Free Them 5K!

 

World Concern in Seattle sponsored a 5K Walk/Run to help raise money to stop human trafficking. Our DIL Laura works for this organization. We got together for this worthwhile event. This is a photo of us at the finish line. Our son Josh and Scott (Laura’s brother) ran the 5K. Laura’s mother Pat, her SIL Lisa (with child), the doggie Mylie sp.? and I walked the 3.3 mile route. Laura worked the event and then cheered us across the finish line.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Safe Travels Everyone!

 

Look at all those planes in the sky lining up to land at SeaTac Airport. If you are flying this Christmas Season I hope you reach your destination safe and sound. Blessings…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

A Funny Thing Happened…

…on the way to Thanksgiving! I spent so much time enjoying real live people and real good food that I didn’t have time to upload photos and post about it. I’m re-winding now and getting caught up. Please bear with me.

 

Have you read or seen the T.V. shows about those great Food Trucks that move about the city offering good food at different locations each day? Dear and my brother and his wife had seen a segment about the Best Food Truck in the U.S.A. and a truck right here in Seattle won the distinction. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving we found out it’s location and headed out with our Thanksgiving company to have some good eats! Marination lived up to it’s honor and served us up some really good food. To thank the people of Seattle for nominating them it was Free Taco Day! Woohoo!

 

The food was delicious and the people who run the business were great! Find out where they are today by clicking on the Marination link above. You won’t be disappointed when you take your first bite!

 

We were hankering for something good to wash down this fabulous food and found out that Hale’s Ales another great Seattle establishment was just down the street.

 

I’ll be adding this link to Foodie Friday because it’s all about the Food! Thanks Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

A Proclamation I Like…

 

It’s official. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has proclaimed today Seattle Sounders FC Day.

Here’s the proclamation:

City of Seattle * Office of the Mayor

PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, the City of Seattle appreciates its professional sports teams, recognizing that they add to the city’s prestige, elicit home-town pride and offer a sense of collective camaraderie and solidarity within our communities; and

WHEREAS, the Seattle Sounders FC – which has completed a dream season – embarks on its playoff run, becoming just the second team in MLS history to do so in its inaugural season; and

WHEREAS, the Sounders FC is the most successful espansion franchise in the history of US soccer, boasting the best per game attendance average – 30,943 – in MLS history; and

WHEREAS, the Sounders FC has become the first US soccer team to break the top 50 in average attendance of all the Fu’tbol clubs throughout the world; and

WHEREAS, the Sounders FC – winner of the US Open Cup – qualifies for CONCACAF Champions League next year; and

WHEREAS, the Sounders FC is now the franchise by which all others will be judged, and whose supporters are the envy of clubs everywhere;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GREGORY J. NICKELS, Mayor of the City of Seattle, proclaim October 29, 2009 to be

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC DAY

in Seattle, and I hereby urge citizens to join me in raising our “scarves up,” and wishing the Rave Green all the best as they compete for the 2009 MLS Cup.

[signed] GREG NICKELS, Mayor

GO SOUNDERS!

A Full Day of Fun!

 

 

 

The “Girls” headed out to the University District for some shopping and fun today. We went to Suzzalo Library at the University of Washington and walked around the campus and “The Ave”. On our way home we first stopped at the Bellevue Goodwill and the girls had fun trying on some funny merchandise and then headed for Kirkland for dinner. Josh and Dan met us for dinner in Carillon Point and then we all came home to crash.

This ole gal is tired!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Mariners Baseball in Seattle…

 

Another fun day in the Seattle area yesterday. We headed downtown early for the Mariners game and had a Happy Hour dinner at Boka. We love to get half-price food and the food here was delicious!!

 

The weather cleared up nicely for the game.

 

It was Salute to Japanese Baseball night so we all got our Japanese baseball hats and saluted!

Well lookie here both Josh and my niece Debbee caught a fly ball! :0)

The girls are off and running today again…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Target Birds on Holiday!

We’re joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for a fun little adventure called Target Birds on Holiday! Here’s our story that began in Norwalk, California a suburb of Los Angeles.

 

Well I found out just because the plane has Alaska written on it doesn’t mean all these big aluminum birds fly to Alaska. Our plane took us to Seattle, Washington.

