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It’s been about 5 months since Miss Bit came along and joined us at Circus Maximus. I’m settling into the parenting roll gradually. She and I are both learning, about each other.  There are days that she is a delight. This morning she came into bed before we had gotten up and came over to snuggle with me till I got out of bed. There are days that I’m sure she is a demon. Last night for example, I was sure that not only was she pushing buttons, but she had a whole keyboard out and ready to go.

However, just in case you get a six year old of your own let me share a few things I have learned.

1. Kids say hilarious things without meaning too
    A recent conversation with her I made the comment to her jokingly of “You’re obnoxious” (Insert Finding Nemo voice too) She looked at me and matter of factly stated “No, I’m not obnoxious, I’m Pagan”

2.  What was liked today, will not be liked tomorrow. And neither will the food hated yesterday.
    Fishsticks were not ok at her Aunt and Uncles in Poway.  They were ok the first time I made them. The second time  they were made, they were not good. She had me add the cilantro to her chicken bacon tacos, just like everyone else and she liked it. She hated it on her pad thai though, it was too spicy.  We will not be making headway with salmon, sushi, nor mushrooms any time soon.  Indeed. It just adds to the joy of our food issues at Circus Maximus.

3. Six year olds have their own logic.
Sometimes this logic involved imaginary friends, other times its games. Sometimes it involves, both and its really hard to make heads or tales of a situation.

4. Six year olds can scream like fire alarms. 
It was only a spider, but yesterdays wake up call involved her screaming at the top of her lungs running the whole way from her room to mine. “Spider”When screamed like a six year old sounds a whole like “Fire” and is guaranteed to get Deb up and vibrating. 

And in case you get a thirty three year old of your own, let me share  a few things she’s learned

1.Debs sing in public. and dance and not the right way either.
2. Deb not Debbie. Calling her Debbie makes her sad.
3. No matter what you don’t eat Deb keeps cooking.
4. If you ask nicely, she’ll make you a snack, read you a story, or play a game with you.

Indeed. Such is life with my six yearold.

The Seattle Times has a great article about mini get aways you can take on the bus.
It’s got some great suggestions, including one that was new to me. I think i’m going to try to bus out to Snoqualmie falls sometime before school lets out.

Let me make some more suggestions for trips to take.

• Explore your neighborhood, by foot, by bike.
  • Did you know fremont has a history museum?
  • Have you been to the Nordic Hertiage Museum?
  • Have you been to the Burke Museum?
  • Have you been to the Henry Art Gallery?
• Try a train!
  • You can explore Mt Vernon Bellingham, or Portland.
  • Take the sounder just for kicks (Public transit can also be scenic)
  • Even a short train ride from downtown Seattle to Edmonds could be fun if you have little ones.
• When’s the last time you took a Ferry?
  • Bremerton has museums
  • Bainbridge has historical Winslow
  • Even Kingston can be fun to putter around at..
• Did you know you can reach hikes by bus?
  • I’ve never done any of these, but love this site here

After our tumultuous bus ride back from the Buchart Gardens wereturned to the Albion for a nap and a bath, then decided to walk around the inner harbor. We stopped at Munro books to look around and then over to Rogers Chocolates where we picked up a souviner for a friend We also asked about local coffee places but all they could suggest was Starbucks. Not what I was looking for. You see the inner harbor is much like any downtown area and it closes up around 5 except for restaurants and pubs.

While wandering around I saw the best Canadian graffiti ever.

On Saturday we opted to spend more time in the inner harbor, Our first step was the Royal London Wax Museum . Victoria has a number of kitschy tourist activites, including Miniature world and the bug zoo. We only indulged ourselves in the Wax museum. The cast of characters was varied, from politicians to religious figures to story book characters. There was one exhibit where the gals ahead of us insisted that one of the figures was a real person. I wasnt sure. What do you think? They said it was George Bush in the center here and looking at his hands they do look different.

We wandered down the water front, visited the horses that were waiting for a fare on the horse drawn carriages.We also visited a little park with heraldic symbols for each province of Canada.

We also managed to find coffee! Not just coffee, but SERIOUS Coffee! it was only a couple of blocks up from the Rogers chocolate and after going there, I was surprised that they hadn’t suggested it because it was open later and it was local coffee. And it was good. I had my drip, Aron had a smoothie and we were both pleased.

After coffee we went to dinner and then wandered back to Albion Since it was Saturday night, there were street performers out, including musicians. Two that caught my eye were the morris dancers and the guy playing violin badly. How does a guy playing the violin badly catch your eye? by dressing like Darth Vader.

(Thats the Fairmont Empress hotel in the background of the Mayday photos.)

We then wandered back to the Ablion for our last nights sleep. The next morning it was back off to the Victoria Clipper dock and home

Coffee was served at 8. Aron and I got up and ajourned to the parlor for coffee then returned to our room where I did some last minute study for my sociology test before breakfast. At 9 we joined the other guests for breakfast, then I returned to our room to take my Test**. Aron sat out on the balcony for a relaxing smoke while he waited for me.

