Category Archives: regional

Port Townsend’s Kinetic Sculpture Race

Posted on October 6, 2011 by wendy| Comments Off

Hey, y’all! You’ll never guess where I dragged the fam last weekend!

Oh, that’s right, I changed the title of this post…duh.
Yes! We went to the Port Townsend Kinetic Sculpture Race!

It was my first time. I was a kinetic sculpture race virgin.

And what is a kinetic sculpture race?

Just what is “kinetic,” you may wonder if you chose to grow up and not live in academia for decades like moi?

Dictionary.com says this:

ki·net·ic [ki-net-ik, kahy-]
1.pertaining to motion.
2.caused by motion.
3.characterized by movement: Running and dancing are kinetic activities.

So, this doesn’t actually say anything about “goofy” or “ridiculous” or “drunken” or “silly” or “goodoletime,” but it was. All that.

Contestants built their unique sculptures and raced on them through the streets of Port Townsend, as well as traveled on the water.
All kinds of themed sculptures competed.

Sure, many looked similar to not-so-disguised bikes with pontoons.

Fros N Peas ended up leading the water leg of the race we saw.

(“Fros,” get it? I only did just now.)
Some worked a little harder than others.
Some even carried dead weight passengers.
The pumpkin team had a smooth operation. We decided they must be engineers.The race was a bit surreal, but in a fun way.
So, you could understand why some spectators were a tad perplexed by the outlandish behaviour…
Watching all the drunken racers, we had a good laugh while the Hubs mentally designed his sculpture for next year.Check back with us next year…maybe we’ll be in race photos on someone else’s blog.

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Posted in brilliant ideas, creativity, events, outside, regional, weirdo

a couple of bucks

Posted on July 20, 2011 by wendy| 3 Comments

OK, let this be a lesson to you all.

Be as clear as possible when stating to the Universe what you want.

Sure, I may have said, “It’d be great to have a couple of extra bucks right about now, Universe.”

But I didn’t mean this:

Or this:

But the Hubs didn’t load fast enough they are handsome, aren’t they?

Need a couple extra bucks?

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Posted in animals, Bainbridge Island, WA, outside, regional

Down with the Fishes: the Seattle Aquarium

Posted on June 9, 2011 by wendy| 7 Comments

This week I in a fit of delusion volunteered to chaperone the asylum lunatics second graders of my daughter’s school on their field trip to the Seattle Aquarium.

I thought it’d be fun. I love marine mammals. I once tended to injured and abandoned marine mammals here.

What I forgot about is all the other mammals that would be on the trip.

The 7 and 8 year-old ones.

The ones who argue about what exhibit to see next, how long to stay at the current one, who is really their friend, and where they can slink off into the sea of child molesters without me seeing them.
Sure, they look all calm and behaved here.

The day started with the announcement and my first clue I should invest in a nice flask in the shape of a Starbucks cup by the teacher of a “glitch” of how we were down to one bus, rather than two.

This led to a packed-to-the-brim bus ride into hell through island morning school traffic and road construction. Yes, that day, we had traffic.

After corralling them into the ferry and then keeping them all together through the streets of enticing garbage, kickable newspaper stands, and fascinating homeless people downtown Seattle, we arrived at the lovely Seattle Aquarium before they officially opened.

Which would have been super-duper cool, if they had let us in.

Instead, I had my charges playing Simon Says for fifteen minutes on the dock out front. Simon Says “JUMP!”

Actually, Simon did say “Hug me and say YOU’RE THE GREATEST EVER!” Which they did. Cuz Simon Said.

We eventually got into the aquarium where much arguing, hiding and yelling ensued.
They were less interested in this fur seal and more interested in the photo of the fur seal located on the touch screens they could manipulate, the little bozos techno natives.

Ignoring all the live wildlife around them, dress up time in scuba clothing was also popular.
Also, known as time-killer.

Finally, we wrapped up our time with what every aquarium visit needs when it’s at least an hour too long: a rousing game of tag in the front lobby.

However, I’m glad to report that no marine mammal was injured in the making of this post, and as far as I know but I’m not listening la-la-la, all our mammals returned to their respective homes at the end of the day.

Home, where I holed in my room boozing it up to recover and remind myself to never again bring to the Seattle Aquarium more than 2 young, two-legged mammals.

What field trips from hell have you endured?

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Posted in animals, events, kid, life is good, regional

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Spring Has Sprung

Posted on April 28, 2011 by wendy| 3 Comments

I hate to jinx it but I think that spring has sprung here on Bainbridge Island. All the signs are there.

Plastic eggs have been discovered.

The lawnmower is out.

We’re already missing tennis balls.

And best of all, my boyfriend is back!

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Posted in animals, Bainbridge Island, WA, life is good, outside, regional

Seattle’s Museum of Flight–Take Off For Great Rainy Day Fun!

