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

there was a genuine downpour as i was heading home from work today. not a problem. waterproofing on coat, bag, and boots worked perfectly.

i baked winter squash with chicken-apple sausage for dinner. and then we made chocolate pudding (hot) for dessert. the heat is on, and In Search of the Trojan War is on in the background.

it's a good night.

today is supposed to be the worst day of the year. i had the day off (thank you, Dr. King) and it's been quite pleasant. here you can see what people wanted to say to the internets on Blue Monday via warren_ellis: page 1, page 2.

i made a macro at C's request, inspired by this.



made not one, but two experimental homemade light boxes this afternoon with scarlettina. the first one was too large for the throw of the lamps we had. i put together a second smaller one in short order. when we set the reject on the floor, Merlin moved in right away. so it counts as success all around.

C and i bought some lovely baby bok choi at the farmers' market on Sunday; tonight we made stir fry with that, Japanese eggplant, and red bell peppers in curry coconut sauce. i think this is the first time i have seen C devour a bowl of only vegetables and ask for more. he also happily ate baked acorn squash for lunch today and asked if i could pick up another winter squash so we could have more. i don't know who this man is, but i'm hoping the sex is good.

i had a moment of Seattle-squee over the Chinese New Year decorations that are up at the local grocery store.

now i am trying to remember if they also had them at HT (the grocery store that replaced Larry's at Oak Tree) when we stopped by last night. i'm sorry we hadn't gone there before. it's kind of like Ranch 99 plus Russian and Mexican stuff. there's horchata in the cooler, and the packets of drink mix mrdorbin and southplains brought back, and masa, and giant tubs of lard. i need to spend more than 15 minutes there next time. (we were there because we went to see Tale of Despereaux next door. C chose it for the mousies - and it was okay. i probably enjoyed the Up preview more than the feature.)

the snow is back again. i'm inside and warm, i don't have to be anywhere tonight and it should melt off by tomorrow anyway.

C and i are the same age again, as we are for 46 weeks of every year.

the past few weeks have been pretty lovely for me, and i found myself resistant to writing about it, lest it crumble about my ears. this has been a season of unwelcome change for too many others.

thanks to their family rescheduling, we got to join markbourne and e_bourne at the Symphony. it was lovely. the seats were very close to the stage, so we could see all the faces, the pattern of the grain on the cellos, which men like to wear fancy socks. one of the bassists looks like he could be matt_ruff's little brother, the concertmistress wears clear plastic heels, and Ode to Joy live is pretty freaking awesome.

so, stuff i should have mentioned:
Ballard now has a stupidly named take-n-bake pizza place. i do not wish to reward cutesyness, but damn, we've tried the pizza and a couple appetizers now, and it is delicious if you like thin crispy crust. the service is excellent. they are also on Capitol Hill and in South Lake Union. sigh. it's called 'zaw.

C's beard trimmer died. as part of doing research on potential new trimmer of great happiness, i came across beards.org and Beard Board. there is a charming world of men helping other men grow and care for their beards. and it seems to be comradely and not cruise-y.

Sing-a-long Sound of Music. honestly, the attempted props were lame, and the costume contest went on too long. but seeing that film on a big screen with the lyrics provided, along with a couple thousand other musical theatre nerds (and the lovely scarlettina) was priceless. i discovered it only that afternoon, or i would have organized a group. next time for sure.

we have noisy Doctor Who mugs because our friends are awesome. (hopefully this next guy won't suck. i was hoping for Chiwetel Ejiofor, or at least Paterson Joseph. oh well. at least we're getting rid of RTD.)



i was streaming Outsourced as pleasant background noise. i kept catching C really watching it. because, as he says, it's sweet.

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.)

this weekend i watched streaming movies via Netflix/XBox live.

i also used Google street view as a visual aid to give directions to folks from out of town.

i wish i could sleep in on the weekends. i determined that i would skip Glitter to do just that, and then popped awake at 7am anyway.

i'm pretty confused about my health...after two days of listlessness and hacking cough, i was almost bouncy through last night's Star Wars game. then cruddy again this morning until C brought me coffee. now i'm sniffly, but not broken. um, okay. maybe i'm allergic to work.

the new Blade Runner cut is satisfying. locals are encouraged to see it on the really big screen. best surprise: Darryl Hannah's acting. Pris has very few lines, but there's a great deal transmitted before and after they're spoken. (i know that part of missing this previously was having a child's understanding of the film. the rest is getting to see a dimly lit film in a clean print on a big screen instead of on a television.) also, i had forgotten that Edward James Olmos' character has blue eyes. worst addition: extra gore. it's completely unnecessary and breaks the noir sensibility of the film. i'm looking forward to the DVD set. this was the first time i was asked to fill out a before-and-after audience survey. it appeared to be feeling out interest in a wider theatrical release, plus marketing choices. (the thing they failed to cover was the fact that i am still attached to the 1982 domestic cut and care most about getting the DVD set that includes it, even if it's just the chance to really compare them. it's why i hadn't thought about buying a DVD of the film up to this point. Highlander and Aliens are the only director's cuts i've seen that completely supersede the theatrical release.)

i bought drapes for the living room and hemmed them. i made myself a fleece scoodie. (see?) i really need to make myself finish the quilt that has to be done by the end of the month.

running the vacuum before people arrived last night felt way too good, like some Stepford-style tinkering with my brain.

i started reading Blood Meridian yesterday, but had to put it down. being deep into tech writing/editing mode apparently means that my brain rejects fiction that is chock-full of sentence fragments.

