Happy Easter to All!

A pause for Easter Sunday!

On this day I thought it would be fun to just share a couple of things with you. First of all, here is a picture taken of a couple of things that I like at Easter. My sister gave me the Easter Frog and it always makes me smile. Next to my Easter Frog is a little plaque I made from a card I got once. If you cannot read it, it says:

The Easter Bunny began with the Pagan Festival of the springtime goddess, Eostre, when it was said that the goddess Totem, the moon-hare, would lay eggs for good children to eat.

The giving of an egg is an ancient tradition symbolizing man's faith in life's renewal - an age old expression of love.

I gave that message in a floating frame much like this one to several people a few years back in Portland along with a lovely stone like egg. I keep my purple one on display in the apartment year round.

Then next to the plaque is a little bunny popping out of a Easter egg. My dear friend Ani gave me this when we were in Istanbul, Turkey in 2004. I awoke Easter morning to this and a lovely card waiting. I treasure it knowing the love and thought that went into picking it out before the trip and then schlepping it over and having it to surprise me. She is a dear friend who has been in my life path now for over 25 years!

Friday Post on Saturday - Part 2

OK, so I arrive at Rob & Jodie's for the sofa "chris"tening and since this is not a ship we are going to christen we did not feel we needed to hold to tradition and use champagne. Thus, we decided to enjoy cocktails. Rob was in the kitchen making them and asked what I wanted. Currently I am a big fan of Smirnoff's Pomegranate Vodka and so Rob had a bottle chilling in the fridge. He asked me jokingly, do I just want the bottle with a straw and I said yes! I continue talking to Jodie and all of a sudden she bursts out laughing and I go what as Rob leans over the sofa and presents my cocktail:




Be careful what you ask for! OK, so we did this totally for posting to the blog. I did not drink the bottle with a straw. He put it on the rocks with a splash of lemon-lime to fizz it a bit. Quite nice. We also ordered pizza from a place on Aurora Avenue called Trattoria Roma. OMG! What great pizza. They ordered two pizzas - first was the Quattro Stagoni with prosciutto, mushrooms, fresh basil, Parmesan cheese and homemade pizza sauce. They like to add artichoke hearts and olives but for some reason, while they ordered them, the place did not put them on. Bummer, would like to have tried the full experience. Next up was a good old fashion pepperoni pizza. The thing I noticed about this place is that the cheese goes on the top as a finish instead of as a base. How odd, but quite good. Enough where I went back for seconds. Later on during our double feature Rob brought our little dark chocolate thin mints just like being at a theatre. Oh, and by the way, am I glad we decided to sit around their dining table for dinner as the pizza leaked grease.

Friday Post on Saturday

Hello to all,

So got up this morning (Saturday) and a feeling of storminess is in the air. Need to just take it a bit at a time and decided that since I had not posted in a couple of days, I should at least bring you up to date on the fireworks show:

There will be fireworks in Seattle

on the 4th of July after all!

This news came after local restaurant owner Tom Douglas put up $5,000 and then made a challenge to the city. Well, Microsoft and Starbuck's each coughed up $125,000 and then Nordstrom's kicked in $25,000 and Paul Allen's company Vulcan donated $50,000 and well, in like 3 days poof, they had collected the half million needed. This has caused a lot of discussion about raising money in this town for different needs.

Boy the wind is howling out there and I am glad to be inside and likely going to go back and snuggle under the covers and read for a while. But first I should share about a double feature I watched last night. My friend's Jodie and Rob bought a new sofa. Now this is not just any sofa mind you, that would never do. No, this sofa is HUGE! But it works in their apt quite nicely. It is an L-shape, well, actually more a L-ish J shape. What do I mean? OK, so there is a love seat size and then the corner curved part and then a sofa size part. But wait, there is much, much more! There are not 1 or 2 recliners incorporated, but 3! Yes, three! Plus where the curve section is it is a little double shelf unit in that space is so often wasted. The middle section of the sofa part had a fold down back that reveals two cup holders and below that section is a drawer for storage. The only thing missing was a refrigerator and heck, that is not too far away. Oh and it is all a white/light gray leather that is quite lovely. Accents with a Eiffel Tower lamp and three festive purple pillows, this was where we watched 2 movies.

