Postcards from the Trail

God we have been in such a rut. It is so tough when it is spring and G is busy with plant sales and working in the nursery. Plus there is so much to do ourselves in the yard. It has been ages since we have been out to dinner or even ventured together to downtown Seattle. But the plant sales are done so I suggested that we go to dinner.

E-Gullet has been highlighting a thread on their board about a new restaurant called Union. It is at the south end of the Pike Market near the Seattle Art Museum. It sounded very interesting. I was torn between going to Rays for some good Copper River or trying something new. It is somewhat hard with G because he doesn't eat meat, only fish, when we go out. So it is important to have a good selection of fish or vegetarian on the menu. He hates it when we go out and there is one fish dish and it has some type of meat in it.

After reviewing the thread, I was definitely intrigued and G seemed to be game for trying something new. So I made a reservation on OpenTable and we planned a nice night out. We gave ourselves an hour to drive into downtown Seattle since it was the Friday of Memorial day. It wasn't bad until we got off on Stewart. It took me almost as long to get from the Freeway to 1st and Union as it did to drive down to the exit. We parked next to the Wild Ginger and we there a bit early for our 5:30 reservation.

We were one of the first for the evening. It used to bug us to be alone in a restaurant but no longer. It is actually kinda nice. The server explained the restaurant concept. Instead of the typical appetizer, salad, entree, there were three courses groupings on the menu. The plates are small so you are able to taste several different items. A person with a good appetite can easily eat three courses. Or there is the tasting menu which has 7 courses and is an exceptional deal for $45.00. But as usual, it included meat so it wasn't an option for us.

We decided to have all three courses and ordered a bottle of french Sancerre. The server brought by an amuse bouche of a bite of poached Cooper River Salmon. It was just cooked to lightly and was very tasty. G started with the Mixed salad with goat cheese and hazelnuts. It arrived in a tower of greens on top of the goat cheese and hazelnuts. Very good. I had an outstanding crab and avocado salad. It was crab and avocado mixed together into a circle topped with miners lettuce and accented with an herb oil. For our second course. G had the softshelled crab. It was lightly floured and fried. It was accented with sauted porcini and saba. I couldn't remember what Saba was until we asked, basically a basalmic like vinegar made from grape juice mosto. Excellent! I had the morel ravioli with favas. The favas were great and the ravioli very good but I didn't get a strong taste of morels.

For third course, I had the beef loin with shallot sauce and grilled young red onions. Perfect. G had the Copper River with morels and peas. It was just as he liked it.

I was not full so I wanted dessert. I toyed with the idea of having the cheese course but wanted something sweet. Most of the dessert menu was chocolate. There was a rhurbarb crisp but I'm not into rhurbarb so I decided on the Chocolate Espresso pot of creme. Very good. I also had a glass of dessert wine from France. G decided on a grappa.

After dinner, we decided to walk up to see the new Seattle Library. What a wonderful building. It is so Dutch in being functional and designed. The entry from 5th Avenue is stunning. It was closed and we can't wait to go back to go inside.

It was so much fun walking around and seeing the buildings. Looking at the design on the Cobb building and the lines and views. I miss not going downtown as much since G no longer works in the market. We must do this more often.

Last Thursday we went downtown for the art walk. It has been a while since we visited the galleries. It was the perfect way to spend the evening.

We started the evening with dinner at a rather new restaurant called Crow. It is located on lower Queen Anne. It was fun. They have gotten several good reviews and the restaurant was listed in the Seattle Times Sunday Magazine as one of the hot bistros in town.

We went early (5:30 pm) and we were a bit surprised to find that it was going to be difficult to get a table. There were only one or two tables taken. They usually allow 2 hours for each seatting and had full seattings at 6:30-7:00pm. I explained that we were planning on a quick meal because we were heading out to the Pioneer Square galleries. Perfect. As long as we were out by 6:30 or so, they could seat us.

I don't remember what used to be there. The room is large and open. You can see from the bar through to the kitchen. They have seating around the kitchen which look really fun. You can watch them prepare dinner. I've got to try that.

We looked over the menu. G doesn't eat meat but does want fish on the menu. They only had the fish of the day which was seared scallops with bacon. I know... we could request them to make the dish without the meat. We'd probably do that but we have had a very bad experience at another restaurant where we requested that they not include the meat. The waitperson brought the dish and immediately grabbed it back and said that it was prepared with the meat! So there I sat eating my dish while we waited for them to correctly prepare G's dish. Plus it made us feel so awkward when they quickly grabbed the plate back after sitting it down. It has made us very reluctant to try it again.

Okay, end of long story. We decided instead to order a couple of the small plates along with salads. I ordered the iceburg lettuce wedge with blue cheese. Nicely prepared with an ascertive blue. It came with a half of hard boiled egg and a crinkle cut raw carrot. G had the greens with blue cheese, pear and walnuts. I had a taste and it was nicely done. The vinagrette had a touch of tarragon.

For the small plates, we ordered the curried mussels, Brandade fritters. Both were wonderful but I really liked the curried mussels. We sopped up the broth with the crusty bread. Along with this we each had a glass of wine; G had a glass of Fairview Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa and I had a glass of Kris Pinot Grigio from Alto Adigo area of Italy. We have had both wines before and they were good. My only small complaint is the small pour they do for the glass of wine.

Off we went to the galleries. Our favorites ended up being the two we first visited; Linda Hodges and Global Art Venue. We were amazed at the watercolors by a Polish artist at Global Art Venue. There was also some nice glass.

It was a nice way to spend a Thursday evening.

It can be so tough here in the far corner of the US to get in the holiday spirit. It is cold, drizzly and dark. The sun comes up around 8am and sets shortly after 4pm. Eight hours but it can feel even shorter when the day is dark and cloudy.