Dear Internets: okay, i can deal with NaNoWriMo ad nauseam for the anticipatory second half of October and all of November and then the navel-gazing of early December, but only if we stop the NaBlahBlahMo everything else. stop the camel-case. stop the portmanteau. reading, blogging, knitting...you suck. you suck like the people who made wearing a colored ribbon meaningless. you suck like the people who turned rubber bracelets into a fashion accessory.

thanks (i think) to sinthrex who turned us on to Yahtzee's reviews. it's so sad when you watch even if you don't care if you have played or will ever play the game. (pixxelpuss, check out the one for Peggle.)

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...

recently, mistakes were made. the large green pillow on the couch had chocolate thoroughly melted into it. (it's amazing how much damage the weight of an adult male can do to an After Eight mint.) since that pillow is older than our relationship, i thought it *might* be time to toss it in the washer. mistake two: it survived laundering just fine, but we never could figure out how to get it dry. after a few days we gave up. i can't feel guilty, since i think i bought it in 1993.

this opened the door to a new big pillow. i took C with me to the fabric shop a)because it's his couch too and b)to keep me from staying there for a few hours pawing through bolts. my enabler got me out in good time, but with two 24" pillow forms, two fabrics, and extra yardage of each for other projects.

pillow covers make me happy. they take no pattern, almost no time, and can usually be made out of a bargain bin remnant. i get a little buzz out of finishing a project, especially one that's quick and nearly foolproof. we must need more throw pillows somewhere.

my grandboss has officially said stay home. (which i was already doing because WSDOT and C said so.)

i just got coffee and groceries. it's solid ice from my house to QFC. since (of course) we have no snow shovel, i found myself de-icing our back steps with kosher salt. good thing i just bought five pounds at Big John's.

i have the curtains open to catch all of the sunshine glinting off of the ice. the heaters are making little ticking noises.

soon enough i will make me some white-trash comfort food. one of the few things i retained from girl scout camp (besides that little girls in groups are whiny and boring) was a canned food classic: bags of gold. that would be dumplings made from canned biscuit dough wrapped around a chunk of processed cheese (ideally velveeta, but folded american slices will do) cooked in canned tomato soup. these days when i indulge the soup is low-sodium and organic, but there's really nothing to be done to make the dumplings any healthier. today i don't care. it's bloody cold.

in each of our dwellings, we have had a room designated as C's office space, that room with a door that closes that every writer is supposed to have or they will die or explode or something. this room has always turned into a continuous pile of paper, books, and boxes so unpleasant that C would cease to work there. (he does all of his writing on his laptop in his favorite chair by the window.) meanwhile, the pile of stuff would mount up, things that mattered to one or the other of us would get lost or broken, C would tell me i couldn't touch the piles and promise to take care of it. then he would, say, move his model painting onto the dining room table because there was no space on his work table, and wonder why i was upset.
but we have problem solving skills.
since C won't work in the room, there's no reason for it to be his office. so we busted our asses this weekend to make it a happier place, focused on books and hobby storage. we added three bookcases to the house, which have eliminated the piles of books everywhere and opened up some shelves near the big kids' table to store C's minis and my overflow quilting stuff. i'm willing to share table time in return for getting the office thorn out of my paw.
before bed last night, C was sitting at my computer playing Bejeweled (i'd think it was funny if he wasn't so damn good at it) and i was curled up in the sumo, chatting as he went. the best/worst part of the conversation was when he said that he felt like he would like to spend more time in this room now. it's okay. it feels like a place to be, rather than the extra-wide crap-filled hallway to the bathroom.

today i'm home, cracked out on migraine meds, but i'm happy.

French onion soup will be ready in approximately five minutes.

it was an excuse to buy gruyere and some good sherry.

i cut my hair yesterday. as in, after a few hours of looking into salons and barbershops, i walked into the bathroom with a pair of scissors. fortunately i'm a bit more skilled than i was when i was five. 4-5 inches of dry stingy bits are gone. it still rests on my shoulders.

yay, it has body again. boo, it has body again. i have ridiculous bedhead right now. (it's not that bad, really. if it gets shorter than my ears it starts to stand straight up. heh. i had spikes back in the day because they were the easiest thing to maintain...)

i have no idea why i am awake right now.

i can still taste the strawberry mochi ice cream i just ate. we bought a box yesterday and there's only one piece left now, but it is the best way to have a very small amount of tasty ice cream.

the house is cleaner (and will continue to be even more clean if i don't end up napping this afternoon) and i made tremendous bbq chicken on the grill for lunch. somehow everything tastes better with fire, eaten outside. the engineering of the Weber kettle really is perfect, and i continue to be grateful to K&J for the extended loan of their lawn furniture.

