no really...I'm awake....why?

Moar INK!

2008-10-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

Oh yea...guess I should mention...
I got another tattoo at the end of August.
:)

And yes, after 2 hours, my right shoulder was on fire and I was *really* loopy...

Just thought I'd show the highlights here...

Behold...the stencil. This was, by far, the EASIEST part of getting tattooed.

Linework! This hurts, but not horribly...

The coloring in...this is the REALLY ouchie portion of the program. But I'd say it was worth it.

If anyone's looking for a great tattoo artist, go to Ruby at Madame Lazonga's Tattoo. She was GREAT. It's all healed and wow does it look cool. :)

Long time no post...what's going on?

2008-08-25T20:26:00.001-07:00

It's come to my attention that the last blog post I put up was in March. Oops. I don't have any good reasons why not, I've just been lazy.

How's that for being honest? ;)

So, in honor of snapping out of my lazy spell, here's what's been going on, in picture format, since taking pictures is great fun.

Wait! Who's that? That's not Daniel!!
Nope, it most certainly is not. This is Dean, who is Daniel's best friend from the time they were punkass 18 year olds. He and his lovely gal, Deb, have moved to Seattle (well, Burien, but who's counting) from the hellish depths of LA. I've coined these two the Double D's. Look for more mentions of them in this space.

Every summer we try to do SOMETHING to the house for the sake of improvement. This year it was time to do up some new windows for the place, since the living room was WINDY last winter. Well, maybe not windy, but quite drafty, and bloody cold in either case. So we got some spiffy new double-paned vinyl windows that just about MATCH the exterior of the house. They make a real difference too...much purtier for starters...

And what blog post of mine wouldn't be complete without at least ONE cat picture? Roscoe, at the tender age of 2, is quite pretty, and finally used to that female hairless ape taking her picture all the doggone time.

Here we have Peter stalking bugs in the backyard. Or maybe my toes, I dunno. He's also 2, and has decided that he likes me a whole lot, so I get to do fun things like pick him up and hold him for longer than 5 seconds. And yes, he really does have a tail nub...that's the Manx half of him. The grey/blue fur is the Russian Blue half. Isn't he handsome? :)

With summer comes bbq'ing...we were at a friend's house the other Friday night, and what better place for the boys to be than by the grill, trying to burn their arm hairs off? ;)
Incidentally, I grilled up our dinner while Daniel did other stuff that did not involve fire.

So between what you see here, some sewing, and a lot of cat shennanigans, it's been a good summer.
Happy Labor Day everyone!

Those boys..

2008-03-12T13:51:00.001-07:00

With Hobbes's unfortunate passing in January, Calvin has become more playful and rambunctious. One would never know he's going to be 13 this year.

I offer photographic proof....

This looks worse than it really is. Peter and Calvin were galloping about in the sewing room, and decided to wrassle next to me. One quick snap, and I got an action shot. After this bout, they jumped up, galloped over to the stairs, rolled around more, then ran off to take a nap. I haven't seen Calvin do this in a very long time, so imagine my surprise...

Kittehs... :)

Lunar Eclipse anyone?

2008-02-20T20:24:00.000-08:00

I was getting petrol at Costco this evening, when one of the customers bellowed something about the lunar eclipse starting. I finished fueling up my car, and pulled over to have a look. While I was watching this, the gas station attendant found a newspaper. It showed the eclipse as being total at 7:50pm. So I got home, grabbed my tripod, and took a lot of craptastic photos. Then I changed the setting on my camera, and suddenly my images were much sharper. This was the best out of the bunch.

Good stuff!
:)

A quiet Caturday

2008-02-16T16:58:00.001-08:00

It's a quiet Caturday at theTiki Hut...and that means one thing...

CAT PICTURES!!!!
:)

For the most part, the cats are pretty good sports about the whole picture-taking thing. Hobbes used to present her butt to me when I tried taking her picture, and everyone else poses, but will sometimes close their eyes.

This is one of the rare pictures I've gotten of Peter with his eyes open. And even now you can't really see that he has really nice green eyes. He does, trust me. As for the other cat bits there, the orange and white arm/paw in the pic is Roscoe's, and the black tail belongs to Calvin. The thing they're batting at is used to make huge bubbles. It showed up at my house at the last Bitch and Swap, and it just stayed here.

Calvin and I in a self-portrait. He's always a good sport when I point the camera at him. I guess the fact that he knows he's photogenic doesn't hurt matters either. :)

Happy Caturday everyone!

Hobbes, 1989-2008

2008-01-23T20:45:00.001-08:00

A bit of sad news.

The feline count at the Johnson tiki hut has been reduced by one. Hobbes, my grouchy old lady, has passed on. She was 18 years old.
Hobbes was the grumpy matron of the house, and the other cats seemed to live in mortal fear of irritating her, except for Roscoe, who delighted in annoying her. :)
Hobbes has been through many things with me, including a few moves, a career change, job changes, and a husband change. For the record, she really liked Daniel. But since he's the cat whisperer, none of us should be surprised.

Anyway, we got back from Mexico to find that Hobbes wasn't looking so hot, and acting very indifferent to things that she normally grooved on, like cooked chicken. After a few trips to the vet, a lot of hydration and other meds, she let us know that she was done. So the vet came to the house today and put her to sleep. The remaining felines have sensed something is up, because I've received a lot more lap/scritch/pester time from them, especially today.

Here's a picture where I actually got her by surprise. She could always feel me coming with the camera, and I would usually get a butt shot as a result.

24 hours in San Francisco

2008-01-05T17:45:00.001-08:00

I know these posts are out of order, but oh well. So are the pictures in this post, come to think of it.
:)
After 3 days of family phun in Santa Rosa, CA, we played tourist in San Francisco for 24 hours. What a fun town!
Some pictures to document...

