It chews so soft...

Another big gap in posts - sorry, faithful reader(s). So much has happened and we've both been incredibly busy.

Beth: Flew her pretty behind all the way to eastern Europe, traveled her way to Georgia (think Tblisi and homemade wine, not Atlanta and Coca-Cola) and spent a month there as part of a UW study abroad program. She returned rejuvenated on life and full of fascinating stories. Sorry, you'll have to ask her to elaborate. Ask her to relate the story of the American college boys getting their first-ever authentic Georgian spa.

Seth: During the brief repast from inconsolable sobbing during Beth's jet-setting, dove in head-first to preparations for volunteer ski patrol this winter. This involved lots of classroom time for about three months as well as frequent trips up to Snoqualmie pass to practice our skills outside in the cold and rain (no snow yet). Two weeks ago I passed my final so I'm basically an outdoor EMT. It's a good thing that Beth is also trained in the first-responder arts or else she would have surely sent me to the hospital with my constant stream of stories and excitement about gross, gruesome and groovy injuries. Just this last weekend I attended a mandatory clinic up on the pass where among other tasks, we learned how to use an assortment of harnesses, ropes, suspended "chairs" and a modified rifle to rescue stranded skiers from a broken ski lift.

I now have a brief break in training until there is enough snow to open the resort, at which time I begin toboggan training - learning how to carry the broken folks down the hill on a sled. I admit I'm hoping for a couple of weeks before the snow hits just so I can get a break, but the Seattle weather is set to turn snowy as early as next weekend so we'll see.

Also, Halloween came and went. Again we had to skip the Davis-style pumpkin carve because it's just too cold to sit outside in October in Seattle. But we still carved a bit and put some indoor work into our costumes and hit the town. Photos below:


A few of us ready to hop into a cab toward Capitol Hill. Left to right, Matt's arm (sorry Matt), God wearing a Giants hat and jersey (preordained to win the series!), Juicy Fruit (the taste, the taste, the taste is gonna move ya!) and the lovely tragic French clown (or pierrot) - that's all sewing machine and glue gun, folks!



Out at the Comet, we met this mysterious luchador. Even though we knew his alter-ego, our instincts compelled us to wrestle - or run. Later this luchador took us to an odd party where we felt very old and superior and from which we were eventually invited to leave for being too old and superior. Clever move, luchador.


Kiss cover band! Those of you keeping score may recall that we saw this same band (in the same bar) last year. They were too much fun to miss and this year they had a Black Sabbath cover band opening. Both bands killed it!


The pierrot looking extra-sassy.


While the bands were fantastic, we found it more entertaining to loiter outside on the corner and interact with other costumed revelers - like John and Yoko here. Sidenote - as part of my Juicy Fruit costume, I brought along two packs of Juicy Fruit gum and passed out sticks to strangers. You make fast friends of strangers when you give them a taste that's gonna move them when they pop it in their mouths.


More outside costumes. This guy was a self-proclaimed "rave gimp." I couldn't get the photo to work out, but the bars on his shirt responded to sound so that if a nearby group yelled, the bars would jump. Just like free gum, a very social costume. This guy had a lot of people yell at him.


Party folk lined up outside for late-night hot dogs from the cart.


Innocent little angel needed the pierrot's help walking in high heels - and her help fixing his costume to "make my ass look good."

Naughty Fruits and Yummy Vegetables

Poor neglected blog! Spring has stepped into Seattle and with it fun, adventure and more fun and adventure. Along the way, certain blogs get shoved aside and not given the respect they deserve. Will you forgive me, dear red-headed step-blog?

So what's been going on? Beth and I are still absolutely thrilled with the Seattle weather. This morning felt like a winter day - cool and crisp, overcast with wet roads and muddy berms testifying to last night's rains. (In this neighborhood you have to be careful crossing the berms because of occasional poo - but not dog poo. Yep, humanure. It's rare, but...yeah.) Now it's breezy and partly cloudy - oh and now it's both sunny and raining. Everything, everywhere is green. Monday I went for run on my usual route and then I repeated the route this morning to find that many of the trees have now grown enough to force me to duck my head beneath their heavy boughs.

