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.
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?
My job has me working in two separate offices. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I work at the Bastyr Clinic in the Wallingford /Fremont neighborhood. The clinic is about two miles from our house and with the fair weather I walk or ride my bike. Tuesdays and Thursdays I work on the Bastyr University campus over across Lake Washington from Seattle in Kenmore. The campus is situated next to a lush wooded state park. I've got a carpool buddy so I typically drive one day a week and then ride along the other day. Both commutes take between 20 minutes and a half hour, but I prefer the walk to other modes. Walking up 45th in the Wallingford neighborhood in the afternoon you pass through a wonderful variety of smells - vanilla waffle cones at the ice cream shop, savory spicy pork aromas from the taco truck that never moves and always has a line, warm starchy smells of french fries sizzling in the fryers at Dick's Hamburgers (which also always has a line - whenever we drive by it's hard to resist cracking some remark like, "Wow, that's a lot of people lining up to cram some Dick's in their mouths."), sickly-sweet sticky smells from Winchell's Doughnuts (yeah, they still have one of those here), slightly mildewy-beer and cigarette carpet smell of the Irish pub always reminds me of the Shady Lady back in Jackson, the occasional stinky homeless fellow and of course, a deliciously acrid nose-tickling coffee shop every half block or so.
Since the clinic is in the city, each day after lunch I take a half-hour walk around Fremont - the neighborhood beyond the clinic in relation to the house. Today I brought my camera along and took a few photos.
Green siding peeling away to reveal red brick
Clever hanging pots - that's a bike helmet and a batting helmet. Both are apparently hung using their original straps. And how they drain!
Under the 99/Aurora Bridge looking toward the water. This was taken with my back to the famous Fremont Troll.
Bridge from another angle
Life-size fairy resting on a rooftop
Is it global warming? Or perhaps a pack of lies spun by these northwestern mossbacks to keep southerners away? Either way, the reports of miserable Seattle winters have so far been false. In fact, the weather is exciting in that it changes from day to day. Some wind, some snow, some rain and them BAM! A sunny day. A morning walk revealed Mt. Rainier looming above and beyond the metropolis. Photos from my walk follow: (click a photo for a larger version)
(above & below) Mountain and city juxtaposed.
(above & below) Some hazy Cascades off to the east.
It's neat to see how folks adapt to the dense living situation, though this rig would seem to require a bit of parental supervision.
Beautiful Thai Restaurant down the street a ways. Don't know yet if the food matches the facade
Entrance to a chiropractor's office. Despite the fact that you have to be a little more careful with your cash and drugs, we're enjoying the overall city-ness of this place. Art and music and good food all around. Last week we went to a show that was performance as much as it was music. The band wore red shrouds (Beth says they were graduation robes, but "shrouds" sounds much better) and big floppy yellow hats with black netting hanging over their faces. Two percussionists backed up synthesizer, bass and guitars. The music was deep and droning and the vocalist finally emerged, crawling onto the stage in a furry white costume and orange masquerade-style mask with a long pointed nose. Again,we differ on the description. I say he was dressed as a snowy owlet while Beth says baby penguin. I'm sure he would tell you he can't be classified. He was more of a vocalist than a singer, using his voice to wail and chant in a very beautiful way, often sounding very Indian. Wonderfully weird.More photos:
This entire graffiti scene has a snow/skiing theme. By his choice of sweater, I assume that the green monster is sponsored by Rainier Beer.
Painting on the side of a brake shop.
Hand-illustrated show flyer. Love it! Especially in that it is also hand-cut. Notice that $2 Rainier is listed on their happy hour sign. Yup.
This is a fixture at the playground near our house. From the street it looked like the structure was just falling apart. It took close investigation to realize what was going on.
More outdoor art, this mural on the side of a brewpub & cafe. We had lunch here once, including a grilled sandwich that included tuna salad, sauteed mushrooms and avocado. Yes, it was good.
Stay back! Those bunnies on the lower left aren't very friendly looking up close. On the giraffe's chest is a marquee to promote the specials...
...and up close you can see that the marquee has been cleverly altered. Or did that G just fall down on its own?Super Bowl came and we ate and ate. Fired up the grill and made my someday-famous "Your mama's so hot chicken" to wrap up a whirlwind weekend of friends and food and football. So now its February. We're moved in and settled in. I suppose I should get myself a job. Do they still have those in this economic climate?