This was taken at the Marin Headlands, just before we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. I'm always just stymied at the sheer engineering feat this bridge is.

We went down Lombard,which is this switchbacked street that's a block long, and incredibly steep and cool. The view was amazing, the houses along this little stretch were incredible, and the drive was quite slow. And yes, that's Daniel's nose in the picture, heeheehee...

Alcatraz!
Don't try to swim your way out, there's sharks in the water, not to mention it's BUTT COLD!

Chinatown's gate.
One thing I loved about San Francisco--their Chinatown was an honest-to-pete one (complete with the smells), and it was pretty good sized too.
Just over the hill, there's a Japan town as well. We walked into the shopping center there, and I swear I was back in Japan. The mall even SMELLED like I was walking through one of those places I found in Yokohama.

We also found an amazing fabric store called Britex, but we had to get to the airport, so I ran through and looked at stuff. Next time, Daniel gets a man chair to get comfy in, and I shop hardcore. :)

my new ride

2008-01-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

Note to the parental units...I guess I've joined the ranks of the yuppie scum...
:)
We sold the Tundra for a variety of reasons. So this time it was my turn for a newer car. And, instead of going to a car dealer (which is really another way to spell scumbag), I went to an auto broker, who is just up the hill from where I work.

And now, I present my new-to-me ride!!!!

After some exhaustive research, I decided that a Lexus RX300 would be the best as far as safety, reliability, and cost to insure. I told the auto broker what I wanted, and he found me a 2001 model with navigation, all-wheel drive, cruise control, many widgets, and 81,500 miles. The color is a muted gold. This picture was taken in my company's parking garage, so the light isn't the best. For the record, I have my evil bendy doll mooning folks from the rear view mirror, and my tiki air freshener keeping the inside of the car tiki-fresh.

Here's a somewhat better picture in daylight.
This thing rides really smoothly, which means Calvin the Amazing Wonder Cat won't get barfy carsick on his way to the vet now. :)
Now I just need to move my personalized plate over.
And for those asking about the Subaru, we still have it. It becomes Daniel's new ride, and he gets to pimp it out as an artcar if he so desires.

the family visit and new serging droid

2007-09-17T17:34:00.000-07:00

Every other year or so, my sister J makes the trek out to lovely Washington State to see the fam-damily. She has 2 little boys, Little Dude and Littler Dude (formerly Baby Dude), and her husband, JJ-pooh. Since the little dudes are growing so bloody fast, I gotta document them. That and I like to share my photos...

Me and my younger brother, The Most Hated Man on the Internet (his words, not mine). What's funny is that he used to run around and do this very thing when he was a little dude, and, like I did with this picture, forget to take the camera off zoom before snapping a closeup.

Uncle Daniel and the Dudes. Little Dude is 5, and in the blue shirt. Littler Dude is 3 and in the green shirt. They were having a GREAT time getting Aunt Helen in the bum with their little nerf darts. Uncle Daniel is a big goober for teaching them how to aim for that sort of thing. ;)

Now it's my turn to pose with the Dudes. Pretty doggone cute if you ask me, but I might be somewhat biased. :)

My sister J, her husband JJ-pooh, and the Dudes. They're a good looking fam-damily. :)

And now, for something completely different....

The new serging droid!!!!!

As evidenced by previous posts, I have a thing for droids. This is the newest one to join the Tiki Hut Sewing Studio, the new serging droid!

What is a serging droid, you ask? It's a serger with an on-board computer chip that stores a mess of different stitch settings. My sewing machine, also known as the sewing droid, also has a computer chip for the same purpose. The best part about my new serging droid is that it's easy to use, gives me no attitude, and is VERY sexay. That and it came with a pretty thorough video tape of what it's capable of. :)

All in all, it's been a fun weekend.

New laundry droids!

2007-08-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

Woohoo!!
No sooner did my dryer decide to crap out on me, and my washing machine decide it needed to SOIL my clothes instead of cleaning them, did I see a deal on one of my new favorite sites, woot.com. One Day, One Deal. $5 shipping.
On August 6th, their deal of the day was a set of Samsung laundry droids. So, after doing some research, I decided to go for it. We finally got them hooked up, so here they are in their grand debut:

There's a maiden load of washing in the washer droid there...

Gotta get the best side of the dryer droid too. :)
So far, I've done a few loads in these, and the clothes are already looking a bit cleaner.

And incidentally, I've learned quite a bit about outlet wiring.

A Grrl and her Grill

2007-07-31T21:33:00.000-07:00

Heh.
In our house, I am the mistress of the grill. Tonight was a beautiful night, so I just HAD to fire up my grill, and share it with you all. :)

Chicken sausage, anyone? I LOVE this stuff. Of course, this isn't ANY chicken sausage, but Lemon Herb chicken sausage. My cat, Hobbes, prefers her chicken plain. She smelled these cooking, yelled and howled for one, then turned up her nose when I gave her a piece.
Fickle little beast. ;)

So here they are on the grill. That aluminum foil blob on the upper shelf is ciabatta garlic bread. I have HORRIBLE garlic breath now, but it was so worth it. :)

The fickle beast herself. Here we find Hobbes in one of her rare moments where she actually lets me take a picture. Doesn't she look lovely in her little bow tie?
Hobbes just turned 18 this year, which is about 90 years old in human years. If I'm half as spry as she is when I'm 90, I'll be quite happy.

Salt Spring Island!!

2007-07-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

We went to Salt Spring Island last week--for those who aren't familiar with the local geography, this is one of the bigger islands in the Gulf Island chain, which is between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island. We had some crummy weather at first, but then it got really purty out.
Of course, we did a lot of fun touristy stuff...