We are not giving gifts this year so we don't have the pressure of running around finding the perfect something. We have gone downtown for breakfast and to look around. It is great not having to be obligated to make purchases.

We also do not have a Christmas Tree. We got out of having one when our kitties were little. We didn't want them to terrorize it while we were at work. We just didn't get back into having one.

But we do like to have a lot of light during this time and do as much as we can outdoors. We have strung lights around the living room and on our fig tree. I purchased a wreath and have a nice bouquet of white flowers, seasonal evergreens and holly. I also pull out a lot of candles to add a warm glow to the room.

This year has also been very mild. It has not snowed this year and there have been few frosts. And we have had several warm sunny days. We have been able to get out on the trail on Saturday. Last Saturday, we went to Tiger Mountain. It had rained heavily the day before and the lower part of the trail was almost a stream. Fortunately, the trail is well constructed so the water is directed off and you can get around the it. It was cool at the top but not freezing.

This Saturday we went to Rattlesnake Ledge. It was so warm that I hiked in just a polypro top. I started out with my wool sweater but got too warm. It was busy. From the view at the top towards Snoqualmie Pass, there was very little snow.

But what else has been nice this year is the mild weather has allowed us to attend several of the outdoor seasonal events. Last Saturday, we went to the Pathway of Lights. We got back from Tiger and remembered it. It has been rainy the past several years so we couldn't pass up the chance to see it without the rain.

We got there shortly after 6pm and they were just finishing lighting the 4,000 luminaries. We parked at the Bathhouse and headed out. It was already crowded. Most people were walking without lights. It was kinda spooky since you really couldn't see if you were about to walk into someone. But it was also so cool. A few people had on short strands of Christmas lights. Several of the dogs had blinking lights on their collars. Around 7pm, the several lighted canoes launched from the Aquatheater. They glided along reflecting from the lake.

On Tuesday, the Christmas Ship sailed from Edmonds to Richmond Beach. The Christmas Ship is pretty commercial but there was a planned bon fire at Richmond Beach. That sounded really cool. Again, it was a rain free night. The ship left Edmonds at 7:00pm and was supposed to arrive at Richmond Beach around 8:10. We ate dinner and headed out around 7:30. It was already quite crowded when we arrived. I didn't even attempt to try to park in the lot but parked a block or so away. You could see the fires from the top and the ships were just coming into view. We walked down the stairs and onto the beach. It was a great fire. It was stacked high and roaring in the breeze. You couldn't stay very long facing it.

The boat arrived and the choir started. They were okay. We walked down along the water to cool off as they sang. We walked back up to the second bon fire as they finished. Looking up the hill, you could already see the cars streaming out and a traffic jam. We decided to stick around and let everyone leave. There is just something about standing around a bon fire on a cold winter night. We went home and had a hot chocolate.

Happy Holidays From Rattlesnake Ledge!

God, I'm getting old. We spent the weekend in Sonoma with friends and I'm exhausted.

We flew down to the Bay Area this weekend for an extended getaway. It all started when Ramkins published their Winter schedule and Judy Witts Francini aka Divina Cucina was teaching a Winter Tuscan Dinner class. Several of us on SlowTrav had said we would take the class. I signed up right way which was a good thing since it sold out.

We also hadn't seen our friends in Bay Area for a while so we made arrangements to stay with them and we would spend the weekend in Sonoma.

Pauline fron SlowTrav found an outstanding rental, Cottage Sonoma. She said it would be big enough for two couples so we wented it. It was outstanding. I loved the Asian/Island style decor. It has two bedrooms, two baths, hard wood floors, a large open modern kitchen, patio, BBQ and hot tub. It was foggy and cold so we didn't take advantage of the hot tub, but the deck and tub would be great in the Spring.

We flew into Oakland. We decided to tour a few of the gardens on the East Bay. Our first stop was the Lakeside Garden at Lake Merritt in Oakland. It has a metal lath house for Vireya Rhododendrons. Many of them were in bloom. It was kinda run down but nice vireya. Great for plant geeks.

Next we headed up to Berkeley and the Fourth Street shopping area. Our destination, Tacubaya, an upscale taqueria. Yummy. G had a mushroom-cheese chile rellano and a fish taco. I had a pork tamale and a beef taco. All was outstanding. I loved the chile aioli on the fish taco and the mole sauce on the tamale was a perfect blend of sweet/bitter chocolate and hot spices. We'll go to Tacubaya again.

Next door is the Pasta Company. I picked up some porcini ravioli, sauce and a piece of Selle sur Cher goat cheese for dinner. At the wine store, we picked up a yummy Chianti from a producer I hadn't heard of but was located in Panzano.

On the way back to the car, I ran into a former co-worker who had moved back to Bay Area several years ago. It was so strange to run into someone you know.

Our dinner that night was fun. We spent the evening talking politics and wondering about the future.

Friday, we lounged around while B worked from home. We did take in back to back viewing of Kill Bill and Kill Bill 2. Tarantino is not one of my favorites. I also don't care lots of violence even over the top stylised violence.

We left shortly before 4pm and made it to Sonoma just around 5:30pm. We dumped our bags and headed out to Cafe La Haye for dinner. Boy oh boy was it good. G had a wild greens salad and taglattini with clams. It was spicy but good. A had mussels in a pernod-fennel sauce and a filet mignon spiced with pepper and lavendar. B had a green salad and the filet mignon. I had the endive, golden beet, dry jack cheese salad. It was great but unfortunately, the pale belgian endive and white cheese ended up not being very appetizing in appearance. My entree was a lamb shank in a great sauce. It was a red wine, broth, and tomate based and was the perfect sweetness to go with the lamb. But was the best was the mustard cooked cabbage. It was wonderful. Along with this we had a bottle of Flora Springs 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon.

