Raincharm’s Weblog

As we have for the past several years, we had Christmas Eve dinner with the Shannons. This year we were joined by the Steiners as well.

Since we had the three girls present, after dinner we put out our boxes of toys for them to choose from.
Several have found a new home. Horses (not the little ones with the stable – we kept those), games and puzzles. We even tempted the adults with a few pieces.

Don’t worry, Goodwill still gets a boxful, along with a bunch of clothes, and some other odds and ends.

And then it was off to Candy Cane Lane.
Always good for a holiday stroll, this year was better than most as it was dry!

The gangs all here, and some are pictured.

There is always a theme to the centerpiece – this year it is the Nutcracker.

Here are some of the decorated houses. Any time you see a sign, it says “Peace”.

Our favorite over the years. In the past this list actually had a naughty and nice side. We thought it was funny because one of Carl’s brothers name appeared on the right (naughty) side. Now they have removed the decision, and added some more up-to-date names.

We walked through, but several choose to drive through. As a regional draw, this is the normal site on Christmas Eve approaching to drive.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

ZAPPA.

Frank is gone, but Dweezil is doing a tour of his fathers music.

We attended the concert was at the Neptune Theater last night. The Neptune was a movie theatre and has been converted for all sorts of live shows. It is also less than a mile from our house. So we walked. In the rain. (Rain = steady, wetting stuff from the sky. As compared to showers = intermittent wetting stuff from the sky.)

Carl found an umbrella recently unearthed in our cleaning spree. It worked (for one anyway). An older Mariner’s version, perhaps from Griffey’s first year. Advertising by Nalley (Nalley Valley vegetables). I am not sure if Nalley still exists as a brand.

We sat in the balcony. This was where most of the seats were located. There was a VIP section on the main floor, and the rest of the space was for standing/dancing/etc. We decided we would enjoy the show more from a seated position. The view was good, and the show was great. Notice the number of grey hairs in the audience. We were not the only ones looking for a seat.

The Neptune

Close-up of Neptune

Neptune

Neptune’s eyes watching every move from up high.

Eyes up high

The musicians were all very talented, Two in particular played any number of instruments and sang, often in the same song with barely time to breathe in between. In one song Scheila Gonzalez was playing a saxophone/flute/keyboards and singing vocals. In the same piece Ben Thomas was playing trombone/trumpet/shaker thing/tambourine and doing vocals. The other musicians were equally talented, but most kept to one instrument.

The Band

Carl and I saw Frank in person about 25-30 years ago. I think I enjoyed this concert more. I say “think” because my memory of the long-ago concert is a bit fuzzy. Carl thinks it is because they did a broader assortment of music.

Yesterday was supposed to be a day to make great progress on the weekend project.
As it turns out progress was made elsewhere.

I think the physical nature of the previous day made me look for a slightly less physical aspect.

Toys became our main focus.
We chose some that will stay, and many more that will go.
This was more mentally taxing, with a bit of physical thrown in.
There are so many memories with some toys, and yet they don’t really need to live with us any longer.
We did tend to save classic, or just special toys.

And I got to play with a few while making sure they were still whole and operational.

As we get to spend part of Christmas Eve with some of the younger set, we are planning to have a “hand-me-down” Christmas, and let them make as many choices as they want (or their parents allow) from our to-go pile.

Hopefully this will be enough, because there is plenty to choose from.

Today was garbage/recycle/yard waste day.
We filled our garbage and recycle bins with detritus from the last few days, and then proceeded to fill 3 neighbors’ recycle bins and 1 neighbor’s garbage. We also tipped these service people as they were tipping our bins.

So this is the long weekend of our project.
Whether or not we complete our project this weekend remains to be seen, but we did make what I call significant progress. I think this will be one of those things where the set-up takes three times as long as the “project” itself.

We made the obligatory trip to the hardware store for supplies.
I think most people do their last minute shopping at other than hardware stores so we had plenty of attentive workers to help us find our supplies.

Brought them all home and they are down in the project area – still in the bags.

The room to be removed

You can see a few big things left in the room. Along with the bags full of supplies.

Once home we set about cleaning the area around the project, which is supposed to generate copious amounts of dust. Carl had made a dent in moving pounds of basement debris upstairs. Toys in particular.

toy room

The study has been transformed into a toy sorting room.
Some will stay, many will go.

I think these made the cut.

little figures

They grew up playing baseball, card games, made up games, and hanging out in Lego lands.

