Some Guinness Fun

And no, I'm not talking about the beer...I mean Guinness, Super Dog! He has finally updated his blog with some Valentine's Day pictures...so check it out!

Cupid Vomited On My Desk!*

As my friends know, I don't like pink...and I'm not one of those who likes all the hearts and flowers of Valentine's Day. Too Girly. Which is why when I walked into work this morning the first thing I said was not a cheerful "hello" but instead was a four lettered profanity beginning with an s ending with hit. There are no words for what my desk looked like this morning...you'll have to just admire it yourselves. Unfortunately my dazed reaction to what I discovered upon getting to work is immortalized on camera because Craig was soooo sweet (NOT!) and hid a video camera and caught every single swear word and glazed over look. No, JJ...this video WILL NOT GO ON YOUTUBE.COM!!! And as for you, Josh...you got me good this time..but could we just stick with roses in the future? Actually don't even bother answering that question, I already know what you'll say. *sigh*

*Ali's description...not mine, however I felt it was quite fitting.

lime in da coconut

Youtube.com is an evil evil site...hours can be spent watching video after video. However, there are some really great videos to be found. One that I just found is the original video made to the lime in the coconut song by Harry Nilsson. I recommend you all check it out for a good laugh and enjoyment. Harry Nilsson was brilliant...absolutely brilliant :-) Be sure that you watch it all the way through...my favorite part is at the very end with the coconut.

Things we learned in Hong Kong*

*Please see the other half of this list on yimfay's blog



1. Beware of Stairs
3. Skinny girls have jiggly legs.
5. Puffy pantaloon shorts are in (the ones made from jeans are extra gross).
7. Guys in HK like/have "messy" hair.
9. KFC is everywhere...seriously, everywhere!
11. When entering the subway you walk on the left (cars drive on the left too).
13. There are glass wall barriers in the subway so that no one will fall in the gap (phew!)
15. You'd better know how to use chopsticks...or else.
17. Toothpicks are everywhere...and are used after every meal.

Snowshoeing!!!

Craig, from work put together a snowshoeing outing over the weekend...which was SO MUCH FUN! I am now completely addicted to snowshoeing. In fact I'm going to have to purchase some for myself! It's just so great to be able to go hiking up in the mountains in winter and not have to worry about falling through the snow or slipping and sliding down hills. We went out with a pretty good sized group, I think there were seven of us and two dogs (Guinness, of course, and Ali's dog Sam) and we went up the Denny Creek Trail. We didn't quite make it up to the top of the trail, which brings you up to an alpine lake, but we did see a beautiful creek and pretty big waterfall. We also had lunch on a large snow field which was pretty spectacular. One of the best parts of the day was coming back down the mountain cause it turns out that Ali is just as crazy as I am...we both love racing down after a hike! And with our snowshoes we were able to run down the ice and snow without fear of falling..it was AWESOME!!! So of course, now we're starting to talk about the next snowshoeing adventure :-) But this time we're thinking of going off trail. Can't wait!! In the mean time here are some pictures from this latest outing:

Ali and Sam:


Some waterfall action:


The snow was a wee bit deep...this is a foot bridge across the stream, just to give you an idea of what we were walking on:


The group hiking up the trail before we needed snowshoes:


Craig on the BIG snowfield where we stopped:

The Soccer People

I was just eating my lunch and reading some articles online when I came across this one by one of my favorite bloggers: Rootless Cosmopolitan

It's awesome, and if any of you follow international sports, especially soccer (or football as the rest of the world calls it) you should enjoy this article as much as I did.

Duh!

This cartoon brought to you by David Horsey and today's issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

more snow

Woke up to a winter wonderland in my neighborhood this morning. We got more snow early this morning, but the surprise part is that Fremont got about two or three inches! Normally I don't get any snow at my house, when the rest of the city gets a couple of inches Fremont and Ballard get just a dusting since we're right at sea level. Although, apparently my house is up a bit higher than Ballard cause as I walked in to work this morning there was less and less snow the closer I got to the studio. Took some pictures on my way in...while there wasn't a lot of accumulation, the dinosaur and flamingos at Archie McPhee's were looking a bit chilled with their blanket of white. And while this latest snow fall is nothing compared to the storm hitting the east, it's still a lot more than we usually get. But by this afternoon or evening, I'm sure all this snow will be gone. The temps are supposed to finally get back up into the 40's later today and it's supposed to rain...so bye bye snow!

