Friday, August 31, 2007

I'm Sad

One of my favorite things about my house is the big tree right outside my bedroom window. On weekend mornings I open up all the blinds and lay in my bed and look at my tree and think how did I get so lucky to have such a great tree to look at. Every season it changes and I discover more to love about my tree. Here are some pics of the tree in winter:




I have pics from other seasons but I can't find them right now.

So today I come home from work to find a massive hunk (about 2/3) of my tree is GONE. Seems my tree really is the neighbors' tree. And they are building a garage and had to remove the part that was in their yard. So now this is my view:



And if I look down--



LOVELY.

To say I am sad and angry wouldn't begin to cover it. This comes on the heels of my neighbor on the other side cutting down 4 big fir and pine trees in her yard. I don't have any before pics but here is one I took today. Before, we could barely see a part of her house, now look.



I know that people have a right to have their property the way they want, but damn!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Just Wondering

I have heard that when you lose an eyelash you should blow it off your finger and make a wish. Does the same hold true for a plucked chin whisker? Because I just wished for a pony...

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

OMG Cartoons!

OK so now we have DirecTV and now we get Boomerang, which are all the old Hanna-Barbaera cartoons. Tonight we watched the Banana Splits and Wacky Races. The cartoons were funny but the gem of the bunch was a live action short called "Danger Island". What a riot! Anyway, I got on the Boomerang website and stumbled across a profile of one of my two favorite cartoonists, Tex Avery (the other being Chuck Jones of course). This got me thinking about some of my favorite Tex Avery cartoons, so I googled "Symphony of Slang" and guess what, they are all on YouTube!! I am so happy!! So now it is time for you to be happy too. Start Here. One of the best cartoons ever. Be sure to watch the above-mentioned "Symphony of Slang", also "The Cat That Hated People", and the "Tomorrow" series: House of Tomorrow, Farm of Tomorrow, TV of Tomorrow, etc. I don't care what anybody says, the "cartoons" of today simply do not compare to these. Tex Avery and Chuck Jones were masters of the genre, and that's that. OK, now I'm going back to YouTube to see if I can find "Hillbilly Hare". Found it!

Monday, August 27, 2007

Changes Afoot

Well, this weekend I finally quit Comcast. Their phone service (VOIP) sucks, and our DVR was spotty too. I found out that with Qwest (I know) I could get DirecTV, a land line with unlimited long distance and fast internet for about $20 a month cheaper. We will see. So far the DirecTV has been great with none of the pixelly pausey crap that we were having with Comcast. The phone and internet won't be switched over until next week. This means that I will be getting rid of karlamell@comcast.net (go ahead spammers!) If I have your email address I will be sending a mass email from the new address, I think it will be a gmail one. Probably along the lines of my first name dot my last name at gmail dot com. Anyway, I may be without the internet for a few days so that should be interesting. Maybe I'll wash the dishes or vacuum. Hey, it could happen!

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Easing Into The Weekend

Everything you need to start a Saturday off right:



The Big Four: Coffee, Knitting, TV and Telephone!

So I'm watching last week's Soul Train and even though it was from the 80's, they had a flashback to the 70's and showed a clip of Jermaine Jackson singing "Daddy's Home" backed by his brothers:




Who are putting into practice what I always say: When in doubt, wear all the colors!

Then we come to the Soul Train Line, which I LOVE. The song today is "Rockit" by Herbie Hancock. Lots of skinny ties, suspenders, breakin', poppin' and lockin'! I was struck by this fashion accessory:



Why is she wearing raccoon tails as a belt??? WTF???

And what misguided designer thought THIS was a good idea? Let's make everyone look like they have giant hips and butts!



So you can tell I'm having a great day so far and it's only 10:15 am! Future thrilling plans for the day are to shower, have a sandwich, and switch my phone service! Then tonight I'm going to Faythe's for chili made out of bear and other wild game! I just don't know how my heart can take all this excitement. I know I've only been up for 2 hours, but I think I need a nap just from contemplating my day. Have a good one!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

I'm In Love With A Parking Lot!

I really have never given much thought to parking lots in general, but tonight I realized that I love one particular parking garage here in Spokane. It's the one underneath River Park Square. I love it because it plays Muzak. Not just any Muzak, but Muzak from the 60's! Everytime I go down there I get super happy and calm like a Stepford Wife. I roll down all my windows as I'm looking for a place to park, and I drive really slowly with a big stupid grin on my face. Then when I get out of my car I spin around to the orchestrated music like Mary Tyler Moore but without the hat throwing part. At $1.00 for 30 minutes, it's way cheaper than therapy and a lot more fun. I think I might just go down there one of these days and park and just roll my windows down and knit. YEAH!!

