Generation Alpha Full Frame Mirrorless

And just like that... August was basically here

Oh my god, August! Yeah, no I disavow any connection to the month. General warmth and tendency towards forest fires aside, August always gets weirdly busy. And while all of the things would be lovely events in isolation, the way that they all pile on relentlessly just kills me. 

Typically I plan "events" in my life with a remarkable amount of preparation and recovery on either end. Any one out-of-schedule event takes a lot out of me, and I usually need a week to really recover if not more. My social month cycle usually involves one or two family outings and maybe one social thing with a personal friend. Or some variation on that. 

In August we have three family visits, one of them lasting a week, all of them back-to-back or overlapping.

 In addition, a few other people will be "in town" for a hot minute and want to meet up. Again, all awesome in isolation. But with zero reprieve on either end. 

Also in the middle of this is Allan's birthday - which takes reverent and grave planning - a few office party type things, some additional play date type things, all colliding into maybe a week of "downtime" before school starts up again. 

Yes, I did omit my birthday. I don't like having my birthday in a month I hate, so I'm moving it to October. Carry on. 

Anyways, hooray for July, which has been remarkably civilized. A few regular playdates, a visit from my mom, a birthday party and ... oh wait, there was that time our neighborhood lit on fire. Several nights in a row. They're still setting off fireworks in the evening to this day!

uuuuuuh

I don't care for summer. The end. 

At any rate, it's less crazy at the moment, so let's just get into it shall we?

I did suggest I might give some updates on the second camera rental. 

The new hotness is a Sony Alpha Somethingorother with a Tamron lens that sees as far as my much bigger Nikon through the magic of... I don't know? Magic? 

It's about 2/3 the weight of my Nikon in its current form. While this isn't exactly light-as-air, it is lighter than a 4 pound weight! And, when something pendulously bobbles from a thin strap around your neck... every pound counts. Two pounds is intrinsically a lot less damage than four. I still find myself holding onto the camera with one hand to keep it from bouncing against my belly button. And it can add up. But still the difference is tangible. The fact that it is a few inches shorter also helps in terms of the bobbling and ergonomics. 

Picture-wise, I think it is about on par with the Nikon. I don't suddenly look ineffably brilliant - and I doubt I'll be getting any amazing hummingbird pictures with either - but it suits my purposes anyways.

 

I still haven't had as much of a chance to check out how it photographs raptors in flight and forget about ever catching swallows in anything but a splotchy blur, but stationary things look about how I would expect. 

I've taken a range of pictures (deleted most) to get a sense of how it functions. Needless to say, it always looks better on the viewfinder than on my computer or phone, but such is the nature of photography.

How many? 

Well. 

 When I went to transfer the photos off the SD Card after a photo walk, there were well over 250 photos!

Yeah...

... no. I actually have maybe taken (and not deleted) about twenty. 

Last Saturday, Allan and I went outside intending to take a walk and then got sucked into gardening instead. It is very cool that Allan actively wants to do "chores" like weeding and watering, so off we went into the yard with the crows to terrorize some willowherb and hawksbeard.  As we got into it, Andrew returned home from a hike, found the camera in a pile of stuff I had set down when it was clear we wouldn't be doing a photo walk, and seems he took off with it to apparently take 1.5 gigabytes of photos. 

After a minor heart attack, I have zipped them up and sent them along. 

He would like to emphasize (unprompted) that he is not trying to steal my hobby.

Honestly, he made the rental so he can go wild. But I still hyperventilated a bit thinking I would actually have to review that many photos.  

That method of rapid-fire photography is admittedly one of the better ways to happen into a few good shots. Unquestionably. The more you take, the better your chances of magic. But I find it incredibly overstimulating and - for me - counterproductive. It often means I can't engage with even looking at my photos, because they all just kind of blur together and I don't ever feel confident that I'm picking "the right one".

 I get overwhelmed when I have more than a few shots of the same scene. I end up hating them all, because each has some way that they're worse than the others, and none quite capture the true amalgam the multiple shots compose. Choice fatigue is real, yo!

Anyhow, it's been nice to have a smaller camera, as it increases the likelihood I would actually want to take it anywhere with me. 

Like on our walks around the pond... Which have been a bit quieter in Birdland of late (somebody sent a lullaby perhaps?)

I think it's just that the birds have all completed their mating shensnigans and the fledglings are screaming a wee bit less for their munchies at their advanced ages, so it's just more business as usual after an upsurge of activity. 

