if you want to say hello (or something less pleasant) get thee to the messageboard.

we've had our Approve 71 sign in the planting strip out front for almost a week now. it's baby's first yard sign and i'm pleased to be able to host it where it's visible in an area with lots of foot traffic. (and we are near the parking lot for the splitters.)

the signs come from cafe press and they're kind of cool - a printed vinyl pocket with a three-part wire frame. the whole thing ships in a tube but makes a nice flat and sturdy sign in short order.

after a day or two it had been knocked around a little. i shrugged it off, since there are always cars parked there or dogs being walked, etc. every morning on the way to work i would straighten it. later this week when i came home from work, the top of the wire frame was gone and the sign pocket was turned 90 degrees so that it was an indistinguishable shape and unreadable.

uh oh.

when i came home from an engagement last night, around 10:30pm, i found an Approve 71 sign on the ground down the block from my house. it had been split at both seams, like someone tore it as much as the tough vinyl would allow. i picked it up, and indeed, it was our sign. looked like whoever grabbed it scooped it up as quickly as they could and left the frame behind. i took the wire uprights inside and put the whole thing back together with an internal cardboard reinforcement and white duct tape. and put it back outside before going to bed.

WTF, Ballard, WTF. C and i think from the way the ground is torn up that passerby have both pulled it down and put it back several times.

the work stuff what ate my life is winding down a wee bit, just in time for mom and dad to arrive. i've missed writing here, and i hate how content-free 2009 has been. i will attempt to make May a month where i post more. not just more often, but with more substance.

- today (with five key minutes of consultation from an actual developer) i got my Omniture pilot project running. since yesterday i was told that the only person at my skill level who had tried it previously gave up, i am extra-pleased.

today i also had a mai-tai. and got doggy kisses. and walked barefoot on Alki.

- i haven't seen much of buhrger in this MTBWA, but any party where we all adjourn to the kitchen to play with non-Newtonian fluid is a success in my book.

-Norwescon was lovely, even though i didn't care about the writer GOH. i did have fun with friends, and good panels, and mimerki and i danced and danced. oh, and i bought a corset. i forgot to take a picture of me wearing it, but i swear that i will wear it more than just at con and therefore there will be pics and live sightings. we buy nice and spendy things to use them, dammit.

-kuki linux. i meant to wait until they had another rev or two under their belts, but then i accidentally zeroed Bianca's battery during the con which led to startup trouble and then i was thinking harder about how i should do a full backup to restore from and then i did and then what the hell if i don't like this distribution i can always roll back or try another one and okay the maintainer says one way to solve this issue is to edit grub...you know how it goes. it's slick and pretty nice and so far my only issue is that the Linpus i used to have had a circular scrolling gesture for the trackpad and i keep reaching for it. someone wrote the two finger gesture for Ubuntu, i bet i can look this up...

-i worked Saturday and Sunday this weekend. but i also had Norwegian pancake breakfast at Leif Erickson Lodge Saturday morning- a fundraiser for the Sons of Norway scholarship. Ballard is adorable and i love lingonberries. the lodge seems to be pretty modern but the walls have huge turn of the century paintings of Norwegian history. (no birthday party, so very tired.) and we made time on Sunday to get to the Friends of the Library booksale. i only bought 15 books this year only three of them were about linux and Sunday is half price day, so i got books and a burger and lemonade from the burger stand at the booksale and spent less than $15. hangar full of books is the reason a bunch of people come out and picnic on a beautiful day. i love this town.

last night we bundled up and walked around the neighborhood. since Matador was open we had dinner and drinks by the fire. Matador has an open fireplace with a bar curving around it; the place was hopping, but without a waitlist like a typical Saturday. there were few cars moving, but plenty of people walking with their babies bundled up like little starfish, and dogs in coats.

things were quiet again today; we were ordered to stay home from the second party of the weekend. Ballard has its priorities - C went out to get our usual Sunday morning coffee and pastry, and not only was the shop open but there were people hanging out inside.

we've had snow all day. we have at least six inches, and it keeps piling up. no wind here, just a white blanket over everything. the buildings outside are disappearing from view...which is definitely the snow and not the dark, since the white sky and the white ground are reflecting all the ambient light and making it full-moon bright out there.