A few weeks back we checked out our first roller derby bout at Key Arena. The bout consisted of two matches - one between the Sockit Wenches and the Derby Liberation Front and the other between Grave Danger and the Throttle Rockets. The gals have fantastic names such as "Sarah Problem?" and "Jalapeno Business." The first match was a blowout but the second was a nail-biter, right up until the final seconds. After the bout we met some friends at the Streamline Tavern (with the awesome beer can art by Mary), where Shawn was recounting the bout to another friend, going on about how the Derby Liberation Front were absolutely creamed. To our surprise, this tavern happened to be the hangout of said roller derby team - they're big, tough girls who don't much like being put in a negative light, especially in their home bar. A loud "Gulp" from Shawn and a round of drinks later and we were all friends.

We then made our way from the tavern to the Seattle Erotic Art Festival. Though the art was on display during the day, we attended the festival on Saturday night for full erotic immersion. On the stage was a mesmerizing show, including beautiful burlesque acts - both men and women - and some "aerialista" performance - think Cirque du Soliel meets burlesque. These performances were well-polished and impressive. A favorite was Miss Dirty Martini and her Garden of Eden act, which involved much peeling off of leaves and a finale with a magically-appearing apple (where exactly had she been hiding that fruit?). The crowd gasped and hooted and hollered. Much of the art on display was extremely well done and all of it was fascinating to peruse - never pornographic, but always suggestive or provocative. Some pieces really grabbed at our wallets, but we're not quite to a place where we can afford such luxuries - perhaps next year.

We spent another weekend down in Tacoma where we attended a wedding. As usual, the wedding was such a great opportunity to meet interesting people and to reconnect with old friends. It's always a bit sad when such weekends finally come to an end. Congratulations, Dan and Jen!

Each spring, the Seattle Yacht Club holds "opening day," which doesn't mark any particular "opening" but it's a day for boat enthusiasts to literally parade their monster yachts before the city. It's also a chance for rich old white people to wear fun sailor costumes. The parade is held just a few blocks away from our house, so we walked down to check it out, only to realize that our timing was wrong. But we caught the very end:



Float plane bringing up the rear


Fire boat hosing down the rear - click on the image to get a better view of the floating houses there across the water. Pretty cool spot eh? Again, we walked here from our house.


Police boat giving the parade's rear-end a proper final cleansing

In font-nerd news, I'm wrapping up a typography course at the School of Visual Concepts (a big reason why the blog has been neglected). I'm wrapping up my final project this week and will post about that and the class as a whole then.

We continue to receive our produce box from Full Circle Farm and we're still figuring out how to make sure we eat all them veggies before they go bad (so many carrots!). Here's a colorful solution form a few nights ago: Russet and purple potatoes with carrots - all from the farm box - along with fresh oregano from our herb pot and some salt, pepper & olive oil. Pretty!



What else? So much! We spent a few weeks trying out a different happy hour each Friday. We're taking a break until Beth is done with finals, but will post our reviews here once we start up again. We've been out to new restaurants, out to see bands (Mr. Gnome!), out to the U-District Street Fair, generally out and about. We're healthy and happy and keeping busy.

Tourist Weekend

Beth's mom came up to visit last weekend and stayed with us for three nights. We spent Saturday and Sunday indulging in pure Seattle tourism. A brief recount:

We swam through the crowds at Pike Place Market where folks (including us) line up for fresh-fried mini doughnuts and a view of flying fish. Pike Place is also the home of a wonderful busking duo who play Pink Floyd favorites on acoustic guitar and accordion with much passion. Awesome.

We sat in a mess of weekend + downtown + midday + sunny day + construction traffic, where we moved three blocks in an hour. Less awesome.

