I am on sabbatical until November 30th.

I will be in Tucson, Arizona during that time. If needed, I can be reached through my contact page, which includes my local Tucson number.

I almost missed out on one of my best days here.

I have to confess that my "vacation" hasn't been all that relaxing at times as unforeseen circumstances have heaped some stress my way. I'm so thankful for the graciousness of my hosts, and today was no different. Chris snagged some behind home plate tickets for us to the Tacoma Rainiers game. I haven't been to a baseball game in 13 years.

Earlier today I was feeling emotionally drained, and not in the mood to go to a baseball game. Without realizing it I think I was just setting my mind to brood mode. But Rochele really wanted to go to the game and it was hard to say no to her. So, we met Chris' son-in-law, Joe, at his place in Tacoma and he took us to the ball park for a night of baseball.

I thought about taking my camera and seeing what kind of sport shots I could get. I routinely shoot the Eagle TV sporting events and Nadaam, so I figured, why not shoot a bit tonight? But as I was getting ready to go I realized, "Why do I need to turn this into something to accomplish? Why can't I just go and watch some guys hit a round ball with a round bat and run around the bases? Why can't I just chill out?"

I left the camera home.

Best decision I've made all week.

My deep thanks to Chris and Joe for the tickets, transport, and company; and to Rochele for the nudge.

While on the way to pick up Rochele to help her with shopping for a used car and handling other transition issues, I noticed that the view of Mount Rainer from Gig Harbor was unusually clear today. So I scooted back to my host and picked up my camera. I shot this from the front yard of a house looking over a hill. Just as the title says, this image was shot from 50 miles away.

For those of us from the Southwest, shooting a mountain from a distance of 50 miles might be viewable as a group of 4 pixels on the screen. So the awesome size of this mountain really takes the breath away. I think I need another whole day off just to go there, chill out, and shoot it from up close. See the larger version of the picture here.

Since I arrived in Gig Harbor nearly three weeks ago I've been wanting to eat at a fancy fish joint called, Anthony's. I finally padded my wallet, picked up Rochele, and made our way. We had a great view of the harbor. I only wish Diane could have been with me. During the dinner Rochele said, "Dad, I hate fish. You brought me to a place with nothing but fish." But being the girl who tries anything she ordered mahi mahi tacos. I had the sturgeon. Both were great. This is actually Rochele's fifth kind of fish she's shoved down her gullet (salmon, mahi mahi, sturgeon, shark, catfish) and she's liked them all, so she had to give up the idea that she "hates fish."

Tomorrow we're going job hunting then we're having a two-family phone conference with families here and in Mongolia to talk through transition issues.

This is what happens when you don't properly clean your lens or mirror in your camera. It's hard to tell from the shot here, but if you really want to see it, click over to the full size image on my Flickr page. Tomorrow I'll have to get the gear I need to properly clean the lens and mirror.

I was hoping to get some great shots of the Perseid Meteor Shower tonight. The dust particles made that impossible. Of course, the strange and unfriendly noises in the forest also had something to do with it.

The longer exposure times for night photography send light through the dust particles and it ends up imprinting on the sensor.

I'll have to venture out another night for some starfields once I get the camera properly cleaned.

Some time ago I posted a YouTube video with John Piper's comments about the prosperity gospel. Found this version online this morning.

Today Diane and Whitney boarded a plane to head back home to Ulaanbaatar. Stefani, Rochele and I saw them off to the airport. After the boarding passes were arranged we had a few moments together with Pastor Chris Bayer (whom we've been staying with on this trip), then it was time for Diane and Whitney to say their goodbyes to Stefani and Rochele. It was an especially emotional time as this goodbye for Rochele was the big one.

Rochele will not be returning to Mongolia.

I won't go into all the details here on this blog since Diane has not landed in Mongolia yet. She will be talking with friends back home about the details, and I want to give her time to take care of that first. Suffice it to say, for this moment, Rochele will be remaining in the Gig Harbor/Tacoma area for at least the next 9 to 10 months before moving elsewhere.

Once the decision was made there was a lot of high emotion from everyone. It was especially hard for me since I was the one who had to make the final decision. Rochele and I are very close and I was really looking forward to her return to Mongolia to spend another few months with her before going off on her own. But after a couple of days we had all settled into reality and we came to an agreement that this was the best option to help Rochele prepare for her future.

So Rochele, never one to wait for reality to totally set in, decided to make a little reality of her own and started working on her future even before the decision was finally made. She's already secured a job after her current employment ends. It's a job paying between $15 and $25 an hour depending upon the project she's on. "Holy cow!" I told her. "You'll be making more money than me!" In the last two days she's also scouted potential vehicles to purchase, began researching areas it might be best to live, and thinking through second job possibilities to broaden the kind of experience she wants to get. At the same time she's been working on strategy prepare for her GED test.

If there's one thing that's always been true about Rochele, it's that she does not wait around for life to happen, she makes it happen.

This is not to say that things won't be difficult. The break from home, as we experienced with Stefani, is always difficult. I'm going to miss her beyond words. But by remaining here now (and she's already been here three months), she'll be preparing herself for her future. For me that's far more important than the few months of her company I could steal for myself.

