Stone Arch arts festival

Riley and I check out the festival by the river today. Not sure what happened to the 80 degree sunshine that was promised but it's still a nice day.
We've met many dogs and there are a bunch of dog related booths. Who knew? Riley might not be having the time of her life but she is getting a lot of treats!

Before/After Blog Hop 6/17/10

Before, a close-up of the hybrid tea rose Tineke, a little dark with a distracting background. Taken with the Olympus SP-590.

After, brightened, cropped and cleaned up...
If you like my shots, you need to visit Pixel Perfect for more before and after fun! And if you want to play along all you have to do is show us your SOOC (straight out of camera) shot and then the edited version. Link back to Pixel Perfect and link up your post below! Feel free to share with us your editing program and camera gear too!

Sunday Snapshot

Today's leisurely walk around Lake Calhoun by the numbers...

32 baby ducklings

24 bikes parked around Tin Fish

7 kayakers, including one who'd lost his paddles

4.5 miles from the door, around the lake and back

3 fishing boats, skirting the milfoil bloom

2 George's Dog House stands

2 loons, making me wish I had brought my telephoto lens

2 familiar face sightings, which may be a record number in one walk (not including neighbors)

1:45 time to walk, sniff things, chat, take pictures

1 very sweaty elderly jogger who looked like he was jogging his last mile

1 swaggering teenager, whose shirt proudly announced he was 'going commando' while his low slung pants clearly and thankfully showed he was not

0 sunbathers

Sunday Snapshot

Yesterday was the 16th Annual Jim "Wheat" Bucheit Memorial Golf Tournament. It's put on every year by my good friend Mark and his friends to honor a friend who died much too young. I didn't know him but I have played in the scramble for a few years now (7, 8 maybe?). I've now got Dad on my team and Mom is usually brave enough to ride along. It's always a great time and infinitely better when not going through chemo, like last year. Also like last year it was rainy but about 30 degrees warmer. But then again, a bad day on the course beats a good day at work any time! Thanks to Mark and his friends for another great event!

Pre-rain, somewhere around hole 3

Dad tees up and apparently I can't hold the camera steady

Dad does a much better job at the camera and I can't say I love my form, this being the first time I've seen myself swing. Oh well!

Later on, Mom is dry and I am very wet but we're still smiling!

Our team this year. We're joined by Mark's mom Jean. I hope she had as much fun as we did having her with us!

With all the fun activities on Saturday, I've got the chore list for today.

I'm finishing my adventure in GarageBand mixing segments of floor music for the gymnastics team. Pretty sure I didn't work as efficiently as if I'd known what I was doing but the CD is burned and hopefully it will help us train for next year's meet season.

I also near the end of the Great Scanning Project, with almost all of the old 35mm negatives scanned and on the computer. Just some sorting left to do and then

BACK UP THE COMPUTER!

(a little PSA for those who have never lost their hard drive in a fiery crash as I have)

Coming up in a few weeks is the North Central District Rose Show and I am sorting through my garden photos to submit entries in the photography section. Maybe I'll win something this year?

Finally I will fill out more entries in my African travel spreadsheets in anticipation of someday making it to Ethiopia to meet my daughter. I'm glad for the rainy weather today so I won't feel like blowing it all off to lounge around outside. Although, that will probably happen too. Riley is low key with a toothache. She gets her third molar extracted on Wednesday and neither of us is looking forward to that.

How do you spend your Sunday?

Happy Memorial Day!

We walked in search of a flag to honor the brave soldiers who make our freedom a reality. Two lakes, no flags. Sheesh. We did find three different pairs of shoes floating in the lake and any number of fashion crimes. My favorite was the undersized bikini with the pack of smokes in the halter strap. Neat. Well, I guess we all celebrate our freedoms in different ways! How did you celebrate the day?

Sunday Snapshot

The garden is coming along nicely! The dahlias are in the front garden, with the roses already in bloom.

The nice folks at Sunnyside helped me pick out plants for the planter by the door. Thank goodness for the gift card I had! Love Sunnyside, just can't afford it normally.The anteater planter gets new pots this year. Someday I'll move it to where you can actually see it's art as well as planter!

Two tomato plants this year, Sun Gold and Pink Caspian. Looking forward to harvest already!The rest of the dahlias, finally in the ground and staked.

The hill is being overtaken by the ground cover. Someday it will be a showcase for hosta. Someday...A few hosta to frame the birdbath and the trellis will have moonflowers, runner beans, cypress vine and sweet peas when I get around to planting the seedlings tomorrow.Riley commenting on the amount of gardening done this weekend...Tomorrow, the shrubs get pruned and the vine seedlings get planted. Oh, and a pedicure to treat myself after all my hard work! :-)

Sunday snapshot

Dahlias are ready! Come and get some!