We tried to ride the Duck - an amphibious craft seen all around the city during the summer, full of tourists and an obnoxious driver/tour guide in fuzzy floppy hat. The tourists all have bill-shaped horns around their necks and are instructed to "quack quack quack" at the locals, much to the uptight locals' collective chagrin. The Duck was booked. I'll admit I kind of wanted to ride it once, just to know what it's like from the other side of the plastic quacker.

We went to the Bodies exhibit downtown to see Chinese political prisoners playing soccer and tennis without their clothes or skin. Some aspects of the show were fascinating - especially the displays of the vein systems - like this one of the lungs - colored bright red or blue and suspended without any other tissue - just a delicate, intricate web of brightly-colored threads. Overall, the show had more of a circus sideshow feeling than a medical exhibit. It might not have helped that the "docents" were young kids with shaggy beards and piercings and high leather boots - and white lab coats. Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against piercings (had one), beards (see previous post) and leather. But they don't really project medical knowledge at first sight.

We rode the monorail from Seattle Center to downtown and back. A neat ride on a groovy vessel through towering buildings, but it lasts only two minutes. The monorail achieved international fame with its supporting role in the locally-made film Safe Passage.

We took the great glass elevator up up up 540 feet to the tippity-top of the Space Needle. Though it was a bit overpriced and heavily-touristed, this excursion was amazing. You can walk outside to feel the rush of the wind and look down down down to the ground below (always the savvy marketers, you can see the golden arches painted on the roof of a nearby McDonald's) and you can stay inside where they provide tables with Seattle's best view (except that it's missing the Space Needle) and plenty of screens with interactive displays and cameras where you can control the angle and zoom. And you can buy coffee. We lingered up there for quite a while. After living in Seattle more than a year and slowly becoming familiar with different neighborhoods, it was incredibly interesting to stand up there above the city and look at it all patched together in 360 degrees. It was vast and beautiful and intricate and felt like home.






From the observation deck - you can almost see our house from here. No, really! It's across the lake near that tall white building by the base of the long bridge.


Looking east to Capitol Hill, Bellevue and the Cascades


It's windy out there! There's one upper lip that's not feeling the cold.

Shirts, Shiitakes and Sunsets

Last post was more than a month ago, so what's up in our lives?

First, the hobbies. As mentioned earlier, I've been trying to work on some homestyle screen printing down in the basement. It started out as a way to pass those non-smoking winter nights - hey tomorrow makes five months! Anyway, it's taken about five months to collect enough equipment and stumble through enough mistakes to have some tangible results. See my first design on two shirts below. In addition to a handful of thrift store shirts, I printed this design on a few canvas tote bags and sent them off as Christmas presents. Of course, I also have a bunch of totes with printing errors. When will I ever need seven shopping bags at once? Want one? Let me know. I've got some more designs in the works but I'm still running into new challenges here and there. I enjoy the hobby, though when things go awry, the time spent waiting for things to dry gets a bit frustrating. But most mistakes are also lessons and I truly feel like I'm improving all the time. Oh, and I've found surprising pleasure in trekking out to a large Goodwill a bit north of here to search through their racks upon racks of tees. Beth is fantastic at spotting hidden pit stains on otherwise new-looking shirts. I'll post photos as they come (of new printings, not pit stains).


The basement studio's vast drying room.

Interesting aside - my friend Shawn spotted a t-shirt with a similar design for sale in a local head shop. I checked it out. This other design was indeed a space needle but it was very rigid and had small, jagged roots coming out of the bottom. My design was intended to resemble tentacles (notice there are indeed eight) but I see the root resemblance. It was interesting to see a similar concept but quite different execution. And, yeah, my design is waaay more better.

Next, the farm box. Now that neither of us work at a grocery store, we decided to jump in to a farm box subscription. We chose Full Circle Farm based on recommendations from both Zoe and a coworker of mine. Even in the pacific northwest they deliver a box all year round, though not everything in the box is necessarily grown on their farm (or even in this country - note the avocados in the photo). But, it's all organic, they will fill in their own produce as it becomes seasonally available - and the grooviest thing - each week (well, we get a box every two weeks) we can go online, see exactly what's coming in the next box, and make changes as we desire. Even though we know what's in each box it's so exciting to get it home and open it up!