The pond itself is having a moment, though. When I first noticed it had gone from a non-descript slaty color to "bright green" I thought somebody had added food coloring or something. The, um, earthy watery sludge smell tells a different story. 

For a few days, the pond was basically teal, with all the white froth looking a bit like a bridesmaid's tulle. But the waterfall has turned white and frothy again. I think the pond isn't quite as glaringly green. Fingers crossed. 

The crows however are everywhere!!!!

The babies are babes no more. I think they are more like teenagers now. This means their eyes are no longer that glassy blue - more onyx with a smack-dab of sapience - but they still have red mouths and rowdier personalities. Many give off constant raspy caws with extra vocal fry for reasons never specifically clear. They are much bolder now and have retrieved peanuts that we left on the fence posts for them a few times. They also did not fly away when we came into the alley to water some of the plants. They spar a lot like puppies, but seem to generally get along alright. It's kind of amazing watching them all grow up so quickly. 

I'm not entirely sure where their parents have gone off to, although I'm still fairly certain that they have largely chosen to abscond to further reaches of their territories to avoid their very raucous children. Pretty sure the Cemetery was harboring many parental refugees.  

Allan would call this baby a crowrb. Baby actually isn't a baby. You can tell from the darker eyes and black mouth. 

But definitely baby is about ready to molt. Everything is looking a wee bit scruffy. 

Any any rate.

It's a boisterous time out and about... 

From all walks of too-smart-for-their-own-good wildlife. 

Love squirrels... outside... they can stay outside. 

I stopped feeding the squirrels some months ago, after too many started coming around and battling with each other. I never really wanted to feed squirrels as much as the far more timorous crows, but they sure arrived assertively to claim the peanuts. Nowadays, they've largely given up on the free meal, and I can leave some food out for the crows if I see them outside. But I try to be very careful, nonetheless.

Anyways, speaking of "hobbies" - The World Cup is over!!! I feel a bit empty. But what a way to go. Quite a weekend! 

As you can tell, Andrew really enjoyed watching the soccer-football with us

He did rally (about as much as France ever did) after the fifteenth time I started shouting at a close call, and eventually got his phone out to keep himself occupied. Yes, we're a very big soccer household here... 

Allan - having taken her weekend half dose of vyvanse - was extremely energetic for the entire round. C'mon FRANCE, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD!!! And MBAPPE DOESN'T CARE HE GOT THE GOLDEN BOOT!! And so on. 

In fairness, it was kind of a friendly exhibition game with a crazy number of goals because nobody felt like mounting a defense.

 Naturally, a more riveting game like THE FINAL drew a bit more attention!

Bwahahahahaha, ok, yeah he did wake up for the half time show, which I imagine was a very disorienting way to come back to reality!

The halftime show!!! 

(That was weird. Like really weird!)

We started out with some Muppets, which was not necessarily expected but ok. I like muppets. Solid intro. 

Then, I went to grab some lunch and came back in the middle of some kind of music video featuring Madonna looking like she's the human equivalent of a youthening glitter glow instagram filter. This blended into a White Stripes marching band of some sort. Some ode to Norway even though Norway was definitely not in the final, but everyone did get a lot of mileage out of those Haaland memes, so... fair...

The number of lusty fangirls about to start following Man City next season is going to be interesting. (No, I'm not lusty for this child, even though I think he's awesome. He kind of reminds me of my youngest nephew? Anyways, yay Norway! Everyone gets a racoon holding a liquor bottle!)

All this was followed by the Kpop sensations BTK... 

... I have been informed that it's BTS and BTK is a serial killer...

... but seriously we all watched Kpop Demon Hunters and we know that this entire boy band is in fact a bunch of demons attempting to drink up my soul like soda pop (my little soda POP)

Which feels pretty evil. I'm not down for that nonsense, for reals. 

..YOU WILL NOT BREAK THE HONMON ON MY WATCH, BTK!!!!!

Ok, Jinu, (one of them is Jinu, right?) lick my soul, baby... who'm'I kidding? 

Mmmmmmmmm yes, yes ok... 

I'm down on my knees, baby... 

What were we doing in this stadium again?

No wait, Demons were vanquished by... Ted Lasso...? I don't know. I watched like an episode one time and ok anyways he's gone and we have...  