First up was Fantastic Mr. Fox that was an Easter present from my sister. It is one of those movies that initially you are going...hmmm. And then it gets you and you have to watch it the whole way through. Now one would have been enough, but alas, Rob goes, "oh we have another." At this point he gets up and goes and pulls out a move called Scortched. It is a flick that came out in 2003 and last all of one weekend in the theaters and pulled in $8,000 on a movie that had a budget of $7 million. Ouch!!

Oh my they went and changed it on me...

Hello there to one and all,

Not sure how this is going to turn out in that they seem to have come along and did an "upgrade" to the blog program.  So what I am going to do is to post this and see what we get to look at.  Hope it is not too different.  Cannot believe that this marks the end of the first quarter of 2010.  Did you send in your Census paperwork?  I did, by the skin of my teeth.  If you did not get it postmarked today, they will be coming and knocking on your door.

It was an 11 hour day and my back hurts and just not sure why so I am going to close for now.  Markie will be over tomorrow for dinner.  I think he is bringing steaks.  I finally had to toss the lilies that I took the picture of a few days ago.  Boy they lasted a while. 

OK, so here is a sudden development - 4th of July Fireworks Show in Seattle Canceled!

SEATTLE - This year's Family 4th at Lake Union celebration and fireworks show will go dark this year. One Reel, the show's producer, says they just couldn't get a corporate sponsor to make it work this July. Work has begun to get enough funding to revive the 4th of July celebration at Gas Works Park for 2011.

The show draws approximately 50,000 revelers to Gas Works Park, as well as 200,000 fans both 'on' and around Lake Union.

In a statement by One Reel: This event, hailed by Forbes Travel Magazine and Time Magazine as one of the top Independence Day fireworks displays in the country, is free to the public, made possible through the generosity of a single corporate sponsor each year. For the past 15 months, One Reel worked to secure a title sponsor for the 2010 Family 4th at Lake Union, but was not able to find a supporter in time to produce the event this year. "Deciding not to move forward with this year's Family 4th at Lake Union was incredibly difficult," stated One Reel CEO Toni Aspin, "but without the financial support of a community sponsor, the event is not possible."

Last year Ivar's canceled their display on Elliott Bay.  WOWZERS!

Rain, Sleet, Snow, no 5 days!

Remember the old adage from the post office: Nor rain, nor sleet, nor darkness of night will keep us from our appointed rounds. Well, I guess budget do and so they are pushing forward with a 5 day plan for delivery, but then we are one of the few, if not only country in the world with 6-day delivery. My mail has dropped and heck, they will be able to have a lot more simple schedules to be sure and so bring it on.

Today, it was a blend of rain, HARD at times, and then wind followed by sun breaks and then here comes the hail and more rain and what is next? True spring weather! I was inside most of the day so it does not impact me until the commuting times. Normal morning commute is 16-22 minutes and today = 49 minutes. The evening commute is usually 21-27 minutes and today = 1 hour and 23 minutes. Breathing, breathing!

So let's really face the music people, what was the major news of the day? Was it the bombings in Moscow's subway? Was it the follow-up on Obama's trip to Afghanistan? Was it the Christian group that wanted to kill police officers? No, it was Ricky Martin's coming out moment as a fortunate homosexual! PLEASE! Give me a break.

Crushed by the internet!

