Category: Uncategorized

Dorothy is our 93 year-old next door neighbor. She lives alone and still drives. If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t be living in our house. Back in 1998, when we bought it, people were offering more than the asking price on houses. Apparently, someone outbid us. But Dorothy put in a good word for us, saying she’d like to live next door to our young family.

So we owe Dorothy a lot.

In Dorothy’s backyard is this beautiful Magnolia tree. It is in full bloom right now and we get a lovely view of it from our dining room (this photo was taken at 2pm today). Melinda invited Dorothy over this afternoon for a cup of tea so she could see her Magnolia as we see it.

Learn more about Dorothy from this post, written while we were in France and just after a Skype session with her.

That’s my friend Bob with me, a photo Melinda took last night while Bob & I were being a little silly with a digestif, the “water of life” that Melinda got for me back in September. I’d been saving it for a special occasion and what could be more special than having Bob up from Olympia for dinner and to spend the night.

For context purposes, I met Bob in 1986 when I was an undergrad at The Evergreen State College. He is the father of Si, a brain-injured boy with whom I began working that year. Learn more at this post from back in January. Suffice it to say, meeting Bob and Si changed the direction of my life.

As good as this picture is, I could have used one I took of Bob and Melinda and in which it appears Melinda is proposing to Bob.

I told you. He’s special.

Since you can’t tell from the photo, you’re going to have to trust me that it’s of Elvis Costello from last night’s concert at the Paramount in Seattle. Melinda and I long ago bought tickets and were thrilled to go to the show. I not too jokingly say that Elvis got me through high school, so enamored was I (am I) with his music. That he has been performing for 35 years is quite something.

This particular tour is quite unique. In the photo behind him is a big wheel with song titles and themes. Elvis would bring people from the audience up on stage to spin the wheel and then lead the band through playing the song that popped up or a series of them based on the theme. Meanwhile, the audience member got to dance in a go-go dancing cage.

Fun stuff.

My favorite song of the night was a newer one, “A Slow Drag With Josephine,” although his rendition of “Please, Please Me” was mighty fine. Find the set list here, as well as links to videos from the show.

It’s my niece Tammy’s 21st birthday today (that’s her on the left, with her dad, Scott, on the right). Apparently, this makes her “legal.” Okay, I get that. It has to do with being of legal drinking age in the United States (interestingly, Chloe became “legal” in France last year and again became “legal” in Canada this year).

But this idea of becoming “legal” implies that at one point one could be illegal. That doesn’t seem so nice. I’ve had a brief Facebook exchange with Tammy today to try to determine what it means for her to have been “illegal” yesterday and “legal” today. Tammy said she’s not sure.

Maybe you can help.

Meanwhile, happy birthday, Tammy!

Remember a couple of days ago when I admitted I was a hockey fan? Well that is ringing true right this minute, 9pm on the opening night of the 2012 NHL playoffs. I’m trying to keep track of the Vancouver – Los Angeles game. It’s tied 1-1 in the middle of the second period.

Go Canucks!

So today’s’s photo is of a 1970 program insert from an Omaha Knights hockey game. That’s André “Moose” Dupont, a solid defenseman who later went on to play with the Philadelphia Flyers. But I said all this in that earlier post, right?

See, I’m a hockey fan and I’m all excited tonight. It’s opening night of the playoffs. It’s causing me to repeat myself.

Go Canucks!

What were you doing in 1982? That’s the year I lived mostly in Alaska, the city of Seward, specifically, and was an AM radio deejay. I’ve mentioned that before. But that year is prominent in my mind because it is when I really started figuring out more of who I was and what I wanted to do. High school hadn’t provided that so I initially bypassed college to “find myself,” although I never would have put it that way at the time.

This picture comes from December 30, 1982, four days after I had returned to Seattle from Seward. That’s me on the right, sitting with my brother, Scott. The occasion is the wedding of our brother, Steve. A pretty nice occasion to reconnect.

But what’s up with that facial hair??

So Melinda and I were at Costco over the weekend picking up some items for our Easter weekend hosting (see yesterday’s post). I spotted this box of Romaine lettuce and, for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on, I decided to snap this picture.

I wonder, if you have to say there is an original, does that suggest there are imitations? And if the original was in 1927, it goes to reason that any imitations came after, right?

Me, I came along in 1963. I guess that makes me an imitation.

It’s been a busy day around our house today, what with us hosting two family events and family from out of town. Melinda’s cousin Tracy and her daughter Isabel are staying with us for a couple of days. And with Melinda’s parents out of town, we had Brenda, Greg & Perrin over for an Easter brunch. Later in the day, everyone returned for dinner, supplemented by my parents, and my brother Scott, his partner, Sally, and Scott’s daughter Olivia. That’s 13 for dinner and 8 for brunch.

Today’s photo comes from an Easter egg hunt orchestrated by Isabel and Ella for Perrin. Late last night in the dark, the two older girls went outside and hid eggs for Perrin to find this morning. What fun. Perrin made sure to include her new bunny in the search.

News Flash – France has good food.

In fact, France has really, really good food, the bread, as is generally known, being incredible. Just as we suspected, we returned from France as self-proclaimed bread snobs. We can’t find a decent baguette anywhere (even in the so-called French bakeries of Seattle). I had this explained to me this week as having to do with Europe not allowing genetically motivated wheat, like in the US. Further, I was told, Europeans are coming to the states and experiencing gluten sensitivity.

Interesting.

Anyway, not only is the bread superior in France, so is the butter, at least by our evaluation. But today at Costco we found our favorite French butter. Perhaps things are looking up.

My name is Andy and I’m a hockey fan.

There, I said it. In fact, I grew up saying that “hockey is my favorite sport.” My childhood room always had a hockey motif. I collected hockey cards. I played a year of ice hockey. And I did all of this from the cornfields of Omaha, Nebraska, where I was born and where I lived until just before my 11th birthday.

Let me just say that it’s a hard thing to be both born in Omaha and be a hockey fan. Thank goodness for the Omaha Knights.

The Knights were the chief farm team for the New York Rangers so we got to see some pretty good players come through, the most notable of whom may be André “Moose” Dupont who went on to win a couple of Stanley Cups with the Philadelphia Flyers. The coach of those Flyers teams? Fred Shero who, before that, coached the Knights.

Today’s Prompt: What sport(s) do you love / identify with?