I return to the office tomorrow after being out on vacation for the past 12 days.  I’ll have to go in early as I need to take time off tomorrow afternoon to register Sami for high school.   (I’ll really be going during my lunch hour, but will need to take a slightly longer lunch to pick her up and go through the registration process.) 

I’m pretty much caught up on my photo processing, with only a few loose ends to tie up.   Luckily, most of my shots of Mary Wilson (of the Supremes) were usable, right out of the camera.  I had the opportunity to see her perform this last Saturday at the Northwest Art and Air Festival in Albany.  At 63 years of age, she put on one heck of a show!
 

Big day tomorrow…  Better get ready to greet it ‘head-on’.

It’s raining right now.  Beautiful, aromatic, loud, deliciously fierce rain…  I’ve lit eleven large candles in the living room and dining room areas and the lights have been drawn low.  I haven’t built my firewood stash up yet for this upcoming fall, but I do have one of those Duraflame logs in the fireplace, taunting me to light it up.  I love nights like these.   They seem terribly romantic and hopeful- even if I know that I’ll be alone at the end.  (I’m OK with that- it’s the path I’ve chosen for now.  It’s just a bit odd that I still find hope in romance. )

Speaking of hope- I got a good dose of another type this evening.   The good folks at Hewlett Packard apparently held their company picnic event today.  I wouldn’t have known a thing about it (and why should I?) if it had not been for hearing the sound of fireworks being launched a mile or so away from our apartment.  After walking up the street in hope of seeing what was going on, we ran back to the apartment and hopped in the Tucson.  It took approximately eight minutes to get to the parking lot adjacent to HP’s campus.   The show had already been going for about twenty minutes at that point.   We parked and enjoyed the rest of the show, which had to have lasted a good twelve to fifteen minutes more…  The entire lot was full with people who had heard the sounds from their homes and ventured out in the cool evening air to investigate.   I think I speak for all of us present when I say that this show ROCKED!    Thank you to HP for putting on such a wonderful event for their employees and for permitting those of us not in the HP family to enjoy the celebration.  It was truly a wonderful display!

Back to photo processing….    I’ve got most everything transferred to the ‘roomy’ disk so that I can finally burn DVDs for those who are expecting them.  When I recover (financially) from this vacation and start of school, I am definately upgrading my desktop equipment.  I’m not sure how much more I can store out here.   Better get crackin’!

I was listening to Rockline this evening as we drove home from Beaverton.   Tonight’s guest was Tesla.  They happened to mention that they’re playing in Sacramento on Friday night– we just might be there (or nearby) then.   Any of the old gang want to reunite for some good tunes and to dredge up some old (and wild) memories?

Come on, Little Suzi.   If you’re reading this, you know you want to.