Hello to one and all. So last week all of a sudden I was posting to the blog on a daily basis and enjoying doing it. Sharing comments and observations and in general catching up on a lot of stuff happening and never really knowing if anyone takes time to read other than my sister. Mind you, she is always on me to write and the week I do she is in Ashland without her computer. Well, yesterday we chatted a bit and then I read and was having a lovely morning and decided to post to the blog. two interesting things happened:

1. Heard from someone I have not heard from in years and found out they had moved to Mexico. We had not chatted in a long time and I read her blog and now know what's going on and she informed me she had discovered what I am doing so now the question is...do we actually reconnect and that is what I am toying with at the moment. It's funny the facebook and myspace, etc. There are people who have been out of out lives for years, if not decades and suddenly they wish to jump back in. Do I want that? One of the reasons I have been phasing out of facebook.

2. As I was reading her blog my internet went out - poof! Just like that. Boy, you never know how much you rely on something until it is gone. Well, I took a nap and then got ready and headed north to Rob & Jodie's for dinner. It was amazing. We laughed, ate and drank until near midnight. Once home, tried again = no internet. Went to bed and this morning = no internet. So I was enjoying coffee and reading and suddenly saw my wireless modem thing begin to do a light show. There are 5 green lights on top. So once it stopped, I came over and poof, it works.

I will never really understand electronics and all this stuff, but it is a fun way to pause and share some feelings and thoughts and maybe make someone smile for a moment. I mean seriously, how could you not laugh when you saw the piano pinky ring! One thing I have realized is that in reviewing Friday's blog posting, I will likely have to get a new camera soon. The pictures looked good and then in posting you see they are blurred. Maybe it is just the memory card, but in reality, it is an older camera that just eats up batteries like they are going out of style. And so after enjoying a cottage cheese omelet and some yummy bacon from Double D Meat Market I am ramping up for a game of Catan this afternoon with the boys.

But what I have realized in the end is that I am not going to be obsessed about posting every day. I mean heck, do I have that much interesting stuff to share? But also, I am not going to go weeks and not say something in that I see enough stuff out there and do enough stuff to not pause and share a bit.

Cheers!

A funny thing happened...

You know how things can just skip a beat and then you are left scratching your head. Well, that happened to me. Last Friday I got a message from Pam, out assistant manager here at Uwajimaya (pronounced Whya-ja-maya) Apartments asking me to stop by the office as they had something for me. I did so on Saturday as I got the message late. Well, Joyce, the leasing agent, got me the two packages from the package closet and they were for Markie. How odd I thought that they would call, they usually do not. Case in point two packages were waiting today and no slips on mailbox or call. So I took them and left. Well, today as I stop by to inquire about the packages (knowing they were due), Pam reaches to the coner of her desk and gives me a gift bag. Ah, so this is why she called. I pull out the tissues and there is a pen.


Not just any pen, but a festive green sparkle pen with my name on it. She said, "Well you did say when renewing 'Don't I get a pen or something for lasting 5 years?'" and sure enough I did! Not the best picture but hey I just quickly took a picture and it has a festive star at the top and my name on the green glitter. Very cute.

I walked into the aprtment and was hit by a wave of fragrence that was just lovely. The lilies had popped and oh my they are stunning. Like they say a picture can be worth a thousand words, look at how much time I have just saved both you and me.


Going to get a grocery delivery here in a few and then I will kick back this evening and relax and enjoy seeing what Gwen and group have to say on Washington Week and then read. Breakfast with Mick tomorrow followed by dinner at Rob & Jodie's. It is unusual in that I am making a Salad Caprese but I take one great liberty. I drop the basil and add English cucumber for a festive crunch. Also taking asparagus to be grilled and Rob picked up steaks today at D&D Meatmarket and I will repay him. He will do the cooking on his grill, the first of the season. Sunday morning Helene is likely stopping by for a quick visit as she arrives from Vancouver and then she is off to the airport for her flight to New York City to see friends. Yes, there very likely might be a game of Settlers of Catan in the afternoon and Moonsong has been so nice to postpone cleaning until Monday as it is to be a nasty day on Sunday and so Helene and I can meet here at the apt. How quickly the canceled Ya-Ya weekend got filled, but hey, what fun.