Mmmm.... these are some of the best fries in town. They are at Barbette (one of my favorite restaurants), where we took Mom tonight for a delicious steak dinner. Because it was my 10th Foursquare checkin, I got a free order of fries (fries that I cannot eat anymore), but mom and Jamie sure enjoyed them.Also today, Mom and I went shopping. I had the best luck at Target (which seems to just keep getting better and better) and I got one of my favorite dresses of the summer for $25. WIN. And tonight we're getting wonderful thunderstorms -- so overall a very good day!

Tonight was the first night of art-a-whirl (a local art weekend -- but cooler than your average neighborhood "art festival") (obviously, or I wouldn't go). Mom also just arrived in Minneapolis, so we took her to dinner at Bar La Grassa (soooo yummy) and then to a few galleries to see some art.What I was most excited to see was my buddy Ben's show over at Foiled Again (it will be up for awhile, should you decide to check it out). And while we were there, these amazing donuts showed up! Because of this whole ridiculous "oh hey, I think I'll give up sugar" kick, I didn't have any. But they sure smelled good... And yeah, I realize my camera focused on the rack and not the baked goods, but I wanted to show you anyway.

Rough day today. Dinner consisted of 2 slices of pastrami and a pickle. I tried to distract myself with some playing with Merlin in the yard, and it helped a little. Thank god it's almost the weekend.

Today I took a lunch break with my buddy London, and we walked down to the river to enjoy the sunshine. Man, it has been so lovely here. Anyway, we were sitting by the old Gold Medal Flour mill (obviously) and these construction workers all climbed into this metal "basket" and had a crane lift them up over the old elevators. Then they took photos from up there down into the ruins, while the wind was blowing and the "basket" was swinging back and forth.They all had harnesses on and were strapped to the basket, but dude, how does that help if the basket breaks loose?!? I am so afraid of heights. There is just no way I would have been able to do that (without passing out, vomiting, crying or all of the above). I was very happy to be shooting this from the ground, thankyouverymuch.

Lovely, right? After work tonight we took a bike ride around Lake Harriet, which was full of sailboats. I love it that I can get home from work after 6 pm this time of year and still have *hours* of daylight left. It makes me feel like I can get so much more done! Also, if you look carefully you can spot a teeny, tiny airplane in the sky.

Tonight I had a few ladies over for some delicious food, a little wine and some talk about photography and inspiration. Oh and there was some gossip, too (what do you expect? we're only human!). Anyway, it was just nice to sit down and look through beautiful photography books and talk about what we find inspiring and why we're drawn to certain artists and their methods (and whether we've tried those same methods or not). It was also great because I learned about some photographers I don't follow, and that's exactly what I was hoping for.And in case you guys were wondering, one of my all time favorite photographers is Richard Avedon. While he took a ton of wonderful, beautiful portraits of famous people, I am always inspired by his portraits from the Southwest in the early 1980s. You can see a sampling of those images here. The light and the honesty in those images just takes my breath away.

Oh guys, it was so amazingly beautiful outside today. I was inside dusting when Jamie got back from the store and told me to drop what I was doing, that we needed to go for a bike ride. Man, was he right! We rode around the lakes and then I sat outside and read for a bit before getting back to cleaning the house.I shot this photo tonight of a new succulent I bought yesterday at the nursery. Yeah, I might have a slight addiction to these crazy, beautiful plants. But really, who can blame me?