Posted on January 18, 2011 by wendy| 2 Comments

Maybe you are like me. I had lived in the Seattle area over 8 years and never been to the Museum of Flight. *gasps*

I hate flying am not into planes, or WWII movies, or tools. But listen to me, people, the Museum of Flight was fun.

They have tons of actual, historical planes inside to see,

and real planes outside to go into and pretend to be presidential.

Did you know Rod Stewart flew his hairdresser over in the Concorde before a show? Dahlink, it was so very necessary.

The museum has a huge indoor area for kids to run explore around and get worn out, complete with kids-climb-around-sit-in-aircraft zone. And if you go with a ratio of 4:2 kids to adults like I did, you will want that.

If you have a better ratio, more conducive to oh, say, pausing, reading, or thinking, there is a lot of historical information to absorb.

May I never need that information.

But this was interesting. In my own home state of Texas, they were training women pilots! (or “girl pilots” as all the headlines said…)

Sounds like a Hollywood movie waiting to be made. Starring who? Sandra Bullock? Gwyneth? Reese?

Then there was the Animals in Space display. (No, no mention of Pigs in Spaaaaaaaace, for you muppet fans.)
Using monkeys, though, I could totally understand, some brains, some finger dexterity.

But dogs? Do we really want intelligent life out there potentially meeting up with a slobbering, constantly hungry, tail-wagging representative?

Then again, maybe we do.

So don’t be like me and wait 8 years to check it out. The museum is a short hop from the downtown ferry terminal. It’s fun, educational and a great waiting-for-summer-to-come family activity.

And probably even better if you are interested in planes!

Have you been to the museum? What’d ya think?

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Posted in Bainbridge Island, WA, brilliant ideas, education, parenting, regional

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18th Annual Gingerbread Village at the Seattle Sheraton

Posted on November 29, 2010 by wendy| 3 Comments

You may have heard we had a bit of snow in these parts last week, and while it certainly slowed down this island, it didn’t slow down those architects and their team of creators in making the 18th annual Gingerbread Village at Seattle’s Sheraton Hotel.

I had to check it out. Yes, I brought my child, too, but she really was a distraction.

Unfortunately for you, I only had my iphone to take photos this time around, but you need to see it all up close and personal anyway so GET THEE TO SEATTLE, I say!

This year has the usual awesome accomplishments in edible creations.
gingerbread houseboat
In case you missed the Seattle Floating Homes tour this year, they made one of yum-yums for you.

Mmmmm, Hershey’s roof shingles…
gingerbread treehouse
They also went nuts and created a giNORmous edible treehouse!
santa kickin back
In case you wondered what Santa was doing…and his reindeer.
Reindeer
Reminds me of my own pet (the Dog). Maybe next year they’ll have the Claus’ in bed with a reindeer hogging the covers, you know, like my reason for lack of sleep life.
santa and sleigh
After you’ve seen them all, this year you can even vote for your favorite online, at www.gingerbreadvillage.org.

It’s a wonderful display and well worth a family trip into downtown (along with many other fun holiday events – see www.downtownholidays.com for more information).

Just don’t go hungry.

The 18th Annual Gingerbread Village is on display through January 2, 2011. It’s a fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Northwest Chapter. Go, have fun, do good. And let me know what your favorites were!

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Posted in brilliant ideas, events, health, life is good, regional

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stealing art

Posted on November 17, 2010 by wendy| 2 Comments

Okay, I didn’t really steal any art. I’m not starting a Thomas Crowne affair, or even snatching 100′s of bird skins like that 22-year-old US student did in England (how do you smuggle 300 birds without a trail of feathers?).

No, I just took a few snaps at our own Seattle Art Museum. I mean, it was for educational purposes this time.

It all started when I volunteered to be fed to the lions my daughter’s 2nd grade class art docent. Which means I come every now and then to lead an art discussion and freeforall, chaotic mess project with them. Sort of an unpaid art instructor (yay, another unpaid job!).

And lo and behold, here comes Pablo Picasso in a special exhibit to SAM while the Musee Picasso in Paris is renovated.

So, I saw my opportunity and I grabbed it!
IMG_0740-1
They had a great variety from Picasso’s long life of creations.
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After gathering a few snappies, I went back to school and had the kids draw their own self-portraits in a Picasso style (which I have not stolen pictures of yet…hm, too easy, I guess).
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You’d think I’d take better shots by now since I had a little practice at the Calder exhibit…shhhhh.
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You have to wonder why, over thousands of years, people have felt the urge to create art. Is it an innate factor? Is there an art gene? Is it some calming or comforting feeling we get? Is it an escape? Or is it a charge forward into our true selves?

Also, we could ask the same of a person compelled to take illegal pictures of art….

I don’t have an answer. Do you?

The Picasso exhibit continues in Seattle until mid-January, 2011. Check it out.

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