Sheesh, she finally took us out of the box and here we are at the doorstep of our new home. Ellen b. advised us we would not be returning with her to California on Sunday but that we would be staying here with her two kids Dan and Katie and keeping an eye on the house while they are off hither and yon…

She took us on a little tour of the grounds of our new home. Yikes, I just realized she hasn’t named me yet! She named my friend here next to me Jack Sparrow. Such a strong name with adventurous possibilities. Oh I hope she doesn’t intend to name me Salty! How lame would that be! Well she says she’s still considering what to name me…

 

Hmmm…nice digs but that apple tree can sure use some pruning! Hard to land on branches growing straight up to heaven!

Now here’s a pretty bush to have a rest in. Hey lady! I still don’t have a name!!

We’re inside now looking out. She sure has some nice big windows and big trees around here. She informs me that we will have many more high perch possibilities here than at the condo in California. The only trees around that place are the palm variety…

So she says since we are on holiday we should get a little reading in. Reading is an activity humans enjoy when they are trying to relax and escape the everyday mundane world. I wasn’t too excited about sitting and listening to her read outloud but this story is so exciting! This Redwall book by Brian Jacques is all about animals and they talk and they hunt and they cook and travel and “save the day”! I love this book and the best thing about it is that there are Sparrows in it and she finally found the name she’s giving me!! In this book the sparrows are called Sparra and she thinks that the best name for me is Sparra Queen Warbeak! Can you believe how strong and cool that name is? Queen Warbeak…I just want to keep saying it out loud!  She says that Jack Sparrow and I will have the responsibility of protecting her home while she’s away. We will keep those pesky crows from moving in and thinking this is their territory. We’ll report to her any strange things that might be happening around the house while she’s in Cali. Even though she’s old, this is one cool lady that saved us from that Target shelf!

Boy I just hope the rest of our Target bird friends are having a good adventure and have found a good home. Hope they ended up with some good names, too. Oh and I must apologize for Jack Sparrow and his lack of words. He just likes to leave all the talking to me, Queen Warbeak!

Thank you Susan human lady over at Between Naps on the Porch for thinking of this great idea to liberate us birds from the Target shelf! I bet if you click on her name later this evening or tomorrow you’ll see more of our friends on Holiday!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Japanese Gardens ~ Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle

During my weekend in Seattle my sister, daughters, and I decided to stop at the Lake Washington Arboretum and to stroll through the Japanese Garden. We wanted to see the Tea House where Katie attends class every Thursday to learn the Japanese Tea Ceremony. She has her final this Thursday (today).

 

 

The Gardens are beautifully landscaped.

 

These photos are of the Tea House that is nestled in the beautiful surroundings of the garden.

 

It’s Spring so the Rhododendrons and Wisteria were in their glory.

 

I was so pleased to see the Wisteria in bloom.

 

The 4 of us were really in awe of God’s glorious creation and how He has given man the eye to plant and plan the beautiful landscape in this garden.

 

 

 

I hope you can sense much of the beauty through these photos.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

The Art of Chado ~ Japanese Tea Ceremony

This is a guest post from my daughter Katie about a class she’s taking this quarter. I’m including it in this weeks Tea Blog-a-thon, Dressed-to-A-Tea, as promised.

Chado – The “tea way”‏

This quarter I have been fortunate enough to get to take a class on the art of Chado, the Japanese tea ceremony. We meet once a week for lecture, and then once a week we go to the Japanese Garden at the Seattle Arboretum and practice in the tea room. This last week we got to bring home our “fukusa basami”, (pictured) little clutches containing our “fukusa” (ceremonial cloths), some papers for putting sweets on, and our fans. (pictured)

I also decided to buy a yukata and obi to wear for the class, though this is not a requirement. A yukata is an inexpensive, light, informal version of the kimono. Real kimono are pricey and require alot of care. An obi is the broad sash worn with kimono or yukata. My yukata has not yet arrived, but I received my obi early last week. My friend Mika tried several times to tie it for me, but complained that since I was smaller than her she couldn’t get the proportions right. When my instructor arrived she had me come in to the tea house and quickly and expertly tied my obi. I drove home wearing it so that my brother could take a picture. (pictured)

 

So far we have learned several bows, how to walk in the tea room, how to fold and unfold our fukusa properly, how to whisk tea, and how to take and serve sweets and tea. It’s alot of information to take in, but I’m loving it.

Thanks Katie! When you get your yukata I want another photo!

For more Tea Posts click over to Gracious Hospitality.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!