Oh, I Think So

HAPPY 2014! We are keeping it nonsexual here, folks. FIRST and above all other things including food and even birthday cake is my absolutely tip top favorite thing -- a hot shower.  Don't get me started.  The water, the pressure, the heat, the cleanliness.  Dear god in heaven, a shower beats it all. 2.  A performance by a musician who is giving everything and gives everything every time and has a great talent and a lot to give.  A musician who never ever phones it in, doesn't think you're a philistine because you don't like that kind of music, but here, it's all here, all of it and more, just in case you change your mind. Third:  CHAMPAGNE.  Not Andre.  Not the expensive vintage stuff.  Solid, nonvintage champagne that can be found for $12.99 to $38.  Brut so it's dry yet a smidge fruity and as it goes down reminds you that la vie est vraiment belle, it really is. 4. Going to the movies.  I am of the group who goes to a mo...

My Christmas gift to me and to you:  No blog this week!  I wracked my brain about what the topic might be as I stood in line at Ulta to buy hair dye, lip balm, and lipstick at 20% off.  I thought and thought as I drove to Target to get a small infant gift for a newborn.  I considered and contemplated as I drove home.  I then realized that the best Xmas gift is nothing at all for any of us to think up or read, respectively. Next week is the blog before the new year and some topics might be: 1.  Bears football (joy because the Bears are going to the playoffs or misery because they aren't). 2.  Resolutions for 2014 (last year I resolved to taste as many olives as I could and I did, too, by the end of January and they all taste like ... olives). 3.  Five things that are damn great and how can you possibly disagree? 4.  All/Some of the above. Merry Christmas to all and for those who, like me, have to work on Christmas Eve until 5pm and...

Massive congratulations to my niece, Claire, who graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit last night.  Summa cum laude, bitches!  It was a very nice event.  Her parents and sister and I all braved constant snowfall which added up to 7 inches.  Detroit has negative money, which mean snow removal on the other-than-main streets takes not just forever but the next part of forever as well or a mid-winter thaw or the arrival of spring.  I am pleased to report drivers were not driving too fast, they were mostly considerate, and we took our time and respected the situation.  And it was a great day!  My niece, Claire, graduated summa cum laude from college! The snow was exhausting, however, I am going to knock off, unpack, and go to bed early. And did I mention it?  My niece, Claire, graduated summa cum laude from college!

Where and what the F? I have a new camera and I like it a lot.  Using it, I successfully got a couple of handheld photos of the moon.  I was hoping to get a cool picture of a city from a boat on the water.  I was unsuccessful and I was wholly successful.  I am disappointed and I am thrilled. The disappointment comes from it not looking how it's supposed to look which is like downtown Seattle across Puget Sound.  (What did I expect?  The boat was moving fast, there was a lot of late fall wind, and the was a certain degree of rocking.)  The thrill comes from my wild imagination and what this picture could really be. It's a city from the future!  It's from another dimension, a la The Golden Compass .  It's on another planet that I just happened to be visiting.  It's a mess and it's beautiful and it's stacked and it's electric.  It's welcoming and formidable and what is up with that cloud (the only thing that successfully moved...

The Pacific Northwest offers rain, rain, moisture, rain, drizzling, showers, the skies opening up and depositing water, and, in case I'd not mentioned it, rain.  All that precipitation gives us beautiful green forests and from the moist earth can spring absolutely ginormous mushrooms.  Now look at this picture.  Those mushrooms are so huge you could just walk under one and set up a table and some chairs and have a nice hot cup of tea and catch up with friends, their fungal gutters catching excess drips.  Or you could roll out your sleeping bag and knock off for the night, your head protected from the elements.  I'm not saying that a slug or six won't crawl into your bag as you doze, but I think this just looks inviting and cozy.  Except that one mushroom?  On the left?  Why does it look like it's been through a storm?  It's gathering liquid up top but it should hold out just fine for one more night.   Rest for the night.  Relax...

The moon looked pretty damn full last Tuesday night when my brother-in-law brought over the whoopie pie my sister made.  The whoopie pie was also full of deliciousness and when I gave it my attention, I ingested it pretty quickly. Before I put that tasty thing into my gob, I went outside to get a picture of the moon.  I live in a city.  It wasn't like in Bremerton, Washington, standing by the harbor where there are many charming boats and not a lot of lights and you can get a good shot of the orb without a lot of city-light distractions.  Chicago is a city that likes its streetlights -- I am pretty fond of them myself -- and I went outside and stood pretty much underneath one so I could get the moon and not trees.  (Chicago also has lots of trees.)  I managed to keep still and my new love, the Man in the Moon, made my evening. Is my new love sticking his tongue out at me?

Seattle, y'all, is a very hip and happening place.  They also don't frown on nonhipster types like me.  All are welcome!  There are great restaurants and hotels, beautiful scenery, and delicious donuts.  Of course I mean Top Pot Doughnuts.  There are Top Pot locations around town but I chose to walk 2/3 of a mile from my hotel to eat at the Mothership location.  (The roast beef sandwich they make is also delish.) My trip to Seattle coincided with getting a new camera.  I'd been talking about getting a new camera for a while, wanting something more robust than the point and shoots I'd been using that would also give me more control.  Of course, after buying it, I thought it was too extravagant a purchase but I decided to shut up about it because I'd been saving and I wanted it a lot.  This was my first outing with my new camera-love and I enjoyed photography again. So what did I do on my vacay?  Walked a lot -- one day I walked about ...