White guy with a guitar... singing kind of a soulful love song maybe? I'm told, it's Justin Bieber?? Last time I saw Biebs was in Zoolander 2, which I thought was pretty funny but what do I know, nobody else in the world did. Anyways, I'm failing to understand what his soulful guitar ballad has to do with anything but ok. 

Ok, ok, Shakira seems fair given she's been to like almost ever World Cup game I've seen. 

And let's wrap that up with Miss Piggy and some kids?? Alright we did that!

... whew

I don't really watch the Superbowl stuff, so this was a novel experience. It didn't really have anything to do with soccer and was kind of distracting, but honestly it didn't seem to do much bad for the players except make the Argentine players a fair bit more violent! I'm not saying they aren't always pretty rough, but once you get a yellow card you back the fuck off, boys! You spread those fouls out, luvs! I don't know what that red card nonsense was, but that was just poor planning. 

I was, incidentally, disappointed that they hadn't reserved a second show for the overtime halftime show. Not that a bunch of overheated players running through the sprinklers wasn't awesome. 

At any rate, Andrew did manage to stay awake for the second half by playing some game on his phone, and I think he actually even put the phone down for the last half of overtime. 

Still, I think if I don't want him to "steal my thing," probably I've found the right thing to keep to myself for all time! Unless he can find some way to photograph it, in which case, all bets are probably off. 

***

But yes, back to the camera. I was about 96% ready to embrace the mirrorless Sony (and I still think it might be the right camera for me) but then I saw this online video about a bridge camera that can digitally zoom to about 3000mm and that's a hell of a parlor trick. So that was... enticing. It turns out that this particular bridge camera can struggle with low light situations (which is the default light around here much of the year) but there is a wide world of bridge cameras, including one that is lighter than the Sony (barely) and zooms out about twice as much. 

So, the quest and its question continue. I absolutely forget what it is but it's out for delivery so let the shenanigans begin. On Monday because the UPS guy came when I was in the shower. 

Seems I'll have one week to play around with it before August explodes in my face and I lapse into some kind of overstimulated coma! Happy happy joy joy everyone!

Olympus Odyssey: Not the Nolan version

Counting one's mercies. Well, a week further away from the 4th of July shenanigans has not been fully bereft of warzone explosives, but an improvement. Despite the rather dire situation in Eastern Washington and most of Canada, I can say that we are not on fire... so far... it's early in the summer... 

I mean, not literally. Artistically, oh baby, I'm on FIIIIIRE!

As my birthday tentatively looms, Andrew has undertaken to find me an even-more-betterer camera set. My current camera - a Nikon DSLR from the beforetimes - is heavy enough to do a number on my already twisted and miserable back. Which is weird, because the whole set up is a smidge less than 4 pounds, but then again, you try wearing a 4 pound weight around your neck (along with your usual several pound purse and your very light binoculars). It's more awkward than you think! And it's enough that I've stopped taking it on walks every day, opting instead for every few days or any novel excursions. 

This, of course, cannot stand. Also, when I got into photography (ok, bought a camera so I could go to a photo walk in the hopes of maybe having a sense of identity outside of  disabled mother-and-wife) and then he got super obsessed with photography shortly after, I might have sulkily accused him of "stealing my thing" a few times, so he may feel obligated to make sure I have a nice set up before he inevitably buys a few million cameras, some fancy lights, a subscription to Lightroom and whatever else gear is essential to go full photog hereabout. But, really, I think he just loves gear and loves matching it up just right with the right person! It is offensive for somebody to miss out on an activity due to their lack of appropriate equipment. 

And it would be seriously cool to have a camera, so I ain't complaining!

Rabbit hole unlocked.

Discernment begins. 

My personal process with any equipment is the following:

 1. Attempt to research what I should get. Get overwhelmed by all the specs and different features. Crash out. Buy something fairly at random with a sincere feeling of dread.

2. Feel panic when I receive said item. If I get it out of the box within the first week or so, we're all good. If I don't, then it sits in the box for several years until I forget it exists or give it away in a cleaning binge.

3. Assuming it made it out of the box, start using it a week or two later after several pep talks. 

4. Learn how to use it better by repeatedly getting frustrated when something doesn't do what I want and figuring out how to address the frustrating thing. Become attached as we reach a detente on frustrating things and gradual tweaks. 

5. Enjoy until I drop it enough to break it or possibly just lose it somewhere. If it's just a little broken, keep using it in its newer quirkier form. Keep dropping it until it's fully non-functional. 

