Several things!
Other great Gmail things not seen in this image:
One of my deepest pleasures when I have free time and an aimless spirit is to travel the world using a Dutch utility called google image ripper (Flickr is fun, too, but it doesn't have the links to blogs and article sources where the photos ran). Recent events piqued my interest in Sana'a, Yemen...what's it like there? Turns out, the old city is gorgeous almost beyond compare:
My Yemen "travel" led to a curiosity about Cairo, for some reason, and I found this amazing image, which has only been altered to make up for an overexposed sky, in order to make it more like the naked eye saw (always a challenge with skies and foregrounds at dusk and dawn):
...and the same photographer wowed me also with this photo of a European robin:
However, despite the pleasures of the morning, my absolute favoritest find using google image ripper is the work of Christopher Herwig who has traveled to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Takikistan, China, and West Africa (Liberia in particular), taking the most amazing photographs, including this one:
In the main area of my local ferry terminal, two billboards (part of the rapidly increasing volume of advertising there). I was amused at how much smarter the Snickers billboard is than the Starbucks effort. Snickers manages to reinforce brand creatively, and to have at-a-glance impact. Starbucks asks you to read, and it doesn't say anything another brand of coffee couldn't say (switch out the name). The tone tries to have personality, but the personality of the Snickers brand is much clearer and more engaging.
I must have become so accustomed to everything being a character, from hangin' with the 8 & 10 year-olds, that I totally anthropomorphized this object on the ferry today:
Maybe a nod to the local love of Ugly Dolls?
The weekend was spectacularly sparkly, kicked off with a divine dinner at Chez Shea and closed with the 9-year-old's wanderings leading to the discovery of a homegrown John Denver Tribute Concert at the bottom of the hill. No, I didn't go.
(Wrinkles flies in the ointment: Stupidly missed the fabulous annual Hyla Chili Cookoff with its middle school carnival, and Bloedel Reserve too busy to get a reservation to stroll.)
Gorgeous day
Perfect setting
Jalapenos with the crudo
Perfectly dressed
It's all about the snail butter
Dessert!
Ignore the tax forms!
— A
"A West Coast invention variously credited to eating establishments in
San Francisco and Seattle, this careful arrangement of, at minimum,
crab, lettuce, hard-boiled egg and pink "Louis dressing," cropped up
around the start of the 20th century to showcase the Pacific
Northwest's favorite crab, the mighty, the marvelous Dungeness."
Richard made a version for us with a spiced-up dressing (yay) that ended up being enough for 7 luncheon guests, who were not in attendance (Hence the TV remote control). It was delicious, though, and styled in a less-creepy fashion that that shown in the PI (above). That picture reminds me a little of those restaurants whose signs feature pigs in chef's coats carrying trays of roast ham.
Otherwise, I'd say it's torture that the USPS came out with an Edgar Allen Poe stamp just a couple of months before the upcoming rate hike. Or at least that's when I got clued in. Unfair! I only bought 2 sheets and I know even so I'll be buying sheets of 1- or 2-centers 'ere long.
While I was musing on torture, front-of-mind since the last administration unlawfully lifted so many restraints against it, i was reminded of Julio Cortázar, an Argentinian an writer who wrote a short story on the subject that I read in the 80s and remember finding very striking.
Casual research didn't turn up anything about the story, but I did find out that torture was a distinct theme within Cortázar's work:
I was interested and unsurprised to learn that Poe was a major influence on Cortázar:
After a long break — sorry about that, folks — I'm back with a very serious issue with which I need help. Richard made us a scallop lunch today and plated it two different ways. Can you believe that?!
It's like Who Wore It Better all over again.
Please vote and let your voice be heard by at least 7 people!!!
Today, I casually took a picture that seems to capture and encompass the character of our family.
In this picture, whether you can identify them or not (think "Hidden Pictures" from Highlights Magazine), are 4 people, 3 fish, some peanut people on a rusty peanut farm, a possible rolled-up armadillo, and evidence of a cat. Feel free to ask questions in the comments area!
We love Top Chef. So much so that we found ourselves enjoying the following quick[fire] snack the other day:
Deconstructed Nachos!
Ingredients: Doritos, Tillamook Cheddar slab.
There is no shortage of snowy "Can you believe it?!" photography being passed around the NW today, so let me pile on!
In the picture below, our house looks like a Christmas card...if I weren't so lazy/busy I'd Photoshop in some cheery lights or other signs of habitation.
At the time this was taken, I was huddled over my computer at my desk as usual (when not in Redmond doing things many other people could do just as well for Microsoft), and RT and the boys were sledding on the hill.
The big newsflash there was that the neighbor, Zoe, in Kindergarten this year, won the Sledding Championship for BOTH our driveway and hers. Watch out world!
Also, regarding Christmas, this is the first year that both boys have been opening their advent calendar windows first thing each morning without needing to be prodded.
OK, OK, I'll include a sledding snapshot. It's not very interesting except to document that our snow was not the usual, wussy almost-snow, it is significant in volume. And though mundane in the extreme, this picture is so much more interesting than the incessant pictures on TV of cars in trouble on bridges, topsy-turvy, etc. Trust me!
— Abigail
I was so happy to have my mother with me to witness these Seattle-bound sunrise skies on Saturday, otherwise I'd fear no-one would believe me. We would have missed them entirely if I hadn't been so smart as to leave my passport at home and force us to get out of the ferry line, go get it, and ride the 7:55 instead of the 7:05 boat.
Thanks to his father, Walter Thompson, 9, of Bainbridge Island now knows how to open a bottle of wine, offer a taste while displaying the bottle, and dispense a sommelier pour of 3 ounces. And cook a steak perfectly à point.
— Abigail
Anyone who's visited us in the past year or so will recognize many of the activities included in the New York Times' 36 Hours in Seattle. It's a good round-up of fun things to do.
The dining choices were as sensitive as the activity recommendations, selecting neighborhood haunts that are easy to get to and fairly central, as well as a flashy market-view restaurant that happens also to be a longstanding locals in-the-know favorite: Matt's in the Market. It used to have just 23 seats, so you had to be pretty judicious about not trumpeting its praises, if you ever wanted to eat there again. It was exclusive but neither pricey nor precious.
That's one of the really neat things about the Pike Place Market: It's a co-op or nonprofit or whatever (just the facts here!), so the cold arm of capitalist commerce is kept at bay and restaurants don't have to be mega-sized million-dollar enterprises to pay for the water view locations that are so fun.
In terms of dining, the Times also mentioned Quinn's Pub, which I've enjoyed visiting on two occasions, and Café Presse, among our top three destinations when we're dining in town. Who doesn't love a cold half chicken with mayo and a salad?
— Abigail
Update: replaced the photo with this one of Jordan taken on November 26th at Matt's, proving the point that it's the place to be. He and Pat took my recommendation to have dinner at Lark and loved it as much as I do.
...to this awesome art project: Jeongme Yoon's photos of kids and their gender-specific, monochrome toys.
Jeongme Yoon's work reminds me of a coffee table book I saw many years ago comprised of pictures of of people around the globe standing in front of their homes, surrounded by all their belongings.
Anyone able to find references to that I can follow? I can't seem to find anything and I'd love to see those pictures again. I recall people in Arizona with their flat screens TVs and video collections, etc., , and people in Nigeria with a single plastic bowl and fan.
Yoon's photos also remind me of a photo RT took when the boys were really little of all their toys spread out in the living room. I think someone had said they had "no" toys and he was proving otherwise. I'll try to dig it up and post it.
— Abigail
— Abigail
I really try to enjoy life visually, empirically, and intellectually
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