Our first zipper spider of the season is small and thin.

Rosencrantz checking out the newly mulched path

In the morning I chopped and pulled weeds in the path the runs through the meadow on the way to the ditch along with chopping and pulling other weeds around the property. I spread new mulch on the path in the evening and Rosencrantz walked the path to see how well he could walk on it with the new mulch. The mulch is thick, but he didn't have any trouble walking on it. Friends dropped by in the afternoon, and while we were sitting on the deck talking a toad joined us. First place he checked out is the area by one set of steps that has vines growing, and a bed of rose petals that have fallen off America. Then he made several laps around the deck, over our feet and around our chairs before he hopped off into the flowers, vines and grasses growing around the edge of the deck.

Mr. Toad trying to blend into the vines and rose petals

Rosencrantz on the path looking at the sunset

Mr. Toad hanging out on the deck with us

The moon is almost full

Rosencrantz, Spunk and Sasha.

Common Nighthawks are fast, and change direction constantly as they fly after insects, making it very difficult to get clear shots of them in flight.  I took these photos using a 35-350mm lens, handheld, no stabilization.

Bees wrestling

The bees are all a buzz about our first sunflower to bloom.

Blue dragonfly illuminated by my flashlight

Six bees a buzzing in the sunflower

Damselfly

backlit wildflowers

Injecting radioactive sugar into my system

I had a follow up PET scan on Friday, July 8th to see where I stand after two rounds of intensive chemo. The last image shows comparative PET scans from 2010, 2013, February 2016 and last Friday. Friday's PET scan is very good with almost all the lymphoma gone, but the radiologist reported there is a tiny bit remaining so I will have to go through a third round of intensive chemo before they start harvesting stem cells, but the doctor is going to wait until all the tests I have to go through before I can do the stem cell transplant are completed, I'm cleared to go and my insurance approves the transplant before he orders the third chemo session. I have a test almost everyday over the next two weeks, and them I'm scheduled for a follow up on all the results the end of July. Maybe we will be able to start the process to harvest stem cells the first week in August.

Going totally tubular for about 25 minutes while they slowly chug me through the tube to get images of the full length of my body

PET scans from my first bout with lymphoma in 2010, a checkup in 2013, February 2016 when I suspected lymphoma my be recurring, and last Friday, July 8th after two rounds of intensive chemo. I added the cottonwood leaves to avoid pulling a www (world-wide weenie) on everyone.

My latest sit / stand desk has been much more of a challenge than the enlarger based desktops I've built recently, because it only needs to raise up six to eight inches for the staff member who asked for it, but it still needed to have a motorized lift. She couldn't use a pull-up type desktop because it would put too much stress on her back, and she couldn't use a manual turn to wind it up and down because of hand issues. The  enlarger frame model I've been making would be overkill, and nothing in a reasonable price-range is available that is motorized.  So, I modified a pair of scissor jacks to be the lifts, and originally rigged up an extra motor I had from an enlarger chassis to power the jacks, but it couldn't lift the weight, so I had to rethink my motorized lift.

I remembered a Youtube video of Red Green making automatic power windows for his van using an electric mixer, the light bulb came on, and I figured a drill would work. Check out the Red Green video Red Green Handyman Tip - "Power Windows" (1999) it's great. I attached a drill to the arbor I had rigged on one of the scissor jacks, and it ran the rig up and down with ease. I set a board across the jacks, set 70 pounds of kitty litter on the board, and the drill easily lifted the kitty litter. That solved the problem of the motor, but I needed a close quarter reversible drill, because it is more compact than a normal drill. My drills are powerful, 7.5 amp drills, and 6 amp reversible close quarter drills were in the $250 to $300 range — more than all the materials in the desktop. I searched around on the web and found a 3.5 amp reversible close quarter drill on sale at Harbor Freight for $30, and, low and behold, the local HF had them in stock. I figured $30 was worth a try. It turned out that 3.5 amps is plenty of power, because the drill had no problem providing enough power to lift 70 pounds of kitty litter.

As I was finishing up the last few details on the desktop before taking it out to sand and varnish the oak, I put my hand on the top to stand up and the piece of oak on the right hand side split. That was unexpected, but I was glad it happened before I had taken the desktop to the office and got it all set up. I glued and clamped the side piece, and now I need to make brackets for each side to keep the sides from splitting again since both sides are from the same piece of oak. While I had the desktop in a lifted position while the clamp was on it, Lola and Spunk gave it the kitty test, and checked it out to make sure it was kitty worthy before I finish the desktop and take it to the office.

Lola giving it the lounge test

Spunk checking it out while Lola watches

Spunk test

A wild wide-angle view of the desktop

Laurie made ratatouille and potato wedges this afternoon while I worked on a sit / stand desk. 

Ingredients weighed, counted, ready to be cleaned and chopped

Tomatoes sliced and ready for the grill

Bell peppers waiting for the eggplant to come off the grill

Onions and zucchini off the grill ready for the pan

Potato wedges roasted with lemon zest and fresh ground black pepper

Ratatouille: all the grilled vegetables cooking in a 16 inch cast iron skillet