July 30, 2007
"Now I, had, the time of my life...."
I had the absolute BEST time and the weather was just perfect. In the mid-70's, nice and cool on the water, very sunny, bright blue sky......I could not have asked for better. I have to take my pictures for processing at the camera shop today, so I have nothing to show you......yet. But since I shot 72 frames of black & white film, 168 frames of colour film and about 250 digital photos, I will have PLENTY to post when I get them back on Friday. I saw orca whales on the whale watch, and I have my fingers and toes crossed that those pictures came out.
The song which will forever be linked with this trip is "Life is a Highway" by Tom Cochrane, which I must purchase as soon as possible. Sort of like last year's trip to Vancouver, where "Bittersweet Symphony" reminds me of being there.
July 21, 2007
Take Off to the Great White North!
July 19, 2007
They're baaaack
I can't stop myself when they arrive......
I grab them by the handful, morning, noon and night.......
I'm very weak.......
IT'S BLUEBERRY SEASON AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!
Blueberries on my cereal!!
Blueberries in a fruit salad at lunch!!
Blueberry muffins!
Blueberry crisp!
July 16, 2007
Good to Go!
July 13, 2007
The 4 Dwarves
It was on Friday, Oct. 13, 1307, that France's King Philip IV had the Knights Templar rounded up for torture and execution. The Knights Templar were an order of warriors within the Roman Catholic Church who banded together to protect Christian travellers visiting Jerusalem in the centuries after the Crusades. The Knights eventually became a rich, powerful ‹ and allegedly corrupt order within the church and were executed for heresy.
The 13th of a month is more likely to fall on a Friday than on any other day. In each 400-year cycle of the Gregorian calendar, 170 years have one Friday the 13th, 171 have two, and 59 have three.
It is impossible to have a year with no Friday the 13th or a year with four or more Fridays the 13th.
When there are three Fridays the 13th in a year, they occur in February, March and November except in leap years. In leap years, they occur in January, April and July.
When there is only one Friday the 13th in a year, it falls either in May, June, August or October.
The only thing I am hoping is that they don't get into a dust-up. Sagan absolutely adores his big sister and will tease her till she plays with him (or growls menacingly and slaps at him). Pepper, on the other hand, grudgingly tolerates her little brother. When I locked the door, I heard her loudly growl and bark at him...I swear I heard the words, "Listen up Dumbhead, Mommy left me in charge, so back off!"
Unfortunately, I checked the local dopplar radar and saw that a very bad thunderstorm passed over my house between 8:50 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. The reddest part of the radar, which is the worst part of the storm, went right over my neighborhood, near the southern end of Lake Tapps. I can only keep my fingers crossed that my little furchildren weren't spooked enough to do any real damage to the rooms to which they have access. I guess I'll find out when I get home tonite!
July 11, 2007
Because we're just that pathetic
Watch this and think chilly
Finally, someone is doing something about the weather instead of just talking about it.
In response to this week’s heat wave, Click! Cable TV has set aside a channel today that’s devoted – for 24 hours – to showing nothing but photographs of winter scenes in Tacoma.
The slide show – a warm-weather version of the yule log fireplace channel – is set to “seasonal” music, and even includes the sound of wind blowing.
Click! customers with a digital cable box will find it on Channel 1 beginning at 8 a.m. It’s on Channel 117 for those without a box.
“We thought it would help people who are spending time indoors to remember recent snowstorms and know that this heat won’t last forever,” said Mitch Robinson, Click!’s marketing and business operations manager.
Tacoma blogger Kevin Freitas supplied the photos.
Robinson came across some of Freitas’ images while surfing the Internet, and sent him an e-mail Monday saying, “I have a crazy idea, give me call.” Freitas called him and quickly agreed to the idea. He put together a CD with 60 or 70 images of Tacoma neighborhoods and landmarks, mostly taken last winter.
“I’ve been testing this all day in my office and I feel at least 3 or 4 degrees cooler,” Robinson said Tuesday.
Jason Hagey, The News Tribune
The heat is on
Astoria, OR: 92
Portland, OR: 102
Hoquiam: 99 (All time record high)
Shelton: 98
Forks: 93
Bremerton: 91
Port Angeles: 91
Olympia: 90
Seattle: 89
Friday Harbor: 87
July 8, 2007
July 7, 2007
....and....Yes, that's right, I LOVE the Partridge Family and the Monkees. I can still remember watching the Monkees in the late 60's on Saturday morning TV, and Friday nights in the early 70's wouldn't be the same w/o The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family back to back. I feel very lucky to have gotten to see 2 Monkees shows in 1986, sans Mike Nesmith unfortunately, and David Cassidy last summer. Yeah I know, they were both manufactured groups, but the guys in the Monkees actually all have musical talent and if you don't believe me, give the album "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd." a listen. They were the first band to use the new musical technology known as the Moog Synthesizer. That's right, the first. That album contains some stuff that was just a bit too sophisticated for the TV show, and their song "Daily Nightly" caught my attention when I was very young. It's been my favourite Monkees song since then. Give it a listen sometime, it's extremely trippy & psychedelic.
And by the way, you have the Monkees to thank....or blame....for music videos too. They were the first to marry video of the band's antics to shots of them lip synching to the music. Mike Nesmith's other claim to fame, besides his mom having invented White-Out, is that he was one of the foremost pioneers of what is now the modern music video.
