March 18, 2010: fog and fish...

The sun was shining beautifully at our house at 7:45 when I left this morning. My car windows were all frozen solid. I was really looking forward to seeing if I could see the Olympics from East Bay Drive. When I got there, finally, I could see this much... ...and then a little more... but, town was socked in until late in the morning!

I had a great lunch with my friend Vicki...we missed lunch last week so we had to talk twice as fast today! We must be getting to be regulars at New Market, as we are fondly greeted by the cashiers there. One even fetched me a coffee refill after the restaurant was closed down and we were still sitting around visiting.

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When I got home it was still sunny but kind of chilly. Retired husband and I still sat out on the deck for an hour or so, petting the cat and watching the finches visit the bird feeders.

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For dinner we made salmon and Caesar salad. Here is my Caesar salad dressing recipe (the best, in my opinion!):

*1/2 cup mayonnaise; 3 T milk; 1 1/2 T lemon juice; 2 T Parmesan; 1 clove garlic, pressed; salt and pepper. Mix all together thoroughly. combine with romaine dressing, croutons, and an extra sprinkling of Parmesan. Grilled chicken makes it a meal. *this is an old family recipe I got on a crouton box.

I have been enjoying listening to Bruckner's Symphonie No. 7 and more particularly the 3rd movement. This is a piece W and I listened to "live" by the Olympia Symphony quite a few years ago, while homeschooling. They had a program where school kids could view the last dress rehearsal before a big (expensive) performance. We got to watch it, with the conductor stopping and starting the orchestra - making changes and do-overs. Very interesting. And one of the reasons I think we particularly loved it was the trumpet parts in it.

I have a four day weekend coming up, and for the last 3 days I have been making little notes of all the artsy things I want to work on. I mention this as extra motivation to make something and post it to my blog.

March 17, 2010 (my 171st posting!)

I bought myself these daffodils in honor of St. Patrick's Day and Spring is almost here - Sunday I think. They are very cheery yellow and smell very fresh. I put them on my kitchen windowsill where I see them all the time. We had an honorary Irish dinner tonight - Sausages and Champ (mashed potatoes). Walker was jealous, but he had Corned Beef and Cabbage and Irish Stew and "green cake" for dinner himself.

With the Luck of the Irish today, when I attended class with AJ, he went off to play games with the other kids and I got to sit on a bench for over an hour soaking up the sunshine and reading a book I brought along with me. It wasn't really warm out, but sunny and no wind. The kids all got hot with running around but I felt perfect. I feel like I may have gotten a tiny sunburn! For lunch I went to BK (I confess a weakness...) and I had to take a photo of this! Funnel Cakes at BK! No, I didn't buy any, but it did remind me of a time when we went to a country fair in Pennsylvania, and had the real thing! They were amazingly good! Kind of like waffles, but lighter, or Rosettes, if you know what those are. I imagine these are not so good, but I do like their advertising...

and a quick stop by Goodwill before going to work and I found this super beautiful amazing cigar box! It is special, meant to hold three special cigars! It smells really good inside and would make a perfect special pen box. The ribbon is original and meant to make it easy to get the cigars out. . .

And these two little frames. I found directions for making picture frames into cute little pincushions that I want to try. So, this is the before photo.

I am planning to sign up for a choir class at the community college. I am very excited about singing with a big group of voices, and no audition is required. Anyway, today one of my friends e-mailed me wondering if I knew of any singing classes and, aha! I think she will go with me. That will be fun, starting in April, going into June.

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Oh yes, W is planning to grow a goatee! He says he is one of two fellows he knows that doesn't have a goatee and he's going to try it! Hard to imagine, but it could be worse!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! March 17, 2010

Welcome to my St. Patrick's day posting! I was going to make a card for Tirzah out of this paper, but alas, I'm late! I think I might make an Irish journal for her instead... And who remembers Lucky Charms? This is a vintage image of the leprechaun guy. We were never allowed to eat them (oh, those marshmallow treats!) or was that my children I didn't buy them for?

This is the green I plan to wear on St. Patrick's Day. I have been warned that I will be pinched if I don't wear something green.

And, at Orla today, the young Irish dancers performed for us during lunch. They were so cute! There were beginners, intermediates and advanced. I loved the music too.

You could really tell how much fun these kids were having. There were a couple of boys dancing too.

And a little video I took. You can see my video abilities need a little work, but I thought Tirzah might enjoy this....

