Hello, Central? Give Me The President!

I was leaving work the other day and saw Eric Johnson excitedly talking into two phones in two different places.

Now THAT's a news man!  

(He seemed a little upset that I took his photo.   Now I guess he'll be REALLY upset!)

BAD BOY!!!

This is what greeted me when I arrived home tonight.

I still have a headache.

Garden Show Glory

I spent a few hours at the Seattle Flower and Garden Show over the weekend, and made several contacts regarding a new fence for the front of my house. I was surprised how few fence building companies were in attendance, and how many crappy craft show venders showed up.

 They must have been selling the stalls pretty cheap if that many tacky venders were there.

Anyway, the garden exhibits were lovely, as always:

The theme this year was "Sustainable Gardens", and the country garden above, and the Indonesian garden below used green techniques (although I couldn't tell what they were) to showcase their glory.

I was especially impressed by the one that included a vertical wall of grass. Pretty amazing. They told me the grass is grown horizontally for about 4 months, then it can live on its' own vertically, attached to a wall.

The only thing I purchased was a wall hanging with 32 real butterflies, arranged on a piece of glass to look as if they were soaring upward.  It was covered with another piece of glass and framed in light-colored wood.   

It looks very nice in my dining room.

 

Just Another Night Out

I thought Anne and I were just going out for Greek food at Yanni's Restaurant on Greenwood Avenue North.

Then, THIS happened. It got pretty crazy for a while, but it was all in good fun.

After the dance the dancer changed into her regular clothes.  She wore the black matronly dress and sensible shoes of a Greek grandmother.  You'd never believe she was the same woman.   

And didn't Anne look cute in her headdress?  The dancer accosted her with it earlier in the show. 

Oscar Night Preview

I always look forward to the Oscars. It's my Superbowl, you know? And i try to see every film nominated for Best Picture.
This year, I was successful, seeing Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, The Reader, and my favorite, Frost/Nixon.

In case you missed any of them, here's a unique recap:

Oh Happy Day!

The Kid is coming home, and I couldn't be happier!!!

Ken Griffey Junior made his decision to play for Seattle once again, although I understand he had a difficult time choosing between being close to home in Orlando or playing someplace where he is regarded as a hero and a franchise player.

Seattle needs a year of Ken Griffey Junior.  Seattle sports teams need a little shot in the arm and the return of "The Kid"   Seattle needs a pleasant distraction from tales of woe about jobs and houses.  Baseball fans here need something to believe in again.   

I saw Ken Griffey Junior hit his first home run at his first at bat, on the first pitch thrown when he played his first minor league game for the Bellingham Mariners against the Everett Giants one summer night long ago.

I was there when Ken Griffey Junior hit his first home run at his first at bat, on the first pitch thrown when he played his first major league game as a Seattle Mariner.

I was there when Ken Griffey Senior played his first game as a Seattle Mariner alongside his son at the Kingdome and they had back-to-back hits.  I covered the game for the Voice of America.

I want to be there when Ken Griffey Junior makes a triumphant return, this time at Safeco Field, the stadium built for his left-handed hitting.   And I want to enjoy every minute.

WHERE IS MY BLOG?????

I logged in a few minutes ago and it's GONE!   I'm hopeful this is a technical glitch and will be repaired shortly. 

Abbey Update

This was Abbey last night.  

Her huge smile was the best Valentine's Day gift I could imagine.

She hasn't looked this happy in a very long time.

The Lion King

There's a lot to say about the stage production of "The Lion King", but let's face it, the musical was about the staging.

I attended the opening night performance last night at The Paramount Theater in Seattle, and came away, like the rest of the crowd, dazzled at the staging.

The performances, primarily the dancing, were wonderful.  Beautiful bodies frozen in space and time in unbelievably sinuous tableau.  Classic Japanese Kabuki theater mixed with African music, Indonesian puppetry, even a little ragtime thrown in for good measure.   A few memorable songs, and some great acting kept things moving.

All that was great.  But for me, it was all about the staging.

And these simple costumes were my favorites.  Cast members dressed with square high-grass headdresses, and stripped hoop skirts, portraying the undulating grasslands of the African plains.  They were so beautiful. 

All the staging was phenomenal.  Curtains pulled back at an angle to highlight the angle of a rock where a lion was reclining.  

Every scene was a work of art.  

Much has been written about the animal costumes.  And they were wonderful.  There were incredible giraffes, the elephants were engineering marvels as was the "wheel-o-the-gazelles", a multi-wheeled contraption rolled on stage with leaping gazelles to give the image of  far-away herds.  

I also especially liked the birds.  sometimes they were waved high atop  poles, swooping over the crowd.  Other times, they spun in pairs around a single pole.  And sometimes they were in puppet form, complete with moving eyes, mouth and a very expressive neck.

