June 29th

The wild berries are starting to ripen, but it appears some spiders liked it too.

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June 28th

Was in downtown Petaluma to hear my husband’s drum teacher perform. Across the river is this cool victorian which has had several lives as different restaurants. It reminds me of the Addams Family house, except of course for the beautiful surrounds. I love the hills behind and the clouds. All of our hills are now golden (the reason we are called the Golden State).

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June 27th

Our sago palm is having babies! I love the texture of the heart of the sago palm. I noticed today that it has sprouted babies, which it doesn’t do very often . . . every few years.

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Document Jury Duty-I think I'm going to call this done.

I’ve documented everything that I want to. While it was really important to me and took over a lot of my life, the things I’ve found out from one of the attornies since the trial has been over has seriously damaged my sense of justice and fair play. The judge did not let in several things that, knowing now, would have changed the outcome. The verdict form led the jury to a verdict that they really didn’t want to go to (well a few did, but not the majority). The judge threw in a new verdict form at the last minute without explaining what it meant or how it would be applied. The judge ignored the jury’s determination that there should be no pre-trial interest (one of the very few things everyone on the jury agreed on). I believe the judge had already made up his mind and was going to go his own way. Sixteen people gave 11 weeks of their lives to this try, all of them taking it very seriously and truly trying to do the right thing. We compromised to come to a concensus because we felt that being a hung jury would be worse. No one was completely happy with the verdict but felt we could live with it. When the judge manipulated and ignored the jury, it felt like a betrayal since we were operating in good faith.

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Today I am grateful for:

Finishing several things on my to do list
A lovely home to enjoy
Sunday morning lounging with my husband, dog and bird
Air conditioning when its 100 degrees outside
A week of staycation.

See more progress on: Do a gratitude list on a daily basis

June 26th

New carpet installed today!

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June 25th

Family Profile Portrait

My husband, my dog, and me.

See more progress on: Take a photo a day for 365 days, to document.

June 24th

Tried to catch a doe and two fawns but the camera focused on the screen which gives a very interesting look.

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In progress

Yesterday they tore out the old carpet and installed new baseboard. Today they are installing the carpet. I’m looking forward to having it finished.

See more progress on: get new carpet

June 23rd

I bought some peonies this week. I love these flowers, they are so fluffy and delicate and beautiful. When we lived in Chicago we had three large bushes. They are here for such a short time.

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June 22nd

Ahhh . . .morning glories. My camera does not capture the colors correctly, this is really very purple, but when I color correct it just doesn’t get it right. What I love about these is that it seems like the center is glowing.

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Today I am grateful for . . .

a lovely jazz brunch listening to my husbands drum teacher
making peace with my father before he passed
a week off of work
restorative yoga
creative outlets

See more progress on: Do a gratitude list on a daily basis

June 21st Father's Day

In honor of Father’s Day, my photos are of reminders of my dad, who passed away 10 years ago. The first is of his days in the Navy during WWII. The second is a collage of photos of me and my dad (and a few others) from my life that I put together after he died. And the third photo is of the flag that covered his coffin when he died.

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Hospital by Julie Salomon

True account of life in busy Brooklyn Hospital. Interesting. Mostly the political behind the scenes stories. Not much at all on direct patient care.

See more progress on: Keep track of all the books I read in 2009

June 20th

Today is another flower day.

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June 19th

Travel day from hell. over a 4 hour delay for a one hour flight. These are from the aquarium in the elevator lobby at the Beverly Hilton, where I was staying. The fish in the upper right looks to me like an animated character in a film. I like the bottom one because of the blue, red and yellow fish.

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June 18th

Another typical LA shot—Sony Studios entry. Being a midwest girl I always envisioned that the studios were sitting in the middle of a big corporate campus surround by grass. This is right along an ordinary street, nothing unusual about it. Same for Fox Studios. Disney is a little bit grander though.

See more progress on: Take a photo a day for 365 days, to document.

June 17th

Love this photo of one of the grates that surround street trees. The shadow from the tree and the little leaf make for an interesting composition.

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June 16th

In LA and saw this cute little house on Olympic Blvd. I loved the color and the detail-its is all so neat and sooo 50s LA.

