Elliott and I have been together for almost 7 years now – this was sort of like a second honeymoon, I fell in love all over again with my wonderful husband. Not that I didn’t love him before, but it’s that giddy, happy, wonderful “in love” feeling that returned so strongly when we actually got to spend time together without all of the pressures of everyday chaos.

Mostly what we did was: eat, sleep, drink, read, play cribbage, kayak, hike, play ball with the dog. I read more than I’ve gotten to read in the whole last year, with a mixed bag of fiction. It was the kayaking that I loved the most. We got these little plastic ocean kayaks this summer, and they are just so perfect for this area.

So: a couple of things….

1. E: thank you for the birthday wishes. As I told Georgette when we met for dinner before I left, it really tickles me that you always remember the happy birthday after all of these years.

2. I have news! Vamp is back!!!! I am beyond thrilled that my favorite JG reviewer of all time is back on board. We’re going to meet for dinner this weekend in Seattle to catch up. I love the way she looks at content, especially the very tiny niche kinks that I never think about. She’s totally awesome and positive. Ok, have I gushed enough?

Oh, here are some photos from the trip. We anchored for a couple of days in Tod Inlet, which is a very long, wide inlet behind the Butchart Gardens in Victoria B.C. Then you can actually access the gardens from the dock at the back, where the Japanese Gardens are. We spent a good part of an afternoon wandering there (it’s dog friendly, yay!) – Elliott’s first visit there, and my second since a highschool trip in 1985.

These pictures were all just snapped with my iPhone (you can tell which one is Hipstamatic, I’m sure…) hence the quality. Actually, the image quality is pretty awesome for a phone, but the detail isn’t quite there. Still, the colors were not enhanced at all by me. They actually are that brilliant, some of them.

We got breakfast at a cute little place on the island, that let us have our dog with on the shaded porch. Then it was back on the ferry so Elliott could make it to a diving class.

Sooo glad to be having this little spot of sunshine in an absolutely dismal late spring.

Last night, the bad weather set in, so Elliott met me at a beach nearby, with Doggie. We played ball when the rain let up, ate hamburgers in the car, took a little scenic drive, and ended up having a glass of wine at a waterfront resort. Here are some iPhone Hipstamatic pictures. :)

Imagine my surprise in later emailing to find out it was indeed her. I realized then that in all of the many many images I’d seen over the years, I’d never seen one with her smiling. I was thinking about that, and about just how rare it is in the adult world – and I’m not really sure why that is. I mean I am pretty sure that men find smiling women attractive. I will confess to watching the reality show Tough Love, and in all of the critiquing the guys did when the inevitable photo shoot happened, they ALWAYS responded more positively to smiling women. I will say that it SEEMS like sites I know that have positive, happy models actually are doing well. I think of all of the sites that Kink.com runs, and how they end pretty much every shoot with a glowing, smiley bit of aftercare. And sites like Girls Out West, they seem totally happy.

I looked back through my own photo archives from what seems like a zillion years ago, when I had my little amateur site. From a zillion years ago (ok, 8 years. That is a LONG time), here’s a favorite – taken by Tommy Edwards, with Mistress Matisse. He took a whole lot of pretty pictures that day, but this one was a favorite of mine because we were both having fun. :)

~Jane

isn’t he the cutest?

Finally got a Kindle for my 40th and I’m completely addicted. I love waking up to the New York Times every morning.

reading: Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew B. Crawford

listening to: Everybody, Ingrid Michaelson

Today we’re going sailing. Or, more probable: motoring. There is unlikely to be much wind if it’s this warm, so we’ll see if the sails ever go up. We’ll have along about 10 teenagers, and enough wine for me to get through a day with that many teenagers. heh. And we’ll have crab pots, and I’ll bring the two novels I’m in the middle of, and of course a swimsuit. This much heat will require more than one jump off the bow.

Tomorrow I’m setting aside to get some reviews done. I heard from a long-ago back-in-the-day friend who is just re-launching his awesome website X-Muse. If you’ve been reading forever you’ll remember him. He used to shoot photos of me, once upon a time. Anyhow, I need to go review his site, but for your enjoyment today here is one of his gorgeous photos.

Have a great weekend!

~Jane

Here are a couple of pictures of my awesome boat dog during last week’s racing:

this is us, down below in the tiny race boat. Not a lot of room down there, but enough. People actually take these little 24′ boats on Pacific Cup, a San Francisco to Hawaii race. I cannot imagine doing that myself.

when he’s up top, he likes to spend his time inside of a coat. Usually it’s Elliott’s coat, but in between races it was mine a few times.

The spinnaker run back to the harbor after the last race finished. This regatta had almost 100 boats participating, so it was truly gorgeous viewing.

Anyhow, today we are celebrating my middle daughter’s boyfriend’s birthday, so I’m off to cook dinner, bake cake, etc.etc. Maybe more pictures tomorrow.. I had a few hundred to go through. Oh, and I guess I did jinx myself with that whole posting 2 a day vow, eh?

~Jane

reading:: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, by Katherine Howe
pandora based on: susan tedeschi

Anyhow, back to the trip. Lots of driving, and I was the one who did it all. Molly offered from time to time, but honestly? A drive feels even longer to me if I’m the one just sitting there, so I’d rather drive. I almost went off the road when Elliott called to tell me what our tax bill was (yes, I pretty much always file an extension) and then spent the rest of the vacation hoping the IRS wouldn’t repossess my husband. :)

So: here are a few snapshots of scenery, taken along the way:

Still catching up, so more later…
~Jane

Sorry for the lack of blog the last few days. Mostly I’m so completely swamped with rather boring stuff that I haven’t had much to say. Unless you wanna hear about my remodel and all of the excitement of picking out bathroom and kitchen fixtures. Oh, and flooring. Ooh, flooring! heh. Then again, I never promised to be all interesting, like AlwaysArousedGirl is these days. Yow, does she ever have the active sex life! I do love her blog, where else can you get hot orgy action AND increase your vocabulary with Word-of-the-Day in the very same entry?

I have tons of site stuff to catch up on, but right now I’m out the door to take a bunch of teenagers shopping for homecoming dresses. *sigh*

~Jane

After the previous post, would you believe that my neighbor is already out of jail? On $25,000 bond? You’d think when it cost more in resources to apprehend him, they’d at least keep him a bit longer than one single holiday weekend.

In other news, we officially broke ground this very morning on our remodeling/addition. Yikes! I’m actually feeling kinda stressed about everything. It means a noisy household during the day, no kitchen for probably 2 months (other than whatever makeshift kitchen we put in our garage, to get us through) and who knows what else. It’s also totally exciting, and means that I need to get busy on designing the kitchen. In my spare time, which is still not much.

Over last weekend, a pod of Orca whales visited our fair city, so I figured I would share a couple of photos, taken by a friend of mine who shall remain nameless…

And now I’m out of here for the afternoon – tonight we have dinner in Seattle with Natasha and her husband, a late birthday celebration. We’re going to Purple. ’cause I like wine. whee!

~jane