we're sleeping on the futon in the living room, which stays warmer than the bedroom. we're eaten too many cookies, and made cake inna mug, and done all of kinds of useful-yet-stupid things like rearranging the office to expose more of the heater. (but of course we lost interest midway, so the bookcases in their new locations are mostly empty and there are books everywhere.)

local produce delivery by sailboat.

while i was waiting for the bus today, a pretty tough-looking white guy walked up to the stop. okay, he was trying to look tough, with close cropped hair and beard, and wannabe rapper sweats and shoes.

he looks all grim and cool and reaches into his pocket for his pack of smokes.

and then a ferret head pops out of the pocket. he's trying to casually put the little dude back, but in short order it's wiggling everywhere and he has to let it out on top of the newspaper boxes so his hands are free for the cigarette.

it's a lovely out tonight. cool but not cold; a nice night to walk home from the Tractor after dancing. it was a great show.

R and i parted ways at the corner, and i could hear some faint music and see a glow from my neighbor's van.* side door open to the light breeze, he was playing a keyboard, obviously puzzling out a new piece of music. i usually say hi when i go by, but he was so intent on sight reading that i didn't want to disturb him. and, yunno, one in the morning.

dude has a keyboard in his van.






*he lives in the van. originally i felt weird about having him on the block. but he's a nice older guy who does odd jobs, listens to NPR, and tinkers with his bicycle. he's as much a part of my world as the people in the condo next door with the escaping cat, the apartment manager in the building on the other side, the African immigrants (who really like lame Christian R&B) in the building behind us. i rather like having eyes and ears on the street near my house. i didn't realize how much of a fixture he was until the van was gone one day and C and i spent a week or so worrying about him - until we discovered that he had temporarily relocated around the corner.

today one of the people waiting for the bus was a guy using a worn bokken as a cane. he was carrying two plastic bags of groceries in the other hand and had his bottle of juice balanced on his head.

the juice did not appear to be a stunt, but simply the thing to do because he was out of hands. he put his bags on the bench, and when one of them spilled over he got down and righted it without the bottle shifting.

Austin Cantina's cornbread is achingly good. also, i think the beans served with my omelet today may have been dusted with crack.

la la la, i'm on vacation, i will take my book to the tea shop that makes crepes and have a lovely late breakfast. i reach for my coat and look out the window by the coat tree to see that someone else is having breakfast out today.

my guess is Peale's falcon, but i'd love it if someone with more bird knowledge could tell me more. EDITED TO ADD: info from the comments says juvenile Cooper's hawk. i was guessing a falcon because it wasn't as big as other hawks i've seen. cool. our yard has always been popular with wildlife; tons of birds and squirrels, an oft-used raccoon trail, and a hangout for neighborhood cats. this is the first bird-on-bird action i've seen.

this weekend is Seafood Fest and the Ballard sidewalk sale. (i indulged on Thursday at Market Street Shoes. 3 pairs, plus smartwool socks. if you can find Clarks elsewhere for $20, let me know.) we rambled the closed off streets, ate seafood onna stick, ate swedish meatballs, ate weirdly good "troll wrap, Inga" made of dill/chicken/lingonberries, poked at the store displays, and tasted spice blends.

the haul: 6 spices inna box, one bottle of sauce, one super-discount "Verite Coffee Ballard USA" hoodie, and a small whole salmon (less head and innards)

the salmon thing was odd. there are signs up all over for $2 per lb wild salmon, benefits charity. so i got a 6lb one, which is just the right size for our grill. turns out it benefits a group of christian missionaries - there was a brochure in a plastic bag in with the fish, but since i was already up to my elbows in salmon juice it went in the trash. the world may never know. meanwhile, we are using book learning to grill this puppy, a combo of Steven Raichlen and Alton Brown rubbed with the onion and herbs. first whole fish on grill for us; at least it *smells* awesome right now...

i think of Mars Hill Church as the parking problem over by Fred Meyer. sometimes the place that hosts the Paradox. they even sound like good neighbors until you get to the parts about women. (and is Ballard really hip?)
my uncle-in-law sent me the article below, from Salon.