You also have to admit, both Davy Jones and David Cassidy were big time adorable, with their boyish good looks and big brown eyes. And if there are any Guns & Roses fans out there, Axel Rose's little dancy moves on stage are copied almost exactly from the way Davy Jones danced on the Monkees. The Monkees also reminds me of my bff and college roomie, Michelle, who also shares my love for them. We had so much fun partying to Monkees records at St. Joe's.
As for the Partridge Family, they remind me of summers and vacations with my cousins Sharon & Diane - us seen here in approximately late 1968 or early 1969 .They used to come up from Long Island to visit their grandparents (my aunt & uncle) who lived down the road from my parents (walking distance) all summer and for all school breaks, except Thanksgiving. The 3 of us were really into the PF and Sharon had a HUGE crush on David Cassidy, while Di and I fancied the first "Chris", Jeremy Gelbwaks. We'd even stop playing on summer nights at 8:30 to go inside to watch the show, then we'd go back outside at 9 pm to continue playing. On rainy days, we'd be at my house in "the coop" (a building on my parents' property that was turned into a cool little place for them to entertain - there was a wet bar, stereo, bathroom, gas stove, fridge & freezer) put on the Partridge Family records and sing along, playing air guitar or making drums out of coffee cans and padded chair seats, using pencils for drumsticks. That's how I learned to drum along to music really well, despite my mother's refusal to let me take drum lessons no matter how hard I begged and pleaded. Sometimes my cousins and I would stand on the picnic table outside and take turns singing the songs. Loudly. In our shrill 6, 7 and 8 year old voices. Good thing the Cape wasn't overpopulated like it is now, so there was no one to hear us except our patient (or deaf) families.
Late in the summer of 1972, we had a hurricane hit the Cape fairly hard. All the power went out early in the day, but I had my battery operated record player, so I put on a concert in the livingroom for my stuffed animals, with me singing along with my PF albums. They were a very receptive and enthusiastic audience too. And how cool did I feel in this "gen-you-wine" cobalt blue crushed velvet vest and pants suit, with the silver chain vest closure and white blouse? I was waiting for the PF bus to pull up in my driveway to whisk me off for some gigs!
The music is pleasant, and a lot of the same writers & musicians appear on both groups' album credits. Say what you want about David Cassidy. He was a fan of hard rock, he is an extremely talented musician, but he gave his all singing these sweet but sappy ditties that I'm not ashamed to still listen to and admit that I love, even though he truly hated the songs.
And both groups remind me of a really wonderful time in my childhood.
July 3, 2007
Happy Birthday America!
America turns 231 on July 4th. Happy Birthday USA!!! Too bad we couldn't have given her a new president and administration as a birthday present.
Wave that flag
Shine your shoes, light your fuse
Wave that flag
Back to back, chicken shack
Wave that flag
Hunter/Garcia
Thanks to Google Images and also to David Dodd's "Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics" website. I know the song by heart, but I don't think I could have typed it off the top of my head.
I've been tagged by KOTGD
1. When I was a kid, I couldn't turn off my bedroom light without first making sure that everything in my room was in it's place. My records had to be put away, clothes hung up, school books stacked neatly on my desk, all supplies put away in my desk. When I was satisfied, I would turn off the light. This habit continued through high school. ("paging Dr. Dwyer....")
2. My mom said I had a doll that I named "Riti", after "Rita" on "Peyton Place". I ripped the head off it and used to carry the head around by the hair. Mom said it was pretty gruesome when she'd get me in my crib and I'd be standing up, holding the head in one hand, with my other hand on the crib rail, grinning maniacly. She called my pediatrician in tears. I guess I knew then that I never wanted to have children.
3. First time I colored in a coloring book, mom said I picked up a black crayon and scribbled wildly all over the page. She called my pediatrician in tears.
4. Growing up as an only child in a remote & lonely part of town, my stuffed animals have always been my friends. They all have different personalities; I'd recite the day's events to them each night (found out later that my parents and any other relatives that were present would listen at the bottom of the stairs, trying not to laugh). I used to play cards and Monopoly with them (and I didn't cheat either). One night my mom heard me hysterically laughing when I was supposed to be sleeping. She called up to me to go to sleep to which I replied, "Trax just told me a funny joke". Trax is my well worn and much beloved stuffed horse that I got for Easter when I was 7. She called my pediatrician in tears.
5. I fell off the school slide in 6th grade and fracture my left wrist. This was 1976, so no, we didn't sue the school for not having a padded surface on which to fall.
6. I got a concussion at the Barnstable County Fair after trying to go down one of those slides with the bumps, on a burlap sack. I started sliding b/f I was ready & sitting upright, and my head bounced off every one of those bumps on the slide. The crowd laughed at me. I was hurt and humiliated. Not much luck with slides, eh?
7. I was on "Entertainment Tonight" in September, 1989, on the way in to a free Bob Weir/Rob Wasserman & Jefferson Airplane concert in Golden Gate Park. You had to bring canned food to drop off in order to get in to the show. ET stopped us to ask us questions, and the show aired that following Monday. We didn't tell anyone b/c we never thought it would be shown, but we received a ton of phone calls from friends and family who did see it.
8. I share my birthday with Jimi Hendrix and Caroline Kennedy.
I am tagging those listed below, to participate, or not!
FenwaysPal
Both gals at The Valentine Cat
IPod Librarian
Obsessed With Vincent
Val
Madi
Eliza
Axe