Camelama

More sun!

Another sunny day, I had to get out and take advantage of it!

 

 

uh oh, gray clouds looming...

 

Tho this direction still look sunny....

 

It's dark to the north, better get home fast!

You turn me right round baby

 

The other day I stopped for groceries just as the sun was going down, and I thought the blue on this rotating-globe Quality Food Center sign looked neat against the sky:

 

 

Then I realized ... the sign was not alone. It had passengers.

 

There were about 30 pigeons up there, goung around and around and around and around and around...  I was laughing out loud at the very idea of some stupid pigeon spending all night long, asleep, spinning endlessly.  Don't they get dizzy?! then again, they're *pigeons*. Would it make a difference?!

 

Twilight Criterium, 2010

This past weekend Ballard hosted the Twilight Criterium.  This is a series of bike races on city streets. For this one, they blocked off all the streets around one block in Old Town Ballard. Races went from 3pm to 9ish. I stopped by and caught the Women's Cat 1-2 races at about 5pm.

 

Syttende Mai - Norwegian Constitution Day, May 17

My neighborhood, Ballard, has a long tradition of celebrating Norwegian Constitution Day. Along with events, meals, dances, lectures, etc, we have - A PARADE!  Always held on May 17th, the city shuts down major streets to run the parade. Typically it's a work day and I hadn't been able to attend, but one good thing about underemployment is I get to go to a PARADE!  This is the oldest Syttende Mai parade outside of Norway, and the biggest one outside too!

First were the motorcycle cops doing synchronized driving tricks...

 

Everyone was getting in the spirit, even if you didn't have Norwegian in your background.

Catch up!

Ok, let's go - about a month of stuff to talk about.

Crafty!

For a Frugality craft swap, I made a tote with ties as handles and a waterbottle holder out of ties, good ways to use up the ties the men in your life don't want any more!

 

I've been doing a lot of reading, though it does get difficult sometimes:

 

Lots of cat time:

 

I enjoyed the early Spring we had, before Mayvuary and Junovember struck:

 

More in the next post, this is getting photo-heavy....

Happy Solstice!

Around these parts, the solstice is very important ... when you get up in the dark and go to work in the dark and come home in the dark, you really pay attention to the moment that days start to become longer.

So yesterday we gathered at the shore to watch the sun set behind the Olympic Mountains, had a bonfire, and made s'mores to celebrate the return of sunshine.  Only a few seconds at a time, but every bit helps!

Ok ok, so it wasn't really a *bonfire*, it was a charcoal bbq.  :) But it was FIRE!

 

The sunset was marvelous.  The rain stopped, clouds parted, and we got to see a bit of the Olympic Mountains.

 

Another view, with Magnolia peeking in from the left.

 

Flaming marshmallows!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm, s'mores!

 

A real bonfire, sunset, and a ferry in the background.

 

A sliver of a moon, tree trunk, lights of Magnolia neighborhood, bonfire, and the wee bit of light left in the sky.

Where in the world was Camelama?

Today I got to visit a very special place.

Hint:

  

Need more?

  

Yup, that's right, I was in the Ballard Locks!   (Or as they're known officially, the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and Carl S. English Gardens)

The large lock gets pumped out once a year, and this year I got the very rare opportunity to go down into the lock.  It was incredible!  55' down, where you would normally be below 36+ feet of water... oh, the mechanical geek in me was squeeeeeing in delight the entire time!

We got to explore the entire lock end to end:

 

And even went underneath the locks!

 

There was sea life still in the locks to look at:

 

We got to go into many different nooks and crannies:

 

These zinc bars keep the underwater metal from rusting away:

 

It was astonishing to go from darkness to daylight so quickly sometimes:

 

back up top outside the lock we got a closer look at a capstan:

 

The whole time we were down there, pumps were running to keep all the spillage, rain, and leak water out of the lock.

Traffic continued to go through the small lock alongside - when we were below ground we could hear and feel the water flow nearby.

this is what we had for going up and down 5 stories - nerve-wracking!!

One thing I brought away from the tour was: barnacles are EVERYWHERE.

 

The whole time we were down there exploring, the crows up top were keeping tabs on us...