Those are shiitakes (pardon my French) in the brown bag, and there are some scrumptious carrots hiding under that lettuce.

What else? Got myself a promotion at work, along with a respectable raise. That's good news. Beth studies constantly and is seeing some fruits of those labors. I'm still engaged in that dastardly jogging habit, though only on the weekends. Perhaps I'll start to hit up evenings when there is a bit more light. I still walk to work three days a week and it's a pleasure watching the daylight shift. For a while there in the winter I was walking both to and from work in full darkness. Now I get sunlight both ways, though it is still in motion. Plants and trees can tell, and many of the local cherry blossoms are already bursting out in plant-porno fashion. Here's the emerald city, lit up by sunrise on a recent walk to work:


Crossing I-5 at 45th street on my way to work.

Speaking of light, last weekend we found ourselves in an unexpected warm, sunny paradise (well, warm as in no beanie required). Beth picked me up from work on Friday, we stopped at our food co-op for a few items and then we went out to Agua Verde - right off the UW campus - for some fantastic Friday evening margaritas on the shipping canal. Bliss. Absolute bliss.


Oddly long-necked birds in a tree near the shipping canal at dusk.


Shipping canal with the I-5 bridge in the background. From where I'm sitting, Lake union is beyond the bridge and downtown is beyond Lake Union. Our house is about 15 blocks to the right.


Friday.


Yep.

Christmas and Commies

Last weekend the local family of friends here suited up in our finest colorful track gear, set the alarms and headed to downtown Seattle for the annual Jingle Bell Run. It's a 5K and well, they call it a "run," and sure, some folks run but we proudly brought up the rear with the stroller set. I swear though, we must have beat at least half of those strollers.

Photos:




Pre-race warm-up. Look at all dem Santa hats!



We met some people involved in a GAP photo shoot. In case you hadn't guessed, they're actors. Professional actors, though we didn't pay them anything. They just hung around.



The magic Beth elf enjoying the downtown scenery.


The magic Beth elf enjoying some pre-race cocoa with Matt (with surprisingly delicious hemp milk!) If you look closely you can see the dashing photographer along with one of those actors reflected in Anthony's gigantic lens.


About to enter the I-5 express lane tunnel. Notice the DO NOT ENTER sign. It wasn't that scary in there (as Kubie would say, just a little bit scary). In fact, one older gentleman (remember we were in the walking group) walked while playing carols on a trumpet and folks sang along with a sweet reverb effect. I'm a sucker for them carols.

Bonus photo!
Beth had to purchase special no-slip shoes for her job at Whole Foods. She went for the bright red Crocs, because, well they were bright red. The toes needed a little something so I took a bit of yellow paint and, voila! You like, da?

Nearly (Indirectly) Struck by Lightning

Halloween came and went. Carved some pumpkins, put on some costumes, hit the town, harrassed other costumed partygoers. The Halloween season always seems to be over before it even begins. Davis weather in October is much better suited to outdoor pumpkin carving and we missed our yearly courtyard ritual but we still tackled the task. In Seattle the thrift stores take Halloween and run. They not only pull out all of the funky vintage and/or odd second hand items, but they also stock all the cheap plastic crap and makeup and accessories necessary for a good capitalist holiday. Two Saturdays before Halloween one local Goodwill gave out cookies and cider and had games for the kids and drawings for the adults. Way to go, thrift stores.

The nighttime comes pretty early now without daylight savings. By the time I leave work at 4:30 the sky has begun its quick and steady slide into grey darkness. I arrive home around 5 to nearly complete nighttime. I don't mind, but I notice. With the early darkness and the grey days and blowing wind and rain, it's easy to slip into melancholy now and then but it's usually just as easy to slip back out.

Today makes 41 days without a cigarette. Constantly, dutifully, I chew the little white nicotine gum squares. I've got the jaw strength of a pit bull. Still I find it difficult to focus at times and I wonder if it's some sort of withdrawl-distraction issue or if I'm just slipping into adult-onset ADD.