Salt Spring Winery was way cool--they paired locally produced ORGANIC food with their wines, so the whole tasting experience was, well, really tasty. :)

We went to Fulford Harbour. Not only was this a total hippy outpost, it was also a small BC Ferries terminal with some amazing restaurants. Of course, I found the weirdest thing to capture in pixels--those are purple starfishes on this pier thing.

I had to see the other BC Ferries terminal, which was in Vesuvius. This terminal was even smaller, and there were no hippy anythings to be seen anywhere. Behind me is Vancouver Island. This particular run went to Crofton, which is way north of Victoria.

Despite the rain the first part of the week, we did end up camping for a night. We went to Ruckle Provincial Park, and this was the view out the front of our tent. We could see ferries and hear float planes. But who cares, the view was amazing.

And from chaos....

2007-07-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

....comes a pretty new living and dining room.
As you'll be able to see, we've been busy kiddos here. Have a look below.

Why have boring white when you can paint your walls a pretty green? Notice the tape on the lights? We painted the ceiling too, a bright white. This picture is pre-ceiling paint.

These two colors are pretty complimentary together, wouldn't you agree?

And....drum roll please.....
THE NEW FLOOR!!!! WOOT!!

Roscoe is investigating the new floor, most likely thinking that she matches it pretty well.

Something still missing? Of course--the transition pieces that bridge the gap between the new floor and the old floors are expected to arrive Wednesday or Thursday of this week. Also, there are 88 linear feet of base moulding in the shed, painted the same color as the ceiling. When the floor guy comes to put the transition pieces in, he'll do the moulding as well.

We'll put this back together this week, no really. :)

I was having too much fun with my camera

2007-07-08T16:57:00.001-07:00

Now, with such fun and photogenic friends, and a rather photogenic spouse, how could I NOT have too much fun with my camera? :)
More wedding photos...

Our friend SassyPants and Daniel.

How's about some food? Since this was a hawaiian-themed wedding, we had the appropriate chow for it. There's some noodle salad, macaroni salad, an egg roll, and some chicken in there somewhere too. Yummy.

And the cake was delish...not to mention cool looking. It was a white cake with pineapple filling. The frosting tasted, well, blue. :)

The wedding was on the Edmonds Waterfront, and so I have some nice pictures of the sunset and a ferry. However, when I saw this, I RAN outside with the camera. This one turned out the least fuzzy. This gal had this hoop that had 4 spots to light fire on. She spun this around for a good 10 minutes or so, putting on quite a performance.

Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. V!!!

We went to a friend's wedding the night before the organized chaos

2007-07-08T16:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday night we attended a friend's wedding. This couple is so cute. :)

May we present Mr. & Mrs. V?

I'm all about the candid shots...here we have the happy couple during the reception. This was a Hawaiian-themed wedding, so a lot of us were either casually dressed or in our appropriate theme wear.

Me and my young pal Smasher--he's in high school, but unlike most kids his age, he really likes his parents' friends.

Our friend RJB--he photographed our wedding too.

M and D made the trip out from Brooklyn, NY to attend...I love these two, they're so much fun.

Let's hear it for goofy shots--I think RJB needs to hit the buffet line again.
Or, maybe he's feeling affectionate, I dunno. :)

I have more pictures...another post is in the works.

Welcome to organized chaos--wipe your feet

2007-07-08T16:24:00.000-07:00

Feh.
In a feverish push to get the now ruined in spots, stinky all over, and just generally cheapo carpet up, I got a wild hair up my whoopsie-daisy and went on a carpet removal rampage. Daniel helped move dishes, hutches, and other furniture. He's also graciously agreed to haul it all to the dump. :)

Don't believe me? We all know what they say about pictures.....

There's not much more to say, now is there? ;)
However, I do love this floor we picked out. There's 17 boxes of it, and each box weighs almost 50 lbs. Yes, I retrieved this with the truck, and most definitely Daniel helped me carry it in.

I need to pull staples out, vacuum, and seal the floor in a few more places. After that, painting the walls will commence.

WOOT!

Meet our goddaughter

2007-06-24T16:19:00.001-07:00

I never remember who I've told this to, but, Daniel and I are godparents, as of 2 weeks ago. So, in her grand debut, meet Miss Z-P!

This was Daniel's first time meeting Miss Z-P. She is a darling little baby, and for being a mere 2 weeks old, incredibly alert.

Case in point...now granted, she looks a bit groggy here, but she had her eyes open for a lot of the time we were visiting. :)

For those of you who comment that there are never enough photos of me on this thing, here ya go. I look sleepy because the baby is sending sleep waves....no really. :)

More home improvement fun

2007-06-23T17:38:00.001-07:00

Whee...more home improvement stuff...
Today's adventure (after sleeping in until noon today) was to seal the floor where I had torn up the carpet earlier this week, due to obnoxious cat mess. The score in the great battle between the carpet and the cats stands as follows:
cats 4
carpet 0
Bleah.
Let's move on to the pictures, shall we?

When working with nasty gawd-awful chemicals that can cause brain damage after inhalation, it's important to have the proper protection against fumes. Now, even tho I felt like this thing was suffocating me, I'm glad I had it. That sealant STANK.
Don't I look fetching in my little respirator mask? :)

The worst spot--we had to train the fan on the wood before sealing it. There were 3 other spots that needed help, but this one was, by far, the worst. This was after 1 coat of sealant.

Another spot, after a second coat of sealant.

Now, off to google flooring sites for a good deal on bamboo floors. :)

The younguns have learned well from the master

2007-06-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

For as long as I've had a sewing room, I've always had at least one cat to keep me company whilst I quilted and created. Of course, my attic sewing studio is no exception, especially with 5 cats.

