Hotlanta

I'm back from the conference in Orlando. (Dayjob stuff. Lots of work and no small amount of pressure this year for a variety of reasons. It went well enough, all things weighed.) Between there and here I stopped in Atlanta for a visit with Cory's family on the occasion of Cory's nephew Joe's 6th birthday. We stayed with her brother and his wife and kids. I'll see if I can muster a full-on entry about that mini-trip, but for now, here are a few shots documenting the festivities.

We'll start with a shot of the birthday boy:

There was a smaller family party on Saturday. Cory and I gave presents to her niece and nephew and a couple of their cousins. We gave harmonicas to the older kids, but baby Maya really took to the instrument...

Kind of amazing how thoughtfully she treated it - sounded great! I swear she was even bending notes a couple times - that open channel of breath in natural action.

On Sunday, a bigger group joined us at a minor league baseball game. We had a picnic, and the group all joined in on a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday.

Joe's sister Jules got into the game too. Here she is with her cousin Ryan and her uncle John.




I like this shot of Joe a lot.

And here are a couple of the family dogs. Nothing earth-shaking here, just a young dog Blondie with a LOT of energy...



...and an older dog, Joplin, who gets a lot of rest.

I know she looks a little, um, hungry there. She's an Italian Greyhound - they all sort of look like that. And Joplin, well, she's sort of losing interest in food. Cory thinks maybe she's trying to do that thing where you lower your calorie intake so you live longer. I don't know. Could be.

Each is extremely sweet in her own way. Glad I got to know them.