Even though we fill up the car perhaps once a month, we need to do more planning than you would think at first. For example, this past weekend we were thinking that the car was pretty low on gas and we should fill it up, but we're planning on going to Spokane next weekend. We decided it was low enough that we should fill it, and it'd still be close to full by the time we leave. But that's not where it ends.

If you like expanding your musical horizons beyond what's on the radio or want to learn new connections between various songs and artists, the iTunes Weekly Rewind is a great podcast. Every week they take a look at some of the songs which have been playing on the radio, on TV, in movies, even in ad spots. But more than just giving a name and artist to a song you heard just fleetingly, they also use songs, artists, or events as springboards to not only go into depth, but to point out both what influenced an artist and whom that artist influenced. There are a lot of music geeks out there, and these guys rate right up there. As they should, since they're on the team which compiles the iTunes Essentials collections.

Kellen decided he wanted to document his 20th year by doing a Project 365, where he will take one picture each day and post all of them online. I asked what he thought about Tynor and me doing it along with him, and he said it would be great. So we can look at all of our pictures side-by-side, I've also set up a Fujimoto Project 365 page, optimistically labeling it as 2009-2010; I figured we may do it again sometime in the future.

Being July 4th, I thought it would be appropriate to post a photo of fireworks. This was taken in 2003 at Gas Works Park in Seattle. You can just make out some of the original gas works machinery at the lower left, and just some of the tens of thousands of people in the park on at the lower right.

There are many great science shows around, NPR's Science Friday being one of them. However, I find WNYC's Radiolab to be more of a must-listen because of they way they are able to find an over-arching story from seemingly disparate interview clips or even show segments, for the extra content they inject into the podcast, and how they are willing to go beyond science towards topics such as art.

As I was walking up to this cat boarding building I saw a cat walking around the corner, which struck me as humorous. My first thought was either the cat had escaped or was looking for a place to stay. Or perhaps this is that particular cat's accommodations?

I needed some small gifts for this month so I went to an old standby, cutting boards. They're relatively quick to make, offer lots of possibilities for variation, and usually end up looking pretty nice.

A couple years ago we had some flagstone installed for paths in our front yard. That fall we planted groundcover, each smaller than the size of a quarter and about a foot apart. We weren't sure how well they'd do, but it was a relatively small investment.

Part of the purchase and sale agreement when we sold part of our land to our neighbor (so he could split his lot into two) was that he would replace the existing fence. I was home from work today and heard (de)construction sounds which seemed close enough to be in our yard. Took a peek out the window and the fence was being torn down.

We're at the time of year when the first cherry blossoms have come and gone, and the rhododendrons, dogwoods, magnolias, and lilacs are blooming all around the area. Our rhodie in the back yard and lilacs are very showy now. Some of our annuals are blossoming now, too (red flowering currant, columbine, blue star creeper) and our osmantus are at the tail end.