We skipped dessert and headed back to the cottage. They had Trivial Pursuit 6. We always play TP when we are together. We play men against women. Several years ago, the women would always win but again is taking its toll. The women were ahead but we didn't finish it so who knows who would have won. We opened a bottle of Robert Craig Affinity and had it with Fran's chocolate truffles. Oh that was good.

- more to follow -

I got hit by a 'driveby download' on Sunday. Yes, it was an unlucky 13th. I naively was reading a message board (not SlowTalk) and clicked on a link. It took me out to a site to provide song lyrics. Those sites are notorious downloading malware/spyware to your PC. If I had only known....

Suddenly, a windows installer box popped up along with lots of different popups. Crap. The dirty little popups also wouldn't let me close them safely by clicking on the upper right corner or right clicking and choosing close. Grrr... Next thing I knew, Norton was popping up left and right telling me a trojan was trying to run. Double grrr.. I checked Add/Remove programs and several pieces of junk software had been installed. My toolbar was changed to MySearch and there was a lot of junk on the tool bar.

I unplugged my connection from the network and started to do some scans. I already had Ad-Aware and SpyBot. They caught quite a few. Next I ran Norton and it found some items but couldn't delete them. Sigh... It was taking at least an hour to scan my machine with Norton. I did some manual deletes. Okay. I thought I was clean. I plugged back into the network. Damn. There went Norton again. They were still on my machine. 4 hours later and several scans, I was back where I started. So I decided to load on XP sp 2 that I fortunately had on disk.

Monday, I mentioned it to a couple of co-workers and did some searches on the virus, etc. One of the coworkers mentioned safe mode. Right... now I remember, I need to boot into safe mode so those little buggers don't load and then I can get them. I also remembered reading a great newsletter by Brian Livingston at Windows Secrets. His January 27th newsletter went into details how many anti-spyware software would miss most malware. It mentioned the new Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta being one of the best.

I went home early. I downloaded the MS Anti-spyware beta and installed it. It found even more. I spent about 4 hours scanning and cleaning. Everything was looking good. Okay... I booted out of safe mode and plugged back into the network. EEEeeiiiii. There goes Norton again. They haven't left. Time to load on Zone Alarm so even if the bugger is on my machine, I'll keep it in a small cage. I also had a program name to search on.

Now it was time to pull out the big guns. The Windows Secret Newsletter mentioned a great study by Eric Howes. He gives some right-on tips on his page comparing the different anti-spyware programs. It also has a great part on what to do when you have been infected. I did a bit of googling on the offending program. The next step was to run HijackThis and have someone knowlegeable analyse the log. He lists several different forums to get help on the Hijack This log. I used and highly recommend Techsupportforum.com. I posted a log in their Hijackthis forum and within a few hours I had a reply. They were right on the mark at getting rid of most of what was lurking. They give clear instructions on what to do and I've seen them stick through some tough cases. I am in support and I work on a message board. I know what the job is like. My hats are off to them. They do a remarkable service. I am also going to send them a donation.

I followed their instructions and thought I was fine. But something was still lurking. I configured my machine to startup with Norton, ZoneAlarm and the MS Anti-spyware software loading automatic on startup. Yes, it takes almost 3 minutes to boot up but it is keeping it at bay.

Shortly after booting up, the MS Anti-spy told me that My Search Bar was trying to change my browser toolbar. It would catch it and I'd delete it. But it was happening everytime I logged in. Hmmm.. They recommending running anti-spyware and anti-virus again. I downloaded a new version of Ad-Aware. It got several items but it was still there when I logged in. I also tried Trend Micro's Housecall anti-virus scan. No luck.

I've had spent almost 15 evening hours to try to kill this. I decided to give it one more try tonight. Whenever I got the message about MySearch bar trying to make a change, I would also get a pop-up about Norton making changes to my browser. Hmmm.. This seemed strange. I was also getting pop-ups for Norton's automatic update. I decided to check the IP address. It went to a strangish location. So I decided to do the Live Update via the software instead. Low and behold, it had a virus definition update. So scanning began again.

I booted into safe mode. Ran updated Ad-Aware. I was clean. I also went though my Windows\System32 folder and noticed an unusual name exe from the 13th. I noted it. Then ran Norton. It found two threats and sure enough one of them was the suspicious file, winbhgk32. It couldn't delete it but I knew where it was... I deleted it from the folder, rebooted and logged on. Nothing. Loaded the browser. Nothing. Woohoo! I think I might have it.

It took 5 days and almost 20 hours!

Lessons learned? A lot!

Keep Up with Windows Update I hadn't kept up with the Windows updates and I suspect that some of the malware took advantage of the vulnerabilities.

Apply Windows XP sp 2 Service pack 2 would have probably helped. I would have at least had a firewall to prevent any attacks on other ports.

Run a commercial Firewall The Windows XP sp 2 firewall is okay at preventing things from coming in but does absolutely nothing once you have something on your PC. A real firewall such as ZoneAlarm will alert you to both programs trying to get in and get out.

Get help I work in support and I couldn't have done it alone. Find a good support board on line or someone who regularly deals with this to help you if you are infected.

I thought I was finished and won the battle with malware. But I was wrong! I was still 'bugged' by warning from MS Anti-spyware (MAS) telling me that My Search bar was trying to change my toolbar. It would only happen when I switched between G's account and my account so I didn't notice it until a couple of days had passed and G logged on. I did another scan and found some more remnants of the viruses but I just couldn't get rid of this warning about My Search Bar.

I finally went out to the MAS newsgroups at Microsoft and got a couple of other good pieces of advice. A member found the guid for the program and I was able to search for the guid in the registry. I found a reference to it in 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Internet Explorer \ Toolbar \ WebBrowser'. That got it.

I'm also giving SpywareBlaster a try. I'm hoping it will block those critters.