6. Rinse. Repeat. 

7. Or start to do all that, get interrupted by a gearhead who knows in his soul that there is in fact a perfect tool for every user and by god it is his destiny to find it! Step back and try not to panic as the magic happens. We are working on #7. 

This camera process is a little more involved. Mostly in terms of Andrew telling me lots of things that sound like words when he says them but seem to go off fizzing off into the ether once I try to wrap them into any semblance of syntax. We get it down to like "big zoom good" "heavy bad" and then I can waltz with it, but there's always some processing involved (har har). What can I say? I go almost entirely by feel on pretty much all aspects of the camera, so it's a little hard to revert back to the technical underpinnings of the dials and buttons I pushed to get to whatever photo I wanted. 

 I think in the end he will probably propose the perfect camera with a pristine presentation mostly in Excel but I'm not ruling out PowerPoint and I'll be like "wow!"

That said, I am participating a decent bit more than average: the process so far has also involved fancy camera rental. 

First off: awesome you can rent cameras (though I'm terrified of breaking a rental). Second off. Yeah fancy camera!

Olympus Om cameras are super chic for birders. I think there was a lot more to the research experience beyond my "I saw a couple of targeted ads on Facebook" but I do know that much from my targeted Facebook ads. 

Turns out the fancy rental camera wasn't particularly lighter than my current (discovering this allowed Andrew to spend roughly the rest of the week obsessing over different camera builds in grams across a rainbow of different set-ups - expect his new guidebook SKINNY CAMERA! to be published in May), but it was definitely fancier.

 My Nikon is a DSLR that's 10 years young and comfortably used at this point. I bought this used because cameras are freaking expensive, I was literally buying this so I wouldn't look weird going on a "photo walk" I impulsively signed up for to get myself out of the house, and my hobbies have been known to (1) never actually take off, and (2) only last a few months if they do take off.

 Had I not spun myself up about birdies, this was a very likely trajectory. But here we are. It's been a good little steed, other than the scorching back pain and whatnot. It is also definitely a bit simple compared to more modern cameras. Probably a good thing in the great scheme of my learning process. 

 The Om is far more recent, mirrorless and much smarter than me. To a fault, at times, because I kept accidentally changing up settings (I'm not even sure how as it seemed to happen, while I was walking or possibly fidgeting with it) until it took full scale abstract art photography as the default.

 That said, it did have some very cool features. Including a very fast lens speed (8000) and the ability to take a crapton of photos very very quickly. Oh and a "bird mode" subject detection autofocus. Not entirely sure how important this was, but it did seem to correctly identify the general location of many birds and put little focus squares around some of their eyes. 

Whatever it did or didn't do, I'm really pleased with this picture of a female Anna's hummingbird it helped me get.

In a perfect world, I would like the lighting to be a bit different, but still... the camera caught the wings and I love it. 

I'm not sure I'll ever capture a picture quite like this again and I'm really grateful to have had the opportunity. 

Still, it was not a huge improvement in back-breakingosity, and it was - again - far too clever for me. The quest continues. Andrew needless to say, has several more pages of notes based on research following this experience. I will have the trimmest, fittest, zoomiest fastest damned camera in the world! Within reason!

Olympus did get one last hurrah before the return. On Sunday (Sunday having absolutely zero World Cup Games, because life is cruel like that and seriously we had to wait until Tuesday???) we went to Seahurst Park to check out low tide.

The environmental center does kind of an informal event most weekends of the summer, in which naturalists from the center hang around the beach and answer questions. It seemed like something we all would enjoy in our various ways. Allan by cavorting around investigating everything with her poking stick, Andrew by wandering about and taking pictures with his Sony camera, and me having a really nice hour and change of wandering around before starting to feel faint and achy and muttering about needing to go home soon for the next hour and a half without any particular conviction because it's nice to see Allan enjoying the world. This is how I party. 

We did not necessarily have many questions (I didn't anyways), but we did think it would be fun to go at low tide. At the very least, there were definitely going to be (sea)gulls. 

And of course, crows

Not a particularly awesome picture, photo-wise (I hit some random buttons on the fancy camera that rendered it partially unusable quickly enough to confound myself), but I just really love a good wingspread. I like bird wings, I dunno! Crows are so high-fash! Like who wouldn't want a cape that drapes like that?

There were also several geoducks, to Allan's delight. Miles of various seaweeds to slip and break one's neck on. Pebbles to help break your fall. Tons of little rivers and tide pools to slog through. And the general tide pool ambience. So. Many. Things. To. Poke!!!

