Monthly Archives: January 2007

gadabout \GAD-uh-bout\

Posted on January 31, 2007 by wendy| 2 Comments

noun:
Someone who roams about in search of amusement or social activity.

THIS is what I want to be when I grow up. Sounds like great fun, roaming, exploring, amusement, social life. However, in all the examples of this word, it referred to a man. Can a woman be a gadabout? Or would she be called something else? Party girl? Desperate? Blonde? Paris? Every now and then, I DO roam around in search of amusement….which is often hard to find as a stay-at-home mom. Laundry? Hilarious. Cooking macaroni and cheese for the bazillionth time? Uproarious! Sucking up dog hair, magnets, and small toys with the Hoover? A scream! Butt wiping? Hysterical! Oh, yes, I am already a gadabout!

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Posted in words

A Finch-for-all!

Posted on January 31, 2007 by wendy| 3 Comments

img_2093-2.jpgSo, there I was this morning, putting insta-hot water in my mug, holding down the tea bag string with my thumb, glancing around.  I look up.  There they are! 5 American goldfinches (I think) eating from our feeder.  One had hopped down yesterday and I was stunned.  I had never seen one this time of year.  I think I saw one in the summer a year or two ago (when they are bright yellow and hard to miss).  They are not common guests at our feeder.  But today, 5!  They said to me “Okay, lady, you couldn’t figure me out yesterday, so I brought four of my friends.  We’ll hang out awhile, and if you can’t figure us out by then, you are hopeless!”  Now, watch me be wrong….    As an added pop quiz, after the fab five flew, a reddish bird arrived and ate.  My pictures were too fuzzy, but I think it was a purple finch.  So, happy finch day! 

[This post can also be found at Bainbridge Breezes.]

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Posted in animals, Bainbridge Island, WA

Easements — public use or public trauma?

Posted on January 28, 2007 by wendy| Comments Off

Anxiety?  Check.  Fear?  Check.  Helplessness?  Check.  These are the emotions around our house.  I have written before (on my Seattle P.I. blog) on the upcoming renovations in our neighborhood to add walking and biking paths to the elementary school.  Drawings have been drafted, PowerPoints have been used, and meetings have been held.  The scary part for us is the possibility that the City will use all its public use easement across the entire front of our property putting in a winding, paved path adjacent to the road.  Why, that sounds nice, you say.  A winding path in front of your house where currently there exists a man-eating ditch, snagging crushed Big Gulps and bags of Fritos (hey, not mine, I use the trash cans!). 

It would be great, but for the Fence Project.  You see, if a path goes in and a proper retaining wall is not included, the ground on which our beautiful, painstakingly made Fence will give way.  Picture Malibu in rainy season.  The Fence is outside the easement line, by at least a foot, but part of the berm on which it sits is inside.  Oh, the hours, plans, sweat, labor, aches, money, stress (from the work and from me) endured by my creative hubby and other relatives. 

Me (whiny):  Will it be done THIS weekend?? 

Him (eyes rolling, walking away):  Stop asking me that.

It’s a beauty alright – curved (!) corners, six feet high, cedar planks, with a pavers base on the curves.  It pains me to think the “greater good” scores while the Fence crumbles.  And the salt in the wound is that we would still have to pay property taxes for that land under the path.  Now, what was so great about owning your own home?  Sometimes, I long for the days of carefree renting….no house projects, no property taxes, no power-washing….oh, wait, the power-washing is fun.

[This post can also be found at Bainbridge Breezes.]

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Posted in Bainbridge Island, WA, venting

Woo Hoo!! I’ve received a Blog of the Day Award!

Posted on January 27, 2007 by wendy| 8 Comments

Blog Of The Day Awards Winner

 Cool.  Now, where do I collect my cash prize??   :-}

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Posted in events, life is good

something fishy

Posted on January 26, 2007 by wendy| 1 Comment

Spring was springing out all around here, so we trekked via ferry to the Seattle Aquarium.  All their regular exhibits were open with new ones coming this summer.  (Is the IMAX theater gone for good from there, though, as a result of all the renovations?  No one mentions that…..)  I brought my Canon digital elph and took many photos.  Out of about 2,487, I have these five to show for it. If you use a flash inside with all the tanks, you get bupkiss.  If you don’t use a flash, you get dark, blurry, greenish shots.  Plus, if you do go for the flash, you can’t take another picture for oh, I don’t know, 10-15 minutes with these great digital cameras…..   And forget about getting a decent shot of a seal or otter;  those guys are speed demons.  But who knew octopus move so fast?  Or how about those seahorses?  That tiny, twittering fan on their backs moves them fast enough to ruin about a dozen shots. 

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And I have not even gotten to the issue of getting my Kid to stop moving enough to take a decent pose.  That’s a given, inside or outside.  My spouse would say, it must be that sub-par equipment you are using, Hon.  You must need a new camera.  Let’s go shopping….  

On the upside, we fed sea urchins slippery bits of kelp.  They grabbed them quickly with their spikes (as fast as you could if you had long spikes for fingers).  Sorry, no pictures of that either since they were resting in a very dark, shadowy area of a shallow pond surrounded by glass…..  At least the oystercatcher gave me the stare-down long enough to get a shot of him (he was quasi-outside).

Yes, all the photo frustration makes one really appreciate a nice, still starfish, or two.

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Posted in animals, venting

welcome to my latest learning curve!

Posted on January 25, 2007 by wendy| Comments Off

Thanks to my dear friend Alicia, I am now posting to my very own website!  I still need to figure a few things out (alright, everything), so bear with me.  If things look odd when you check in from time to time, that’s me being techie-impaired.  Just like that double black diamond skier saying “speed is your friend,” a computer geek friend said, “oh, you should have your own site.  You just do x and y” (really, he did not mention a z). 

When did it get so hard to learn things?  When did we get out of practice at practicing?  Or when did we begin believing we could quickly learn something that people spend Years working at?  Maybe because some sweet-smelling, cherub-faced preteen boy can do it one-handed while playing the latest Playstation with the other…..   Well, while I have given up becoming a great skier, or even a decent intermediate one, here I’ll be posting away, traversing the “green” runs of the WWW….

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Posted in growth

Permanent Fund reports good 2nd quarter…

Posted on January 23, 2007 by wendy| 2 Comments

…Alaska’s nest egg now over 37 Billion.

Sure, the natural wilderness panoramic vistas are beautiful, awe-inspiring, and soul-enriching, but what about that PFD?! Now that’s something to really miss when you move “down south.” For the seven years I lived in Alaska, each resident, young or old, received an annual permanent fund dividend check in October (assuming you filed the paperwork — and what idiot would miss out on that?). The amount varied from $800-1200 while I was there. Nice perk. I see the fund is still going strong. Who pays me for living here? No one, that’s who!

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Posted in venting