beans and the only roaster of organic cocoa beans in the United States.”

Find out more at www.theochocolate. com. I swear it’s not a commercial–it’s just yummeh.