Saturday, December 30, 2006

Happy Birthday Dad!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!
Today is my dad's birthday. He is 73 years young. And yes, we both age gracefully, but this photo was not taken today! Can you guess how old we are in this picture? Family members this hint is for you: we were in Texas and the TV show Dallas was all the rage.

Winter Beauty



I love snow. Whenever I go to the mountains to get my fill of the 'white stuff' I ask myself why in the world I ever left Wisconsin where snow was an inevitable occurrence anticipated by every child and cursed by those adults who had to shovel their way out of the mess and wait for snow plows to clear streets. Then I look at my Subaru's disgustingly dirty windshield or I watch parents of young children peeling off the layers of snowsuits and boots to change a dirty diaper and I remember why an hours distance from snow is a 'piece of cake' compared to living in the midst of it. I think of my cousin Sue in the Denver area and wonder how she is faring. Thus far this has been an incredible winter for the western U.S. and the Midwest is off to a slow start. But there is more to come as we are only a week into winter.

Blue Snow



The most beautiful snow is blue snow. Those of you who don't agree with me have never been in snow covered mountains in winter on a sunny day.

Snow at Snoqualmie Summit






There are times when I think I lead a charmed life. Thursday, December 28th when Anna Rae, her friend Chloe, and I went up to the Summit at Snoqualmie to ski and snowboard was one of those days. We have had SO much rain and downright unpleasant weather in Seattle this fall and winter (thus far anyway). Who was I to think that we could pick the very best weather to go up to the mountains? But as you can see from these pictures, there couldn't have been more perfect conditions. And yes, the parking lots and the warming lodges were very crowded but the cross country trail at Iron Horse state park was sparsely populated and Chloe and AR said that the lift lines and traffic on the slopes at Snoqualmie Central were totally tolerable. I skied a little over 2 hours. My guess is that in distance I did a little over 8 miles. I felt this to be perfectly respectable for my first time out this season. There are two pictures that I didn't get that I wish I did. One was of an army green military plane that came out of nowhere with incredible speed flying VERY low over Lake Kachless as I skied under the same blue skies that the plane was slicing with impressive finesse. The other picture was that of the sky just after dusk when it was neither blue, nor purple, nor black, but some breathtaking shade that was the mingling of all three colors.

Yummy!

This year's Christmas dinner wasn't a dinner, instead we opted for an appetizer buffet. It allowed for a little bit of everything; cheeses, dips, veggies, a lovely nicoise salad, teriyaki chicken wings, eggs poached in red wine, cookies, candy, peppermint mousse, and plenty of wine. The open tables allowed for lots of grazing and visiting all afternoon long. Kornowskes hosted us along with 6 other family and friends. The only thing I missed was a rousing game of dominoes. Maybe I will talk Anna Rae and Chris into a game
On New Year's Day.

Christmas Morning




The stately
tree on the left is the Kornowske's. They chose blue lights this year. The tree below is ours, decorated in our traditional white lights with red pointsettias and all the ornaments collected over the years. The gifts this year were more practical than usual but appreciated none the less. Anna Rae seemed almost as happy to open her memory foam mattress topper as she was to open the boxes that held sweaters and other clothes! Just how she is going to pack it to take back to Chicago, we haven't discussed yet.

Take a Bite!

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

O.K. so I really wasn't going to bake any cookies this year but when it came right down to it, I just couldn't resist putting together one batch of the traditional cut outs. Here we are doing our artistic best (hah!) to get them all frosted on Christmas Eve day. I reminded Anna Rae that when she was little she thought she was such a big help and she maybe frosted only 4 or 5 cookies and there always seemed to be as many cake sprinkles on the floor as there were on the cookies! But to not make decorated cut out cookies for Santa and all our holiday guests was just unthinkable!

Gutter Damage

Chris has since snipped the gutter off and we have called a repair guy but who knows when he will get to us. We talked to an insurance guy yesterday (YES! He called on Christmas night!) and he took details over the phone from Chris. He said he would be out to examine the damage for himself and make out a check within a couple weeks. As I ran through Lincoln Park in the rain today I was impressed with the huge piles of logs and debris and caution tape strung here and there. Some damage is more visible now that clean up has begun.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Trees Down in Arboretum


trees down in Arboretum
Originally uploaded by Lilbenne.

This, along with the next few photos, come from other photographers in the Seattle area. I actually took very few of the real damage, I guess I was too busy getting my exercise raking the yard and cutting up branches.

trees down at Lincoln park


trees down at Lincoln park
Originally uploaded by Lilbenne.

Sneaking through


Sneaking through
Originally uploaded by RichSeattle.

Smashed


Smashed
Originally uploaded by RichSeattle.

Power problems.


Power problems.
Originally uploaded by RichSeattle.

vw bus 4


vw bus 4
Originally uploaded by &y.
O.K. I went searching some other folks photos and I have for you some examples of what the damage was around town.

Summerfield Suites


Summerfield Suites
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
The hotel has this inner courtyard that it shares with an apartment complex. The heated pool and hot tub were certainly much appreciated luxuries.