March 15 - a walk on the beach

I did go for a walk on the beach, but first I want to show you this page from my art journal. I pretty much stole the idea from a Somerset magazine but this is my version. I started with a photocopy of a French map; then I cut out a picture of ancient ruins. I cut out the flowers on paper napkins, carefully peeling away the layers of paper (this one was 3-ply), then decorated with postage stamps and "stuff". I painted over the top with "gel medium" which made the napkin flowers "pop" out. I also outlined them with black ink after it all dried. I think there is a message there, but it is deep within my subconscious. I went on some errands today, including visiting my friend Susan who wanted me to show her how to post photos on a blog. (I forgot to tell her that I learned everything I know from my 11 year old granddaughter!) I did help her though and she promised to send me a link to her blog once its the way she wants it. I need to figure out how to make one of those lists down the side of other blogs for my visitors to check out. (Tirzah?) I did a bunch of grocery shopping and took a quick spin through Goodwill (bought nothing!) and in the parking lot, I phoned Retired Husband to see if he wanted to go for a walk when I got home. I usually avoid this walk because it requires a steep downhill to get there, and a twice as steep uphill to get home! But its such a beautiful day and we are getting in pretty good walking shape, so...

This is what we saw! The tide was out and it was just beautiful and warm, and still. No one there but us and some seagulls and ducks. The trail was still kind of bad, but it wasn't too hard. We used to spend more time on this beach, in walking distance of our house. This was a good reminder. Its very peaceful.

There was also a heron on the beach. We tried to get closer but it flew away. If you click on the photo you'll also see a bird and a duck!

And here is some "spring vegetation"...

Another goofy picture I can't seem to resist. My arms aren't long enough and its out of focus, but you get the drift. We saw neighbors outside on our walk back and got to visit some people we don't see very often.

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A couple of things I forgot to comment on yesterday, about W. One is that when he went to the Regency Ball, they let them provide their name and title to be announced as each couple came into the Ball, and W was introduced as "His excellency, the right honorable WS, Chief Minister for the Dissemination of diverse Beetles and Small Rodents in the Colonies" (what an imagination!). And, he won an apple pie at the dance, which he accidentally left there. . . . . Which leads me to the title of yesterday's blog - 3.14 pi day. 3.14 is pi; and they had an event in which they eat pie on pi day. W was hoping to locate his pie and bring it to the pie day event.

3.14 - pi day...

This day didn't turn out as nice as was predicted, but at least it didn't rain. We went downtown Olympia (again!) and wandered about, ending up in an antique shop. It had been years since we'd been in that antique store so it was quite interesting. Then Phil got a phone call and we had to hurry back to our car. I snapped this picture when we were almost back to the car. I've never really cared for this statue that much, but I wanted to get the Olympics and there they were. I like it better now...

And we stopped momentarily by the fountain to get these blossoming trees with the Capitol in the background. You can see what a black and white kind of day it is. Phil needed to meet a friend and he dropped me off at JoAnn's with a plan to meet up again at Borders. That turned out to be really fun to browse JoAnns for 45 minutes, then go to Borders for coffee and a Spinach cheese omlette sandwich. I ran into Phil's sister there too! We stayed a little longer and he helped me drink my latte before heading on home. On the way home we made a deal: If Phil would build a nice fire I would bake cookies. I made "blondies". Its one of our favorites but I haven't made them since Walker went away to school! Now I know why! -- I won't have to make dinner tonight! : ) Anyway, W called shortly after, and reported on his Regency Ball and e-mailed us this sketch he made for the Mu Alpha frisbee tournament.... (the Eagle is flaming, and has a frisbee in his claws; the emblem at the bottom is a lyre with a crown on top, the emblem of the Mu Alphans).

The Regency Ball was fun in spite of a lack of sleep going on. Everyone dressed up, they would teach the group a dance, a dance would happen, and then they'd teach a new dance. They served punch, truffles, cucumber sandwiches. He said some people dressed in period costume, but mostly girls. The guys would have had to wear high heels with buckles on their shoes, knee stockings, short pants, and ruffly front shirts... That would take quite a confident man!

March 13: a trip to Japan, Friends, and flaming donuts...

This morning on my way to Rubbermaids, I stopped by the Japanese Garden in town, hoping for some good photos of flowers. Not much was in bloom yet, or was on its way out and not looking so good, but here is the pretty waterfall there. and some lovely flowers. I don't know what they are but they are very striking.

