Photo Booth Fun

Why is mugging for the camera do much fun? I love old time photo booths but they are hard to find, require change one never seems to have or are sadly broken.

Hurrah for apps like Incredibooth that let us make fun funny faces and pose to our hearts content. Last night we were in a mellow mood. The lighting was too low and and my co-model was reluctant at first, but I got a few hugs and kisses out of the deal. All in all not a bad photo shoot.

Summer Reading: Girl in a Landscape

Reading my way through old books I previously started and left unfinished continues. I've been doing pretty well even if a few new ones have slipped in on a whim.

I restarted "Girl in a Landscape" again thinking it was a completely different unfinished book. Same author: Jonathan Lethem, same genre: science fiction, different story. So I was a little startled at first but now I'm settling for what I hope is a good read.

Tiny Harvest

Our garden has suffered two major deer attacks this summer and I have basically given up on seeing anymore tomatoes this year. Sometimes I question the ratio between all the work we put in and what the garden actually produces.

Honestly with all the rain this year the garden has pretty much taken care of itself and I admire the resolve of the sunflowers which keep trying to flower after having their heads bitten off twice. Plants are tenacious.

And sometimes when everything goes right they are productive. Last night my little one harvested our first zucchini. We learned zucchini grow quickly. I was watching this one. The end of last week it was tiny, the size that might be served up on palate of baby vegetables in a restaurant. Last night when we picked it was big enough to serve two. We sliced it and sautéed it with some garlic and enjoyed our tiny harvest. Oh and we photographed it too! Proud gardener's that we were.

Summer Fun: Jumbo Slides and Bouncy Castles

Of course, you can enjoy them any time of the year but they seem to be even more abundant in the summer when festivals fill the week ends. Plus they seem even more fun when you can enjoy them in shorts or a bathing suit.

My nephew had a huge slide brought in for his birthday party this year. After the guests left he and his sister turned it into a water slide with the garden hose. Then the fun really began.

I took the opportunity to capture some photographic evidence of some jumbo slide authentic summer fun.

Summer Fun

I've been thinking about Summer and fun and how during this season it shows up in unexpected and often small ways. Appropriately enough, my daughter brought me home a bracelet that spelled out SUMMER FUN from camp yesterday. I was thrilled. I brought her home a Incredible Me cup caked. She was thrilled. That was summer fun in two small packages.

We don't have anything big planned this summer. A new job means no real vacation days, so I been feeling a lot of pressure to squeeze fun out of the little bit of free time we have.

Pressure and fun are never a good combination, so I'm trying to lighten up. I'm also thinking ahead to winter and an idea is brewing. I'm going to see if we can swing a winter vacation in a warm spot (aka Florida). I've amazingly never been and it is the home of a number of well known princesses. I don't want to jinx it by saying more but I'm hoping we get an extra week of summer this winter.

Favorite Summer Things: Black Eyed Susans

Our Black Eyed Susans rallied after a deer attack earlier this summer (not so our beautiful tomato plants). Now, they are blooming away and cheering us with their simple beauty. If all flowers have a certain character and mood to them, then Black Eyed Susans are straight forward and happy and a perfect reflection of a sunny summer day.

Zombie Fever

I finished World War Z over the holiday weekend. We were all recovering from very bad summer flus. Reading in bed during a beautiful summer day seems like a waste, but we were really wiped out.

At least feeling sickly added to the war torn feeling of the survivors tales I was reading in the book. I enjoyed the structure and feel of the book, although I wish there had been some explanation of what caused the the zombie pandemic. I would have liked at least some mention of attempts to solve the problem scientifically. In the end I was a bit zombied out. I was glad to turn the last page and leave the undead and rejoin the living. All in all zombies make for a good summer read.

Camp Starts

When I told my little one she was going to camp at her school she thought she was going to be sleeping over in a tent. So cute.

I had to explain the idea of day camp. I have to laugh though, at the image of a bunch of little kids pitching tents in the playground, singing around campfires and sleeping over when their houses and parents are just a few blocks away.

Sculpture Studio

I'm amazed what my little one can do with a pack of Play Doh . I don't remember ever being so creative with Play Doh when I was a kid. I just made some stringy shapes and ropey twists with the contraption that came with the Doh.

Maybe I would have gotten to cool sculptures if my mom were not secretly throwing out my Play Doh as quickly as she could. I remember catching her. That's a whole story in itself. Me asking where my Play Doh was. Mom saying I must have misplaced it. Me finding it in the garbage.

I guess I can forgive her now considering that Play Doh can ruin a carpet faster than anything and seems to naturally find its way to the nearest susceptible floor covering.

We are solving for this with a kitchen only rule and dinner plates as a sculpting surface. I have to say I love the stuff my little artist comes up with. I still need to photograph the bowl of corn flakes she made.

Coming Undone

I just finished my second summer read featuring a woman coming undone. Where'd You Go Bernadette almost got tossed aside but I'm glad I persisted. It was another train station buy and as I tried to make my way through the first chapters I was annoyed at first.

Annoyed because it wasn't exactly what I expected, annoyed because my mood was tainted by stress at work. I was turned off by the petty grievances and concerns of a fairly privileged lot of characters living under the Olympic mountains and looming giant Microsoft. Was I supposed to sympathize with their woes about fund raising for their so so private school? No, I was supposed to laugh and as things escalated and started to come undone find sympathy for an imperfect lot. Now I'm glad I hung in long enough to enjoy a memorable mud slide.