Computer Cartography

Looks like I'll be teaching at Central this winter. It's a Computer Cartography class to teach more about the elements of designing maps--rather than just GIS analysis. I've come across some pretty amazing maps as I've prepared for the class. This one's pretty interesting when you look at how map projections skew our thought process!

Train Concert Maryhill Winery

Went to the Maryhill Winery to the Train concert last weekend.

Beautiful venue and a great concert.

Thought I'd share just a little of it with you!

YourLUME | A Bucket List of Adventures, Travel and Experiences

YourLUME A Bucket List of Adventures, Travel and Experiences

Just started as a contributing writer to the website YourLume.com. They've picked up 5 of my stories so far. the first one took a long time to write, but I think I'm back in the swing of things! Pretty soon I'm going to run out of stories, so I'll have to start traveling more!

Jana and Jorge's wedding

We were fortunate to be invited to our friends Jana and Jorge's wedding in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. We flew into Cancun on Monday & the wedding was Wednesday evening. A really great wedding full of fun, dancing (salsa lessons) great food and of course a margarita or two!

The beach! My favorite towel animal!

We even managed to get a dive in on Tuesday.

After...............

Here are a couple of "after" pictures of the deck. freshly stained, new steps, built in benches, a new privacy wall and we built in the BBQ and used some extra granite we had. I thought it would be a lot harder to cut the granite, but is was really easy to do!

First whales of the year!

Leaving the island last Sunday we saw the first gray whales of the year! two were travelling together just off the SE point of the island. It was such a beautiful weekend that we decided to sand and stain the deck--yes it is February, but it was 58 degrees! Now its almost done and we can enjoy it. The previous owner had put some sort of diesel/linseed oil concoction on the deck that turned it a really dark brown color. We sanded and stained it with a transparent Mountain gray stain. Next time over we'll do the trim work and install corner benches and a privacy wall. Pretty soon we won't have anything else to do to the house.

It's February float time! Usually when we tell people we are going to float the Yakima at this time of year, we receive some odd looks. The annual Peace and Gourmet float is in its 40th (and unfortunately final) year. This year it was a very mild day and the warmer temperatures made it even more fun. We made our usual sushi--and Mike also made some miso soup to go along
with it this time.



Everything was wonderful. Mike by the espresso maker--and I don't know what Jodi, Luc and Shirley are looking at in the other picture! A little backgournd on the float can be read a this link http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19910109&id=RU8QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=II8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4392,774151..
Needless to say, it was fantastic. I think the lime scallops were my favorite.

Last weekend we took advantage of the snow to head out to Blewett Pass and snowshoe. Hildy and Chloes' first experience with fairly deep snow. We had to stick to a track made by another snowshoer because the dogs kept falling in up to their necks!



Our picnic rock and the dogs hoping for treats

Squirrel!

Afterwards, we went up to Leavenworth for my favorite beer--Blind Pig and to the Cheesemonger's shop.



And our project from last week's island visit. We had old oak glass topped tables, so we stained them dark, made boxes under the galss and are in the process of filling them up with shells.