But the representation of the plains was, to me, the most ingenious part.  What production designer collaborated to turn the land itself into a star of the show?  

That part will stay with me.  

On the Mend...I Hope.

Abbey looks like she's picking up KXLY in Spokane with her satellite dish.  

But, it's the "Buster Collar", designed to keep her from digging at her stitches.  She's pretty miserable right now, some 20 hours out of surgery.

And I hope she will heal.  The vet says the mass she removed from Abbey's colon was not firm, like a benign tumor.  Instead, it was kind of gelatinous and filled with bumpy cyst-like things.

That leads the vet to think it may be malignant.

And here is my dilemma.  Do I pay the $200 for the pathology to find out, or do I let it be?  I told them yesterday that I wasn't ready to know.  I don't want to think of Abbey as a dog with cancer. I want to think of her as my girl, who is getting better.

If I found out it was malignant, there would be so many things to weigh.  She is 13 years old.  How will prolonging her suffering help her?  I might keep her around longer, but will SHE be happy?

If I do nothing, and it doesn't grow back, then we go on as usual, and we both feel better that she is more comfortable now.

If I do nothing and it DOES grow back, then I can decide at that time what to do.

Is it selfish of me to not want to know?  Is it a disservice to Abbey?  Is it a disservice to myself?

Or, am I content in my ignorance as she heals from her surgery?

And therein lies my conundrum.  

Why I Take So Long to Upgrade ANYTHING

....ALERT: There's LOTS of swearing involved. If you have sensitive ears, please don't watch.

The Curious Case of Robert Redford

I saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" this afternoon. It's my goal on my vacation to see all the films nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

Two down, Three to go.

While I enjoyed Benjamin Button, I thought the story was a little flat to get the golden statue.

And, I couldn't get this out of my mind. When he was made up as an older man, Brad Pitt was the striking image of Robert Redford now.

Here's an example:


Which looks surprisingly like this:



Frost-Nixon starts in about 30 minutes, so I'd better go. Wonder if Frank Langella will remind me of anyone?
:)

Livin' the Life!

My vacation has just started, and I'll be mostly staying at home, and, as it turns out, dealing with Abbey's surgery and care.

But for one night, and one night only, I'm taking advantage of the "Mental Health Mondays" special at Willow's Lodge in Woodinville.

They're owned by the same people who own Alderbrook on the Hood Canal.  I seriously considered going there, but this deal was too good to pass up.

For $169, you get an overnight stay in a premium room complete with fireplace, giant bathtub,, huge-screen TV over the fireplace, late check-out, Continental breakfast (I'm having mine as room service) and 15% off spa services (massage and facial, here I come!)

And...special treatment for DOGS!!!

I was going to bring both of the dogs, but Abbey is in pretty bad shape, awaiting surgery this week.  So, it's just Dudley and me, and he's loving his super-soft dog beds, complimentary cookies, free copy of "City Dog" magazine, convenient dog walking path outside our patio door, beautiful dog bowls, and visits from Ruthie Ann, the house Basset hound-beagle mix who lives in the lobby. 

But let's be serious. Dudley is spending most of his time HERE:

Back to Normal

Meet my new Black & Decker coffee maker.  Mine is much more simple, with only one button to turn it on and off.

What more do I need?  

And at $29.99 it was a real value on Amazon.com.

I have rejoined the world.

19 MILLION DOLLARS

This is Degas' famous sculpture, "Petite danseuse de quatorze ans'' or "Little 14-year-old dancer'' .

You may be familiar with it. Degas was fascinated with images of ballet. He painted dancers, sculpted dancers, was obsessed with them.

This particular sculpture is one of his most famous works. It's been at the Muse d'Orsay in Paris for years.

And today, it was sold.

Sotheby's held an auction of Impressionist and Modern works (I am particlularly enchanted by a Marc Chegall painting--pastel, goat, violins, etherial...) in NYC today.

The high bidder was from Japan.

The Little 14 Year Old Dancer is going to be making quite a significant jump.

Art. Is. For. Sale.

Six More Weeks

Love that little pesky groundhog.  

Sure enough, he turns away from the sun and sees his shadow, and is frightened by it.  So he goes back into that warm, dark lil' hole of his and refuses to come out again until it warms up.  

What if he just turned into the light and saw the glory that was before him instead of being afraid of a little shadow?  

Would he realize at that point that when one is facing shadows they need only shift their focus  to shift their perspective?

I took the above photo yesterday, trying to get the profile of a crow perched on the branch, with his beak poised to munch the railing off the Space Needle.

Sure enough, the little crow flew off the instant I hit the shutter.  

So I shift, and instead see the great photo of the Space Needle through naked branches.  This photo won't be available to me in 6 weeks or so.  

I relish in the now.