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We were at the Zoo for a bit yesterday and as the girls went through the day and night house, I had a seat outsid and waited watching the crows and squirrels run around.  

A few minutes later a little boy and his mama came by. The little boy was crying hysterically,  He was crying  inconsolably about his fishy crackers. Mama sat on the bench with him and cradled him and  they talked about Verona.  
“Bad Verona you took our fishy crackers!” The mom said  with the slightest french accent. “Poor Anthony lost his snack” The boy shudder with tears. “Verona you are in time out” he cried.
They kept talking about bad Verona and the crackers and how Verona would never be given a snack if she came to their house. Even if she begged for toast or bread, Verona would go away empty handed because she had taken Anthony’s snack.
“My fishy crackers” cried Anthony
They they began calling all out the things that Verona could not eat.
“No steak for Verona” Mama called in her soft accent.
“No waffles either” Said Anthony, shaking off the tears.
“No crepes for Verona”

This went on and on as they called out bad Verona , put her in time out and told her things she could not eat.

Apparently they had parked their little wagon next to the  stroller parking by the day and night house. The mother disregarded the sign that said, don’t leave ziplocks full of snacks out in the open as the crows get them. The  sign literally showed a bag of goldfish crackers being snatched. And indeed thats what had happened. The crows “Verona” had stolen poor Anthony’s fishy crackers. And though mama had consoled him with an oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwich, he was very much missing his fishy crackers.

Bad Verona!

One of the things I most underestimated growing up was the amount of care my Stepfather put in taking care of my Mom. Looking back now I recognize the sleepless nights, the sheer exhaustion he experienced.   I wonder what support he had beyond the polish maids. I know that the maids and myself weren’t much in regards to social companionship. I wonder where else he turned to.

The Seattle Public Library has teamed up with the University of Washington Medical Center to do a lecture called“Care for the Caregiver”
If you are in Seattle and in this situation I suggest that you make some time to attend.

On Friday I took lunch and headed to the herb gardens on campus.

I wandered around for a while, earning my walking points for the day and snapping pictures. The gardens are still in their winter slumber for the most part. Mulch topped beds ready to be worked by students in the horticulture programs. Some hearty plants were still green, and some recently worked beds were brown and musty with that fresh compost smell. And above it all,

They are always beautiful.

From flowering trees

From CampusApril5

to Tea bushes

To Fishies in the pond

Spring in Seattle seems to be chugging our way slowly. I love spring events because as the city wakes up from its winter slumber there is so much going on!

Skagit Tulip Fesitval April 1-30

Take a day and drive up the Mt Vernon,

Friends of the Library Book Sale April 20th -22nd

Tilth Edible Plant Sale May 5th & 6th

Pugapalooza May 12th

Bastyr Herb Fair 06/07

Los Angeles really does live up to it’s reputation. While I had a wonderful weekend, that was very much *in spite* of the city itself.

LA is very much a drivers city. I saw more freeways and more cars on the freeway then anywhere. More smog, more sun more brown. Had it been a little more deserted and I would have thought I had time warped back to 1999 when we were in Phoenix.

LA does have some good though, and not just my sweetheart who is centered there right now.

Five things I found nifty while in LA are…

1. BPAL. Yes I got to go to the mothership where perfume crack addictions are made. Yum.
2. Downtown Disney. Yes to me this is part of LA.It’s a shopping center between Disneyland and California Adventure. It was free to browse and had a good feeling to it. It was the local goth hang out spot and it was just a friendly place.
3. Santa Monica Pier. A sunny but windy day closed the roller coaster on the pier, but it was a nifty spot to wander around the boardwalk.
4. Riverside California /DragonMarsh. A nifty story selling goods to tempt any SCAer or Pagan. Riverside looked like it was trying to upscale itself, and the a number of stores need to figure out that being open on a Sunday is a good thing. All in all it was good.
5. Fuddruckers. We were so motivated to have a good dinenr there that we went twice. The first night we were both so full from our lunch at Pinks that we didnt finish dinner. The last night we were able to have our happy Fuddrucker burgers.

