Been awhile since I have written. Since April, we've fallen off of the BFL wagon, been on vacation a couple of times, got another stripe on our red belts in Taekwondo, have found out absolutely nothing new about Japan (besides the fact we can't do anything until September) and we're learning Japanese.

Vacation was great. We went to New Orleans first for the HOW Design Conference. Got sick. But still had fun. The first two days were non-conference days, so we wandered around the French Quarter and took the St. Charles streetcar to the Contemporary Arts area. The Contemporary Arts Center had a great exhibit on comic book art. We then walked to the Garden District (which was a bit of a haul) and walked around in the drizzling rain admiring the houses and yards.

The conference itself was very inspiring. Saw Genevieve Gorder from Trading Spaces speak about what inspires her. She gets a lot of her inspiration from travel and nature. Also had a couple less exciting business-y workshops as well.

Then we went to Idaho for a week to see Denny's parents. The first couple of days were spent laying in the backyard reading. The weather their was fabulous......mild temperatures with a cool breeze constantly blowing. His mom's garden is beautiful and lush. All the flowers were in bloom. The grass is thick and feels good on your bare feet. Nothing like laying on a quilt reading, hearing the sounds of the wind blowing through the trees above. And Gus. Denny's sister Camille's big black lab Gus. Very sweet and friendly and slobbery. Plus, his goal is to be a lap dog.

After hanging out for a couple of days, we packed up and headed north to the Sawtooth mountains for a quick camping trip at Redfish Lake. Sooooooo perfect. Stacey, Jim and Elizabeth (Denny's sister, brother-in-law and niece) met us there. We camped and roasted marshmallows and played games and listened to Denny play guitar ( and Camille and Alex). A nice time was had by all. Denny did however have a slight accident on Alex's bike. He thought he could brake one way and instead ended up throwing himself over the top of the bike and getting scraped up a bit. Poor baby.

Our second "mini" vacation was to St. Louis. More about that later. Back to work for now.