OH YEAH--
The best part was when we were leaving the parking lot and all these people were down there and it was like they didn't notice or care about the Muzak so I said to my kids "Nobody is appreciating the music" and Max says "That's because they're SANE!!" I loved that.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

A Trip To Costco

We went to Costco last night. I have been wanting a dry erase board for a while now, and since it is back to school time, they had them, so I bought one. I plan on using it for various lists and reminders. My kids, however, especially Max, plan on using it as a giant doodle board.



Notice my warning to them:



This amounts to an open invitation, and I took these pictures to document the before. The after I will post later.

I also got these:


Notice my warning this time:



Another open invitation, except I was telling the truth, they really won't like these! HAHAHA!!

UPDATE!!

What did I tell you? Here is what I found when I got home from work:



They also told me that they didn't like my snacks, I told them they wouldn't!! Lest we forget who we are dealing with here:




GOTTA LOVE 'EM!

Sunday, August 19, 2007

This Happened A While Ago

I just found this as I was cleaning off my desk yesterday. It is a list of songs that played while I was in my car during my lunch hour knitting. XM is great! My channel presets are Classic Alternative, Indie Bands, Classic Rock, Album Rock, 70's, 80's, Soul and Disco. Quite an array of music. So I was knitting and surfing the XM and I kept finding great songs one after the other, I love it when that happens! So here is the list of what I think are great songs:

25 Or 6 To 4 -- Chicago
Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves -- Cher
Rat Race -- The Specials
Man Out Of Time -- Elvis Costello
Express -- B.T. Express
The Look of Love -- ABC
Love Plus One -- Haircut 100
Wild Thang -- Tone Loc

That was a fun lunch!

New Places

I went to some places in Spokane this week that I had never been to but had been wanting to go to for a while. First, my friend Jennifer and I went out to dinner at Mizuna. I never went there with my kids because not only would the bill be enormous, but I would have to take the boys somewhere else for real food right after. Teenage boys just don't fill up on four green beans arranged in a fan shape next to four scallops and a brownie-size serving of polenta. For me though, it was great! I'm glad I got to experience it.
The other place I went to last night was the Garland Theater. Max and I went to see "Knocked Up". It was raunchy and funny and touching all at the same time, my kind of movie! And it was only $3.50 to get in. I don't know why I had never gone until now, my kids have been there plenty of times. It's a good bargain.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Life Is So...Lifey

I think that life should be fun, for the most part. Or at least interesting. Sadly, that has not been the case here. So I will try to take boring things and put an exciting spin on them by overusing exclamation marks. Here goes.

1) I had my hair colored and cut last night!! It looks fabulous!! It's shorter than I normally get it, plus my silver stripe is gone!

2) The boys went to an Indians game last night! The Indians lost!! Then they ate at McDonalds!!! (My kids, not the Indians!)

3) My kitchen looks like a bomb went off in it! And we haven't even made the peach salsa yet!! And now the peaches are getting overripe!!! Things are going downhill fast!

4) My cat Dolly won't stop meowing!!! What do you suppose she wants??? Probably to go outside and kill something!!

5) I put too much creamer in my coffee and now all I can taste is coconut!!

OK, that is enough excitement for one sitting. Have an interesting day. Here is some help: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! take as many as you need.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

A Sparkly Day

Today is a beaurtiful day here in Spokane. I just got back from the Farmers Market. Everything is in season now, and the market was packed. I came away with some goodies, though, and also was reminded of a happy high school memory by these:



This little bouquet of flowers reminded me of my old friend Jim. He was in my little group of rag tag friends, we called ourselves The Junkyard Gang and we called each other by our Junkyard names, which were taken from the turn of the century (the one before last). My Junkyard name was Gertrude. Other Junkyard Gang names were, Ethel, Hank, Agatha, Elmo, and Flo (which was her real name). Jim's Junkyard name was Igmo, which wasn't very grandpa-like, but seemed to fit him. He was really funny, and would do anything for a laugh. We exploited this quality in him often! But those aren't the memories I have today. My memory today was this. When we would cut school, which was almost every day, we would walk around town and in the spring all the flowers in the old Italian ladies' yards would be in bloom. I would get Jim to sneak into their yards and pick flowers for me, which he did at almost every house. And by the time we got to downtown, I would have a bouquet just like this one. Those were happy, carefree times. Jim lives in Portland and I hardly ever talk to him, but I think I will try to today.

