The Day of the Dead Altar
After walking through three arches and giving up three symbolic offerings of an apple, beads, and shawl we arrived in front of the lights. Then we passed by the offeratory leaving a momento of passed relatives, greeted the crone and received a candle. Then we lit the candle while stating the names of the remember dead and placed the candle in the basin on the right above.
Marshall, Alix (who is green here-not normally), me, Erica, Amar, Ross
Amar and Erica
Alix and Marshall
Hayes and James..aren't they a handsome couple!
Sye finds the tile in the bathroom so refreshing.
Kitties have been striking interesting poses b/c of the near 90 degree heat here. Poor kitties. Poor Elise writing in the heat; my favorite cafe doesn't even have air conditioning.
Dido seems to think my laptop is the perfect size and shape for a cat seat. Thanks a lot Dido. Well, maybe I shouldn't have left it on the floor.
Cecil, Laura, our neighbors and the owners of the kegorator,
Clay with Christine and Jim, our neighbors here.
Christine, Jim, Cecil (petting Mr. Biggs the terrier) and Jeremy.
You can see Clay's exciting birthday salads with his birthday candle in it. Don't look at it that way. It is not my fault that he doesn't like cake!
So we went to the Humane Society on Saturday and after four hours of deliberation decided to get this kitty. We still don't know how he will get along with Dido, but we hope that when they are introduced it will go well. His name is Bullseye, but we are calling him Cye. (sometimes I call him Charlie for no good reason at all.) He is very sweet, a little scared, but got on the bed last night and pestered us for attention so he isn't that scared. 
Here are some of my pictures from my sister's birthday party at El Azteca. She got to keep that cool sombrero! The ice cream made her very happy...at least I think it was the ice cream and not the margarita.....hmmm.
Clay tries to cook every Sunday so he doesn't have to eat yucky hospital cafeteria food (like liver and onions). Here he is making curried tuna and a miso glazed salmon for the week. Ah spicy Clay!
At the end of June, Kevin, Christine and Silas visited us while in town. Here they are in La Jolla after Thai food and cookies.
Silas and Dido get to know each other under Clay's watchful eye.
Cassie has been sick now for three months with an ear infection and a tumor obstructing her ear canal. She got surgery this week where the vets removed her inner ear canal. Her pathology came back as squamous cell cancer so we will just wait and see whether or when the tumor reoccurs. Here she is in full post-op glory with her lovely blue soft collar and drain. Gremlinesque!
So the UU church is starting a youthful adults group and had a Cinco de Mayo party to kick it off. We played a lot of games and then we hit the pinata.....it was a donkey pinata. Clay happened to be the one who broke it. You can see the result above, which actually did not result in candy falling from the sky. We all had to smash its body on the ground before the candy (and condoms) came out. I think the condoms were there because they were left over from a safe sex drive and, being strawberry, they seemed candy-like. Afterwards, Clay was fortunate enough to get to wear the donkey's you know what on his head! Doesn't my husband look handsome? Note that there was a two drink minimum so Clay's decision to wear a donkey's ass on his head was a sober one. This is why we want him to drink-so he has a good excuse for his behavior!
