The first part of the week was busy finishing up some web projects. Yesterday was Zoe's birthday so Wednesday and Thursday were spent cleaning the house for last night's party. My asthma has been kicking up so that took longer than it should have. Lots of pollen in the air. The cars are covered with yellow-green pollen from the alder trees. A trip to the doctor and some meds are making me breathe again. It was a mad rush vacuuming, mopping, and waxing floors. Shopping for drinks, chips, and cake making supplies. Baking a cake. Decorating a cake. Getting cleaned up just in time as everyone arrive.

Not a really big party. My son Robby and his partner Hannah, my daughter Katie and her 6 1/2 year old dynamo of a son Mike, Kim and Doug, and Zoe's friend Rhonda. Jenny and William called from Colorado. It was a beautiful evening out and it wasn't too long before Robby asked where the croquet set was. Our lawn is anything but level and the grass is course and lumpy making it a game of extreme croquet. A wonderful evening outside filled with the sound of laughter and good spirits. I was shooting with three cameras. That has been one of the main ideas behind having multiple 35mm bodies. I could just pick up the camera with the lens I wanted and shoot. I had the 28mm Super Takumar on the Pentax H1a. (I realize I haven't mentioned the 28mm lens. It came in a week ago. $50 for an almost like new lens. I will get a picture of it up soon.) I was going to also put the 35mm Jupiter 12 on the Leica IIIc but it had last minute film advance problems as I was loading it. I will fiddle with it a little more but it may have to go back to Oleg for repair. I had the 50mm Jupiter 8 on the Zorki 3M. My medium format 90mm Vega 12, with M42 adapter, on my Pentax Spotmatic SPII. It was the first time I used a telephoto and it was fun shooting the croquet madness with it. Towards the end of the game an eagle landed and perched on a fir tree across the street. I use the Pentax 135mm Super Multi-Coated Takumar for the first time. It's a bummer about the Leica but it can be fixed and I have other bodies to take it's place in the meantime.

We then made it back inside for cake and ice cream. I made chocolate cake. Actually, it was Coale chocolate cake. When my mom made my dad his first birthday cake she asked him what was his favorite cake. Chocolate cake was the reply. So she mixed up some chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. My dad was dissapointed. "This isn't chocolate cake." It turns out that his idea of chocolate cake was yellow cake with chocolate frosting. This has been a running joke in my family for years although some (Jenny, you know who your are!) refuse to accept that Coale chocolate cake is a chocolate cake in any way, shape, or form. A great time was had by all. (I should disclose that I ended up doing the same thing to Zoe when she made me her first birthday cake for me. Chocolate cake with chocolote frosting is OK but I do love the Coale version best of all!)

This morning Zoe and I went up to vist her mom, Gerry, who has Alzheimer's and is living in a care facility in Oak Harbor at the north end of the island. In some ways she has been doing better. She is walking much better. She follows the house cleaning people around and does some helping and will try and help with the other residents. But emotionally she is doing worse. She is more depressed and fearful. She has been pretty emphatic about coming home with us. That is impossible. We see her doctor next week and we hope that adjusting her meds will help. It's been pretty traumatic for Zoe.

I will be doing some more shooting this weekend with the Burke & James and hopefully with the pano head on the Salut-S. I've got the film in to the lab of the pictures of the Burke & James in action. They should be back Monday and I will get them up early next week. And Sunday I will load up the Mamiya Super 23 for World Pinhole Day.