Speaking of attention, I almost got myself hit by an SUV on my walk home the other day. The SUV was slowing to the stop sign while I passed in front when suddenly lightning lit up the twilight just above and both the SUV pilot and I were momentarily distracted. When my eyes came back down from the clouds I saw the SUV had rolled past the stop sign and was still moving steadily at my midsection. I reactively swung my canvas bag into the grill and the beast stopped. I suppose you don't require any sort of attention deficit disorder to be distracted by lightning. This morning on NPR a report about safe pedestrian cities cited Seattle as one of the safest in the US. Apparently Florida gets a lot more lighting than Seattle.

Halloween photos below:



His holiness St. Bernard preparing to perform the holy decantation


The Devil and St. Bernard. (Devil's horn stuck in a cab door)


Capitol Hill intersection buzzing with nightlife


Beth as Zombie Christmas Elf. CAAANES!


Matt got stopped by a lady cop


KISS cover band rocked and rolled all night and partied every day.

Inner. Inner city. Inner city pressure.

Rainy Labor Day in the neighborhood

For both Beth and I, Seattle is by far the most densely-populated place we have called home. Most of the time the difference does not come in to focus. We accept perks and drawbacks and whether subconsciously or purposefully, we find similarities between our new place and our old place. In many ways, living here in Seattle's University District parallels living in East Davis. There is a major university nearby. There are coffee shops and cheap restaurants everywhere. There is a farmer's market a few blocks away. Students rent many of the houses and apartments within walking distance. They drive too fast, talk or text on their phones completely oblivious to the world around them, and wear fashions straight outta the 80's but claim them all their own. (Geez, listen to me. Have I become my parents?) We can walk to acquire nearly all of our daily essentials. When we do drive we schedule trips to avoid the hairy freeway traffic.

Then there are differences. The Trader Joe's lies a block and a half away. Instead of a handful of restaurants there are hundreds. Instead of two movie theaters in town I can easily name at least 6 within a mile radius, including two art house theaters. During the summer you can find a fair or festival or parade every weekend.

There are also many more homeless people, far more in our neighborhood than we encountered in all of Davis. There is the old man who wears a plastic grocery bag over his head, carries a heaping black plastic bag over his shoulder and mumbles to himself constantly. The cashier at the local Quick-E Mart tolerates him and lets him loiter in the store, refilling his cup from the cocoa machine. I'm told he carries an incredible stench but haven't experienced it myself. There is the tall, lanky man with wild long gray hair and a beard. He can often be seen sitting on a bench in the park, legs crossed like a lady, silently bobbing a tea bag into a styrofoam cup. Nearly every evening he walks south down our alley carrying a bed roll he must stash nearby during the day. One night at the same Quick-E Mart, this man was in line behind me. The cashier had run out of small bills enough to give change to the college kid at the counter. The cashier gestured toward both me and the homeless man and asked if either of us planned to pay in cash. I replied, "Nope, plastic." and the cashier gestured for me to ask the homeless man standing behind me. I gave the cashier a matter-of-fact look back to say "You really think this guy is paying with his American Express card?" Undeterred, the cashier gestured again. So I turned to the man and asked, "Sir, will you be paying with cash?" He nervously stammered for a moment and then turned his attention to the candy display at his right, the stammering trailing off again into silence. I turned back to the cashier and shrugged.

At the same Quick-E Mart recently a clean-cut college kid in a hooded sweatshirt bypassed the line at the counter and simply walked out the door carrying a case of beer. "Wow, that's bold!" agreed the paying customers in line. The cashier cursed until his face turned cherry red and then finally called the police.

Recently a kid just down the street spent about fifteen minutes screaming at a man for "decking me and taking my money" before three blue & white cruisers arrived and spent twenty minutes sorting out the incident. The cops sent the man and kid off in different directions.

