Yes!  The solstice is finally here!  I love this longest (or thereabouts) day of the year, speaking of hours of daylight of course.  Its all down hill from here though!  (Did you know that the Earth is technically farther from the Sun around this date than around the Winter Solstice?  A LOT of people actually think summer happens because we are closer to the sun during the summer and the winter occurs because we are farther from the sun.  I had to add that in- today was the NYS Earth Science Regents Exam!)  So, this day always makes me think of Earth Science and one of our favorite (and outrageous) things to do on this weekend each year when we lived in Seattle.  I hope someday we can take our girls to this!

On the other hand, many of you will be shocked to know that I started reading for leisure (thats how bored I’ve gotten- I’m not a “natural” reader!).  I picked up Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer at the library, author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air and Under the Banner of Heaven, all of which I have read already and all I found fascinating.  This book of his is a collection of mostly short essays he had written for magazines (he often writes for Outside and Smithsonian) and are about different aspects of mountaineering, climbing, bouldering and outside adventures.  You could say I am living vicariously.  However, he is the only author that I have read everything of his I can get my hands on- I love the true life stories he writes about and how gripping he tells the tales.  He has great insight, a down to earth perspective and hails from the NW.  So far, its very, very good and a fast read!