summer?

I'm not sure about the title, as this will be rather brief, and I've been rather poor at writing lately. This is because, as per usual, I've over-committed myself and do entirely too many things. I think that's how I like it, though.

Anyway, in celebration of my upcoming vacation (first paid vacation ever!) to Alaska (!!!) and since I've been talking about it for about 3 years... I bought a new camera!! It's funny how it can have over 5 times as many megapixels, over 3x the zoom power, etc. etc. and still be less than half the size of my previous camera. Oh, technology.

Thus I give you a (brief) photo update of my weekend-ish:

I went to two post-baptism (Catholic) fiestas this weekend. They mostly involved sitting around and eating lots of good food, watching small children jump around in those jumpy-air-houses, pinatas, drinks, and speaking lots of Spanglish. I also managed to find the Women's world cup finals on during today's party and sat around with the ol' Mexican dudes to watch some futbol, yay! USA lost in PK's to Japan, by the way: it was an intense final. Above is my co-worker, her daughter, and I.

And this is my cute little cantaloupe!! I'm very excited about and proud of my garden; on Friday I picked eight summer squash. mmm. It was fun to be able to send my parents home with produce from my garden in exchange for produce from theirs! (They were here for a brief visit.)

Another co-worker. I thought the strawberry in the lower-right was a flower at first. Strawberries are much better tasting. Especially when covered in chocolate. (Remember the part about eating yummy food?)

I also played some sand volleyball with frisbee friends, ate lunch with my parents + family friends, went to church, and took an exam this weekend. I have no photos of that. It was rather brief. The test was step 3 of 4 in getting certified to be a court interpreter. That is, if I pass. I think something like 80% of people fail it. It went better than I thought it might, but I'm making no hopeful guesses, because I don't know how they grade and I definitely missed some sections/words... I will be extremely put-out if I failed, though, since the test costs 100 dollars, I can't take it again until February or March of next year, and I missed a frisbee tournament/chance to hang out with my sissie to take it. Obviously I still filled my weekend, but given the choice I will opt *not* to pay money to take tests I have a good chance of failing... We'll see--maybe it will all be worth it.

And, as is also per usual, I have been less brief than I intended, and successfully put off picking up my room. I've also been sitting in an extremely uncomfortable position for no apparent reason and now have a neck cramp. Time to sign off.