From there it was back around the Inner Harbor to the Visitor’s Center, where I asked for assistance on getting to the Buchart Gardens by Bus. The ladies at the Visitor’s Center warned us that it was nearly an hour trip, but I decided that it was better to only spend $2 on the bus and enjoy the hour driving through parts of Victoria off the beaten path, instead of spending $15 each on a charter bus that would lump us in with other Tourists. I hate being lumped in with other tourists. Let me also mention that it was an overcast drizzly day. Perfectly chosen for the gardens, as it would keep most tourists away, and let us have a little more elbow room as we wandered around.

I’ll be honest, I wasnt sure about the gardens overall. I mean $25 each to wander around a garden? It seemed a bit much. But I’d found a lunch deal where we got admission and a 2 course lunch for $40 each. Much more reasonable in my opinion. The lunch turned out to be fabulous. (full report on Fat and Crafty soon, promise!) the gardens though were mind blowing. I think the best way to share is through photos, and here are a few of my favorites.

Beautiful huh? After the gardens we had quite the harrowing bus ride back to the Inner Harbor, Aron and I both getting bus sick, with the bus driver nearly hitting a car. (We were sure we were going to hit it) We wandered around a bit more, then settled in for an early evening.

**You see, this was the one big downside to taking distance classes this quarter and going on vacation. My sociology class has tests that are available for 1 day and one day only from 6am-11pm. Test number two landed smack dab in the middle of our vacation

I recently wrote a post about personal responsibility and food availability in a particular neighborhood, and said I’d get back to you with a second post, here it is.

Why do we make the choices we make?

• We like to eat crap
• We don’t like to spend money
• We don’t like to be told not to do something. (there will be a whole separate post for this one.)

We like to eat crap. Even in this enlightened urban landscape that is Seattle, we still eat foods that are less then ideal for us. I believe that people complain then turn around and snarf down there triple cheese organic pizza from Pagliacci believing its better for them. It’s not.

Working at the big Seattle University I saw this illustrated for me all the time through our dining halls.

The call I remember most vividly was the mom who called three months into the quarter. She had visited her son in the dining halls and she was horrified to see that they did Fried Food Fridays. The Big Seattle University deigned to serve unhealthy fried food. On a regular basis ! How could that be, we are a large medical research institution and what a horrible example we are setting by serving fried food.

Nevermind that the fried food was only one of three stations for hot food, plus a salad and sandwich bar and a pasta on demand bar.

Nevermind that when it came down to it, the dining hall was serving the food that the students requested and the food that would actually “sell” to the business.

Sitting in the dorm on a regular day for lunch I could see the food that was selling. There was always lines for the station with the french fries. Even in the grab and go section of the main non residential dining halls the burgers and fries were the popular ones.

We like french fries, pizza, sweets. They taste good to us, and think people are very willing to “treat” themselves with one hand, and complain with the other that there is no healthy food available.

I think we forget a lot of times that there is a business involved in most transactions. They sell what people buy. With enough financial encouragement a store will overcome most any hurdle to supply a product. It’s all about the profit baby.

And we’re fussyy, and vocal. We want it all. We want it to be healthy, organic , local, fresh, fair trade and cheap. (and we’ll give up a number of the former, for the latter)

Sure that may be an overstatement but look at the reviews for Molly Moons. It”s a small business, local. They claim to be using organic ingredients, small batch production unique flavors. The big complaint? It’s too expensive. They didn’t give me enough.

It appears that no matter if you are a business or an individual it always comes down to money.

(look for part three in teh next couple of days.)

I need a workspace at home. I need a workspace that is not my bed, the breakfast nook, not the big comfy chair in the basement. I have a desk, but something about it does not compel me to use it. Is it the size? the location? The lack of power in the location where it is is a problem.

A lot of my day to day structure Right now life is built around the fact that I have to be at work at 8am until 5pm. The breaks and free time I get are desk bound encouraging me to take care of some of the basic personal business things I have as well as school things. I check my financial aid status, read my rss feeds, keep up on my email. It’s all kosher with my boss, as long as I get the rest of my work done, and trust me, I do.

As of Friday this office and time structure  disappears. Sure I’ve applied for a job, and will be going to a couple of open interviews, but I’m not going to be doing office work  most likely. Until I’m working I’m going to have a pretty  wide open schedule and I figure I’ll need a to do list to get things done.

After all, I can’t sleep all day can I?

Goodbye Seattle

Let me tell you about my trip to Victoria. We got up early on Thursday morning, packed the last of our bags. and poured our coffees. I made a little breakfast and packed it up. We caught the 6:30 bus and then walked down the waterfront to the Victoria Clipper dock. We checked in and only had to wait a few minutes before boarding. Once we boarded we settled in for the ride. It was fairly smooth and quick.  I drank my coffee and breakfasted on pancakes and syrup, and yogurt and berries. 