Some other pieces of advice

If you have more than one account on your PC and use XP, turn off System Restore on all the accounts. This will prevent the registry entries for these critters from being backed up.

Boot into Safe Mode (F8 on startup) and thoroughly scan all accounts.

Scan with multiple anti-spyware programs and a virus checked.

Use some type of spyware blocker and keep it up to date.

This weekend was the big event, the Arboretum Plant Sale. It was the big event for Smartyplants. I decided to help G and helped out at the beginning. It is always rush at the start. Everyone comes early to get the best selection. Salvias were popular. I could overhear people talking about them and the great selection. I answered what questions that I could and helped backstock the selection. It was fun and overall a good sale.

I have been unable to write using the computer. It is so strange but my mind goes blank when faced with a cursor and a blank screen. I've decided to go back to pen and paper. The physical clinch of the fingers and the sound of the pen scratching the paper; the tactile helps this ancient brain.

I want to start up my blog again and do more than just record the passing day. So much is going on and writing can be a good outlet. But so much of the time I feel distracted … or is it sedated… by the bombardment of TV and the lure of the internet. The ability to focus and concentrate seems to slip away. I look up and the evening has passed. I am going to set aside time in the evening and make an effort to write and exercise my brain.

I'm committed now.

Last time I went on vacation, I used email to update by blog. I can't seem to see how to do that with MT. That actually might be a good thing. It looks like MT has the reverse which is it will send an email to people who want to know you have updated your blog and who don't subscribe using RSS.

Let's see if it works.

I spent sometime this weekend setting up a webpage for G's nursery, SmartyPlants. For now, I just wanted a basic page that lists where he will be selling this year. We need to come up with a full layout of what he wants to cover on the site. I know we will want to have pictures and some basic cultural information. So more to come but for now here it is: SmartyPlants Nursery.

My I-pod has been helping. I download a few new tunes and create new a songlist. New tunes always gets me out. And the weather is improving. The temperatures are starting to get above 60 and I don't seem to mind getting out if I don't have to bundle up.

But the best motivator so far has been a new route. I like to walk or jog and my neighborhood route has gotten really boring. We don't have sidewalks in my neighborhood so I walk on the street or the gravel roadsides. The streets are not real busy but you do have to be aware. I have been enjoying the progression of spring blooms in the yards but I live in the suburbs and there is just so much you can get excited about suburban yards.

A couple of weeks ago, I tried a new route. It is about a 5 minute drive from my house to the ferry dock and the shoreline of the Puget Sound. One street north of the ferry runs about a 1/4 mile with a gorgeous view out over to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Whidbey Island and even Mount Baker. I love the expansive horizon. The seagulls drift overhead. The gardens are a bit more adventurous also.

I've enjoyed this walk for years but what I did differently was to head south and past the ferry dock. It turns out that I can walk along the sound for a good mile to Marina Park. It starts at Brackett's Landing and if I'm lucky and the tide is out, I can walk in the sand for a bit. At the fishing pier, it becomes a wooden walkway along the marina and then over a small bridge and into the park. There is such diversity and activity - it keeps me interested. I love it.

I left my cats out this afternoon when I got home from work. We only let them go outside when we are home. They are pretty well behaved and stay in the area. We do have a greenbelt area behind our house. It is a wetland area which borders on a small pond. It is also the street storm drain runoff area. The cats enjoy slipping under the fence and exploring.

Shortly after I left them out, one of them dashed back from the yard and up onto the deck. She sat on the corner looking intently out towards the back of the yard. She was slightly cowering so something had spooked her. I thought it might be the noisy crows.

I grabbed the water pot and walked out to water the peas. I went around by the greenhouses to check the tomatoes and I saw a coyote just on the other side of the fence. No wonder the cat was spooked. She must have also seen the coyote and ran back to the protection of the house.

I've never seen one in the neighborhood. I shouldn't be surprised. I know there are coyotes in the Puget Sound region and there are stories of seeing them in Seattle. And we had a bear last year about a mile away. But this is the first coyote for us.

I'm not certain how to handle it. The cats love to go outside. I'll probably need to make certain that I make my presence known and I don't leave them out late at night.

Today is the summer solstice. Time for mid-summer night madness. Growing up in California, I never noticed the solstice. Yes, the days became longer but when you are dealing with long over 100 degree F days, you don't think much about how long the day is. You just want to cool off.

It was not until I moved north to Washington state that I grew to appreciate the long lingering days around the solstice. The farther north you go, the longer the day becomes and you also have a longer twilight. The sun sets but the light lingers on; the gloaming. That is such a cool word for twilight.

Here in Seattle, we have a full 15 hours, 59 minutes and 31 seconds of daylight. That means it is light enough to be outside at 5am and at 10pm. Sunset is at 9:12 tonight. But the light doesn't just disappear like it does in California - it lingers and falls like a soft sheet.

I've spent several solstices in France. On one trip back in the early 90's, we discovered the Fête de la Musique. We knew something was up when we saw the huge stages and sound systems go up along the Seine while we were in Paris. In our broken French we were able to discover that all over France they would be celebrating the solstice with music. On the solstice night, we were in Tours. It was a great festival. Street musicians and bands all over the old city that played on into the wee hours of the morning.

But my most memorable solstice was spent in the mid-90's. My company had an office in Holland and I had the opportunity to work for 6 weeks in the spring of 1996. I finished up early in June and we vacationed in France. We spent a few days in Paris and then moved on to the Alpes-Maritime region around Nice and eventually to Corsica. We were in Calvi during the solstice. We rented an apartment just outside of town but not far from the beach. Late in the evening, we walked through the pine trees to the beach. The sky glowed red to orange as we walked into the surf. We treaded water as the sun went down and the warm breeze brushed our faces. Cradled in my husband's arms, we bid adieu to spring.