Back down in the basement, things got shoved away, moved here and there,

Basement – floor visible

If you have been in our basement before, you might notice that you can see the floor, and there is a fairly open pathway.

I, on the other hand, see a bunch more stuff that needs to be gone through, and a lot of it flung (or donated).

cleared out – at least a bit

Another view, with the exercise equipment working its way out of the room soon not to be.

And the Pope wall, with the actual Pope wall part removed. Ready for tear down – almost.

The pope wall

And, for those that care, the Pope was saved from the recycle bin.

Not much new today – work, chiropractor, dinner, repeat.

So, here are a few links that made me smile.

First up is from the Tennessee Smokies.
Rey makes an appearance at about 1 minute.

Smokies Christmas

Second up is a link that I was led to by a facebook friend.
Maybe it is the stress at work, or just the need to let loose every now and then, or maybe it really is just that funny. Goodness knows I have had my share of mistexts.

Sorry there is not more tonight.

The last two weeks of December are always a bit different from those the rest of the year. And this year is the same. That is to say – different. And perhaps more so than usual.

Monday was a 10.5 hour work day. But that was mostly due to an early start care of taking my carpooler to the airport for an early flight.

Tuesday was an 11 hour work day. Trying to get things done that need to be done, and a few that would be helpful to those trying to beat end of the year deadlines.

Wednesday was a day to relax – at least a bit. Only 8 hours.
And since it was also the day of our holiday work lunch, there was a bit of a long lunch. And as part of the set-up and tear-down crew this year, even a little less work work than most.

During the set-up the fire department arrived for their monthly blood-pressure and blood sugar monitoring. (110/80, and 99.) The blood-sugar test ended with a band-aid on my ring finger.

After lunch I decided I had enough sustenance that I could spare a pint of blood. As it happened the Sammamish City Hall was hosting a blood drive, so I set off to do my good deed for the day. Unfortunately, after two attempts to pass the iron-test, I was found to be lacking. Iron that is. And sent packing. With a middle finger and pointer finger swabbed in band-aids as well.

Maybe tomorrow will be a “normal” work day.
Tonight – well I am trying to finish some planning for our proposed weekend activities. We will have to see how well I do, or if it slips into tomorrow.

But I have lots of lists right now, and it did not quite make it to the top of the pile of lists.

So – it has been since last Saturday, one whole week, since I posted.
During that week a fair amount of things have occurred.
Some I will comment on, others I will not.

First, I feel I would be remiss if I did not mention the Connecticut tragedy.
I learned of the horror when I received an e-mail informing us that we should, “lower our flag to half-staff on Tuesday 12/18 to honor the victims of the tragedy in Connecticut.”
I had no idea what they were referring to, so I went to a news site. It just stopped me in my tracks.
I sent the requisite note our maintenance man, who normally does the raising and lowering. When I got to work today (Saturday), the flag was already down – as were others in the neighborhood. I concurred that this was appropriate, regardless of the official date.
My husband has a special spot for young kids and just can’t watch anything much on the subject at this time.
And so, with a heart that just can not quite comprehend or understand or imagine being in that position, I will move on.

So, lets move back to one of the best highs a week ago, when same-sex marriages started in our state.

Two of the weddings took place during intermission at the Seattle Men’s Chorus concert.
One of the couples includes two members of the Seattle Women’s Chorus. They have been together forever, and were interviewed by CNN the next morning.

How would you like to have an entire chorus sing you in for your wedding?

My friend, in the Chorus, said it was an incredibly fun and emotional wedding, with 3000 of their closest friends (well at least supporters).

Walking up the aisle. Legal after 35 years.

And this was just one venue. All across the state there were hundreds of weddings. Here is the Seattle Times front page.

It was deemed important enough to command the entire front page plus a 2-page spread inside.

Sunday we did manage to get our tree up and decorated.
Significantly different this year. It is an elf-tree and could not support our usual ornament trove, so we went a different direction.

Our 2012 Christmas Tree

Tuesday included a visit from one of our Oregon frequent flyers.
When we finally all converged it was about 8 PM, so we went out to a local watering hole for dinner.
Good food and conversation.

Saturday, we celebrated the weekend by getting up for early dentist appointments.
I am not complaining. Being able to not take off from work is a huge bonus.

And I want to know who sends caramel corn the night before a dentist appointment?
Thanks Mom & Dad, I’m just saying.