Once we arrived in Victoria we needed to find lunch for Aron, who was starving. (he travels better on an empty stomach) We opted to stop at the Royal BC Museum. They have a great cafe  where we were able to get a simple lunch and then follow it up with gelato and coffee later. We saw the Imax movie Mummies and wandered around. It reminded me a whole lot  of the Museum of Science of Industry  in Chicago.  We wandered through a representation of a Victorian home, a cannery, and a mining operation. One of the most fun exhibits was called the party. It was a big circle of tiered cut outs of people and things that are famous in BC.  There was a computer they you used to select each individual and it gave you some great information. Most were individuals, like the man behind Mr Peanut and Vancouvers. They also included the Garbage Gobbler  and my favorite, Ogopogo.

We then moved on to the parliment buildings

What beautiful architecture, what historical buildings. We took a guided tour and were tempted to pop in to observe the parliamentary session in process, but we were tired and  decided to go check into the bed and breakfast.

The Bed and Breakfast
When I first began scheduling the trip, i was looking into booking the trip as all inclusive through the clipper. Instead I decided to  look for  Bed and Breakfasts and found Albion Manor.  I’d never stayed in a bed and breakfast before, only at hostels, motels or hotels. This was a whole different experience  It was a much more personal touch  then a hotel or motel, but was much more refined then a hostel would be. It was located about 5 blocks from the inner harbor and the Victoria Clipper dock. We had a beautifully appointed room, with a bathroom with a two person claw foot tub.  I settled in for a bath and Aron rested until it was time to head out to dinner…. details of that will go into my food blog. We then wandered across the inner harbor watching the lights and headed bed for the night.

Details on day two will come shortly…

I know I promised I’d talk more about food, and I will, soon. I want to reach the end of next week before I talk about it, because I want to draw some comparisons to my soon to be ex-workplace. You understand don’t you? I wont be burning bridges, I just want to speak more candidly then I think an employee should.

I also needed to get some homework done before midnight last night, so I’ve been concentrating on that instead of telling you how much I loved Victoria. Trip report soon, I promise.

I’ve got lots of little tiddly to do items sitting on my list that I need to get done for my last day at work, and  for the time there after.

Rob and I moved to Arizona after having only been there once. We picked an apartment building nearish to the office and set up a lease and prepared to move. Without thinking much about the weather, the distance to the office, the lack of bus lines, and my lack of driving ability we moved in. The apartment was about 3 miles from the office, and I walked it every day back and forth. With temperatures that can reach up to 120 degrees you might think its not smart to walk that much . Yet I had a CD player and a bottle of water and walked in my work clothes every day. This was the choice I made when we took the apartment, and when I took the job. I was responsible for the choices I made, so I made it work.There was an article recently about a lack of access to groceries to a certain neighborhood in Seattle. They painted a sad story, a single mom without a car, trudging a mile to a bus then the bus ride to PCC in West Seattle. She does this a couple of times a week then has to lug her 30 lbs of groceries up 10 flights of stairs to her townhouse. The framing on this article is “Poor single mom must shop every couple of days, 2 hours a trip (does that include shopping time) She should have a grocery store closer”

So I pulled a map, and puzzled over the article some more. The article has some good information, but the framing is off. The cost comparison of cherry pies to actual cherries is a good one. Trying to draw empathy for a woman doesnt work for me. Why? Because I see that she is a victim of her choices.

• She chose to live in 5th floor townhome without an elevator.
• She chose to go to PCC , there are other grocery stores in the area that might be quicker on the bus including the weekly farmers market. She chose PCC, a local food coop, which came in at the second highest grocery store according to Consumers Checkbook
• She chose to go get her groceries. Albertsons.com and Safeway.com work well too. Doesn’t have a computer? The Delrdige Seattle public library does
• She chooses to shop every couple of days “”You have to shop for only a day or two, and sometimes if you have too many bags, people look at you like ‘here comes the bag lady’ ,” said Rathbun, who has two 18-year-old daughters at home.”
• She chose to live in a hilly neighborhood without a car.

Just as I placed myself into my situation, she placed herself into hers.

I know there are Seattle people who live in West Seattle and read me. Tell me if I’m wrong. Did the area just lose a bunch of stores? (Irony points? As per the article :For residents such as Rathbun, it can be quicker to get a bus to Pike Place Market than to endure an hourlong trip up the hill to a West Seattle Safeway or PCC. What does the market have? Vegetables! And yes it is possible to do your shopping there,perhaps not all, but at least your produce)

I’m not saying that the article doesn’t have any good points about the cost off food and whats available, I’ll cover those in a future post, as i share perspective on a smaller scale food establishment.

Vacation is over???? What do you mean I have to go back to work?

Back from Victoria Trip report later.