It turns out that I have been too busy to write for the past week or so. It is amazing how easily time fills up when one is not working. The difference is that these days, I am actually having fun.
Last Saturday, my hubby, our 11-year old and I went raspberry-picking, and ended up with 11 pounds of raspberries that I turned into jam, a pie, several tarts, and two pints of ice cream. Yum!
On Sunday, we dropped our 16-year old off at camp, and went for a lovely walk at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. Much of the boardwalk has been closed in order to break the dam and restore the wetlands to their original state, creating a somewhat surreal landscape of dead trees standing in water. Nonetheless, it was lovely. We saw an osprey diving into the water right in front of us and catch a fish, two eagles sitting on poles above the water, and many smaller wetlands birds. We were scoping out the area for a possible kayaking trip, but did not find a good spot to put in.
On Monday evening, the Seattle Symphony Chorale (including yours truly) held one of its four Summer Sings, our biggest fundraiser. Karen Thomas conducted Mozart's Mass in b minor, which was a lot of fun. There are two more Summer Sings coming up, on July 30 and August 6, both at the Swedish Cultural Center. Check out "www.seattlesymphonychorale.org" for more information, and come join us!
On Tuesday, I took hubby out for a lovely birthday dinner at Lola, to regain some of the calories I burned earlier in the day at my favorite yoga studio, Tree House Iyengar Yoga in Shoreline. Before dinner, we stopped at our neighborhood pub, where hubby was handed a birthday "boot", a 2-pint glass of beer on the house. Plus he received several round tuits. (Get it?)
I am currently enrolled in a mediation class with the Bellevue Neighborhood Mediation Program, where I also volunteer once a week. Four hours on Wednesday night were mainly review, but I was finally able to visualize the difference between the "narrow evaluative" mediations (mediator conducts shuttle diplomacy, walks into the room, and tries to get you to buy into his valuation in order to reach a purely distributive settlement) in which I have participated countless times in insurance defense litigation, and the "broad facilitative" model (mediator facilitates a conversation in joint session, encouraging parties to come up with their own solutions) that we use at the DRC. The 8-hour class on Friday involved role playing opening statements and agenda setting, the latter of which is a bit trickier than one would think.
We went kayaking yesterday, starting at a new spot and exploring a part of our river that hubby had not seen before. I am looking forward to picking lots of blackberries from the kayak in a few weeks! In the meantime, I have been thinking about getting backyard chickens for several years now. The kids are old enough to have outgrown their play structure, so we decided to use the lumber to build 1) an arbor around the patio, including the old swing, and 2) a chicken coop. Hubby left for a 4-day conference today, so I will be having fun drawing up plans for the coop and a portable run and researching chicken breeds. But right now, I am off to the Farmer's Market to buy someone else's eggs and some delicious free-range beef.
Last Saturday, my hubby, our 11-year old and I went raspberry-picking, and ended up with 11 pounds of raspberries that I turned into jam, a pie, several tarts, and two pints of ice cream. Yum!
On Sunday, we dropped our 16-year old off at camp, and went for a lovely walk at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. Much of the boardwalk has been closed in order to break the dam and restore the wetlands to their original state, creating a somewhat surreal landscape of dead trees standing in water. Nonetheless, it was lovely. We saw an osprey diving into the water right in front of us and catch a fish, two eagles sitting on poles above the water, and many smaller wetlands birds. We were scoping out the area for a possible kayaking trip, but did not find a good spot to put in.
On Monday evening, the Seattle Symphony Chorale (including yours truly) held one of its four Summer Sings, our biggest fundraiser. Karen Thomas conducted Mozart's Mass in b minor, which was a lot of fun. There are two more Summer Sings coming up, on July 30 and August 6, both at the Swedish Cultural Center. Check out "www.seattlesymphonychorale.org" for more information, and come join us!
On Tuesday, I took hubby out for a lovely birthday dinner at Lola, to regain some of the calories I burned earlier in the day at my favorite yoga studio, Tree House Iyengar Yoga in Shoreline. Before dinner, we stopped at our neighborhood pub, where hubby was handed a birthday "boot", a 2-pint glass of beer on the house. Plus he received several round tuits. (Get it?)
I am currently enrolled in a mediation class with the Bellevue Neighborhood Mediation Program, where I also volunteer once a week. Four hours on Wednesday night were mainly review, but I was finally able to visualize the difference between the "narrow evaluative" mediations (mediator conducts shuttle diplomacy, walks into the room, and tries to get you to buy into his valuation in order to reach a purely distributive settlement) in which I have participated countless times in insurance defense litigation, and the "broad facilitative" model (mediator facilitates a conversation in joint session, encouraging parties to come up with their own solutions) that we use at the DRC. The 8-hour class on Friday involved role playing opening statements and agenda setting, the latter of which is a bit trickier than one would think.
We went kayaking yesterday, starting at a new spot and exploring a part of our river that hubby had not seen before. I am looking forward to picking lots of blackberries from the kayak in a few weeks! In the meantime, I have been thinking about getting backyard chickens for several years now. The kids are old enough to have outgrown their play structure, so we decided to use the lumber to build 1) an arbor around the patio, including the old swing, and 2) a chicken coop. Hubby left for a 4-day conference today, so I will be having fun drawing up plans for the coop and a portable run and researching chicken breeds. But right now, I am off to the Farmer's Market to buy someone else's eggs and some delicious free-range beef.