Work has been an ever-present part of my life.
And others. It is just busy. There were 8 folks that showed up today – Saturday. 6 for long stints and 2 for brief check-ups.
One of my fun tasks for today was making a few decorations for our holiday party (Wednesday lunch).
Of course, the plotter ran out of paper and I had to figure out how to change out 36″ paper rolls (successful).
[This was followed a short time later by changing the yellow toner on the color copier for a fellow weekend warrior.]
Needless to say, I could have been a little more productive today.

The Charlie Brown Tree in my bosses office

The theme of our lunch is reindeer games. My personal favorite.

And as if a reward for working on a Saturday, through the rain, wind and gloom that can be a Seattle winter, the Christmas Ship parade stretched from one side of Lake Washington to the other as I crossed the bridge. (Picture from somebody else – last year)

Yesterday we finally started getting into our traditional holiday swing.

I went to work.
(Hey – it happens.)

When I came home from work we got gussied up and set out for the annual Green Lake Pathway of Lights.

It was a success by most Seattle measures.
A smattering of crying kids (3 miles is a fair piece, and I assume a few were cold, and I bet they did not have gummi-bears for every quarter-mile).
A reasonably good pace (but I think our counter-clockwise choice of direction was the less traveled direction).
And no rain!

Pathway of lights

This year the bagged candles were done slightly differently.
From an Seattle engineering view-point it was probably an improvement.
Same white bags, but inverted, with a small bit cut out of the bottom/now top.
The candles were still based in sand, but in the bottom of a plastic (salad at the food store) tub.
An improvement for those wet and windy years – which was not this year, but has been many times.
Trying to keep the candles lit in an open-topped bag in the rain has led to some rather dark damp walks in the past.

Laminaria Illuminated

We saw the boats that cruise the lake as they were readying to launch.

Boats Afloat

Snow on the water

A new addition to the several caroling groups this year was a live action play with live orchestral music.
We were not able to get close enough for a good view, but I did manage a few hold the camera high shots.

And they were gnomes involved! (I expected elves.)

Gnomes on the lake

At the end of our 3 (almost 4) mile walk we ended at Green Lake School, Ashlan’s alma mater and Rey’s kindergarten site.
Green Lake’s primary PTA fundraiser for many years has been the Christmas Tree sale. I always enjoyed this event as you only were selling to people who wanted to buy. It was a fun, and sometimes wet and mucky, event.
This year we only purchased a wreath (actually a swag), but gave them a hefty tip.

We got our tree from Safeway.
It is an “elf” tree. In other words, short.
With all of the boxes and stuff in general moving about the house we wanted something small, and as it turns out, mobile.
There will be pictures once the tree is decorated.

In all it was a fun night, although we did change our dinner plans to frozen black bean burgers (unfrozen by time we ate them).
We had a “real” meal planned, but it would have been past 9 PM before we sat down to eat. I could already tell I was getting the low-blood sugar grumps when we arrived home, so we went for speed over substance.
(I love the black-bean burgers, thank you Ashlan, so it was not a total letdown.)

Happy Santas

So between Carl’s various ailments and my minor annoyances, we have been seeing a fair number of care providers.
They are of various ilks.
We have seen doctors (several), nurse practitioners, chiropractors, masseuses, student doctors, dietitians, dentists, orthodontists, periodontists, lab workers, …….

Nothing to worry about, we are fine, just with issues here and there.

Today I got to see 3 to 4 different providers.
A doctor/dentist with an assistant of some sort and a resident (student doctor) for my TMJ and a chiropractor for hip and general misalignment. I think the TMJ has been improving. I know my hip has been improving, and I have decided to continue with the chiro for several months. Might as well give this a try.

We signed up for a yoga class in the new year as well.
I have never done yoga before, and am generally stiff and unbalanced. Carl, on the other hand, is flexible and balanced, and has done yoga before.

2013 will be the year of paying attention to our bodies.
Stay tuned to see how that prediction turns out.

I respect each of the people I saw today, and they both did what I anticipated and expected.
No complaints from me on any of their accounts.

But I mentioned to each my visit with the other, and they both voiced general distrust with the other’s profession.

I chose to hold my opinion and get on with each examination.

At the end of the day I am to relax my jaw muscle (but my mother always told me not to gape – which is essentially what a relaxed jaw looks like). And I am to eat right (by whose definition?) and keep myself in line and relaxed.

In the end, we are moving forward.
Even with all of our ailments and annoyances, we are healthy.
We know that can change in an instant, and count our blessings.
We know others that have not been so fortunate, and are keeping Margaret and her daughters in our thoughts, following the loss of her husband at too young an age.

