i've done it again, missed a bunch of days....but I did take a picture for every day and so i will post them all now.  

First...the cheesecake!  It came out great (in my opinion....) and it didn't look half bad either...

(this ones for wednesday)

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Next is for thursday, which was the CTC 25th anniversary party on commons beach, where I snapped this shot:

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next is today, sunsets and sand.

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heavenly

(this is for yesterday, today's will be posted later today)

Last night was the 20th anniversary gala fundraiser for the Tahoe Baikal Institute and I was invited to rub elbows with donors.  There was a silent Auction, signature drinks, and the best part, it was held at the top of the tram at the lodge at Heavenly ski resort; so we spent the evening out on the balcony enjoying the fabulous band and watch the sun set over Lake Tahoe. Heres my favorite shot of the night:

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vegetation monitoring

Okay, veg monitoring is not my favorite activity (when I learned how it was just Lauren and I one by one cutting all the plants out of a 2 square foot frame on the ground and sorting them by type, sunburning my knees and making my back ache; we finished our first (very diverse) plot in just under 3 hours and we knew we had 7 more to go) but today I found that it can be a lot better when there are 5 people all cutting in that same square.  We set an all time record, finished a (not so diverse) plot in just about 10 minutes.  We finished all three of the plots we were supposed to get done today with time to spare, and we only have 9 left to go!  

I'm talking, of course, about my project that I am leading with participants from the Tahoe-Baikal Institute's Summer Environmental Education Program.  This afternoon we spent a half day doing our vegetation monitoring out in the meadow, they will finish up tomorrow and on Wednesday morning while I am away at a training and then I'll be back on Thursday to begin mapping remnant stream channels in the meadow with GPS.  We work on this project for a week and a half, spend 2 days creating and practicing a presentation (I'll be the advisor, not a presenter) and then my group will present their findings on the state of the meadow vegetation with relation to groundwater levels and their recommendations as to which historic channel would be most beneficial for use in a possible future restoration project.   

This is one of the participants, from Mongolia.  She is holding a Stadia Rod for scale, to show the height of vegetation.  I chose this one as my photo of the day for today because I just love the clouds.  

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And Happy Mauritaniversary to all the RIM Pirates who set out with me on that fateful day to begin a 2 year journey that lasted only 14 months.  Heres a throwback photo for nostalgia:

Me and my We.  

Funny how sometimes it feels like living in a different culture in a far away place speaking a different language felt more comfortable than trying to understand the complexities of my own.  

one hundred!

Oh...my...gosh.  I have been doing this for a whole 100 days already!  This feels like a milestone, but as usual, I'm at home this evening, and unusually it is also raining outside.  I probably took 100 photos that I then deemed unworthy of day 100 before I came up with this one:

It just seems to tie it all together oh so well because, and this is a way back play back here folks, but if you've been with me on this since the beginning, you'll recall that on day two, my photo was a christmas light.  So here we are, 100 days in, and up pops another one!  hopefully by day 365 I'll be close enough to home that my last picture can be of the same subject as my first: Miss Bella.  To celebrate this milestone, you might have noticed I gave the blog a new look.  I'm playing with templates and it may change a few more times before I settle on a final look, but I like this one quite a bit!  Hope you do too!

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this one goes out to Luis!

Luis my Friend, I know its a bit late, but this cake was made with you in mind.  I miss you sir!  Hope your birthday was happy and wish you were here to share some cake and share some of your infinite knowledge about why Portugal is the most awesome place ever...someday I'll get there!  and when I do...you can bet your ass there will be cake!

Happy Birthday to: Arthur (6th), Elly (11th), Luis (12th), Becca Moore (14th), Me (14th), Hsiao-Han (15th), Celia (16th), Becky Fogarty (29th), and Meaghan Gallagher (31st)!

And of course lots of love, smiles, and happy thoughts to everyone, no matter when your birthday is!

And now for the photo of the day:

(click to enlarge if you'd like a better look)

Taken on a hike this morning in Coloma, CA, this is a fence post with a few dozen acorns tucked into it.  I learned that the Acorn Woodpecker stores their winter snacks in just about any wooden surface they can find, such as a fence post, or perhaps a little more irritatingly, the wooden siding on houses round these parts. 

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