I grew up in the hot central valley of California. We never had a dryer. Instead we had a clothes line. One of my chores was to hang out the clothes. It was in the sunny part of the back yard. We had planted two fruitless mulberries for shade but made certain the back corner was still sunny for the clothesline. We also grew our tomatoes in a nearby corner.

I would lug the heavy laundry basket down the stairs and out the screen door. It would always slam after me since my hands would be full. My bare feet skipped across the sidewalk path and through the hot grass. I always liked the sheets because they would be fast and easy to hang. I hated socks and underwear. They took forever to hang each individual piece.

And now 30 years later, I have a clothes line again. We decided to put the greenhouse to even more use and strung a clothes line among the tomatoes. It is great. It is warm and the fans produce a gentle breeze. The clothes are dry in no time. Plus they smell sun kissed fresh. A little stiff but very fresh.

The beauty of living in the Pacific Northwest is we have mild summers and winters. It is rare that it snows and rare that it gets above 90 degrees. And when it does, we melt.

Well, today was one of those over-90 degree days. The weather folks had been predicting so everyone prepared. One the way to work, I saw a man walking to work in shorts carrying a briefcase. It probably would have been fine except had was wearing black socks pulled up to the mid-calves. Everyone at work was in shorts and sleeveless tops. It was nice to be in an air-conditioned building.

After work, I went to my French class. The building was sans climatisation et trop chaud. I could barely concentrate and exhausted at the end of two hours.

And now it is 10pm, it is 75. No sleep for me tonight.

I love the produce at this time of the year. We are just starting to hit the peak. Seattle has a bounty of markets. There seems to be one every day in a different neighborhood. We have one locally but I love the market in the University neighborhood. I picked up dinner - mussels just harvested yesterday smelling fresh of the sound, a warm ripe tomato that I served with the last ball of buffalo mozzarella, loaf of sourdough and sweet apricots. I also picked up some green beans, squash and lettuce for the coming week. Here are pictures of the market.

Summer in Seattle and it is time again for Pink Martini. We saw them last year at Chateau St. Michelle and it was great. It was the first time we had been to St. Michelle for a concert and we had the perfect day. It was warm but we took a couple of umbrellas. We 'manger sur l'erbe' and a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc. The sun went day, the hot-air balloons floated in the distance and Mt Rainier turned pink in the setting sun.

This year they played at the Zoo. There is a series of concerts to raise money for the zoo every summer. The artists tend to be an eclectic group. It is not as good of venue as St. Michelle. The field is flat, no alcohol is allowed and children are admitted free. But it is a great place to spend a warm mid-week summer night.

I went up to Pasta & Company and got a selection of salads. The shrimp celeriac remoulade was excellent. I want to try to make it. The faro salad was also very nice - faro, chopped tomatoes and sweet onions in a light vinaigrette. A spicy ginger cookie and a nectarine for dessert.

We went early so we could find a parking place. It was very easy at the south side of the zoo. We got in line around 4:45pm at the south entrance. The doors open at 5pm although they didn't let us in until about 5:10pm. By time we got across the zoo and to the concert area, the field had pretty much filled in. I think next time we'll go to the North entrance which is closer to the concert area.

At 6PM, the opening act came on. It was a pretty forgettable duo of a base guitar and mandolin players. They played covers of songs you would not expect such as Paint it Black or Money.

Pink Martini came on just before 7pm and played for over an hour. It was a fun mix of hits from their three albums. Of course, the encore was Brasil. Here's a clip of one of my favorites of the night - "Sympathique" - title cut from their first album.

We had a team building event today. I usually don't like this type of event but this wasn't too bad. We are all problem solvers so it was a good event for us.

It was an orienteering game. We were given a map which had spots numbered on it. The goal was to as many spots as possible with your team within 30 minutes. We broke into teams of 6-8 people and then further broke into small groups of 2. You got points for each spot. Some spots could only be visited by one group; others could be visited by everyone.

It ended up being a more physical than I expected. There was a lot of running involved. Our team got second place. We were just one point short.

But the weather was sunny, warm and it was located along the water which helped cool us off. It might be fun to do again. The company who organized it also has public events. I might get G to one some time. If you are looking for a fun team building event - I recommend them.

Meridian Geographics

Something happened this weekend and I can now tell that Fall is coming. That is the beauty of living in Seattle. You definitely can tell the changing of the seasons. Growing up in California, it seemed to mainly be two seasons - hot summer and foggy cold damp winter. But living farther north, the changes are a bit more obvious.

The first change comes when you notice it is getting darker earlier in the evening. The long twilight and light until 9pm are gone. The gloaming starts around 7:30 now.

Next you notice the lengthening shadows and the golden tones in the evening. I love the golden glow that baths the garden after 6pm. The shadows stretch across the yard creating mysterious contrasts.

The days are not yet crisp which confuses the senses. It is still warm. The crispness and earthy smells do not arrive until September. Temperature wise, it is still the dog days.

But it is the trees that are true indicator of the coming change. Driving home today, I noticed the big leaf maple trees were yellowing and other maples were turning red. I took a closer look at the garden and could see the change coming in the linden and the parrotia. The locust tree is brilliant yellow.

Fall makes me sad. I shouldn't be. It is always the start of something new but I hate to see the end of summer. But I am going to extend my summer. Southern France here I come!

I hope everyone had a great holiday. We had a great time with our friends M&L. We got together the weekend before Christmas for dinner. L brought a wonderful roast from Seabreeze Farm. I roasted it until it was just 140 degrees which left it very tender. L also brought some great potatoes and kabocha squash. I made dessert - Black Chocolate Espresso Cake. A coworker recommended the recipe and helped me purchase some awesome baking chocolate from the Chocolate Man.

New Years was low-key as usual. M came over and we played Sequence for a while. But everyone said good bye about 10pm and none of us made it midnight.