Seahurst is a really cool park. I don't go there much, and largely just to meet people who are staying in Burien or thereabouts. But it has some fond memories and some cool landscapes. I heard a lot of birds in the woods as we walked into the park, and the trees were pretty cool. 

Wearing sneakers the entire time was a choice, since there is no way to go tidepooling without splashing through plenty of water. But I just don't have any actually waterproof boots, so wet socks it was! Best part about all that was changing into dry socks a little while later. Highly recommended. Super indulgent!

Anyways, it was a fun camera adventure until I fidgeted my way into a fairly inoperable camera and had to make do with my cellphone again. This was a bit of a repeated theme with the Om, and I do not blame it for being a little too clever for me. 

The Om has gone home, but the Odyssey continues. Next up: Sirens! Or Samsung. Or no, Sony I honestly get them all confused. No really, Sony! Something Sibilant.

The next rental came in the mail on Wednesday and it is 1.1 Kilos versus my current camera's 1.6 or 1.7 ( I can't totally remember because kilos are nonsense units to me). But it is markedly lighter. Stay tuned for my impressions on this... if I decide to share them... which I probably will, but you just never know!

While we wait... life!

Not to be daunted by a single beach, Allan and I returned to Puget Sound's edge for a playdate - hers, mostly, but I suppose I did participate in the frisbee toss and general wading. 

Yes, I had my cell phone camera hereabouts. It takes better pictures than most cameras I have owned, but now I'm spoiled enough to really notice all the deficits

The beach was exhausting, although not nearly as exhausting as yet another round of evening fireworks on the 13th and 14th. I guess some of our neighbors observe Bastille Day?? Be so for real. Serves France right that Spain beat their asses on their special day. 

Yes, yes they did! Oh my gawd, the World Cup is shaping up nicely. First Spain just trounced France and then Argentina did its heart stopping "rally from behind" to take England. I honestly don't care how the places go over the weekend, I'm just pumped to watch the games!

I've been watching with my mom and sister this year (via text - we're all pretty far apart), which has been quite nice. Usually it's a hard sell to get anyone to watch with me. Although Allan is moderately interested, as long as she can use her phone or kindle to fill in the gaps between excited announcer screaming! She also maxes out at a game per day, so I've been selecting one a day and watching the rest on the laptop. 

And, so, with that, I bid you all adieu. There may be a hike this morning. There definitely will be foot-soccer-ball. And - if I'm lucky - I will not break the hot new Sony and its fancy new lens. 

Going Forth From the Fourth!

Survived!

 Thank goodness, we're through the inferno and into the regular smoke season (currently clear, but the wildfires on the other side of the Cascades are piling up so... we'll see)!

We celebrated the 4th by heavily watering our lawn (or really, by me asking Andrew to after I forgot about it and had gone to bed) and removing ourselves to our individual bunkers for a night full of room shattering BOOOOOOOMS that stretched well into the early morning. I'm glad we did water the lawn, because not everywhere on our street fared as well... 

Andrew and several other neighbors ran out to put out this curbside fire, one that luckily happened while people were still relatively awake. 

Oh yes, this happened on almost the same street corner where somebody got shot two weeks ago at 2 a.m.. So, yeah, feeling like city living is really working out awesome!

Oh we're not done, though: the next night, the same wild barrage of BOOOOMS went off all night and Allan and I got to watch another neighbor put out another fire in the median just a half block down from the previous one. This was large bonfire level. The neighbor from the corner made several runs with a bucket until the fire was put out. The fire trucks eventualy showed up to see the rubble, checked some stuff and then left. Luckily it did not spread to the rest of the median, which has foliage that plenty of birds and wildlife use as home. Though it definitely would've looked pretty badass to have that entire corridor in flames... missed opportunities #nextyear

I am so fucking over it. In addition to all the casual arson, the neighborhood was basically just a war zone for about three days afterwards. Apparently, this anarchy was in full force all about, as fires about tripled that evening and hospital admissions were (naturally) up by at least as much. 

It's been bad before, but this year was exceptional (all around West Seattle and White Center from what I'm hearing). I'm so tired of fireworks. It is absurd to me that they are legal and so popular. They are dangerous, loud, and fuck up the environment, and yet every year assholes go out and start fires because it's their god given right as Americans (to ignore local ordinances because the police never bother to enforce the ban).

