June skies

June 8 - interesting clouds

June 12 - hard afternoon rain but we needed it

June 13 - beautiful blue, not a cloud in the sky

June 18 - cloudy sunset after heavy overnight rains.

June 19 - over Irving School at sunset

June 22 - B's b-day and an almost-full moon.

Finally - a buffet

After giving up on Macy's after they delivered a damaged buffet twice, we ordered from Wayfair. It was supposed to be delivered Monday, June 28, then delivery was switched to Wednesday, July 1, but FedEx dropped it off Friday, June 25, when Andy was out of town, of course. B and I managed to move it from the front porch to the living room. It's 100 pounds and bulky. Muffles loved the box.

It took Andy and I a good two hours to put it together.

Success! I'll start moving some of my entertaining dishes soon. I've also ordered cling frosted film to put on the glass panes. That was E's suggestion so we'll see how it looks.

Updated to add - The frosted film arrived and we installed it. Pretty easy and we think it looks ok. And if we get tired of it we can just peel it off.

Church news

B has taken on the job of setting up for the church's weekly donut operation. He goes in every Friday night to prepare for the Saturday donut-making and returns Saturday afternoon to clean up. While he was there they talked him into being on video for Sunday's "passing of the peace" during the online worship.

And I volunteered yesterday afternoon tomhelpmwith the first day of Vacation Bible School. It was a surfing theme so I took pictures of each kid on a real surfboard found by our organist's son in his alley.

Morning walks

Andy sent these pictures from his morning walk. They were taken from Marymoor Park in Redmond.

The moon was still out.

The picture of my morning walk was a fallen tree limb on Cuyler. We had heavy rain, flooding and tornado warnings yesterday but this was the only damage I saw. We fared better than a usual thunderstorm.

Saturday golf

Andy and E golfed today at Chambers Bay, site of the 2015 US Open. When I asked him who won he said Jordan Spieth. Spieth won the Open but I meant who won between him and E. He said they didn't really tally the scores but he thinks he won this one. It was hot though and it was a walking-only course.

June flowers

The daisies behind the garage are blooming!

As are the tiger lilies. I recently learned that some people call these day lilies or ditch lilies. Who knew?

These are what I call our day lilies.

Friday with E

Andy was up early this morning taking his walk. He sent this picture of the moon.

The moon and the sunrise. He also noticed how little traffic there was.

Then he sent this one that he thought was a better sunrise picture. It's so pretty out there.

And, of course, Mount Rainier. Being from the Midwest I think it's impossible not to take pictures of mountains when you see them.

View of Mount Rainier from the golf course. Andy said it's a pleasant day.

She beat him by one stroke.

Andy, E and D took a three-mile afternoon walk and had to cool off with beers and hard cider (for E). Seattle is expected to experience a heat wave this weekend with temps over 100. Very unusual for the area. Good thing E and D moved into an apartment with air-conditioning. It's not too common out there.

Hide and seek

Muffles was hiding behind my plants ...

and I saw the tip of August's tail sticking out of L's coats on the back porch. When I called his name, he poked his head out,

Visiting E

Andy landed in Seattle tonight for a weekend of daddy/daughter golfing. He had to wait for about a half-hour at the airport since E got stuck in traffic.

Aw! She looks so happy to have her dad there.

Andy admits he's not good at selfies. This certainly proves it.

View from E's rooftop - Mount Rainier.

Hoping for tomatoes

These are my two cherry tomato plants ...

and their tomatoes are growing! Hope they can ripen before animals get to them.

These are the three plants I got from a neighbor.I probably shouldn't have out all three in one conatiner but I wasn't sure they'd grow. They are! They're huge and saw tomatoes starting to grow on one of them.

The container on the right has two tomatoes, a Big Boy and a patio plant. On the left is another freebie tomato I picked ip on my morning walk. It was sitting in a box with a "free" sign. My fingers are crossed that I get to enjoy some homegrown tomatoes this summer.

B-day dinner

B took days to decide but announced this afternoon that he'd like to have his birthday dinner at Salerno's. Here he is with the (huge) veal parmigiana. We all brought home leftovers.

Lots of cherries

The cherry tree at the local school,is full of fruit and neighbors were encouraged to pick some cherries before the birds eat them all. L and I went over the other night and picked about a cup.

I made a cherry cheese coffee cake. I always look for them in the grocery store but they never seem to have cherry and cheese. My drizzling technique needs some work. Andy limits his sweets but said it was tasty.

It turned out great for my first time using fresh cherries and my first time making a coffee cake. Kind of labor-intensive though.

B’s golden b-day

Today is B's golden birthday - turning 22 on the 22nd! I made brownies which he prefers over cake.

He blew out the candles, posed for pictures, ate a brownie and went back to studying.

New grocery store

We stopped by an Amazon Fresh grocery store the other day. When you place an item in your cart, you're shown the price and it keeps a running total. It also points out sale items for the section of the store you're in. Everything got charged to my Amazon Visa and we walked right out, no cashier needed, and the receipt was emailed to me. We think they're putting one of these stores near us. We'll see. We liked it.

Staining the stairs

Andy and I started staining the stairs Saturday afternoon. This was our progress on the first day.

Sunday morning (Father's Day!) Andy was out there at 6 a.m. fininshing up.

He took his coffee out with him thinking he'd be drinking it as he worked, but he left it at the top of the stairs with no way to reach it. Nice, peaceful morning.

Pretty much done. We'll need to do some touch-ups but this is close to finished.

Father’s Day

Andy woke up to a nice gift from the kids - a "Best Disney Dad" magic band he can use on our Disney trips. The golf ball on the card looks like a Titleist, which Andy uses, but it says Father. Even E "signed" the card. I asked him how they did that and Andy thought they did it through the mail. B fessed up (to me) that L signed it for her. L is scarily good at forgery.

Allison dropped off this charcuterie box "just because" while Andy was at the driving range this morning. He came home and immediately starting snacking on it. Had to have him put it away so he wouldn't eat it all. It's full of goodies - nuts, pickles, crackers, cheese, fruit, salami, etc.

Of course, our annual picture of Andy with the kids.

And E Facetimed us to wish him a Happy Father's Day. He's flying out next weekend to see her and play some golf.