The kittens, who are now young punkass cats, have learned well from the master.

The master--since the old guy cat has passed on to that great catnip patch in the sky, Calvin has become, whether he likes it or not, the alpha male cat in the pack. He has always been a big fan of the sewing room. When he was a young punk, he would sit in my lap while I would sew. During the 2001 earthquake, he hid in my sewing room closet, and wouldn't come out until the next day. He's always had a perch of some sort on my cutting table.

Peter and Roscoe, enjoying the open window and the nice view of the backyard. Peter, my very dignified Russian Blue/Manx mix sitting next to the iron, is now well over a year old. No matter what he does, be it play with his toys or stalk creatures outside, he always looks very proper. I may have to outfit him with a bow tie. Roscoe, on the other hand, lives by the motto "It's PLAYTIME!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!" all the time, except when she's sleeping. She's now nearly a year old, and very sweet. However, she's also earned the nickname Worm, as she's very slinky in her movements. And no, I did NOT bring that one up. Daniel did. :)

Peter is taking a break from bird watching, and looking content.

Roscoe looking at something to pounce on on the floor. Guess the rain and birds outside got boring for her. ;)

Got mud?

2007-05-29T21:16:00.001-07:00

Here's the latest on the bathroom....
taping and mudding, YAY!

Look ma, walls and plumbing for fixtures! WOOT!
The sooner this gets done, the sooner I can rip up the yucky carpet in the living room.

No, I don't have home improvement fever, not at all...why do you ask, gentle reader? ;)

...and now for something completely different

2007-05-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

We do other stuff besides working on the bathroom and dance with cats. :)

Fun stuff....like ROLLERDERBY!

This is our friend's son, Smasher--he's a mascot for the rival team, the Pink Pistols. His mama, our own Miss SassyPants, is on the Hula Honeys team. I love his hair in this shot.

Our pal SassyPants, Smasher's mama. She rocks. 'Nuff said. :)

PROGRAMS!!! GETCHER PROGRAMS, RIGHT HERE!!!!!

My camera conked out right before the match, doggoned batteries...so no pics of anyone flying around corners, diving into the crowd, or of our friend Duke, aka, Sgt. Duke Spankaho, as one of the referees.

So we went out afterwards in the Roosevelt neighborhood, at the corner dive bar....where, miraculously, my camera batteries made a small recovery. Harumph.

The drunken three. You all recognize Daniel, who's pretty happily lit here. Next to him is one tipsy T-Rex, and standing is our friend J, who finished his shift at the Allegro shortly before we all ended up here.

And now for something even more different than rollerderby or drunken friends....
BLANKIES!!!!!!
Daniel, our glamorous model, is always the good sport about modeling my many different sewing projects. We did this one in 3 takes. :)

sporadic bathroom update--and oh yea, a plant update too

2007-05-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

So the bathroom work continues...I have a few more pictures to take, but here's what I have so far:

New plumbing! This is the base of the shower faucet thing I got. Many thanks to our buddy Neil for helping us with this bit. Geez, he's helped us with a lot of this remodel!

New window anyone? We figured that since we had the wall all torn out, why NOT replace the window with a spiffy new (not to mention more energy efficient) one?

Our new light fixture. Pretty cool, yah?

Okay, this is a little hard to see, but this is the spigot portion of the new faucet.

As promised, plants. Courtesy of our friend Sweetpea, we got those 3 green planter things from her last year. I found some little plants to stick in there. Among them, I have oregano, cilantro, a strawberry plant, some marigolds, a nasturtium, and some pansies. In the foreground, I have some hanging planters with petunias in them. We also got some tomatoes. The petunias and the taller tomato plants are fundraiser things. One of the fellows I used to work with has a daughter whose class is raising money to go visit the Amazon Rain Forest. As someone who used to sell stuff for orchestra trips in school, I just *had* to support her. That and I needed plants. ;)

YAY! Let's hear it for home grown tomatoes! :)

more bathroom fun

2007-05-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

No no, gentle reader, it's not what you think, no really.... :)

Instead, how about some pictures of walls and stuff?

How about some insulation? Now the outer wall of my bathroom won't be as chilly. Daniel looks very proud of his work, and he should be. I didn't want to mess with this stuff. :-P
(Many thanks to our friend T-Rex for the bale of insulation.)

I think this is concrete board the boys are playing with here. See our nifty new sawhorses? Lowe's is a fun place for just such things as sawhorses and boards. :)

The bathroom is coming along...watch this space for updates, albeit sporadic ones.

modifications and improvements

2007-04-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the amazing and astounding world of HOME IMPROVEMENT!!

I just LOVE it when our hand is forced on certain things...

Back in late February/early March, we had a pipe spring a leak within the wall. Now, seeing as our house is pretty old (built in 1943, according to the cute little old guy who used to live next to us), I guess it shouldn't surprise me that the thing that sprung a leak was old yucky galvanized pipe. So the plumber came over, took out some wall, found and fixed the leak. Now that Daniel's gainfully employed again, we can fix and even IMPROVE this bathroom of mine. The above shot is where the tub used to be.

The perspective on this one is a bit off, but basically, behind the pvc drain thing is where that doggone galvanized stuff sprung a leak between the walls. Evidently it was quite a loud leak too. It's been replaced by copper, and is ready for a new chunk of drywall and a new sink. We also plan on insulating that wall in the previous photo, seeing as it's an outside wall and everything. And yes, we plan on keeping the linoleum--that stuff is helluv cool!! :)

This is the modifications portion of the post--after a lot of consideration, Daniel has shaved off his goatee. When asked about his reasons, he gave a nonchalant "because..." as well as saying something about a lot of gray in said goatee.

