This guy, our middle kid, turns 19 today, much to my disbelief. He's working in his first-ever real summer job (yes, he had to work on his birthday) as he prepares for his second year as a kinesiology major at Western Washington U. Good kid, despite his love of Weezer.

Received this QSL card today from CHU, Canada's time station on shortwave. Exciting but bittersweet, as the station was turned off days after I sent my reception report. I also have a QSL card from CHU that I received as a teen in the 1980s.

Photo of my shirt at the moment. This is the ENG shirt from years ago ...

Late Saturday evening dinner of falafel, pita, and other Mediterranean food for the Fourth. Good stuff!

Violet Femme gets medicated only one night a year. That's tonight.

This is embarrassing for a Quaker like me who doesn't believe in church hierarchy, but there are way worse folks to be compared to ....

Downtown Seattle was just glorious yesterday afternoon. Full of baseball fans, World Cup fans, and lots of tourists ...

Three years ago today, my dad died peacefully. It was a blessing after his struggles with dementia, which often made him seem like a different person in his final year or so. Three years seems both long ago and just yesterday. He is still missed and remembered fondly.

Also, just a beautiful evening in Seattle ...

So, this happened. Still a brilliant movie, and I was happy to see it again on a big screen for the first time since 1996. The few folks in the audience around me included young people seeing it for the first time. Happy to see that, though it made me feel like a fossil.

Violet Femme decided to photo-bomb our attempts to take photos as our high school junior left for her first prom this evening.

Now watching "The Wrong Trousers," which introduced the world to the best villainous penguin ever: Feathers McGraw.

We're at the exciting bit near the end ...

I ignored the Mariners scores this weekend, which was great otherwise. Had lunch with my mom yesterday, saw a great WHL championship finals win in Everett last night, and took a sunny Mother's Day walk today on the trails at Brightwater with my wife, wonderful mother to our three nearly grown kids.

No question that she's annoyed here ...

On this sunny spring morning, Violet decided to use our neglected garden bed as her outdoor dog bed.

Behold the fat bunny that's hanging out in our backyard these days and driving Violet Femme, our goldendoodle, absolutely bonkers. Bunnies are one of the few creatures that activate her hunting instinct. Fortunately, they are faster than she is.

Just got off a ferry, so I'm late with this, but #GoMs.

Violet Femme says: "Play ball and go #Mariners!" #GoMs

#GoZags

Seems unfair that when I drag my middle-age self out into the cold for a brisk lunchtime walk of 6,000+ steps, I have to come back home and continue my workday. Meanwhile, the dog I've just walked with comes back to nap hard until basically dinnertime.

And here it is this morning after the very heavy and wet snow we got overnight basically split this great tree in half. 😥

Most autumns, I take a photo of the big tree at the low end of our backyard. I refer to this grand, old tree as our "Tree of Life." It's a favorite hangout spot for our dog, too. Here it is last November ...

Our long national nightmare is over. No, the news is still awful out there, but at least our warranty replacement espresso machine got here. Long live this one, as it turns out that drip coffee doesn't cut it anymore for me.

🎶 "It was 20 years ago today ..." This is the mug I got after contributing to Super Bowl week coverage in 2006 when the #Seahawks went to their first bowl. I was a business writer at the Everett Herald, so I wrote about people buying big new digital TVs in time for the game ...

Looking out our kitchen window while I listen to Clash songs right now ... #InternationalClashDay

Seattle's KEXP (90.3 FM or KEXP.org), the originator of #InternationalClashDay, is playing songs by The Clash and related music most of the day. #KnowYourRights

I usually promote KSER/KXIR, the independent community radio station for Snohomish and Island counties (Check us out at KSER.org; I'm the board chair there, so I can confirm it's a worthy station!) But tomorrow is International Clash Day, celebrating my favorite band. So, listen to KEXP on Friday!

Where I was late this afternoon: At a vigil of about 100 people who gathered at the Snohomish County campus in Everett to remember the two people killed in recent weeks by ICE agents. It's easy to feel so helpless to stop what's happening right now. Today's event wasn't much, but it was something.

What's better than getting a real QSL card in the mail from Brazil? When it's a surprise. I got digital QSL cards from Rádio Nacional da Amazônia last April when I emailed the station, but I got a mailed QSL today as well for that reception report last year. Fun!