( come as you are )

just as i stepped on the bus today, i noticed that someone had carefully arranged gummi worms in real worm positions around a crack in the sidewalk.

we had an invite for free dinner from India Bistro to celebrate their anniversary. i assumed that was a free entree. no, it was a lovely buffet and tableside naan service. they were only charging for drinks, and since we had no idea we had only water and ended up leaving a tip out of gratitude.
i was extra-early for the screening of Call of Cthulhu, which was good since the lines were huge for ticket holders, pass holders, and ticket buyers. it's a black and white silent short, done in the style of film contemporary with the writing of the story. as the director pointed out in discussion afterward, Lovecraft isn't filled with stong characterization or snappy dialog. or a swift moving plot. the narrative quality of silent film seemed perfect, and it is. it showed with two other shorts that made very little impression on me.

C let me sleep in this morning and then we wandered down to Hattie's Hat so that i could have swedes. (it is only at this moment that i have connected my morning craving for swedes and Hattie's to seeing a swedish vampire flick the night before.) we had a spirited discussion a while ago with mimerki and butterflydrming about how Hattie's is a vampire diner, but a loser vampire diner. since the remodel is complete, i think it's even more appropriate, although they might attract a higher level of vampires since the windows in the back are gone and the entire place is a bit dim. what used to be "Aunt Harriet's room" now features booths that appear to be named after cows or scandinavian girls (isn't it funny that i hear a name like Mae and immediately think bovine?) and a large saltwater fish tank. they have a cowfish! there are also small sharks, but cowfish!
we strolled home up Ballard Ave and stopped for coffee on the way (i can't remember the name of the shop, but it might as well be called "coffee and a lawyer" because of the juxtaposition of their sign and the law firm that must be upstairs)...lots of people out strolling and walking dogs.
we got to see the Dante's Inferno hot dog cart being loaded out of a rental truck into position at Bergen Place. i tried to snap a picture, but it didn't come out - the cart was alone on the street with a strap over the food compartments and a sign that said "back in 5 minutes. no touch!"
the rosebush is collapsing under the weight of all the flowers, and the lavender i planted is almost ready to bloom. i have two movies today.

i went home early yesterday and took a nap. it never ceases to amaze me the way an hour of sleep can knit up my ravelled self.
i finally finished watching In the Mood for Love in time for butterflydrming to arrive and share a cup of tea. (an observation on the film later, perhaps. it's lovely, and i need to watch it again. let the phone ring three times, then hang up.) buhrger wasn't too far behind, and there was enough time for more tea before C was home and ready to eat.
La Carta de Oaxaca was absolutely packed (not unusual, but more than i expected on a Thursday), so butterflydrming and i waited for takeout and sent the introverts back to the house to be quiet together. i got to introduce butterflydrming to Dandelion Botanicals while we waited. (where she immediately started a conversation with one of the proprietors and left with an email address and a promise that they would try to make some tea soaps.)
even though i love sitting in the restaurant, having takeout was fun; we lounged about the living room and unwrapped banana leaves and talked about things that matter. (Chicken Soup for the Geek Soul: Worst. Chicken Soup. Ever.) there was more tea, and some chocolate, and hugs all around. and very few dishes to wash. (i enjoy hearing buhrger ask for herbal tea with a pronounced "h." perhaps not as much as spazzychic likes to hear him say about:p)
after the guests headed out, i was possessed by a need to rearrange the furniture in the bedroom. i must have done something right since i had the best sleep of the week, and bounced out of bed this morning in time to put on stripy socks and catch the express bus.

oh, and thegreymouser is my hero.

at the fabulous Floating Leaves:

Friday April 21 at 7pm
Koto music for chocolate lovers by Brian Falconer
Come join us for a chocolate feast! We will offer special parings of tea and chocolate for this night's music. The selections of speciality chocolate is provided by Theo Chocolate (www.theochocolate.com). They offer premium, organic, and fair trade chocolate. Indulge yourself in chocolate, tea, and music for chocolate lovers!

We take reservation for this event.

which would make me triple-booked friday. damn.

even though i'm pretty sure BSG has jumped the shark, this made my walk to yoga last night a little more pleasant. i snapped a picture on the cameraphone on the way to the bus today.