Smashed Finger

A couple months ago, I smashed my left forefinger in the door. Naturally it got ugly. So we're hoping that the blister will grow out and be gone before my wedding so that it won't be in the photos. At first it looked like it would take forever and ever to go away, but now it's looking like it just might be gone in time. It makes significant visible progress every week. The top picture shows how it looked on Saturday evening. I had been able to squeeze a lot of the blood out already. The bottom picture shows how it looked after a soak in hydrogen peroxide this morning. A lot lighter, but a little uglier.
What we learn from this experience is that if you are tempted to smash your finger in a door, you should first stop and think about whether you're going to be getting married soon. If you are, it's better to wait until after the wedding pictures to smash your finger.

Friend at Church

One advantage of our trip to California was that Tamara saw a lot of friends from years past and I met a few of them. One was Stephanie. She left her husband and children and drove a long way early in the morning just to see us. In the picture, we're smiling at Grandma Cowles, who is holding my camera for me. I didn't bring my tripod this time.
(Pronunciation hint: Cowles like bowls, not like towels)

Nails

Today was Tamara's bridal shower. We went to the nail salon for a pedicure before the shower. It smelled the same as the nail salon that Mom used to take me to when I was little. The way I tell it makes it sound like I'm in the habit of going to the salon, but really I don't go for myself ever. If you look closely, there is a man getting a pedicure in the picture. He came with his apparent wife and son. The son didn't get a pedicure, but the wife had her finger nails done. I didn't ask their names.
While Tamara was getting her nails done, I talked to her and I read my book.

Model Kitty

Last night I dreamt it was my birthday and was getting a lot of presents, just one at a time, here a little and there a little. In the same dream I was going to take a picture of an owl, but some cats on the tree scared it away, so I took some pictures of the cats instead.

Right now Tamara is gone to her luncheon and I'm alone in the house with Mina cat. She was meowing, so I went to see what her problem was. When she jumped up on the bed, I knew she just wanted her picture taken, so I obliged her. She would lie on one side and then the other and turn her head this way and that. She's an enthusiastic model for a cat. We did take a few breaks for petting though.

We went to the courthouse for our marriage license today. It was fun Lately there has been a real rush on the courthouse because of the recent change in law about gay marriage. We saw three male couples while we were there and two other hetero couples. One couple was so happy and having so much fun, it made us smile.

Present Night

Today, Tamara and I came to San Diego to visit her parents. We had to both come so we could get our marriage license, as required by California law. While we're here, Tamara will get to visit a bunch of ladies for a luncheon and have a bridal shower.
We went to the Robertsons' house first to see how it's renovation is going. It had a flood last year, so it should be ready for living in soon. All the walls were open with the electric cords showing everywhere. It was kind of exciting. I would love to be able to see where all the wires and studs are in my house and be able to lay ethernet cables, speaker wires, etc. in all the walls I want to.
Back at the apartment was waiting our first wedding present. Brent wanted to give us his present now so we would have room for it in our car. It's a flag! We're glad he gave it to us before Independence Day. Now we'll be able to put it up and be festive.

Feet

I listened to a podcast from NPR about healthy feet and plantar fasciitis in which they said that our feet might be healthier if we walk around our houses barefoot. Growing up, I pretty much wore shoes from the time I dressed myself in the morning till I was ready to go to bed. In the past several years, I've walked around the house in my stocking feet quite a bit, but never intentionally as much as incidentally. In Phoenix especially I remove my shoes to be cooler during the summer. When there's no one to be bothered by it, I leave the thermostat between 81 and 84 degrees most of the time, so it's nice to have more air exposure. Now I do it for my health also.

Owl!

We were just sitting in the living room talking, when suddenly there was an owl watching us from the tree outside the window. We don't see owls in the middle of Phoenix very often. The cats liked him. If we had let them out, he might have liked one of the cats, and that would have been sad. He probably ate one of the rabbits that are always around the apartment.
It was fun to watch the owl turn his head all around. I thought it was a little early for him to be out hunting. Owls don't eat worms, so he had no motivation for being the early bird.
Since then I have had 2 dreams involving owls. I really enjoy my dreams most of the time. I feel like I continue living my life, just on a slightly freer scale in my dreams. I'm thinking about focusing on lucid dreaming again. There was a time when I had lucid dreams fairly often.

Climbing the Bridge

Here I am climbing the bridge that takes Mill Avenue (southbound) over Tempe Town Lake. It may look like the bridge is only over land, but that's because the lake is just outside the picture. I guess the designing engineer thought his bridge needed a running headstart to make it over the lake. Chelsea took the pictures for me. The central image (the one most zoomed up on me) just looks so typical of me that I Thought I would make it the main picture, but it ended up being a bit small in order to give better perspective to the bridge. I'm wearing my combat boots that were issued to me at boot camp. The girls that helped me with my kayak that day really liked my boots. Under the bridge is a little storage area where they keep old junk. You can see an ice machine on the left. It wasn't plugged in. Above the bridge there is a round fence. That's actually the top of the building behind the bridge. It's an office building, with condos hiding behind it. In the very top right corner you can see the string of lights that decorate the bridge. They are pretty at night.