I propose a new fire brigade be formed for the first two weeks of July. It will consist of concerned citizens carrying fire hoses and if they see somebody setting off fireworks, they and all their fireworks get shot with a fucking fire hose. Because this be bullshit, my brothers and sister in Christmas. 

Not super thrilled with people right now. 

 But luckily our yard still looks lovely. 

Andrew likes to talk about the dream he had when we moved into this house. One in which we would sit idly in our beautiful yard and eat BBQ on our little patio. 

This never came to fruition. I don't really eat much BBQ, being outdoors to eat usually means an allergy attack, and the front of the house usually gets pretty warm for sitting. The outdoor patio table has been mostly repurposed as a "squirrel and bird overflow feeding" platform, and the chairs kind of hang out by the door in the shade. 

The backyard is an even less palatable candidate for lolling shenanigans, largely because it directly faces an alley that often is piled with trash. But also because the afternoon sun is exceptionally scorching during the summer months. Oh, add to this that Allan - until late - has considered herself an "indoor child" and my strong aversion to grass for multiple reasons. 

But recently, the dream has come true a bit more. In a bit of a different way. 

Last year, I decided that pigeons were cool and I wanted to read some things about them. This evolved into learning about CORVIDS and we never turned back from there. 

 After a few months of befriending the local crows, Allan and I attempted to bring some to our yard, by leaving out peanuts. This did not really appeal to the crows immediately enough. Eventually the squirrels figured it out and the crows did not want to fight with them. 

But feeding one kind of bird is - of course - a gateway drug. 

Shortly after that, we got out first feeder! And that has changed a bit of everything. 

Allan and I went full scale on the ornithology spin, and our yard became a sanctuary for local flora and fauna. 

And suddenly, it's become a whole lot more interesting all around. Albeit in a little bit different way. 

Much of the appreciation comes from looking out various windows at the bird shenanigans. 

But multiple days of heavy yardwork has manifested an expected excitement about the yard itself and all the plants and pollinators we've yielded. 

The indoor child not only wants to go on regular "bae walks" (to visit the crows and every other bird out and about), but she also enjoys hanging out in the backyard. While we don't have adequate seating exactly, the retaining wall between our property and the neighbor's yard is comfortably in a bit of shade and relatively decent to sit on. 

Not gonna lie, my allergies are going bonkers from all the time outside, but at least it's pretty. 

We've had opportunity to share, even. 

Not so funny story. Last year my mom was diagnosed with Stage One oral cancer. They rushed her into surgery and followed it up with a grueling round of radiation therapy (does not sound fun, would not recommend for kicks). She survived with some lingering side effects like dry mouth and some awkwardness with eating. Worth it, but a bit of an ordeal. 

This year, her partner David was diagnosed the same cancer. Or sort of. It's a bit more mysterious. They found a single cell carcinoma on his lymph node. Apparently, the cancer can't just start there, so the primary is somewhere else. But just like Waldo, it's been tricky to locate. After two CTs and a PET scan, plus a variety of other physical exams, nobody could figure out where the original cancer is! There is a small chance that the body actually just dealt with it. I guess that happens, but obviously everyone wants to be sure. 

They were both HPV negative on initial testing, so it was a real mystery how they would both end up with the same cancer, especially given my mom has none of the other risk factors. It sounds like there are HPV viruses that don't get tested for, because they're rare and this apparently was the factor. Maybe

So this week he went in for some kind of robotic surgery to find the damned thing.

My mom waited in a waiting room for about six or seven hours, getting the occasional "yep still in surgery" updates over a few hours. He survived. The doctor had moved on to the next patient. And all she knew as of last night was that they'd removed both of his tonsils and things looked fine. 

He was not in a particularly sociable mood after waking up, so she was given the all clear to come out our way and spend the first Gramma Pam afternoon with us at our house since before her surgery! 

Which is of course mixed because the reason she's down here kind of sucks, but it was nice to spend some time together under any circumstances. 

We spent a lot of time out in the yard, with Allan proudly showing off every last leaf and bug. Then we watched the world cup. 

Today, hopefully, there will be a more substantive update, but no promises in the medical field. 

And, for me? 

More world cup! But also, just reveling in the heightened expectation that i might actually be able to go to bed without the room being bombed (instead Allan will just come in with an armful of books and tell me about the bunnies she's reading about until 2 a.m. but at least that's more peaceful overall!)