Queen Anne Afternoon

After I finished work last Friday, Kathy and I spent the afternoon together. It worked out perfectly! She got finished with the training she was doing in the morning, and called me as I was in the elevator going up to my hotel room. She was outside the hotel! So I merely dropped my work things in the room and drove off with Kathy -- first to Pike Place Market for some pad thai lunch, then up to Queen Anne hill for the afternoon. Her blackberry with Internet access and GPS navigation is very impressive, and we found Hilltop Yarns without having to go back to my room to pick up the information. After a lovely browse in the yarn store, we went down to the corner to Teacup for a pot of fragrant tea. So relaxing! We decided we liked the ambiance of Teacup -- clean and modern -- better than the chintz-y frou-frou of the tea shop near Acorn Street yarn. We just aren't the tiara type. Then we went to Nancy's Sewing Basket, where Kathy used to shop when she lived nearby. We had a nice chat with the woman in the ribbon room. I found so many ribbons I would have bought, but restrained myself. Everything from woven ribbons with flowers to hand-dyed silk ribbons to woven measuring tape ribbon. Plus beautiful buttons made from old molds. After checking out the fabulous fabrics, we hopped back in her car and found the house in which she and Chris used to rent the upstairs apartment. I have vivid memories of the large corner window. She pointed out all the changes in the house and yard, and we were astounded by the new rental price on the sign propped against the house: $1,450 per month! Then we found the little overlook park with a classic view of the Seattle center and downtown. Kathy took any of us who visited her on Queen Anne to that park for pictures back in the old days. The woman in the ribbon room had given us directions. We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on a bench in the sun, enjoying the view and talking. The mountain was out and it was beautiful. As dinnertime came, she stopped a couple walking their dog and asked for a recommendation of a local restaurant. We went to Sorrentino on Queen Anne Avenue. We split appetizers of classic tomato bruchetta and warm eggplant Parmesan. Then she had gnocchi in a cream and Gorgonzola sauce, and I had thick spaghetti in a sauce of pork and cauliflower. It was delicious and the service was very nice. It was a great choice for dinner. I was back in my hotel room by 7 p.m. to pack up and sleep before flying home early the next morning. It was a wonderful afternoon.

Tulips & Turkeys

The first weekend that I was in Seattle, Kathy & I went up to the Skagit Valley to see the tulip fields. Unfortunately, the unseasonably cold spring weather had delayed the tulips, so that the tulip fields were just beginning to blossom, but the daffodil fields were seas of yellow and the tulips in the demonstration garden were beautiful.

We also went to LaConner, where we discovered that there is a flock of turkeys that roams the streets of the town. I have never been so close to a live turkey in my life. A lady came out of here house and fed them bits of bread.

Home Again

I got home yesterday from a week working in Seattle and visiting with Kathy, Chris, and Matt. I had a great visit with them, but it's really good to be home. My dogwood trees are in full bloom now, but it has been in the 80s for a few days, so the blooms probably won't last much longer.

Tea Party

Yes, there was a tax day "tea party" in Washington, DC, but it did not go entirely as its organizers had planned. There were supposed to be two in close proximity -- one in Lafayette Park, across from the White House, and one by the Treasury Building, which is next to the White House. Apparently, the Secret Service overruled the DC permit for the demonstration by the Treasury Building, so they combined into one demonstration in Lafayette Park. I checked it out at lunch time. They could not dump the tea bags they had brought to the park, as they had planned. And it rained -- pretty hard at times, too. But they had a go of it with speeches held under a little blue awning. Not a terribly big crowd, as these things go.

I Dreamed a Dream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

This is an absolutely inspirational video from Britain's Got Talent.

There was a time when men were kind,
And their voices were soft,
And their words inviting.
There was a time when love was blind,
And the world was a song,
And the song was exciting.
There was a time when it all went wrong...
I dreamed a dream in time gone by,
When hope was high and life,worth living.
I dreamed that love would never die,
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.
Then I was young and unafraid,
And dreams were made and used and wasted.
There was no ransom to be paid,
No song unsung, no wine, untasted.
But the tigers come at night,
With their voices soft as thunder,
As they tear your hope apart,
And they turn your dream to shame.
He slept a summer by my side,
He filled my days with endless wonder...
He took my childhood in his stride,
But he was gone when autumn came!
And still I dream he'll come to me,
That we will live the years together,
But there are dreams that cannot be,
And there are storms we cannot weather!
I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living,
So different now from what it seemed...
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed...
(Les Miserables)

Are We Having Fun Yet?

Since I work only a block north of the White House, on the other side of Lafayette Park, I went over to the White House at lunch time to see if I could catch a glimpse of the Easter Egg Roll today. It is held on the south lawn, so I thought I could see something from the ellipse. No such luck.

There was a line down 15th Street from Pennsylvania Avenue along the side of the Treasury Building for a whole block. And that turned out to be the VIP line.

The National Park Service had taken over the ellipse for the real line, with snow fencing and rope lines for crowd control. The line of parents and children snaked back and forth, back and forth. But nobody was going in the gates. I figured out it was the 12:15 ticket holders, who still had a half-hour or so to wait before they would enter the White House Grounds.

You could easily identify those who had already been inside -- a child with a design painted on his or her cheek, and an adult holding a white plastic bag with the Easter Egg Roll logo in grass green: a green circle containing the silhouette of a running white bunny rabbit, encircled by the green words "White House Easter Egg Roll 2009."

I hope they had a good time.

Cherry Blossoms

Today is cold and rainy again, but yesterday was beautiful. I went down to the tidal basin at lunchtime to see the cherry blossoms. Oooops, my batteries went dead, and I did not have any spares. I did get some good pictures, though.