I'll have more about her move in a few days.

Today the rejoined Terry family took a ferry from Bremerton to Seattle to see the Space Needle and do the tourist trap thing. As my friend Chris Bayar says, "It was a perfect day."

We spent the hour-long crossing goofing off and enjoying the sites. The ride reminded me a bit of my time living in Istanbul where I used to cross twice a day from the Asian to European sides. Of course, Seattle is much cleaner. The best part though, was just having all of us together—especially having Stefani and Rochele together again. You begin to feel your age and how much life changes when the kids leave home...for the other side of the planet...so today was pretty good.

This is me with Rochele (L) and Stefani (R), at lunch just before hitting the elevator to the Space Needle.

Overall the Space Needle was cool. I've always found souvenir shops a general waste of time and money, but they can be good for a few interesting pictures if you know what to look for. See here for an example.

Having Diane with me on the outing also made the day great. This is our first whole-family vacation in 5 years. So when me and the mighty missus got to hang together a few hundred feet above Seattle, it was cool. The shot on the right was taken by Rochele. The pretty one is my wife.

The day was not without its antics, which seemed to start right away. Put Stefani and Rochele together in the same room and watch the sarcasm fly (the humorous kind). They're not "experts" at it yet ("Dad, your sisters are "experts at it, they're awesome"), but my girls are on their way.

When we pulled into the downtown area and saw the Science Fiction Museum, immediately Whitney, Stefani, and I were overcome with excitement. Poor Rochele was overcome with long disparaging sighs. I hate to say it, but she was right. If you visit Seattle, skip the SciFi museum. A perfect waste of $62 for entry fees. You can learn more about the genre by wandering the SciFi aisles at your local bookstore. But hey, we had a great time groaning at cheesy displays—except for Robbie the Robot. That was cool.

Dinner at Outback and a bag full of cheesecakes to go rounded out a perfect day.

Tomorrow it's back to Kopachuck State Park to wander the beach, shoot a few starfish (with a camera) then hit a zoo. Thursday morning Diane and Whitney leave for Mongolia.

I've posted several images from today's outing on my photo viewer.

Last shot is all of my girls together, over Seattle, with a little wind. ;-)

The illness that apparently came with me from Mongolia surged again this week so I end up at the Urgent Care Monday morning to discover that I have, according to the doctor, "massive infections in both ears."

Ear infections? What am I, four?

So now I'm on a drug store of medicines. Hopefully I'll be on the mend quick enough to suck as much enjoyment out of my remaining vacation time as possible.

Meanwhile, Stefani flew in from Arizona yesterday. So now all five of us are together. This is very cool. We haven't had a family vacation with all five of us together in five years. Stef flies out on Friday, the day after Diane and Whitney return to Mongolia.

Which brings up another issue. As it turns out, I'm not leaving Gig Harbor on Thursday as planned. I need to remain a while longer to help Rochele through some issues we've been discussing for the last few days. My plan was to stay an additional week, then go home. But it turns out I can't get a flight back into Mongolia until the 26th of August! Gulp. Another 18 days out of country? That's a lot more than I bargained for. But at least I can run things by live video conference with the office as well as work on scripting and other issues by Skype with the staff. So once I'm done helping Rochele, I'll just be in waiting mode, working by remote from here.

We're heading out this morning to take a ferry to Seattle. We'll spend the day downtown, visit the space needle and the tourist trap areas before heading back to our hosts late tonight. Of course, I'll be snapping pics left and right.

I took some time yesterday to create a new site for MongoliaLife.com. I used to maintain a separate site for the images from Mongolia, but it became too difficult to maintain properly, so I sunk everything into Flickr. Things have changed and the new tools available make it simple to feature my Mongolia photos on a new dedicated site.

The new site is still in a bit of a "beta" condition. I haven't put in the little visual tweaks to spruce it up yet, but all of the images are there.

The real drawback to the site is that I haven't really shot any new Mongolia images of significance in more than a year. So I guess now that I have the new interface up I need to get some new images up as well.

UPDATE 3:35PM - Added images from today's outing to Kopachuck State Park in Washington State. See today's images in the Tiltviewer. Will spend the day in Westport tomorrow with my aunt and uncle. Look for pictures of coast tomorrow.

UPDATE 9:34PM - Added two more images from tonight's dinner with friends. Shot them in the backyard garden.

It's a family tradition. Go on vacation to decompress then Tom gets really sick.

Been down for more than two days with a bad cold. I've been so "down" that I've been in bed or sleeping about 18 hours of the day. However, I seem to be on the mend, at least enough to make a run to Albertson's this morning and shoot a few pics in the front yard of our hosts. See today's images on my new 3D title viewer.

If we were in the Southwest I'd sit outside and let the sun and heat "burn" it out of me. But this is the Pacific Northwest. Cloudy. Rainy. No burn.

I'm hoping my head and other symptoms will clear out by the weekend so we can get back to seeing a few sites and enjoying our time here.

But there's good news. Today is my brother's birthday! The old man is 43 today. Happy birthday Troy. Here are some flowers for your birthday.