A Summer Day = Bliss

I don't know about y'all, but I love me a beautiful summer day in the Pacific Northwest.  Maybe it's just because I only get three of them a year, but the summers up here are just spectacular.  It started off overcast and cloudy, but by 2PM, the sun had come out, and it was in the low 70s, clear, and wonderful.    And, of course, I took advantage…even though I had originally planned on working on my new Open Book Audio website today. 

Ah well.

I started the day by sleeping in, followed by taking Luke for a mini-walk, eating breakfast, and then taking a nap.  (Less than 30 minutes after I woke up, mind you.)

When I finally did wake up, I decided I wanted to go to the Strawberry Festival in Bellevue, so I sent a Tweet out to my (four) friends to see if anyone wanted to go, and I ended up hearing back from my friends Bill & Brit.  They were out and about, so we went to go see what the Strawberry Festival was all about.

In general: it was pretty lame, I have to say.  But, like most festivals, there was food.  I had a big ole bratwurst from a German lady with an awesome accent that I had to try really hard not to imitate.  Then, as is fitting a Strawberry Festival, I got some Strawberry Shortcake.  I've decided that, in general, I don't really like shortcake.  It's like a biscuit someone overbeat, undercooked, and then left out to get stale.  Plus it's not sweet enough.  I prefer my "shortcake" to be made with pound cake or angel food cake.  Or, I'm ashamed to admin, those little cake cups which are basically Twinkies without the filling.

I also bought a full flat of Strawberries, which I would later put to good use.

After the Strawberry yawnfest, we went over to Marymoor dog park to photograph the dogs.  Luke, of course, had to come along, and he managed to enjoy himself mightily.  His favorite trick is to hop out of the water, run over to the nearest person, and do this:

Of course, there's no possible way that he could be expected to actually shake off away from people.  He must to it around others.

After the park, we came back to the apartment (as mentioned in the previous post) to let Luke dive off the dock a little bit.  Can you tell that I have a dog who loves water?

For dinner, I made penne pasta with pesto made from the basil and parsley in my container garden on the patio.  Then, after taking Luke out three times in an hour (he swallows a lot of water when he swims) we curled up on the bed and took one of those epic Saturday naps that can only come when you're worn out from being outside in the sun after not having experienced it for 14 years.  It's the summer version of a Turkey coma.  A Vitamin D Coma, if you will.

A quick trip to the grocery store, and it was time to head back to the strawberries.  I made strawberry "shortcake" with pound cake, strawberry freezer jam (YUM!), strawberry sorbet, and then froze half a flat of strawberries for my daily morning smoothie. 

And, to cap off the perfect day, there was a full moon tonight, and I managed to sneak out to the dock to get some cool photos, a couple of which are HDR photos. 

I may have strawberry farts for the next three days as a direct result of this Saturday, but I don't care.  I'm tired, I'm happy, I'm content, and I'm ready for bed.

It was a perfect day.