Doesn't he look spiffy? :)

We'll have pictures of the bathroom as it evolves into a finished one again. Next plan is to tear up the carpet in the living room. Guess the cats don't like it, as they've done their best to mess it up.

4 out of 5 kitties agree...

2007-03-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

Even tho Spring is coming, it would appear that some kitties are still a bit chilly...I got up to get a drink of water, and found that I had 4 out of 5 kitties on the futon with me. Guess one can say that either a) they all like me best, b) the futon is comfy, or c) they like the blankets best. :)

Then we have Daniel and the lovely Miss Vi. Seems she didn't want to follow the crowd, so she decided that Daniel's lap was the place for her.

Kitties...

DANG! Those Jet City Rollergirls really know how to party!!

2007-02-11T11:45:00.000-08:00

On February 10th we went to a fundraiser for the Jet City Rollergirls. Our friend Sassypants is a rollergirl, and wow do she and her teammates throw an awesome party.

Of course the camera was in my purse....

My dapper spouse. Since we were going to JimmyZ's in Everett, he put on his best rocker/rockabilly outfit.

I put on my best rollergirl-wannabe outfit--I went with Sassy to a practice one night. It was GREAT fun, and the gals were all incredibly supportive. However, I had volunteered for the Seattle Womens Chorus at this point, and didn't deem it fair to do both. That whole stretching myself thin business came into play.

Being a fundraiser and all, they had stuff for sale. I got this little thong. As everyone can see, my spouse is a great sport about modeling. The hand belongs to our friend, who shall remain unnamed in the interest of protecting the innocent. :)

Another one of our friends-I didn't know this, but she's now a Jet City Rollergirl, and has the bruises to prove it. Her roller name is Mighty Mouth. :)

Besides selling such fun things as thongs, t-shirts, candy hearts, and other stuff, the rollergirls also had a kissing corral set up. In this picture, Daniel dazedly displays what 10 bux will buy you...and the other side of his face is covered in glittery lipstick as well, tee hee hee...

What a party! I'm nursing a minor cold and Daniel's nursing a minor hangover. Let's do it again soon!!

My spouse is the best sport...

2007-02-04T21:40:00.000-08:00

Teeheehee...my friend's birthday present is FINISHED! WOOT!!

I brought these in to Daniel (interrupting his WoW game no less :), and he was all prepared to put this little ensemble on for the picture. Since I knew he wouldn't fit into it, I just got him to hold it up instead. One take later, here we are. :)

Happy Belated Birthday Miz Sassy!! We'll do lunch soon so I can give these to you.

BATHTIME!

2007-02-04T19:27:00.000-08:00

Our kittens are rather curious little goobers...and Roscoe really made that evident by getting into the crawlspace and getting filthy. So, we plugged up the hole she was using, and gave her a bath. Thankfully, she was a good sport, and I only suffered minor scratches...

Hasn't Roscoe grown? She's about 7 months old, we think....and she's adorable too. :)

Saturday morning at the Claypatch's Tiki Hut

2007-01-13T11:19:00.000-08:00

What do computer gamers do on weekends?

They get up early and play WoW! (World of Warcraft for the unwashed amongst us)

These hardcore boyz started at 8am on a Saturday morning--I was asleep.

So, without further adieu, here they are, in their WoW glory...

They're so cute when they're focused on killing beasties...I'm sure you all recognize Daniel, and sitting to his left is our friend Tex.

And of course, we have to have the gratuitous shot of the game.... :)

For the record, I got out of bed at 10ish, heh.

STORM WATCH 2007!!!!

2007-01-11T21:50:00.000-08:00

More like, "the news has nothing better to report, so here's a STORM and scary footage!!! AAAAAHHHH!!!!!"

Pu-leeze, spare me the drama, let's go for a walk.

And of course I took the camera with me....

Our house--I guess I should mention that these pictures were taken Wednesday night, after the storm had blown through. Doesn't the house look pretty? :)

Our neighbor across the street had this snowman in their yard. When we came back, this poor little dude had fallen over.

My car. Our driveway is sloped, and I needed to get to work Thursday. Hence, I parked on the street. I made it in just fine. I *heart* my Subaru.

The light behind this tree was pretty neat looking. This tree is just up the street from us.

The front of my car. By this morning, there was a LOT more snow all over it, like 4" or so.

I guess we now know--when Seattle gets snow, we get it pretty good. :)

Lava, Restrooms, and OUCH

2006-12-25T10:46:00.000-08:00

Well, maybe not exactly in that order, but close...

For Christmas, we decided to go to Hawaii, as my inner geologist has always wanted to tromp around Volcanoes National Park for a few days. So here we are...

Here's some cool (and VERY sharp) lava. The place smells of sulphur, and the lava seems to have a lot of different minerals in it, as some of it was kind of a gold color as well as jet black.

Here's the OUCH portion of the program--I was walking along, minding my own business, and BLAMMO! I lost my footing and fell forward. After I spluttered some of the more colorful choices out of the FCC Seven, Daniel helped me up, cleaned out my wounds with water (another OUCH), and we went back to the car. My left hand bore the worst of it--I have some owies on my right hand, as well as my knees. But, thanks to the magic of Neosporin, things look a lot better today. They still smart tho.

This has to be one of the most BEAUTIFUL ladies' rooms I've seen--we went to dinner in Hilo for Daniel's birthday, and I was just amazed at how nice this bathroom was. So much so, that I had to come back in and take a picture.

I've created a photobucket account, and will upload the slew of pictures we've taken as time and bandwidth allow. Heck, I'll even send the link out too! :)

...but wait, there's more

2006-12-17T22:01:00.000-08:00

Here's the last picture I wanted to post. This is looking south on 18th, at Brandon. I drove under this Friday morning on my way to work. Most likely not the wisest decision, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I had D's truck, as it needed petrol something fierce. While I was waiting for City Light to move the supervisor truck, I snapped this picture.