It is month 12.
On every calendar I have checked.
I need to flip mine at work, or risk missing deadlines.

Oh, what the heck, I’ll probably miss a few anyway.

The “holiday” season is already interesting for my understanding of the time/space continuum.
There are vacation weeks that others take.
I think I will be able to use this time to get caught up, but then I want/need to take some time as well.
And because there are others gone, there are bases to cover.

In the end, the month flies as quickly as others.
I think part of my problem is too many plans flying through my head exhaust my brain.
Carl is able to just do sometimes. I, on the other hand, am cursed to be a planner.

So, I have no real reason for not posting this yesterday, although I will give myself Friday evening off.

Friday we went on what is about as close to a date as we have ever done.
And it was a Seattle date to boot.

First of all, it rained the entire evening.
And not a nice little drizzle, or heavy mist.

Second, it started at the Space Needle.
We had dinner at Sky City, the restaurant at the top of the Needle, just underneath the observation deck.

Dinner at the Needle

This is only the second time we can recall having dinner here.
And the other “dinner” may have been breakfast. (It was that long ago.)
It is expensive, but the food was very good. (I had lamb chops, Carl had a New York steak.)
And you get to see the skyline. We went around at least 2 full revolutions during our time there (47 minutes per revolution).
Of course it was cloudy, and then it was dark, but the city lights were all visible. In fact, we ended up comparing the traffic level between the first and second time around.

Next it was down up to the observation deck, and down to the ground floor.
The ground floor includes the ubiquitous gift shop. We usually browse around, just to see what’s there.
This time we actually made a purchase, of another Seattle icon.
We got deeply discounted Seattle Sounder rain jackets. The Sounder’s season is over, so I guess it was time for the jackets to follow suit.

And finally, we departed the Seattle Center for downtown, via the Monorail.

Jay – rain on the window in the background

The Monorail was built for the 1962 World’s fair, and does the blocks between the Seattle Center and downtown in a dry and reasonably priced manner.

Carl – Monorail interior in the background

Back out into the rain for the final few blocks to Benaroya Hall.
We did not stop at the carousel, and the big Christmas Tree in Westlake Center is experiencing continued electrical problems, which means it is a decorated tree, but with no lights.

At Benaroya Hall we used the coat check for a few reasons.
1. We had the package with the Sounder jackets.
2. I was wearing a trench coat (thank you Jackie) and did not want to squish it into the theater seat.
3. Everything was wet.

Some friends of ours who are in the Seattle Women’s Chorus were part of a caroling group that was entertaining in the theatre lobby. We found them, and later they found us at our seats.

Janet & Lisa

The main act was the Seattle Men’s Chorus, with Ana Gasteyer.
It was a good show, although a bit long. Part of the length was due to the guest star, who is only there for the two opening shows, and the potentially longer than usual chat including the recent passage of the Marriage Equality law in Washington.

Same-sex couples can now wed.
Well, almost now.
Starting on December 6th, they can apply for a marriage license.
December 9th is the first day wedding ceremonies can be performed.
The December 9th Seattle Men’s Chorus show is going to include two weddings.
One is for two women (Pete-e and Jane) who have been together for 35 years. They are the poster child for committed couples  in Seattle.  The other is for two men, who have not been named to my ears (because they are not as well-known I guess). I don’t know if they are starting early, ending late, or what – but it is sure to be one great big party.

Returning home, we hung out for a bit with our friend Dennis, who is in town showing a Twilight Zone marathon for the next week (at the Grand Illusion).

Saturday dawned, but I would not say early.
Still, it was not pouring, and I felt the need to run some errands, but also get some exercise.
So we set off for the mall, on foot.
The original plan was to walk to the shopping area, make some purchases, and take the bus home.
The first two parts of the plan worked out well, but the bus was slow in arriving, so we walked home as well.

QFC – on the way down.

QFC – Not!

About 8 miles in all, and time for a break.

At least I took a break.
Carl moved another car-load of boxes to the storage facility.

In the evening we went out for 3 episodes of the Twilight Zone.
Good fun, but when we got back we were both ready to be horizontal.

Today has been a bit quieter.
We actually started the demolition project by removing the Pope’s wall.
(The kids will know what this means anyway.)

Carl has managed one load to the storage facility, and I am finally getting around to updating the blog.
Oh – and reading the Sunday paper.
And watching the Seattle Seahawks not quite lose to the Chicago Bears, which means they won.