It was a bit warmer today - above 40 degrees! It has been cold the past couple of weeks. The cat has been very lethargic but today was not bad. We got out and did the Discovery Park loop. For luck, I cooked some black eyed peas. I found some fresh black eyed peas from Friedas and used a recipe from Deborah Madison. This is recipe is close but not exactly what I cooked. The vegetarian recipe I found had onion, celery, green onion, bay leaf, thyme and garlic that was sauteed. After cooking for about 15 minutes, add allspice and chilpote chile powder. To this add, 2 cups fresh peas and 1 quart of water/broth. Cook for about 40 mintues and then add salt and cook until soft - about 20 additional minutes. They were very good. I served them with rice. A nice start to the New Year.

I guess I didn't believe the forecasters. Weather forecasts here in Seattle are pretty unreliable. It was below freezing last week but sunny. It was great to see the sun even if it came with a frost bite. Sunday was cold but the sun was out for the afternoon. I did notice a difference late in the afternoon but it didn't feel exactly like snow. But the forecast was for snow. Not a flake by time I went to bed on Sunday.

I woke up to NPR and the local reporters were talking about the spin outs near Alderwood Mall. Sigh. I really didn't want to have to deal with snow. I looked out the window and there was a good 4-5 inches in my neighborhood.

I decided to bus to work. I usually drive up to the Shoreline Park and Ride and catch the bus from there. We had about 4-5 inches but the temperature was just at freezing so it was slushy. It wasn't to bad of a drive and the traffic was light. The direct bus to downtown arrived right after I got there. I almost got on it but decided to wait for the local run which gets me closer to my office.

Bad move. It turns out that none of the buses were making it to the Park and Ride. I waited about a hour before deciding to go ahead and drive in. The snow wasn't that bad as I got closer to downtown Seattle. It ended up an easy drive.

And wouldn't you know it; I passed three buses! It turns out they didn't go down to the park and ride. Next time I'll catch it at Aurora Village.

This weekend is the second annual Slow Bowl. This is a Slow Travel Get Together. We had our first GTG last year and it was great fun. We are renting a large house in Paso Robles where we will be hosting dinners and gathering. On Saturday, we will do some winetasting and have the main dinner. Sunday will be a bit more winetasting and of course the Super Bowl. Check out last years photos.

I'm really looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting some members for the first time. I hope the weather is good.

I'm also going to try to blog daily for the month of February. A group of bloggers from Slow Travel are going to give it a try. Maybe it will get me in a good habit. I will be away for the weekend but I have a couple of post scheduled for the next few days to get me going with the group.

Today is the day for women to wear red. Not for a red hat day but to remind women of the dangers of heart disease for women. How many of us know of women in our lives who is affected by heart disease. It is a serious factor in my family; much more than breast cancer.

Heart disease and other circulatory diseases run in my family. My father and grandfather both had it. My grandfather died from it and my father had multiple bypass surgery twice.

But it doesn't just affect the men in my family; it also has affected the women. My mother had a stroke which incapacitated her both mentally and physically for the last 6 years of her life. It was a result of high blood pressure and other factors. My sister has also been treated for heart disease.

I watch my blood pressure. I try to keep my weight down. I need to exercise more.

But we all need to watch for signs and take heart health serious. Let today's red dress be a reminder that heart disease is the number one killer of women and we can do much to prevent it.

moar funny pictures

Do you ever see a picture that touches something deep in you? This one does it for me.

I sent the Lolcats website to a fellow cat fan. I was surprised she hadn't seen it before since it has gotten so much publicity this year. I check it from time to time but she is now a daily fan. She found this post and is using it for her desktop. I saw it the other day when I passed her office and just said Wow!

Wow! What a great weekend. I just got back from a wonderful time in Paso Robles. You know how sometimes when you repeat a party or revisit a city, that it doesn't live up to the original time or memories. The 2nd Slow Bowl was just as much fun as the first one.

I enjoyed the wineries that we visited this weekend better than last time. We made a repeat visit to Castoro. They have great wines at a reasonable price. We also had a great picnic spread.

The next winery was Tablas Creek. I really wanted to visit this winery because I love Rhone wines and wines made by the Perrin Family. The wines were very good but they definitely need a bit of aging.

Yesterday we visited Justin which is gorgeous. Their wines are more in the Bordeaux style. I had tried several of these last year but I really like them this year. I didn't bring any back but I'm going to try to pick up a few more here. I really loved the Sauvignon Blanc. I didn't think Sauvignon Blanc was a good varietal for the area. I think of it as more of a cooler grape but they do an excellent job.

Justin also has a great restaurant and a lovely B&B. It would make a great retreat.

I really enjoyed watching the Super Bowl this year. I have not been a fan of football and rarely do I watch the Super Bowl. I have some fond memories of watching it back in the '60s and '70s. My mother worked for a restaurant and the owners were strong Stanford alumni. I followed Jim Plunkett's career for many years.

But over the years, I've grown less and less interested. Even when the local Seattle Seahawk team was in the Super Bown. But I have become more interested in it recently to watch the commercials.

This year it was definitely a great game. It really helped to watch it with two NY Giant fans at the GTG in Paso Robles. I didn't really have a favorite team but I'm glad the Giants won.

I also enjoyed watching the commercials. There were more than a few losers in this bunch but several that I'm looking forward to seeing again. So here is my top 5

Naomi Campbell and the dancing Sobe lizards
The screaming animals for Bridgestone tires
Training the Clydesdale horse for Bud light
Ugly girl with unibrow for Planter's

And my favorite the Fed Ex Carrier Pigeons

The Slow Travel blog-for-a-month group is doing well. Tuesdays and Thursdays can be hard for me because I'm taking French after work. By time I get home, my brain is pretty empty of ideas. Tonight is one of those nights so I'm going to take advantage of the Bookish Meme was posted on softdrinks wonderful blog. It is perfect for a busy weekday.