C is listening to a playlist of Bulgarian, Russian, and Ukrainian choir music on Rhapsody. it's stunning.

i watched Wonderfalls this weekend. i'm sorry i waited so long.

happy post-Canada Day, and happy Independence Day...may they all be so peaceful.

i have some kind of summer cold. chills, itches, sneezes, sore throat.

a good weekend. photographers tend to minimize Neil Gaiman's incredibly large nose. (thanks, hgross.) i'm sunburnt. my photos from the solstice parade and pageant seem to feature a lot of cock. secret festival #4 was like Titanic. despite that, i'm considering SIFF an overall success.

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 admit that i've become one of those city dwellers who is so fulfilled by that which is within the incorporated city limits that i rarely leave. while i'm appalled with two p's, it has its own freakish logic.

Friday night we were supposed to do a prisoner exchange at a Fred Meyer somewhere around Redmond, so that i could go work on the quilt and C could play at G3. having never actually ventured to said fair city, i relied on C to navigate. so we were hopelessly lost, and i was near panic as i discovered that Redmond is, in fact, one continuous shopping center. the town hall and the fire department are in the same complex as the Gap and a multiplex movie theater, and my farmgirl heart just screamed. we made our rendezvous with the help of technology, and vowed never to live there ever. EVER.

the quilt is finally basted together and Vasiliy, my friend T's russian blue cat, immediately sat in the center of it and began licking his crotch. T snapped a picture which i hope to post soon.

today we went on a trip to Vashon Island, part of the fulfillment of C's Yule gift to me of a list of experiences. seattle told me there was nothing to do on Vashon but ride bikes and the strawberry fest once a year, and so did our co-worker who grew up there. but being a rural girl, i thought i might be more easily amused than the jaded denizens of Oz. so we thought, hey, there should be a chamber of commerce brochure at the ferry terminal and we'll play it by ear. the ferry ride was refreshing and pleasant although brief (it takes about 15 minutes to make the crossing). we looked for info in the brochure rack on the ferry, and ended up picking up one on a Western WA winery loop that we'd like to try, and one for an alpaca farm on Camano Island that gave us fits, and has led to the change in journal title. ultimately, there is no one promoting tourism on Vashon, no signs directing you to points of interest, and no place that would serve us food between three and five PM. there was a man making hula hoops, and a bookstore that yielded a used book on altering clothes and what i think might be my next quilt pattern if i finish this one. we agreed that Bainbridge is the nearby island of choice, and after failing to get served a late lunch, went back to Seattle, where they understand us. the ferry ride home did yield jellyfish sightings, and an appearance by Mt Rainier. C took me to Pesos for what had finally become dinner, and then chocolate and a margarita, which led to activity at home that left C happily almost passed out and me disoriented and nearly late to see Julius Caesar.

Wooden O's JC was pretty okay, although the production relied on a heavy sound plot and miking, which gave out in the middle of the show, with no intermission. i was disappointed, since the company was pleasant, and my chair was unpadded. i was able to quilt on and off throughout, so i'm hopeful that if i keep dragging it with me places i won't be working on it forever.

i got a cel phone tonight. this is the first one ever (i've used one that C's parents supplied him because they are lovably paranoid, but it was never meant to be used from the other side of the country) and it was way too easy. we went to Sam's, i filled in a tiny amount of info on a form, picked up some toilet paper and kleenex, checked out, got into the car, and called both sets of units while C drove us to Costco.

it's the flippy kind. we can pretend it's Star Trek with frabjousdave

we ended up at Sam's and Costco because the Yule ham was FROZEN at Sam's; the properly stored ones at Costco were a buck cheaper a pound too. at least if Costco ruined theirs they were sneaky about it.

Sunday was a good day and i'll write about it later; it was filled with various kinds of artiness and the pleasure of meeting the_monkey_king.
tonight instead of A Guide to Visitors, we had a quiet evening at home with stir-fry, reading and writing ( spoiler filled bit about Set This House in Order )

C had a long nice talk with his brother. we had a long nice talk with each other and i type while he showers and then there will be snuggling.

(going back to work today did not entirely suck, but close)

i can't get into my email today. i don't know why. this leads me to ponder just what goodies might be awaiting me. and i do actually get goodies, since i've managed to keep my spam count extremely low. (must be the tight underwear)

are there free passes to Dracula? a sale at Victoria's Secret? communiques from the other coast? the mind boggles.

now i don't know if i want to get into it. it's bound to dissapoint. but it keeps me from being VERY UPSET.