A few nights ago Beth and I were chatting on our porch in the twilight, watching a storm blow its way in. A man walking down the alley stopped for a moment when he saw us, waited for a break in our conversation and then called up from the alley. "Excuse me" he asked politely. "I don't suppose you might have an extra blanket, do you?" Nearly cutting him off I curtly replied, "Sorry, man." and he continued down the alley. Light raindrops began to join the wind and I started to realize how miserable this night would be outdoors. I don't know if we have an extra blanket but I'm sure we have some sort of warmth we could have offered. He wasn't asking for money, for cigarettes or beer, or even bus fare. His question seemed to pain him, to hurt his pride. He asked politely. It rained hard that night. I haven't seen him since. I believe I would have responded differently in our first months here, but after saying "Sorry, man" to so many people on the street, my response has become automatic.

I am alert walking the neighborhood at night. We often hear shouting matches among the homeless in the park. A neighbor across the alley recently received a minor stab behind the ear at 4 in the afternoon because he yelled at some meth-riddled kids for cutting at his bamboo with a pocket knife. Our own house was robbed in the first week after our move.

There are bad people about. There are good people about. There are just so many people. So how does one remain vigilant without losing a sense of humanity? I suppose it has to come down to a gut feeling, a sense of trust that is continually refined the longer we live here.

Look at me, I'm 33

Beth and I celebrated my birthday earlier this week. Yep, 33 years old. We went downtown and had lunch, where I was treated to an amazing cornmeal encrusted catfish sandwich. Then we headed to the Experience Music Project. It's a sort of rock & roll museum and it's all very well thought out and very interactive. Of course, different music to listen to at stations all along the way, of course a section devoted to the Seattle grunge scene and of course an incredible section devoted to Jimi Hendrix (including a piece of that guitar he famously burned at the Monterey Pop Festival - oooh). Right now the EMP is also hosted an exhibition of letterpress work by Hatch Show Print, a printer out of Nashville. It was amazing to see the hand-carved wooden blocks used in printing all sorts of materials, from trailer advertisements to Grand Ol' Opry flyers to modern band posters. So neat to see the artistic skill and creativity involved in each piece. According to their video, they keep every block and so have hundreds - thousands of blocks dating back decades. It's an incredibly interesting way to view history and popular culture. (Thanks to Beth for indulging the font nerd in me on my birthday)
We topped off the day with a trip to REI to grab a new backpacking stove for the quickly approaching summer. Ooooh, new gear. Great birthday, great to spend it with Beth.
(We realized at some point that we forgot the camera, so instead of birthday photos I'll include a photo of another recent outing to the Seattle aquarium.)

Sun and Snow

I sometimes worry I'm boring myself by thinking about the weather so often, I'm then reminded that weather was one of the major reasons we moved to Seattle. I am still amazed by the changing weather. Yesterday was stunningly beautiful. Clear and crisp with broad mountain ranges visible to the east and the west. Today it's snowing. The variety in the weather makes the days more interesting. Every day comes on fresh and new with anticipation. There is always some uncertainty of sun or storm.

I finally submitted my first resumé last week and am sending off another on Monday. I know I will likely have to send out many resumés before landing the right position, but I feel like the process has begun and I'm finding satisfaction in actively working toward a goal after the long break. Not that I have been wholly unproductive. If one could pick out a routine from my daily habits, it would surely include a good deal of time spent reading design books and learning more about Flash and web development.

Today's snow was fleeting (it's sunny out now - wait, now kind of foggy) but a week or so ago we awoke to a fresh blanket of about three inches. I still find the composition of city and snow a novelty. I still have an innate sense that it only snows in the mountains. That morning I set out early to take some photos of my new found fascination. See them below (click on photos to view larger versions).


This image feels incredibly still.


The bike is reminiscent of Davis, but not so much the snow.










Interstate 5 with downtown off in the distance to the south. Notice the morning commute headed into downtown. We're learning when and where not to drive in order to avoid crazy city traffic. Though the traffic can be frustrating, all of our essential needs are within walking distance so driving trips are never urgent.






