1. Marcia’s campaign for the Arizona State House of Representatives continues apace. We’ve made a lot of trips (I serve as chauffeur) around and about the district over the past couple of months, and she’s spoken with lots of groups, both informal and formal, working to secure endorsements and motivate voters. She and her Clean Slate for Democracy colleagues do not have primary opponents, so they’re essentially already in General Election Mode. The yard signs are up, the car’s properly decorated, and Marcia has made a nice introductory video, filmed about 200 yards from our house, links shared below:

2. We were up in Boise, Idaho this past weekend for my niece’s wedding, which was lovely, both in terms of the event itself, and in term of getting most of my extended family together in one place, which doesn’t happen all that often. We’ll always be able to remember Asher and Emmeline’s anniversary, as they were married the day before our own 35th anniversary, zoom zoom, time flies when you’re having fun with the one you love. Pics from two weddings below, 35 years (minus a day) apart:

And a nice family portrait with Katelin and John, taken five minutes before the nuptials began:

3. Our next big adventure begins on Monday, when we fly off to Oslo, Norway for a long trek up in Jotunheimen National Park, then working our way down through fjord country to Bergen. After a down day there, we’ll take a short flight to Edinburgh, Scotland, for a few days, then a train down to Manchester, England, for a few more days, then headed back home from there via JFK in New York City, where we’ll spend a night, just to break up that long slog westward. We booked the Norway part of the trip through Wildland Trekking, who managed our Alps to Adriatic trip last year, and our Grand Canyon trip a few years back. They’re good, so we’re going in with high expectations for a great and challenging experience. Here’s the itinerary, if curious and interested in following along. We’ll be gone for a few weeks, so things here at the website will be slow in July, though I’ll probably be posting updates on Facebook, should you wish to connect there.

4. My naming convention for omnibus/multi-part posts like this one has long been to pick some musical artist, and to select song titles from their catalogs, rather than just repeating “Odds and Ends” or “Various Items” or “Miscellaneous News” or whatever in my post headers. I’ve been using the catalog of The Black Angels for the past year or so, and I think I’ve run out of selections there, so the next time I post something like this, I’ll have a new naming convention. (Not that anyone but me notices, but it’s a habit, and I like to note when I change it!)