I had a nice time at Rubbermaids. It is always a treat to connect with my artsy friends, and my artsy sister. We always sit together and catch up on all the news. We didn't have any special demos today, so everyone worked on their personal projects, but we did receive a little book each, which we are all going to work on together. Each of 8 ladies has picked a word (mine is Remembrance) to design a page after, then next month when we meet, we will all exchange pages and there will be a page for Love, Rememberance, gratitude, etc. And there will be space for pictures, so we can each make our book into a special album. I'll post that as it happens.

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I had a little time after Rubbermaids and before going to the library, so I went to an antique mall I know and found some treasures: For $3 I bought a gallon zip loc full of doilies and lace and a couple of great decorative items. If you look closely you will see 7 doilies, an embroidered item, and a sequined rose. They are so cool!

Here is a close up of the sequined rose. I will have to find a very special piece to attach this to!

And I bought these two packets of buttons. Aren't these cute button packages? I have a plan for making pincushions out of small picture frames, and each will have a velvet backing and some kind of pin or button attached, along with long pearl headed pins...

At the library I went to my first event as a volunteer of the Friends of the Library. This is a group that does fund raising to help buy things for the local library. I was there to cut and serve cake celebrating the Library's 15th anniversary in their present location. I met some wonderful ladies! Gail, Margaret, Monica. I also met the Mayor of Tumwater and several of the fellows on the Board of Trustees of the Library. (They all disguised themselves as old guys wanting extra cake!) I even served cake to people I knew - my nephew-in-law and his child and an old neighbor I hadn't seen in a long time. "Would you like Chocolate or Vanilla?"

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And as for flaming donuts..... W called this morning to say that as part of his initiation process to Mu Alpha, his "big" brother, collected him at 11:00 p.m. last night and took him to Lake Winona, where they doused donuts with lighter fluid and golfed them into the lake! What a mental picture that is! W said it was a lot of fun and no they didn't eat any of the donuts.

March 12 - date night!

We looked on line for a movie to go to this afternoon, but just couldn't find something we both were excited to see - no chick-flick romantic comedy action packed with explosions movies! So we decided to take a gift card we received and go to Olive Garden for dinner. We got to Olive Garden and it was packed! people spilling out the doors packed! We didn't even ask how long, we just went to Papa Murphy's and brought home a pizza instead. I had time to go to the library today and pick up a couple of books I had reserved: True Vision is an artist journal book. Very cool and tons of great ideas. I have a couple of art journals started, some of the pages I have posted here and this will give me lots more ideas. The Journals of Dan Eldon is not exactly what I expected, but very interesting. Dan Eldon was war photojournalist who was killed in Somalia, but for his personal enjoyment he put together art journals of his daily life, filled with photos, tickets, memorabilia, his own personal artwork, etc. The Metropolitan Miniatures book is really a box, with 6 little booklets inside with miniature pictures of famous paintings from the Metropolitan Museum. Very charming and sweet. My mom and dad bought it for me at an antique store (for $1 they say!).

This Lobster sign just reminds me of W. He called tonight with lots of news. For any newcomers who don't know the story, he is in his first year at Hillsdale College, in Michigan. Monday he is signing up for the Fall Semester classes and this is his plan: Anglo Saxon and Medieval British Literature (Like Beowulf in the original language), Roman Civilization; U.S. Constitution; Intermediate Latin. Those are his main academic classes. He is also taking choir, Drawing, Shotgun (P.E.), and a long weekend class called "The Art of Rhetoric". This week he got to listen to a lecture by Mark Steyn, on political correctness. He said that was really good. Tomorrow he has a date for the Regency Ball, where the dress is formal, and they will learn to dance the dances out of the Regency period. (Would that be like in a Jane Austin novel?). He has lots of homework too.

One last thing, yesterday as I was leaving home, I drove by a neighbor's house and was shocked to see 3 ambulances and a fire chief vehicle in front. That was the house of the neighbor who used to babysit W when he was a toddler and is still a good family friend. I worried all day and when I got home Phil phoned their house to see if there was anyone home (I was too scared to call) - all was well. The Mr. had an attack of vertigo and they didn't know what it was so they called 911. They don't know why they sent so many cars! It was a good reminder to keep in touch with our good friends as we never know which visit could be the last!