And many thanks to Seattle City Light for getting the electricity back as quickly as y'all did!

West Seattle gits a WALLOP!

2006-12-17T21:57:00.000-08:00

Whew!! That was a helluva storm!

On Thursday the 14th, Seattle and the Eastside got WALLOPED by an incredibly strong windstorm. West Seattle sustained some mighty gusts, some topping 70mph. We lost our power late Thursday night, getting it back Saturday at 10am. We're lucky, as no trees hit our house, cars, or anything else. However, our neighbor across the street didn't fare quite as well. The tree leaning on his house was a lot fuller at 6:30am Friday than it is in this picture. But from the looks of it, the only thing that's really damaged is the gutter.

Now, this looks pretty scary. This is at the curve where 21st SW turns into Dawson, and goes East towards the college. As of Sunday, this was still here. Imagine my surprise when I saw the other side of this tree Friday morning.

cat wrasslin'

2006-12-03T15:12:00.000-08:00

I've talked a lot about how Roscoe's always starting the wrasslin' matches with Peter. Here's your proof. Peter was asleep on the futon, minding his own business, and Roscoe decided that it was time to play, and to play hard. So, she jumped on Peter, and started licking his ears. Then she started biting him, causing poor Peter to start growling. Shortly after I took this, they really got into it.

Silly kittens.

The Annual Festivus Party

2006-12-03T12:51:00.000-08:00

Every year, my employer puts on one helluva fun Holiday party...this year, it was at the Fairmount Olympic, or the 4 Seasons for those of us who have been around a while....

So, without further adeiu, how about some pictures?

My, we do clean up well, don't we?

The T-Rex's. We hung out with these two for the better part of the evening, getting drinkies afterwards. They're so nice, they even gave us a ride home. Thanks muchly to you both!

Our pal, Miss F. Between myself and Mr. T-Rex, we make sure that our pal gets enough sleep, gets lunch when she needs it, and make sure she's okay.

And on to the evening's entertainment, Rockaroke. If you're unfamiliar with this, it's like Karaoke, but you're fronting a live band. My husband did a lively rendition of Aerosmith's "Walk this Way". He brought down the house.

All in all, a fun evening...can't wait until next year.

Heh, traffic's bad enough, just add some snow and BLAMMO! An arduous commute!!

2006-11-27T20:36:00.000-08:00

WHEW!
Most of the time, my commute is pretty mundane--I sit in traffic for a while, I move some, I get on the Alaskan Way Viaduct, and I get home in about 30 minutes. No big deal.

Tonight it snowed. In anticipation of this, I took the bus. That same commute took 2+ hours, and that was using a combination of the bus and my hiking-boot-clad feet. Here's a couple of pics of our back deck.

This second pic was taken using the night setting on the new camera--I have GOT to find that tripod I have around here...

The funniest part is that this is more snow than we had in the downtown core, where the traffic was hellacious. And in case anyone is asking, I may be working from home Tuesday morning.

Hey hey hey Let's go to Victoria, on Princess Marguerite!!!

2006-11-19T21:46:00.000-08:00

Now, if anyone else remembers where the title of today's entry comes from, I won't feel so dated. :)

We went to Victoria for my birthday....some of the pics I got, taken with my spiffy new camera....

What trip would be complete without high tea at the Empress? This was Daniel's first time sitting at high tea at this venerable institution, and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. BTW, the carrot ginger sandwiches are to die for, drool....

More dinking around with the new camera--this is the self-portrait feature. Daniel was taking a nap on our ferry ride, and I just couldn't resist getting a picture with him in his barely awakened state.

We went on a city tour, courtesy of Gray Line. Again, I'm dorking around with some of the settings. That's the inner harbour in the far view, and Daniel goofing around in the near view.

Our ride up on the ferry--it was a pretty smooth ride from Twassen to Nanaimo, thankfully. According to the ticket taker, we picked a good day to take the ferry. The previous day all sailings had been cancelled.

Daniel makes a fine tripod--I always like getting a shot of the government buildings lit up at night. This is my favorite, mainly because the street light to the right of the building looks like a lit torch.

Oh yea, I got a new camera for my birthday

2006-11-14T22:02:00.001-08:00

For my 40th birthday (which is the 15th for anyone who's counting :), I got myself a camera, woot!

Daniel taking a painting break...

A self portrait.

As Daniel can attest, I've done A LOT of waffling on different models. Well, leave it to Costco to help me make up my mind. :) I found an Olympus SP-350 for 100 bux off the list price. It's a pretty sweet camera--the 8 MegaPixels alone is pretty doggone cool, not to mention the gazillion options for picture taking I now have. The latest paint job pics were taken with it as well.

Happy Birthday to me!! :)

Finished--about damned time too :)

2006-11-14T21:21:00.000-08:00

At LAST! Our little project is done, and well in time for turkey day.

We tried rag rolling on the walls--so we got a darker shade of yellow, and a roller that looks like it's been wrapped with an old t-shirt. We then mixed the paint with some glaze, and away Daniel went.

Here's a nice little closeup of the wall, post-ragrolled.

Daniel and his work.

And here's Daniel covering the trim, so it doesn't get a texturing treatment as well.

All in all, this was a fun project, and it turned out nicely too.

phase two...the base coat....

2006-11-14T09:43:00.000-08:00

More adventures in home improvement....the previous post showed the primer. Note to self: use a mask when dealing with oil-based primer, and open all the windows and run the ceiling fan. That stuff is POTENT!