 

It was an experience I will never forget - what a great day!

Mobile Chowdown

This past weekend there was a confluence of mobile food vendors (that is, mobile vendors, not mobile food - walking sandwiches, eek!) in Seattle.  I stopped by, thinking to grab a bit of bbq and a delicious dessert of ice cream, but alas, I was thwarted by the unexpected:

 

CROWDS!  Who knew that on a cold windy Saturday in Seattle, hundreds and hundreds of people would turn out for a casual, word-of-mouth event in an empty gravelly lot behind a grocery store in a light industry neighborhood?!  (I'm amused by how many people are in black and dark colors on this, the first truly chilly weekend in Seattle. Where are all our colors?!)

One truck I really wanted to visit, el camion:

Then there was the truck-shaped-like-a-pig:

And my favorite, the Parfait Ice Cream truck - with my NOT favorite thing, a GARGANTUAN line snaking across the parking lot:

 

A view of the limited seats/tables, full, with more folks sitting on blankets and the bare cement/gravel:

Everyone there seemed happy, and all the folks I chatted with were resigned to the crowds and even joking about it.  And with the weather gods smiling, and no rain, folks could linger as long as they wanted.

I left empty-handed - not that the lines alone deterred me, but I was on my way to somewhere else with a timeline, so couldn't stay long. Upon hearing this one woman snatched a forkful of bbq from her take-away box and said "you MUST taste *something*!" and so I obliged. YUM.

I hope to catch Parfait in one of their normal weekend spots soon, to make up for the lines today.

Farmers Market

Lots of flower vendors at the farmers market today, more than I remember from previous.  Root veggies are really starting to show up - I forgot to stop by the great potato booth on my way out, wah! Next week.

I indulged in flowers as my veggies turned out to be much cheaper than I expected.

 

Was tempted by, but did not give in to, the organic filet mignon. Droooooool.  Only 31 bucks!  (HA!)

And of course, had a slice of Verace' pizza - they had a line about 20 people long. Was worth the wait, as always.

Came home exhausted, sweaty, wiped out - my legs and hands are kind of shaky, I walked so many miles in the sun (yes, with a hat to shade my face!). Reminder to self: this is why you were going to get up early and go to the market at 10am, not 1pm! Not as many people, not as hot, not as many kids, and the pizza oven might not be ready yet to tempt you. :)

I scream for ice cream trucks

YUM.  Look what visited my neighborhood this afternoon?

It's the Parfait ice cream truck!  Oh, such deliciousness. They were already out of Orange Star Anise so I decided to be a purist and I got the Vanilla Bean. Pure bliss, it was. Creamy and rich but with a bit of granular texture, and lots of real vanilla bean bits - just how I like it. One scoop was almost too much ice cream, it was that good.  (I *forced* myself to finish it, mind you!)

Check out the website to see if they visit your Seattle neighborhood.

UFF DA. MELTING.

The NOAA weather service forecast.  Oh. My. GOD.  98 today 100 tomorrow.  99.  Hey, only 90 on Friday, what a relief!

I can't even THINK I'm so hot. Even about stupid little things, like, is today trash day or not? I've only been here 11 years in this house, I should know when trash day is. I'm reduced to eating Saltines and putting my head under the faucet every hour or so.

Because of course there's no air conditioning - it's Seattle! It doesn't get hot here!

UFF. DA.

The neighbor's cat has been following the shade up and down the driveway all day:

Poor Stinky.

My cat has been like this most of the day:
Inside the dark infinitesimally cooler house, dozing in the heat, keeping an ear out for sounds of dogs or trash trucks coming down the street (the screen door is open to try to catch even more of a breeze).

I love this neighborhood.

The people here are just so nice.

Evidence:

I packed all my errands into one day's worth of driving and saved gas by parking once and walking to all the surrounding places I had to go.  I found a curb spot, got to the parking sticker payment machine, and found that people had left their parking stickers there for others to use!  I snagged one that still had about 20 minutes on it, and then came back and purchased more time when that ran out.   When I left, my sticker still had about 20 minutes on it, so I put mine up there too!   It felt great to join in the Good Parking Karma deed. :)

Ballard Rules, Ya Sure You Betcha!