not quite a month....

since i've updated, so see, i am updating more often =) the jazz festival was amazing, as always. i think i am addicted to annual events. the jazz festival, burning man, artown, birthdays, annual celebrations of all the things that are important to us. each one seems to encapsulate a point in time, an event, a time in the history of this life. i always feel introspective about my birthday, can you tell?!? Just for random happy imaging, here's a photo from the latest fashion show:

i will be 42 in about a week and a half. my good friend lauren introduced me to this show that appears on showtime called "this american life". if you haven't seen this blog, it's totally worth it to check it out. it's introspective too. as the weather gets warmer, things start to speed up around here. this weekend, we go camping over night to a fire gathering with a bunch of groovy fire bugs i am friends with. before that i get to go to the university commencement ceremonies. my son's ex-girlfriend, still friend and his best friend from high school, calen, are graduating. i am proud of them, think if my son in afghanistan and am a tad sad, but my son tells me he's happy, so i deal with that my sadness that he's taking part in the war. in other big news concerning my life, my husband was non-retained in the national guard. after 22 years, he won't be serving his country anymore, thankyouverymuch. this is going to be a huge transition for him. i was very worried about him at first, but he is doing better these days. the same week dan found out that he was going to be retired from the national guard, we had to put our dog to sleep. mog was an awesome dog, but he was suffering. his back legs weren't working so good anymore, and i will always wonder if those strange lumps he had were cancer. he seemed happy until almost the end. this photo was taken the night before we put mog to sleep:

it's a dark picture, which i think is appropriate. i hadn't cried over him in awhile until just now =) mog was one of a kind and he will never be replaced.

now we have a bird. his name is fred:

Fred's a pretty goofy chicken. we heart him already. he was hand raised; and he's a cockatiel. we are already very attached to him. that's all i have for right now. upcoming activities:

• tonight i am going to get my bike tuned up and see how to work on it.
• this weekend is the fire thing i am excited about and unr graduation
• also working on a yard overhaul at the house, more documentation to come...
• end of may, black rock rendezvous, more camping on the black rock desert and testing camping with the fred, should be entertaining
• fire festival is just over two months away. yeeee haw