So the base coat is called Cornmeal--and this is what two coats of it look like. Please note, these pictures were taken after I was done painting, which was at 11pm. This will look lots nicer in daylight.

The goal here is to get this done in time for turkey day. Will we make it? Let's hope so....

Next coat....rag-rolled on....stay tuned.....

Yes, the kittens do sleep from time to time...

2006-11-12T11:41:00.000-08:00

With all the crazy pictures I post of the kittens running about and causing trouble, the question is, do these little furballs of terror ever sleep? Well, here's your evidence that they do from time to time...

Peter is enjoying a rare peaceful moment without Roscoe jumping on him and chewing his back feet. Any wrasslin' I manage to catch in pixel form is, in many cases, started by her.

Now this one is surprising....Roscoe zonked out next to Mr. Brownsuit, aka the old man. Just after the shutter snapped for this one, she put her paws on Mr. Brownsuit. He totally doesn't care, I think he's just happy to have some peace and quiet.

Home Improvement Madness

2006-11-11T19:13:00.000-08:00

I'm sure many of you have heard me describe our BEYOOO-tiful wood paneling in the living and dining room. Well, the time has come to make it go away.

The before picture-primer pictures, with spackle:

This one is a bit blurry, but the basic idea here is that we now have a nice base coat for the next phase, which is actual color:

We went to Rodda Paint, which is a pretty good store. They're very helpful, and not too badly priced either. We expect to have this little project done by the time turkey day comes around.

Next projects: more walls, then a new floor

Adventures in the Sewing Room

2006-10-31T16:27:00.000-08:00

Ever try to sew with cats around? I tell ya, it's almost impossible...

Calvin is doing his best to get in the way--I have to sit in this very chair to use my sewing machine. And he won't move over, share, or anything.

Peter is taking in the magnificent view of the backyard and the neighbor's house from my sewing room window. He's curious about outside, but since he was originally a feral kitten, I'm not letting him out just yet.

Roscoe has the courtesy to stay out of the way, at least for the next 10 minutes. I made her this nest and she seems to like it. This isn't the best picture to show this, but she's grown some.

Some random pictures, and not just kitties

2006-10-19T21:53:00.000-07:00

Teeheehee, now for something besides cat pictures....don't get me wrong, my cats are a lot of fun, but surely there's more to life, right?

You betcha!

So our first thing--COOKIES!!!
Every other week, some of the sales reps have a food bake-off of sorts. The week before last, it was guacamole. I tied for 3rd place with my "workin' class guac". This week, it's chocolate chip cookies. My secret? Use GOOD ingredients (like butter, no margarine), and use at least twice the amount of vanilla, and as much organic stuff as you can get your hands on. Let's hope I place as well as I did the previous contest.

Our second thing--Daniel is now a WoW addict.

I won't go as far as to say I'm a WoW widow, but I did surprise him when I took this picture. Too bad I didn't get the "what in bloody hell was that?!" look in pixels; it was pretty doggone funny. :)

Sorry, I lied about the cat pictures thing.
I've titled this one Still Life with Peter. He's in the rare "hang out" mode, so I just HAD to get a shot, if nothing else for my own proof that he really does stop and hang out once in a while. I'm pretty sure he's 6 months old by now, and I'm also pretty sure he's grown a bit.

more cat pictures

2006-10-18T23:01:00.000-07:00

Heh, more kitty pictures anyone?

Roscoe and Peter seem to be adjusting quite well to their new home. They're essentially saying "kiss my little kitty patoot" to any of the older cats who hiss and snarl still (that would be Miss Vi and Hobbes). Calvin will play swat at them, but is basically a good sport about anyone who comes up and sniffs his nose. He'll only yell if he's startled.

Roscoe has decided to hang with the big cats...and the best part is that they're okay with it.

Greco-Roman wrestling anyone? Now that Peter and Roscoe have bonded, we see this quite a lot now. :) Funny part is that Roscoe starts it.

Ah yes, one of the few times I can get Peter to hold still. He's a funny one, our Peter. Whereas Roscoe has two modes, which are playing and sleeping, Peter cruises around, plays, hangs out, and sleeps. I'm not sure who put the ball in the dry food dish--that's a Hobbes trick. :)

more cute pics and po'd kitties

2006-10-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm just miss chatty Kathy today, aren't I....

Roscoe and Peter have settled in to our house nicely...now, if we could just get the older cats to quit hissing and yelling whenever Peter or Roscoe come up and try to be friends, we'd be doing well.

More pictures, this time of a sleeping kitten and some unhappy cats...

Roscoe is out and down for the count after a long day of going to the vet, surprising her kitty parents with the news that she's actually a girl, and running around.

Hobbes in the sewing room--she and the newbies have gotten into a few hissing matches these last few days. This was taken just after Peter ran up to her and sniffed her nose. As you can tell, Hobbes is not amused.

And here we have Calvin--again, Peter came up and sniffed at him, which started Calvin on a yelling rant, along with a bit of hissing. He's not happy with me, so I get his backside.

Lovely Miss Vi--she keeps growling at the newbies. However, she's growling less and less, and is getting more interested in playing when the newbies play.

According to just about everything I've read, a week or two's worth of hissing and growling from the cats already in residence is expected. Really, it sounds worse than it is.

Alert the media!!

2006-10-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

So Roscoe went to the vet today to make sure we got a healthy kitty.

And we do, but we got a little surprise.

ROSCOE'S A GIRL!

Because Roscoe is orange, we just assumed that Roscoe was a boy kitty. After all, one just doesn't see many orange girl kitties.

I still can't believe we missed that. D'oh!

Why yes we are barking mad, why do you ask?

2006-10-01T12:54:00.000-07:00

Or is that howling mad?

Okay, so a while back we said no more cats...

Um, I guess that went out the window.