I see that Anne and Girasoli have also posted on the meme. I'm not going to tag anyone.

Okay... Here are the rules for the Page 123 meme:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

I'm going to use the current book that I am reading; The View From Castle Rock by Alice Munro.

Susan had decreed, when they all lived together, that Maggie should take care of Sandy's clothing, Lizzie of Forrest's, Annie of Simon's, she herself of John's. This meant ironing and mending and darning socks, and knitting scarves and vests and making new shirts as might be needed. Lissie was not supposed to continue looking after Forrest --- or to have anything at all to do with him -- after he moved out.

Alas, it is a rather uninsightful quote. I'm not yet to page 123. I like to read her stories slowly and savor each word.

Alice Munro is mainly a short story writer but lately the collections have been linked together. This book is a fictionalized collection of stories about her family. It reads partly as a memoir and partly as a novel. I highly recommend all her collections. Here are a couple of other ones:

Love of a Good Woman
The Progress of Love
Runaway

View from my office - Gray February Seattle Day

I think I have S.A.D this year. You would think after 30 plus years in Seattle that I would have adjusted to the gray. But noooo! I've been very moody and emotional this week. Everything is annoying me at work and I'm so exhausted. Classic symptoms. Last week was great but I must have been on a sunshine high from Paso Robles.

Today it is dark, drizzly and gray. I'm sitting here watching the clouds roll by my office window and they feel low and oppressive. Sun - come back soon!

February Sunshine on Seattle Skyline

Here are some roses for my Slow Travel Friends.

G and I do not celebrate St. Valentine's Day. He feels it is a 'Hallmark' holiday. I do agree it has become so commercial. But I do like to take a day to celebrate love. Did you know that there is a Kissing Festival in France? La Fête du Baiser is held this coming Saturday in the French town of Roquemaure. Here is a great article on the festival and the history of St Valentine's Day from a 2005 Sydney Morning Herald.

The France website also has a nice page on St Valentine if you read French. And here is a bit about the history of the holiday. The roots of the celebration are from the Roman holiday, Lupercalia.

Tonight was a total eclipse of the moon. This is the last one for my area until 2010. I wrote it off because it is February and I really didn't expect it to be clear. The forecast was for cloudy skies.

After work, I headed for the grocery store to pick up some items for tonight's dinner. Paella - I had to start using the 3 pounds of Italian rice that I bought at Costco. As I rolled my shopping cart back to the car, I looked up and realized that the skies had cleared. "I will be able to see the eclipse", I thought.

When I got home I checked on the web for the times. For the Pacific coast, the eclipse would start around 5:30. The full eclipse the moon would happen at 7:01 and last for 55 minutes. I got the paella going, grabbed the tripod and set up the camera.

The clouds were lying low along the horizon and foothills to the east. I could see nothing at 6:15pm other than a faint aura of moonlight due east. Would it clear the clouds in time. 6:25... nothing... 6:30... nothing.

Whoa! there it was. The lower half was starting to darken. I stood shivering in the cold while snapping pictures. It was so real and mesmerizing.

At 7:01 the last sliver of disappeared and the moon turned into a glassy globe radiating red. After dinner, I sneaked out and slowly a sliver reappeared. It is now a glassy white globe shinning silverly light on the neighborhood.

Ah the wonder of nature.

And for everyone who can not say "Total Eclipse...." without thinking about Bonnie Tyler, here is "Total Eclipse of the Heart"

We all have them - movies that you always watch but don't want to admit. They could be a movie so bad it is good or a movie that plays on a Saturday morning and you stop everything to watch. And you do it again next time it is on.

One of my guilty pleasure movies is on tonight - Muriel's Wedding. I love this movie for so many reasons - the story, the location and most of all the music. Yes, Abba!

Another one is The Wedding Singer. I normally hate Adam Sandler but I love this movie. I seen it several times. I love the scene in the plane with Billy Idol.

And a really really bad movie that I love - Conan the Barbarian. So bad it is good and I love the Italian scenery.

On that note, I'll leave you with a scene from Muriel's Wedding.

San Ardo Oil Fields near King City, California

I was glad that Daniel Day Lewis won for best actor. His portrait of oilman Daniel Plainview was stunning. He was so charismatic and yet such a villain. I was also surprised that it was about the oil fields of California. I had assumed it was Texas until I heard them refer to Point Hueneme half way through the movie.

I remember the oil derricks in the southern part of central valley of California. We would travel to visit my aunt who lived in Pasadena and pass them along the highway before we headed up over the Grapevine. Their movement facinated me as a child from the window of our car.

Oil did shape a lot of Southern California and even had repercussions into the 1960's when there were efforts to stop drilling off the coast. I passed the San Ardo oil field along Highway 101 on my way to Paso Robles in February just after seeing the movie.

The railroad also had a big impact on the area. Not only for transporting oil but also transporting crops. One of my favorite books in high school was "The Octopus" by Frank Norris. I should go back and read this novel and "Oil!" by Sinclair Lewis which was the inspiration for the movie.

For a long time my dreams were of places I would travel.Through the years I've checked places off and added new places. South Africa - check. Australia - check, study French in Villefranche - check. New places have been added such as India, Malaysia, the Amazon.

Only recently have I realized that I have another dream - an early retirement. Well, maybe not exactly retirement but taking a step out of the corporate world. I think it started a while back when I read a book whose basically said it was your life or your job. At the time, I was very content in my job but the seed was planted.

More and more friends and neighbors have made changed their jobs and moved towards retirement. I'm currently reading Work Less, Live More and it sounding better and better. Someday, maybe this dream will come true also.

