We have several trips coming up… a few this summer for family things and then one trip to South America and two trips to Europe this fall. I have a LOT of planning to do!

Thank goodness for Tripit.com so I can keep all the travel information in one place. As an aside, it looks like combined we have traveled 88,681 miles since October 2007. Wow.

Before heading over to Barb and Jon’s wedding on Saturday afternoon, we spent the morning at the Woodland Park Rose Garden and Gas Works Park, then walked around Belltown and enjoyed a pint at The Blarney Stone.

More photos from our trip are on Flickr.

Riesling has been healing amazingly well and it’s becoming much harder (thankfully) to see her scars. We’ve come a long way from 60 staples, exploratory surgery and one broken rib, back to a healthy and active pup.

Thank God.

I have been taking periodic photos and it’s obvious how well she has healed in the five short weeks since mid-May.

on May 24, 6 days after the attack

on June 2, 15 days after the attack

this evening, June 23, 36 days after the attack

She just came back from a short stint at Camp Bow Wow and everything went just fine. We’ll probably head back to the dog park sometime this week to see how she handles other dogs around us.  I imagine it will be a harder adjustment for me than for her.

We’re in Seattle this weekend, and as usual here, enjoying it. Friday we caught up with some friends we haven’t seen in several years, and got to meet their now-three year old daughter for the first time. Playing with her stuffed animals was quite fun…

Saturday we visited the  Woodland Park rose garden, Gas Works Park, and downtown  Seattle:

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Our closets are looking a whole lot roomier after a good spring cleaning… these items will be picked up by the VVA sometime today.

I spent the morning at Urban Ministries in Durham weeding their outdoor family area while Eric picked up a bunch of new plants, fruits and sunflowers at the farmer’s market in Raleigh. As soon as I got home, I was put to work helping Eric clean all the windows in the house, both indoor and out.

Now Eric is planting and I am trying to do laundry…

… if only a certain someone would move.

Several weeks ago I had a paper from my UNC days accepted to PLOS Genetics… today it was officially released online: “Systematic Identification of Balanced Transposition Polymorphisms in Saccharomyces cerevisiae“.

Careful, don’t read it all at once :)

We have been wanting to replace the old light fixture in the kitchen with a ceiling fan for awhile now, but other projects took priority, you know, like three bathrooms worth of wallpaper removal.

Three visits to Lowe’s in the last several weeks and we couldn’t agree on a ceiling fan we both liked, so after church today, we wandered by the lighting department to see if anything looked good.

We picked up a 42″ 3-blade modern-ish fan with a light kit included and were pleasantly surprised to get a rebate receipt when we checked out. Because we bought this fan on this visit, we got a $20 gift card rebate. Score!

See how procrastination can sometimes pay off?  :)

old light - not our style (a swag chain, really?) and doesn’t cool the room effectively

new fan - lights the room and creates much needed air movement

No worries about the fan blades not matching the other wood color because one of our next projects is going to be refacing the kitchen cabinets!

One of my favorite online reads is Maggie Mason’s “Mighty Girl” blog since it’s always chock full of style and great quips. Recently, she highlighted a friend’s closet for the new feature called Mighty Closet. Her friend wears dresses as often as possible and this inspired me to do a little extra shopping while at Target yesterday.

I found this great black dress in my size for a mere $25. It’s longer on me than the model (side effect of being 5′2″), but is still super cute, flattering and very comfortable. My resolution to wear dresses more often is looking easier and easier!