Almost back home, I came across these shoes on a line, their foot beds full of snow. Of all the scenes I discovered that morning, I think that this one best illustrates snow in the city.

"Would you like cum on your cock?"

Most romantic Valentine's Day ever:

1. Grabbed our neighbor whose wife is away for three months and all enjoyed a fantastic breakfast of chicken-fried chicken, though Beth was carded (second time in a week!) and couldn't get the red beer she desired to go with the meal.

2. Scored free coffee at Starbuck's thanks to Matt's multiple gift cards from Christmases past.

3. Visited the marina and walked along the beach. Checked out some beach volleyball. Watched seagulls fight over a fish for a really really ridiculously long time.

4. Found a fantastic bloody mary at the deliciously dirty and divey Pacific Inn (we were sad to have eaten breakfast so recently since the Pacific Inn also makes rockin' fich & chips).

5. Stopped at another Starbuck's and scored another round of gift card coffees - we do have to pay twelve cents this time.

6. Tried to find a butcher shop for our Valentine's Day steak grilling. First shop no longer exists, second was closed on weekends. Ended up at Whole Foods and harrassed our friend working in the crazy busy floral section.

7. Swung by the Erotic Bakery for some naughty desserts. We got an assortment of cupcakes including the vagina, the boobs, the white cock and the black cock. They're basic cupcakes with different fondant decorations stuck onto the frosting - none of which are at all subtle. At the register, the friendly shop owner asked us, "Would you like cum on your cock?" meaning they will drip a little sugar water mixture on the tip of the fondant cock (or on anything else we were purchasing for that matter). We said yes of course.

8. Almost home and we swung by a local brewpub for a pitcher...or two. Big talk about starting all manner of home businesses.

9. Got home & grilled steaks. Et 'em up with fingerling potatoes and steamed asparagus.

10. Watched Spinal Tap DVD.

Squirrel Flurry

Domestication continues. Our place is all but put together and is very lovely and cozy now. Check out the new sofa in the living room:


Not cheap, but very cozy. Yesterday I took an early morning walk to Whole Foods (yep - there I've said it) for some dinner party ingredients and a Sunday paper. The sofa is pretty nice for a kick-back-and-read-the-paper-Sunday, especially with the big windows and the gas fireplace right there. Nicely fitting into our increasingly ambiguous domestic roles, Beth fixed the pilot light on the gas fireplace after I complained it was a little cold.
It snowed yesterday, both on the morning walk and off and on throughout the day. But as Beth says, it was friendly snow - so light it seemed to fly up almost as much as down and never really seemed to reach the ground.
There's a squirrel family in the tree right outside the upstairs window. Apparently, the parent squirrel woke up early yesterday, crawled out and sat on his perch in the surprise snow and after a brief survey of the morning scene sat still and simply yelled "Fuck!" to himself and then continued to sit there - apparently.
Walking the area is becoming an interesting pastime. I was struck by how even in a densely populated place, Sunday mornings are still oddly and wonderfully quiet. Walked by the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament with its parking lot full of early worshipper cars but not a human in sight and then down towards the market. It was brisk and the wind made the snow a bit less friendly. Saw three joggers with two strollers - the joggers all decked out in their newest and brightest REI finest ass-hugging gear. Two ladies and a guy, all maybe mid-foties. They all seemed surprised when one of the babes began to cry, I'm guessing from the discomfort of cold and snow on its soft little face. These people really pissed me off. I mean, really - do you need to take that jog today? It's 8am on a Sunday and snowing outside. Don't think it will reach 30 degrees for a few hours. Sure you're tough in your gear but it's not about you. Skip the fucking baby jog today. When I saw them they weren't really jogging, more running with an urgency of a selfish hobby parent who has just realized that maybe, just maybe, their 8-month old doesn't like to be pulled from their blankie to be jerked around in the elements so their parents can feel accomplished for the week. Tuck that lil' fucker in for some Thomas the Train and kick back with a coffee and a paper. Relax. That's what Sundays are for.
By the way, today makes two weeks without a cigarette. Can you tell?