1908 Postcard from Wikipedia

Well it is finally here - leap day. Not only is this an extra day but it is the end of the Slow Travel Blog for a Month. This has been a lot of fun. I've enjoyed reading posts by my fellow bloggers. I am going to continue updating my blog but just not daily.

Leap Day has always been fun. I remember Sadie Hawkins Day when I was growing up. In high school, girls could ask the boys out to the Sadie Hawkins Dance. I wonder if there are any Sadie Hawkins Dances tonight?

We got our order this week. Chocolate mint of course.

I grew up in the age of 45 inch records. The first record I bought was a 45 of "I want to hold you hand" by The Beatles. I was caught up in the mania in 1963. I think Ringo was my favorite at the time although Paul was so cute. Now after all these years, I've come to like John. I've been listening to several of his solo songs now that they are available on I-Tunes such as "(Just Like) Starting Over" and "#9 Dream".

One of the Beatles songs that I really like is "In My Life". I was watching YouTube videos today and came across this montage of old video clips to the song. It brought back some good memories of a time gone by.

3.14159265358979323846....

That magical mathematical number representing the relationship between a circle’s diameter (its width) and its circumference (the distance around the circle). Three fourteen. Today is the day to celebrate this mathematical relationship.

I didn't know it was Pi day until I read this post on Serious Eats. It would have been the perfect day to make a pie but I didn't

So if you are interested in knowing more about this holiday check out: Pi day

I will leave you with this:

We are on a San Francisco 60's weekend. We started by watching "Zodiac". I was curious since I remember reading about the killer when I was at school. I remember being spooked at times when new letters were received and I had to walk to school. The movie was interesting but too long. The movie spent too much time with the character played by Jake Gyllenhaal obsessing over finding the killer.

Today we went to my favorite museum in Seattle, Frye Museum. The current exhibit is R. Crumb's Underground. Crumb's cartoons were always around while I was in high school and college. He was part of the counterculture and the rebellion that went on in the late '60s. But I knew little about him beyond the cover for Cheap Thrills album, the Keep On Truckin' guy and Fritz the Cat.

The exhibit is a collection of his work through the years. Some of it fascinating, some of it vulgar and misogynistic. All very interesting.

I didn't realize that he moved to France in the early '90s to escape the commercialism and conservative religious trends in the US. There was a great cartoon of their live in a small French village. I searched around and found a couple of articles.

For more information:
Official Crumb site

Interview with Robert Crumb from Guardian Newspaper 2005

Salon article from 2000

Crumbland - Life in a French Village - IHT 2007

Mt Whitney from Alabama Hills near Lone Pine - Eastern California

We do not celebrate the Spring holidays. I do look forward to the seasonal rebirth during spring. But without family near by, it is another holiday that goes by the wayside for us.

I did succumb the influence of food advertising for Easter and made a lamb roast on Wednesday. It was so good. I also made a potato gratin and steamed fresh green beans. G does not eat lamb so I bought a nice piece of fresh Alaska Halibut for him.

Saturday was nice. The sun was shining and the temperatures warmed up. It almost got to 60 degrees. We got out into the garden and did some weeding and mulching. But unpredictable Seattle weather took revenge on us and this morning was dark and rainy. Not a typical drizzle but rain. Sunrise services and easter egg hunts planned for Sunday were rained out.

We drove down in the miserable rain to the Seattle Center to see a very good IMAX film - Grand Canyon Adventure. It was lovely to escape to the desert for a half hour. I've been fascinated by the politic of water here in the west. My parents lived and worked in Eastern California before they married. They remembered the old timers telling tales of the lushness of Owens Valley before Los Angeles bought up the water rights and turned the valley into a desert.

The book "Cadillac Desert" written in 1986 is one of my favorite non-fiction books. He detailed the battles and challenges for the Colorado River over 20 years ago before global warming. So much that he wrote about is coming true today.

But the river is powerful and the results of years are beautiful. I've visited the canyon twice and I still want to go back. One day we hope to either hike or raft the canyon.

A week or so ago, G said he thought we were past the last frost. I was not as certain. I've remembered several years where there was a cold snap late in March. Officially, the last frost is not until mid April. But this is the first year that I've remembered snow this late in March. I don't think it got above 37 degrees today.

I finished the taxes and then ran some errands. At the store I overheard a woman say "Was it Easter we just celebrated or was it Christmas?". Out in the garden department, women were standing in the snow buying geraniums.

It was slushy and wet but the traffic was snarled already by 2pm. Fortunately I made it home before it got really bad. I opened a bottle of wine and relaxed. Kitty was intrigued by the snow and spent some time in contemplation observing the flakes.

G strained his back at work last week. Yesterday it snowed. So much for the plans to go and view the bulb fields in the Skagit Valley.

It did give me time to catch up on reading my favorite blogs. It started with Sandra blogging "It was the day my grandmother exploded" . What a great opening line. She was looking for the opening line of Pride and Prejudice - "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." This single line says so much. She went on to blog about several of her favorite opening lines.

Next to get caught in the web of opening lines was Andasamo. She brought in more great lines such as excellent opening lines from Gabriel Garcia Marquez. And also some killer pictures of bookcases. My bookcases are boring. One is fulled of travel books and the other is filled with plant books. Novels get put away in boxes.

Annie continue the meme and gave us more great opening lines. She has included several of my favorite authors such as Tom Robbins and Jim Harrison.

I was intrigued and googled some of my favorite books. Here are a the first lines of few of my favorite books.

"Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress."
George Eliot
Middlemarch

"My father's family name being Pirrip, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip."
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations

"She stands up in the garden where she has been working and looks into the distance."
Michael Ondaatje
The English Patient

"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."
Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar

"Dr. Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of his patients had died or got any worse."
Louis de Bernières
Captain Corelli's Mandolin

"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills."
Isak Dinesen
Out of Africa

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
G