The Wonders of Electricity


The Wonder of Electricity
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
We were one of the lucky few to have a hotel room downtown on Saturday night. Summerfield Suites on Pike offered reduced rates to Macys employees for the weekend and we snapped one up as soon as the offer was made. They were totally booked within an hour! I brought along all our frozen food and stuffed it in the freezer along with the 17 ice packs that I had in the picnic cooler. I also brought the slow cooker and put a pork roast in it and then we all went out shopping and marveled at how very crowded it was with wind storm refugees.

Look Closely


Look Closely
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
Anna Rae had about one and half hours of battery time left on her computer so we watched Danny Darko together and the battery died when we had about 15 minutes of the movie left!

Bundled Up


Bundled Up
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
I have taken countless pictures of Anna Rae while reading over the course of her lifetime but this one is truly priceless!

Clean up


Clean up
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
Look who has been trained in the use of the blower! She was none too happy about having her picture taken but she did a very good job cleaning up all the street debris.

Heat!


Heat!
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
My 'one match' fire roared away but it did not throw much heat. See the pillow? That is where I stretched out to read a book: The Inner Circle.

Roof 1


Roof 1
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
There are many pictures of dramatic damage from last Thursday's wind storm right in my own neighborhood but I took nary a one. Here's our roof after Chris put a temporary patch on it. We were without power for 45 hours which is nothing compared to some people. Our friends in Kent just got their power back yesterday; that means 6 DAYS without power! Fortunately they have a generator and heat with propane.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Statistical Facts to Consider

In the midst of all the holiday hustle and bustle finding this site reminded me to slow down and ponder my place in the world and to ask if I am doing enough to make a positive difference for others. Check it out: A Miniature Earth.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Where Else?


Where Else?
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

THE TREE

This tree is in downtown Seattle in the square known as Westlake Center. I took these night time Christmas light pictures on December 2nd, the night of the Figgy Pudding carolling contest. I sang with the Pacific Northwest FASOLA Singers. We were only one of 48 different carolling groups raising money for the Pike Place Clinic and food bank.

Originally uploaded by mtnester.

The Star

The star on Macy's (which originally was the Bon Marche) is a traditional part of Pacific Northwest holiday decor, even more so than the Christmas tree in the following photo.
The Star
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

STAR 2


STAR 2
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Ice Trap


No School Today

With temperatures outside in the 20s, this snow is not likely to melt much today. So today, Tuesday, is a snow day for us. What will I do with it? I don't know, but right now it feels pretty luxurious. I think I will go upstairs, pour myself another cup of coffee and pop a Trader Joe's blueberry waffle into the toaster.

Bamboo in Snow

The bamboo made a lovely sound as the wind brushed across it's snow laden leaves. I am glad I took this picture last night because this morning there is no snow on the leaves.

Snow Gal

So, after the game I was irked at myself for sitting in front of the TV for 3 hours while all this beautiful snow was blanketing the ground outside. Chris thinks I am a little nutty about snow and I suppose he is right. There are probably not many middle aged women who love to make snowmen (unless it's with their grandkids). But there I was, from 8:30 till nearly 10:00 at night, making this snow gal. It used up nearly every flake of the snow in our upper yard.

More Snow

Well, Seattle schools were open on Monday so off to work we trudged. Then, if you were watching Monday night football (as I was) you could see the white stuff coming down again with more vigor. Being as the Seahawks were playing the Packers it seemed quite ironic to see snow on Qwest Field. It looked more like Green Bay than it did Seattle. For those of you who wonder, whenever the Hawks play the Packers I am a Packer fan so you know that the final score kind of stung although the game was really pretty fun to watch up until the last 7 minutes. I took this photo of our deck rail at half time.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Snow!

OK, it may be bit hard to see in this picture but it did start snowing at 3:30 in our neighborhood and that means there is potential for a snow day tomorrow. Yippee!

Thanksgiving

This year Thanksgiving was at our house and we were joined by our friends the Kornowskes and my teaching partner, Sharon. We stuffed ourselves and then introduced Sharon to a short version of the dominoe game Mexican Train.
Friday morning at 7:30am I braved the crowds
and did a little shopping at Southcenter. It is SO luxurious to have a 4 day weekend, especially one that starts with a feast. The leftovers can carry us almost all the way to Monday.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Mole

Now I've heard people say that they had mice in their house and we even had rats in the attic of a former residence. But a mole? A couple weeks ago I went into my laundry room to toss the clothes from the wash machine into the dryer and much to my shock the dark fuzzy blob on the floor that I thought was a fallen sock, MOVED! That's no sock I shouted, it's a MOLE!
I scampered out of there pretty darn quickly and let Chris do the capturing. After this photo he released the little guy into our neighbors' yard.
We are not at all sure how the mole got into the laundry room although we speculate that he crawled in on a day when the weather was warmer and we kept the downstairs door open as we did yard work.

Lake Michigan

Chicago View from Navy Pier

Navy Pier

See that big black building? It's luxury condos.