Also at the market I got these:



There is already one peach missing from this box, it was great! We are going to make peach salsa today, even though we don't know how we are not going to let that stop us.

But first I have to wash my dishes. I put some of the flowers on the windowsill above my sink so I will have a happy dishwashing experience:



I wish you all sparkly days and happy dishwashing experiences!

Friday, August 10, 2007

Antique Living in a Modern World

I think sometimes about technology and how far it has come in such a short time. Just 20 years ago the VCR was big business, and now it's obsolete. I remember when I was young how excited I was for us to get a modern push button phone, and our microwave oven was huge and had these giant buttons. I remember about 25 years ago when my best friend Tami had a TV with remote control. You pushed the button and the TV dial actually turned. The word "digital" was not in common vocabulary back then.

Today, I am in no way tech savvy. I know how to operate a computer in the most basic way, I know my way around the internet, but that's about it. I do not have an iPod, I still own CD's and play them. I do not text message, I just call people and talk to them. My children have all that modern stuff and the knowledge to use it, because that is the world they are growing up in.

Every once in a while my kids and I all sit down in front of the computer and that is when I learn stuff. For instance, last night I learned about Chocolate Rain, and what it is to be Rickrolled. And while I'm glad my kids take the time to show me stuff because it means that they don't think I am hopelessly out of touch with the world, I'm a little irritated this morning because I can't get that stupid Chocolate Rain song out of my head!

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Taking 2 Home

We were in Seattle this weekend. We did all the stuff I said we were going to do in my last post, so I won't bore you with that, instead I'll bore you with this.

I had heard that Highway 2, which is north of I-90 and runs from Seattle to somewhere in the midwest, was a very scenic drive, albeit a good bit longer to Spokane than the 4 hour drive down I-90. Since we got a fairly early start this morning I thought we'd give it a shot. I was not disappointed. After a slow start through towns with names like Sultan and Startup, the traffic thinned and we proceeded to go into the mountains and over Stevens Pass. Now, I had heard of Stevens Pass since they always talk about it in the winter on the news, but I had no idea where it was. Well, it's right here:





These pictures were taken from inside my car by Leo, they do not do the scenery justice. Suffice to say it was amazing. As we were coming down the other side of the mountains, the highway followed the (I think) Wenatchee River:



I like this pic because you see Leo in the rear view mirror and also a reflection of his hand. Anyway, it was just beautiful. We came out of the mountains and right into Leavenworth, which is a cute little fake Bavarian town. Then it was on to the Wenatchee Valley, where we passed miles and miles and MILES of orchards. Okay, that whole Washington Apple thing? I get it now.




After that, the landscape changed dramatically:



and pretty much stayed that way until we were practically home. Every once in a while we would have to slow to 35 mph through little farm towns. I believe this was Waterville:



About 65 miles west of Spokane is the town of Wilbur. We stopped to get a burger here:




Delicious. And a great way to end a great drive. If you haven't taken Highway 2, you should.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Cleaning Out My Mind

1) We went to see our first Spokane Indians game on Sunday Night. It was great fun, even if the Indians lost. The only thing was that there was this woman about 2 rows behind us who was loud and had a comment at EVERY pitch and also sang loudly and badly to every little song snippet between pitches. We got to hear If You're Happy And You Know It TWICE!! I was not happy, and I knew it! Thank God she moved in the middle of the 2nd inning. Anyway, you can get good seats cheap and spend a warm summer evening outside watching a game. Unlike this weekend, when...

2) We will be going to Seattle to see a Mariners game. Seats were not cheap, they are halfway into the clouds, and I'm not so sure about the warm summer evenings over there. But as long as that singing lady is not sitting behind us, we should have a good time. For me, the best part of the trip will be getting to go to IKEA and Trader Joes! I'm so excited!! WOO HOO!! (that was me being excited). The only bad thing about this trip is the timing, because...

3) Our cat Grace can't move her back leg! She is at the vet now, and it looks as though there is a blood clot blocking circulation to her left hind leg. If the clot doesn't pass, she may have to get her leg amputated! We will know more as time passes, meanwhile Steve and Sara have generously offered to stay here and take care of her while we are gone if she comes home by then. I am so grateful for that! It is so good to have old and faithful friends up here, glad they decided to make the move with us.

4) OK I think that's it. Will keep you posted on Grace. If you are the praying type, say a little prayer for my big kitty, and for the boy who loves her so.