oh what a colorful day...

I accompanied my friend to a wholesale floral dealer in Seattle this morning. They seemed to have no problem with me snapping one shot after another. Polaroids included. It was a pretty scene - hard not to take a photo !

The flowering trees on campus have been beautiful this past month. Had to stop today and take some shots before the blooms fall away.

Happy Birthday Wendy

Wishing my sister a very Happy 49th !

(I have to come up with something good next year !!)

they're back...

Like birds to Capistrano, the tomato plants have returned to our basketball court. Hopefully it will be another banner summer for them. Five plants so far - two sungolds, a husky red, a patio and a golden jubilee. I can taste them already.

Happy Earth Day

An Earth Day quiz - taken from cnn.com:

1. On average, what is the approximate daily home water use for each person in the U.S.?

A. 25 gallons

B. 50 gallons

C. 100 gallons

D. 200 gallons

2. On average, what percentage of household water is used outdoors for watering lawns and gardens?

A. 10-30 percent

B. 30-50 percent

C. 50-70 percent

D. 70-90 percent

3. Approximately what percentage of the water in the world can be used to meet the agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community and personal needs of humans?

A. 1 percent

B. 5 percent

C. 25 percent

D. 40 percent

4. Approximately how many sheets of 100% virgin copy paper can be made from one tree that is roughly 40 feet tall and 6-8 inches in diameter?

A. 2,000 sheets

B. 8,000 sheets

C. 20,000 sheets

D. 50,000 sheets

5. In the average home, which of the following uses the most water?

A. Flushing the toilet

B. Filling the bathtub

C. Taking a 10-minute shower

D. Washing one load of clothes

6. For approximately how long can a person live without water?

A. Two days

B. Four days

C. One week

D. Two weeks

7. Which of the following takes the longest time to break down or disintegrate?

A. Disposable diaper

B. Hard plastic container

C. Aluminum can

D. Plastic 6-pack holder

8. Which of the following accounts for the greatest percentage of total waste in the U.S.?

A. Yard trimmings

B. Paper

C. Plastics

D. Glass

9. In the same amount of time, which of the following home appliances consumes the most electricity?

A. Space heater

B. Hair dryer

C. Computer and monitor

D. Water heater

10. Which of the following accounts for the greatest percentage of a typical home energy bill?

A. Heating and cooling

B. Clothes washer and dryer

C. Computer and monitor

D. Refrigerator

11. Which of the following is NOT a renewable resource?

A. Ethanol

B. Natural gas

C. Hydrogen

D. Methanol

12. What substance is released into the atmosphere when solid waste, fossil fuels and wood products are burned?

A. Hydrogen peroxide

B. Sodium chloride

C. Carbon dioxide

D. Calcium sulfate

13. Which of the following U.S. government environmental acts was NOT a result of the first Earth Day demonstrations?

A. Endangered Species Act

B. Clean Water Act

C. Clean Air Act

D. National Wash-Your-Car Day

Answers are here.

Commit to action !

Polaroid fun...

My gracious friend picked up a couple vintage Polaroid cameras for me at a local thrift store and I've been having fun with them ever since. Feels like 1978 all over again. I have to remember how spendy the film is now as I shoot at will. I love the sound of the photo shooting out the front of the camera. Classic.

Our first Mariner's game of the season...

...and they lost to the Tigers. Oh well. It was a nice afternoon with friends.

It was Kosan's first time at Safeco.

Santa Cruz

I am not slacking on my blog again, we were away on VACATION ! We took a trip down to the central California coast and spent some time in the Santa Cruz area. We saw a lot and fell in love with the surroundings. I think this will be our new home, in about a year. We've been contemplating a move - just had to figure out where we wanted to go.

Here's a sprinkling of what we saw:

iPhone fun

I downloaded an application for my iPhone called Camera Bag, on the recommendation from a friend. It applies different filters to your photos for varying effects.

Lolo: crops the photo to a square, adds a white border and increases saturation and contrast


Instant: looks like an instant photo (d'uh)


1974: adds sepia tone to photo, adds white border and crops photo


Helga: de-saturates and adds a vignette border as well as crops the photo


Fisheye: Creates a bubble type of effect with your photo

Happy Birthday Mom

Since she's one of my eight readers, I want to give a big shout-out to my Mom on her birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM !

Also celebrating a birthday today is Mike McCready - Happy 43rd Mike !

Sheep Art

This video has been making the rounds on email lately, so you've probably already viewed it. I think it's worth a second look though, because it's so cool...

Peeps...

The Seattle Times does a yearly Easter season Peeps photo contest. Here are some of this year's submissions:

Miracle on the Peepson River

Octo-Peep - a bit disturbing, but worthy of including

Happy Friday !

the sound of silence...

As I have mentioned before, I LOVE when the college kids are away on break. It is so peaceful on campus. The cherry blossoms are starting to bloom. I see this tree out my window, across the street:

While it was quiet this morning, I wandered around my building. The sound of silence was lovely.

Can't wait for this movie...

This was one of my favorite books as a kid. I hope the movie doesn't disappoint.

Really !?!

my annual pint of Guinness...

Slainte !

And a little Irish music for your enjoyment...

a sad day in Seattle newspaper history...

cartoon by David Horsey

After 146 years in circulation, the Seattle P-I printed its last edition today. I guess it's the wave of the future and I expect more newspapers will suffer the same fate. But who wants to curl up on the couch with their cup of coffee and read a monitor ? I'm not a fan of the other Seattle newspaper, so I guess my paper purchase will now be the NY Times.

Same snowy story, different month...

I feel like a broken record - and complaining does nothing to help the situation, but I am SO SICK of #$%*ing snow. It's March. And Spring supposedly arrives next week. I'll believe it when I see it.

The flakes falling right now are so huge...

... and it's heavy, wet snow - look at our poor phallic-looking tree !

Hope it's nice where you are !

S is for Slacker...

I greatly apologize to all eight of my readers for being completely uninspired and LAZY with my poor little blog. I have no excuse. Well, actually I do - it's called Facebook. Lately I've been calling it Crackbook. It takes up way too much of my online time. I promise to be better.


In honor of today, here are five Friday the 13th facts:

1. Fear of Friday the 13th — one of the most popular myths in science — is called paraskavedekatriaphobia as well as friggatriskaidekaphobia. Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13.

2. Many hospitals have no room 13, while some tall buildings skip the 13th floor and some airline terminals omit Gate 13.

3. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.

4. Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. "It was bad luck," Twain later told the friend. "They only had food for 12." Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.

5. The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number — 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.

can't even think of a title worthy of this post...

I've witnessed history today and it leaves me speechless - and overjoyed at the same time. A feeling of hope that had been so absent has again resurfaced.

so bye-bye Rod...

The vote by the Illinois House was 114-1 and marks the first time in the state's 190-year history that a governor has been impeached. Who was that one vote ? Ah ha.

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Good riddance.