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June 15th

Kona had another seizure this morning which meant a trip to the vet for a blood draw. The vet has two sheep in the front yard. The first is LuLu (I think). The second one is Lulu with Toby in the background (or the other way around since I don’t really know which is which.

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June 14th

Today I was actually able to lasso my husband into letting me take some photos of him while he was playing drums. These are two of my favorite,s but I do have several more. He started playing with a band again after not playing for over 30 years. Little did I know when I married him that I would be a groupie in my 50s. :-)

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June 13th

I was walking down the street after getting my hair done today. It was a long walk back to my car since there was a festival downtown. But the walk yielded several great photos of flowers since there were several front yards full of flowers. There was one home that had this gorgeous rose bush with huge roses (see below). I also found a bee that appeared to be in nectar bliss since it didn’t more a millimeter as I was photographing it.

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June 12th

Fuzz Ball

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June 11th

We’re heading into June Gloom-the fog is coming in at night and it takes a while for it to burn off in the morning. The hills are now turning golden in that the grass is drying. Here the grass had been cut between the freeway and fence while the field still has long grass. Taken during morning commute hour, I like this because of the pattern the cut grass makes going up the hill contrasted with fence and the uncut grass. The fog (i.e. no blue sky) captures a June morning.

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June 10th

Its another flower day for me. A tulip and a flower from a bush which I don’t know what it is.

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June 9th

Only in LA does one find an advertisement for a movie on a tanker trunk.

See more progress on: Take a photo a day for 365 days, to document.

June 8th

The entry monuments at LAX and a plane landing while I was on the 405.

See more progress on: Take a photo a day for 365 days, to document.

Second step

I started to collect my photos and slides that I took when I lived in France during college. I must have over 500 slides and 300 photos. I also found some slides from when I was a toddler that my parents had. I still have a lot more to go through but this is the start. I forgot how many great photos I had and I have not way to look at them (slides in particular)

See more progress on: digitalize all the family photos

First step - research

I’ve researched online companies that will scan and digitize photos and slides. ScanMyPhotos.com is in southern CA and is pretty cost effective for photos. ScanCafe.com is much more reasonable for slides-of which I have many. Now to collect the photos and get them sent out. I also have many family photos that are stuck into albums that I can’t get out so I have to hand scan the pages and then crop, rename and color. I did several for my mom for Christmas but her 90th birthday is in October and I’m trying to figure out what I will for that.

See more progress on: digitalize all the family photos

June 7th Great practice today!

Its been three weeks since the last time I went to yoga. There is a restorative practice every other Sunday. I was in the zone today in that I heard/learned something today that I had’t caught before (tucking in your shoulder blades to open your throat in savasana). I also became very aware that I just don’t like to be in my body. When I start to relax I will have a have moments of anxiety/panic where I don’t feel like I can catch my breathe. I had an eye pillow on and it took everything I had to stay in the pose-but I did. It was a great class today.

See more progress on: Practice yoga regularly

June 7th

I was quite energetic today for some reason and went to the garden center and bought a few plants and herbs to plant. I have two pots on my deck table that I needed something for so I got a fuscia plant and a really interesting coleus. These are of the fuscia-I love the delicate flowers – the purple looks like find folds of cloth. I also love the colors on the varigated coleus leaves.

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June 6th

The other day I was thinking about that time from childhood when I had time to lay under a tree and stare at the sky and clouds. My home is on the side of the hill so when inside its almost like living in a tree house. I was laying on the couch, which is surrounded by windows on three sides, taking a nap today. When I woke up I was staring out the windows at the trees and sky and clouds. It brought me back to that time.

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Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger

Recently started and am enjoying it so far.

See more progress on: Keep track of all the books I read in 2009

June 5th

I like this photo because the colors are all very neutral with the bright red and blue of the pedestrians. This is along the embarcadero in SF with a pedi-cab pedaling by-can you say TOURIST?

These two are “weeds”. They look great now but both are problematic for my dog – Foxtails and Stickythingees

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June 4th

Tulip Heart-

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June 3rd

This house is on 19th Avenue in SF, on my way home from the airport. I like the manicured sculptures bushes contrasted with the trees.

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