Surprise! This one's for Dan:

Sorry for the lack of reading material on this blog. I've been super busy, then I was on vacation, then I was busy again dealing with work. And I've also just been plain lazy. But I'll do my best to be better at posting on this blog...and I'll try to get Guinness to update his blog as well for anyone that checks out his site.

Anyway, to try and motivate myself to post more often I thought I'd get some new pictures up (cause I'm sure everyone is sick of seeing the same ones for the past several months).

These were taken on a recent hike up around Tiger Mountain. It was a great hike, and a really beautiful day with blue skies and sunshine. I will admit to complaining about how much "up" there was in the hike...Josh, be sure to read the elevation gain a bit more carefully next time. ;-) But the view and the snow at the top was worth all the pain. We started the hike with the regular lush green forest of Western Washington:



But the more we climbed up the more snow started piling up. By the top this is what it was like:



And from the very top we could see the Olympic Mountains in the distant west (the really small lumps in this picture):



Plus there were the rest of the Cascades to the east, and their foothills:



This is why I love Washington, even if the current weather is pissing me off...you east coasters can really take back your weather now...please! I miss having the ability to walk around without a coat during most of the winter!

some pics for a friend

So, I promised a friend of mine that I would post some pictures for her to see on this blog. So all of the rest of you, sorry, but you'll have to deal with seeing these pictures as well. And no, I'm sure you won't understand what they're all about...but that's ok, cause you're not supposed to. But I wanted to be sure that my dear friend who is in India can get the chance to see some friendly faces from home. So there we go. :-)

trikes!

On my walk to work this morning I passed by a really interesting site. Outside the front of a building in Ballard there was a wall being erected with rocks, and interspersed in the rock wall were small tricycles! It was just too random..had to take a picture and post on this blog.

Happy Mountain Day!

If I was still at Mount Holyoke, I would NOT be in class today. Why? you non-MHCers may be asking? Well, because it's Mountain Day...that one precious day that we all yearned for from the start of classes in the fall, when the abbey church bells would start going off bright and early in the morning to announce that classes for the day were canceled so that we might all go out and climb a mountain. Although, to be perfectly honest I never went and climbed Mt. Holyoke on Mountain Day...I did at another time...but usually I spent Mountain Day relaxing and enjoying that there were no classes. And if I got really lucky and Mountain Day fell on a day when a paper was due then I usually spent the day in a happy haze of euphoria that I had more time to work on and finish said paper :-)

If only we alums could continue the tradition of Mountain Day in our work environments...how great would that be?!?! But instead I'm stuck inside at work on a gorgeous Seattle fall day with temps in the upper 70's, blue skies and bright sunshine. It's just so sad...so very, very sad.

Instead of pictures from a hike today...I've included some pics from a hike I did a week or so ago to Lake Serene (including a tree that was on the trail that I fell in love with).

Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving!!!

This past weekend was Oktoberfest in Fremont...and my favorite part of the Fremont Oktoberfest took place: the Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving contest!!!! Love it! So much fun! And of course I went to both days of the event and took a million pictures (which made choosing a few for this blog kind of difficult).

For those of you who have never heard of Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving, it's basically where you care a pumpkin with a chainsaw. This process creates great entertainment with a combination of factors: lots of loud noise, spraying pumpkin guts and wacky personalities.

Here are some pictures from the carving contest, cause it's hard to describe and much better to see visuals to get the full impact:





The winner from the first day (and my favorite from both days):

It's all about Beckham...

...and soccer, I suppose. Went to the Real Madrid vs. D.C. United game last night, and was one of the 68,000 spectators who were drooling over Beckham. Lisa and I both were insanely jealous of the little girl who got to walk out with Beckham when the players were announced...he held her hand and draped his arms on her shoulders the entire time. *swoon* The above picture is from the warm up before the game. Beckham is the one in front with his back to the camera, wearing those awesome blue shoes (that he wore during the World Cup as well...I love those shoes!). The game itself was pretty awesome as well. It was an interesting experience to be in an almost sold out stadium for a soccer game, and then to have EVERYONE cheering for both teams. The final score was 1-1 and there were some really great shots on goal. I felt really bad for Freddy Adu, the 17 year old on D.C. United, because all the older players were tripping him, hitting him, and the ref was against him the entire time. He seemed to be a bit frustrated about that...not that I blame him.