And for the bad… 5 things that I hated about LA

1. The sun. I left snow in Seattle the day I left. Getting sunburn on Friday was not fun.
2. The traffic. LA wins the award for the only city I will never ever drive in, based on what i saw.
3. Lots of malls. Going to the mall is what you do in a place like LA. While I had fun, it really did remind me of Phoenix.
4. Too spread out. When my sweetie came here in January we stayed “in SEattle” and saw the sites. Going to LA means going to LA, Burbank, Hollywood, etc.
5. Leaving my sweetie behind. While I missed my family in Seattle, leaving him behind left me in tears at the airport.

I hate flying still, even though these flights were the easiest I’ve had. Thats a good sign because I see myself flying again a couple of times in the next 6 months.

Maryland is considering tracking truant kids with GPS.

Back when I first entered Jasmine’s life. Leah and I took the day off to take Jasmine to the Wild Waves Water Park in Federal Way. We worked hard to keep an eye on her, as she was an energetic ball of 9 year old, bouncing off the walls in excitement. During one of our breaks I wondered if perhaps a gps system linking her to my PDA would not be a bad thing. Place the tracker in her earrings or bracelet, and download a map of the park before the trip. Then when you are looking for her you have an idea of where she’s at.

Not that I would suggest sitting on the sidelines and letting her run crazy, but the gps idea would let her go a little further afield without us freaking out over where she might be.

We sat on the train idling in the station, 45 minutes after the train was supposed to have been on its way. Knitting needles flying the person next to me said "This is why I never take the train, its always late. How can they run it like this? I don’t see how they stay in business. Government Subsidies I answered **

We rolled into Portland an hour and a half late, but with no harm other then an extra inch knit on my project. Taking the train and staying at the hostel is what I refer to as Organic travel. This is travel  without travel agents, with basic arrangements made and then everything else thrown to the wind. It is arriving late or arriving early, it is sitting at midnight in the hostel living room on the public use computer while petting the house cat.

Organic travel is realizing the bar we wanted to go to was too crowded and that a new place must be found. Organic travel  means you can find yourself out  on the far East side of the City when the bus driver has given you the wrong directions.

Organic travel is a girls afternoon of burgers and fabric shopping. Organic travel is wanting to do it again, and knowing that while it may be great, it wont be exactly the same.

My Trip to Port Townsend last summer was independent and organic.
This weekends trip was organic.
I plan on doing many more organic trips in the next year.

**It’s more complicated then that, but to Quote the Wikipedia entry

Nominally, Amtrak is an independent for-profit corporation, but all of its preferred stock is owned by the federal government. The members of Amtrak’s board of directors are appointed by the President of the United States, and are subject to confirmation by the United States Senate. Some common stock is held by the private railroads that transferred their passenger service to Amtrak in 1971. Though Amtrak stock does not pay dividends and is not routinely traded, a small number of private investors have purchased Amtrak stock from its original owners.

I’m proud of my role as cruise director. I’m pleased that  the events I plan turn out well. What’s nice is having special events become easy. 

Yes this is Yet ANOTHER Thanksgiving post.

Its nice that such a special dinner can be low key as I busy myself with the preperations but don’t drive myself crazy  with the stress. (After all who hasnt done that before)

Thanksgiving this year was at my house with the Not-In-Laws and the family. It was a delight as always. I burned myself on Wednesday night so the injury portion of the evening was covered early. I got up around 9ish and put the turkey to the oven, basting it with butter/garlic chicken broth. (And injecting it with some as well.)  Cranberries were done the night before, so they were chilling in the fridge. Rolls were started from scratch and I put together the stuffing. Half of what I did I set aside a smaller bit, as we were also gifting our favorite coffee shop owner with a suprise vegetarian dinner.

I had time to sit and take a break before the final push. Veggies and mashers were the last items to be made. Dinner was served right at time 4:00ish, as I had planned.  This is dispite the gin and tonic I had during the last hour of cooking. Aron’s been officially fired as my bartender as the drink was good, but a little too strong for me to be cooking after .

We sat down to a dinner of the following:

(Read on …)