I hand-tinted a photo today. It was *really* fun. I've had these handtinting pens for a few years and have had precious little to do with them but today I got to experiment. The picture turned out so good that I gave it to my neighbor because it was her two children. She loved it so much that she almost cried and then she gave me a hug. I can't wait to see it framed and on her wall. She asked me if I would mind doing some family pictures, too. I'd be delighted. I can hardly wait. But we have to wait until the rain abates since she wants an outdoor picture. We'll have to brainstorm on a good place for the photo--the Japanese gardens are beautiful year round. We could do it from Pittock Mansion with the city of Portland in the background, or we could do it in the woods or at a park. There's a place Stacey knows of--I'll have to ask her where it is. I'll be sure to use ISO 100 or 50 so I can get very fine grained pictures. I'm not happy with the graininess I'm getting with the ISO 400 film I'm using. Then again, I've been using a very big aperture which gives less crispness, so I guess I'll have to do some experimenting.

I spent the afternoon with Dianna and the kids at the big Burger King play area--it's huge, like Chuck E. Cheese's--because school was out and it was raining and the kids needed to get some wiggles out. They had a great time and I really enjoyed chatting with Dianna all afternoon. The kids sure had fun. They were together today from 7:30am to 5pm. And they didn't want to separate at 5pm--they wanted to play more and more. What good kids they are.

Tonight was Joey's goal setting conference. It was really good. Her teacher is really on top of things--very organized and very astute. You'd never know this was her first year teaching. I'm duly impressed.

I really dug the rain today. But if you remind me that I said that in oh, say, March when it has been raining for 60 or 75 straight days, I'll probably slap you.

--L