Thursday, August 27, 2009

Long Time No Bloggie


Hello!

Lots has happened since I last blogged. I've had a fusion surgery on my left foot and am currently convelescing in my lovely home.
The photo of my here was taken in the hospital last week, and there's my foot inthe foreground and my primary method of transportation for the next three months in the background. Like everything else I own, this little knee scooter has been customized and given a name. This is daisy. She's got a PowerPuff girl (Buttercup) strapped to her basket, got some lively pink and silver tassles on her handlebars and even a specially purchased teapot bell for dinging as I go 'round the house. She's really be a handy companion.

So let's see what all there is to catch up on....the weekend before I went into the hosptial, Kristopher and I made a daytrip over to Roslyn where we met up with Nick and Maggie and had lunch at the brick.

First picture was taken from the car on the road to Rosyln. It's really a pretty little drive.

The next one is of my little man. He wanted this to be a really nice trip for me, so he did all the driving. it was actually pretty great.
There aren't a ton of things to do in Roslyn, but one of them is the local museum. Here's a picture of my budding historian in front of the museum's outdoor exhibit.
The picture of the organ is just that...a picture of a really cool organ at the Roslyn museum. Hey! They can't all be significant!

And this one is of me and the little man out in front of the museum. Self-sufficient explorers that we are, this is obviously self-taken. There really weren't a lot of people under the age of 80 wandering around to ask.
My favorite exhibit at the museum was this old switchboard. It reminded me of my mother. This one was actually in service there in Roslyn until some time in the 1980s! There is much about this little town that appears to be frozen in time. And they are very proud that their little community was used for the filming of Northern Exposure. The crazy clock that was ordered by the hot-shot astronaut in one of the episodes is now in the Roslyn museum. It's really cool to see close up. It was made out of a bunch of random objects like paper plates - and then spray-painted gold. Check it out.
After the museum we met Nick and Maggie at The Brick. I should have taken pics of Nick and Maggie, but I suck at that kind of stuff. We had a nice meal there, and it was just fun to be in there. Check out the sign:

There's actually a working spit-river that runs the length of the bar. It's really kind of gross. You can just imagine what it was like when everyone was chewing tobacco and spitting into it. Ug! But it's a piece of living history, so in that respect, it's pretty cool. No.. I didn't take a picture of the spit river. Just use your imagination. It's a friggin' tin-lined trough in the floor that runs the length of the bar with a little river of fresh water flowing in it. When we were there a napkin had found its way there and was floating around. It kinda grossed me out. So no...no friggin' picture!

We did manage to get the classic picture in front of the Roslyn Cafe sign. Thank you Nick!
Another feature of Rolsyn is the cemetary. Or should I say "cemetaries"? There are 26 of them abutted one to the other there in the tiny burg of Roslyn. We took a pretty good look around.

There were cemetaries for Masons, cemetaries for various other religious groups, mini cemetaries founded by individuals, and yes...there is a Druid cemetary here. I'll have to be sure to remember to tell Leon about this one. I liked the sign. It was extremely cool with all the moss growing off of it. Also, something to note about ye olde druid cemetary...it was the only one around that had ferns growing in it. We took a pretty good look around, and none of the adjacent cemetaries had ferns. Hm... Hooo Doo.

There were lots of really cool headstones in this cemetary. They were made out of all sorts of different things. This one was made of wood. I was extremely impressed by its longevity. 100 years and you can still read the name and dates carved into this one.
I've been in quite a few old cemetaries, but this is the only one I've ever seen with little plots completely fenced off. Check this out:

Oh, and no trip or site-seeing venture is complete without a photo of my little husband giving me the high sign.
So that's pretty much it for Roslyn. And before we went to Roslyn, we had ourselves our 7th anniversary. Yep. Me and the little man have been married seven years. What a ride. And no, he hadn't been taking drugs when I took this photo. We were at the Claim Jumper restaurant, and my little man just gets embarrassed when I do things like take these long-arm photos of us. But hell! Someone's got to do it!

I think this has now officially become my longest post ever, so I guess I'll stop here. I think it's time for me to go and take a shower. Ye olde leg is starting to cramp, so I think I need to get up. Even though Ghost Busters is on the television and it's pretty compelling. Ha ha! Nothing like seeing Dan Akroyd in action. Oh! Right now Bill Murray is rolling around on the floor after having been slimed by the green spud.

Have a great day everyone!

Saturday, August 08, 2009

A Rainy August Day....


So we were supposed to have an air-conditioner delivered yesterday. We're certainly not in a hurry for it now that it has cooled off to a very Seattle-like 60 degrees. Oh well. It's a rainy, gray Saturday and I think that both myself and the husband are enjoying it very much. I'm in my music room playing with my computer and my flutes, and he is in the living room playing video games. We're going to an art opening later tonight. Can't say that I'm all stoked up about that either. Just had a second cup of coffee for the day and thought I would use the added energy to blog while I waited for the sugar to get rinsed out of my mouth so I can pick up one or more of my flutes. I've already put in two hours practice today but plan to do at least another hour. The weekend is time for me to get caught up on the practice I missed during the work week because I was too fried from the office-day to come home and put the lips on the plate.

So, let's see... on my last entry, I was putting up pics from the Seattle Flute Festival back in April - so I guess I will continue with that. In fact, the one at the top of the post is a bunch of flute players stretching under the direction of Lea Pearson who gave a very cool seminar on Body Mapping for Flutists.

So I think I already have a picture of Greg Patillo, the beat-boxing flutist with his ensemble Project, but here's another one anyway - he's cute. You'll get over it. And I'm sure that Eric Stephson and Peter Seymour will appreciate me calling them "Greg's Ensemble". Sorry guys. You are both bad-ass on your instruments and rocked that concert here in Seattle, but I'm a flute-nut, so I'm all about Patillo.



And second we have Project on stage for the main event:



And third, we have the stage after Project has gone into the wings. I thought it was a nice touch to leave the cello there.


So that's about it for the flute festival. I was too busy having fun to take too many pictures. One of the scenes I really wound up wishing I'd gotten was a shot of the vendors room. Good God....there was no way to capture the feeling of that room without having audio. What a crazy cacophony! Hundreds and hundreds of flutes being tested and pawed by hundreds of people. It was really something else.

And then there was a fun bike ride last weekend with me, Kristopher and a friend of ours, Lisa Lake. She works with Kristopher, but I claim her too. We had a deal where we said that whenever we went out riding together and took photos, we would crop from the waist up. So here are a few photos of our little 23-mile bike ride on on the Sammamish River and Burke-Gilman trails from last Sunday:

And here's one with my favorite sculpture on the trail. From one side it is a crescent moon, and from the other it is a salmon. Very cool indeed. We all had our picture done by it. (probably a stalling tactic as this is about 8 miles from the entrance where we started). Of coures, I'm a complete dumbass and didn't get a picture of the salmon side. Next ride.



And then here's the three of us taken from Kristopher's long arm.



So I'm tired of this post now. This is about all the blogging I want to do for the moment. Ug. Happy Saturday everyone!