I saw the equivalent of a classified ad come across my work email, titled "can you help a kitten out?". Having seen one too many of these lately, we decided that we would indeed help a kitten out.

Two, in fact.

So, in their great debut, meet Peter and Roscoe.

Roscoe was the product of that classified ad email--he and his 6 brothers and sisters were found in the woods in the Renton Highlands. This fellow brought them home, and since the local shelters have bumper crops of kittens right now, the fellow and his wife took it upon themselves to find them homes. Roscoe is the last kitten in the bunch. A little orange dude, we think he's between 6 and 8 weeks old. His sole interest is to play as much as possible during his waking hours. Roscoe will be quarantined for another day or two, as he needs to go to the vet.

Peter was adopted at ASHA (Animal Safe Haven Association), and he's one VERY dignified Russian Blue/Manx mix. He's 5 months old, and incredibly soft. He's taken quite a liking to us both, and is out exploring the rest of the house as I type this (under Daniel's watchful eye). If y'all want to adopt from ASHA, I highly recommend it--DeeLynn is the most laid-back cat person, and the shelter is the cleanest I've ever seen.

So our grand total for cats is now 6--don't tell the city animal control agency. ;)

More pictures as they become available (read as if I can get the little goobers to hold still).

Calvin's new perch

2006-09-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

Calvin the amazing wonder cat has found himself a new perch. The lot behind us is getting a house put on it, and he's gotta keep an eye out on its progress. The lot behind us was his and the other cats' playground, with lots of tall grass to romp in, so they're not terribly happy about the whole thing. I got this shot from the window of my sewing room.

Woot--that time of year has come and gone, but what fun!

2006-09-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Seattle Rockabilly Ball has come and gone, and left lots of good times in its wake...How about some pictures?

Our Host, Leon...

Hehe, what a cute picture--that's Camille and Daniel. Gotta love the look on her face. :)

Our, um, mascot....

Me and Miss Jenn...

Daniel and our pal Matt...

Fun times! Great to see everyone, let's do it again next year!

a few more pictures--4th of July Tiki Style

2006-07-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

A few more pictures from the marvelous tiki party...

The annual Tiki Party

2006-07-08T18:30:00.000-07:00

Every year, our friends throw a helluva GREAT tiki party. This year was no exception. :)

As a joke, I said we'd show up, with Daniel in coconut shells and a grass skirt. Well, I guess I'd better be careful what I ask for...here's the evidence of that.

I also ended up in the pool--anytime you see your friends coming for you wearing evil grins, give your camera to a dry person, kick off yer shoes, and enjoy the ride.

Thanks Duke and Sassy, you guys know how to do it up right!!

The husband and his new truck

2006-04-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well, we knew that this day was coming--Daniel was going to need his own vehicle for his job. So off to Toyota of Kirkland we went. We drove home with a lease deal on a Toyota Tundra, in a lovely shade of dark grey. This is his first new car. :) He's been out of town for training, and I've driven it maybe 4 times in the three weeks he's been gone. It's fun to drive, and interesting to park.

I'm INKED!!

2006-04-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

I'm inked!

Something I've been contemplating for a while, and I've wanted Haida artwork as a tattoo. According to Pacific Northwest Native folklore, the hummingbird is seen as a harbinger of good luck. So I went and got this done on March 8th. Did it hurt? Oh yea, totally. Will I do this again? Jury's still out on that one. But I love it. Now that it's healed, it looks really cool.

heh, cats don't rule this house, why do you think that? ;)

2006-01-07T18:29:00.000-08:00

Heh, my cat Calvin is quite photogenic (so he thinks anyway). On the bottom, he's demonstrating his favorite place to perch. I comply when I'm in the mood to. For this one, I had my camera handy, so I got a picture. In the top photo, he's posing for a Christmas thank-you picture to my dad and and stepmom and sibs. My dad gave us a 4' high scratching post--WOOT! :) Once I have it put together, I'll post a picture.

Self portrait time

2006-01-01T20:11:00.000-08:00

We were at Hoover Dam on Christmas day.

This is part of an incredible starmap--I didn't even TRY to get a shot of the whole thing, mainly because getting the perfect shot would have involved levitation and shooing about 10,000 kids off the thing.

Here I am, right next to my sign. And yes, I got some very funny looks while doing this shot. Ah, what we do for art... :)

Viva Las Vegas!!

2005-12-29T18:30:00.000-08:00

So we went to Las Vegas for Christmas/Daniel's Birthday. We don't gamble (well, Daniel won cab fare on a slot machine), but we do go to shows. We totally enjoyed Penn and Teller. Here's Daniel with Penn.

...and finally....

2005-12-21T23:31:00.000-08:00

We have here the resident old man of the house--meet Iggy. Definitely the husband's cat, and definitely not evil, despite the nice little case of red-eye he's got going. We think he's 15, but he's pretty creaky.

the husband

2005-12-21T23:28:00.000-08:00

My husband--here he's modeling a sewing project I completed for a friend of ours. He's a fellow computer geek, but enjoys getting out and doing stuff as well.

these two are mine

2005-12-21T23:25:00.000-08:00

Here we have my two cats--the black one is Calvin, and the grumpy striped one is Hobbes. Both animals have been with me for quite a few years. Calvin's 10, and Hobbes is 16. Here they're posing for my favorite site again.

our resident punk :)

2005-12-21T23:20:00.000-08:00

My husband's cat, Miss Vi...she's the resident punk, at the tender age of 5. She's definitely *his* cat, but I'll do when he's not around. :) Here she's posing for one of my favorite sites, http://www.humanclock.com

I was resisting this, but....

2005-12-21T07:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, FINE. I have a blog now. Yay. More later when I'm not working. :)