Anyway, I tried getting some more shots of Beckham, but the only way I could get anything descent was to use my digital zoom...which created some funky pixelized photos...so I decided to have some fun in photoshop:


This one is a fun one with brush strokes over the image.















And then Beckham in color pencil.












And last but not least...Beckham under plastic wrap!

Coup de Boule

So I read an article on the BBC online today that was talking about this song that has been sweeping France. It's called "Coup de Boule" or Headbutt, and it's by La Plage. Apparently the recording company, La Plage, made up this song as a joke right after Zidane headbutted the Italian and then proceeded to help lose the game because he didn't play. This little joke of a song, though, became a huge success and now is played on all the radio stations and all the beaches :-)

After reading this article I, of course, became quite curious to hear the song for myself. I found it online...and I have to say, for any of you who understands French, you must check out the music video at the link below (click on the link for "clip de Coup de Boule)...too funny! And even if you don't understand French I think you'd still find it funny. Enjoy!

La Plage Records

Pirates!

Saturday night was the Seattle Seafair Torchlight parade downtown. It was a lot of fun with tons of wild little kids running around like puppies and clowns and pirates (did I mention pirates...yes, there were pirates). I had a bit too much fun taking funky pictures in between laughing fits. And here are some of my favorites for your viewing pleasure! See if you can tell what the subjects of the photos are!

Relaxing Doe Bay

I love the San Juan Islands! Spent a prolonged weekend at a hippie resort called Doe Bay on Orcas Island and came back feeling totally relaxed and wishing that I could spend the rest of my life up in the islands. It's so great how as soon as you get on the ferry at Anacortes everything else just falls away...the only things that become important are the water, the weather and food. All I did over the weekend was eat yummy food (there's a new cafe at Doe Bay that serves incredibly delicious vegetarian food and really good Kire), sleep and nap in the shade, stare out at the water (the view seen below), read lots and lots (got a great book about soccer called, How Soccer Explains the World, by Franklin Foer), some hiking under really green trees and last but certainly not least: spending lots of time in the hot tub and sauna at Doe Bay...which also has an incredible view of the bay.

The whole weekend reaffirmed my wish to some day run my own bed and breakfast...I think that would be so great! I would love to try and create an environment, like at Doe Bay, where people feel totally pampered and relaxed. I mean, at Doe Bay I was camping, sleeping in a tent, but everything about the place from the nice showers, the hot tub, the great restaurant and the public kitchen made the entire camping experience feel more like some sort of luxury camping resort. Now I want to do that, but in a bed and breakfast environment...and maybe up in the islands. I'll just have to keep dreaming.

Allez les Blues!!!!

I don't believe it!!! France won against Portugal today, which places then in the final World Cup game against Italy! The blue team is playing against the other blue team! I'm soooo excited!!! Party at my house for the final on Sunday!

mutant animals

So I've been trying to get my pictures together from the Fremont Solstice Parade to post them on this blog, but haven't had the time to go through them yet to pick the best ones...in the mean time I do have some other pictures that I can post for y'alls viewing pleasure. These images were not taken by my camera...they were in fact forwarded to me, and I just couldn't resist not sharing them. So enjoy! And if you want to see more, let me know and I can forward them all to you :-)

Parkour

Parkour Craze Reaches New Heights

The above is an article from the BBC about the street art called Parkour that involves jumping from rooftop to rooftop, scaling walls and basically some pretty cool feats of acrobatics. I recently saw a French action movie called District B-13:

District B-13 official website

which features this new street sport, and I totally fell in love with the it. I know that I could never pull off being able to do these stunts myself, but I love watching others do it....the fluidity, grace and seeming ease of it is really awesome. Not to mention that the moves are just plain hot. One of the two guys who started Parkour in the suburbs of Paris will be featured in the new James Bond movie, and there are several documentaries that have been made about the sport. If you'd like to see more, here are some websites that I found with a quick google search:

Parkour::Free Running

le Parkour

Urban Free Flow