state of emergency!

the weather is so shit here in seattle that the governor has declared a state of emergency.  tons of snow, ice and downed power lines are creating havoc.  in normal places that get snow this would be no big deal, but here in seattle...CHAOS!

since it was just snowing yesterday and the buses were running,  i decided (foolishly) to go on in to work.  it took me 2 hours to get there and 3 to get home.  and i only stayed for 4 hours.  needless to say, i did not go in to work today.  instead i'm staying home with maya (so far this week she's spent a record breaking 2 hours in school and today is thursday) and the cats and the dog.  alistair had to work a thursday, which never happens.  but we live so close to his work that he just walked.

maya and i just went over to the store and took some shots on the way.

here's the view from the porch

and the porch itself!

the street in front of our house: 35th ave NE, a heavily used and major street in our neighborhood:

the neighbors across the street made some snowmen!!

safeway is up and running and has plowed their parking lot :)

the front yard:

my little tacky quail is all buried!

and the gnome water sprinkler looks pissed at all the snow.

all in all, i feel like i'm back in idaho.  except you can't get to work.  i was telling maya how in places where winter actually happens, this is no big deal.  SNOW DAY?  who ever had a snow day?

ok...i'm gonna go make some cookies now and kick it in front of the tv!

wooooooo!

snow in seattle...

the annual once a year snow has finally showed up here in seattle.  and by tomorrow morning i expect the city to be in full panic mode.  this place is hilarious when it comes to snow.  totally not prepared, ever.  and the problem is all the damn hills.  since there is really only snow once a year, the city has almost no snow plows and will never buy them.  so therefore, complete pandemonioum reigns whenever it snows.
it snowed a little bit yesterday and then today it started snowing at about 8 am and didn't stop until about 1.  i walked on down to the library and got 1/2 block before the first ridiculous bus problem of the year was seen:

the bus is totally stuck on this little incline.  it completely ridiculous.  and turning the corner on the right there is the large metro semi out to pull the bus out of the street.  there is hardly any snow on the streets, it's not even icy yet and the bus is stuck.  hilarious!  this city kills me.

but the snow is really pretty and nice to see!

 a random side street where i'm sure an accident will happen. because people have no idea how to drive in snow and drive like complete jackasses.  kind of like how they drive in the rain.  like they have never seen it before.

our driveway is nice though!

and so is the yard:

q says hi.

still scanning...

it's true...i'm still scanning the film from me and mom's trip down highway 101 last july.  here are some good shots!

the last roll of color:

oh god...this was trees of mystery in klamath, oregon.  i forget just how much i hate heights until i'm up in a friggin' gondola.  i spent the ride back down sitting down on the floor of the extremely flimsy gondola.  i think i'm gonna throw up...

eureka, california

the boardwalk, eureka california.  unfortunately on this boardwalk, there are no vampires.  hahahaha!

the last shot of color film for the trip. eureka, california.

and some from the first roll of black and white!  all black and white photos were taken with my holga 120N.

willapa national wildlife refugee, outside longbeach, washington.

long beach, washington.

ok! now only 4 more rolls of black and white to scan!

and here's one of seattle:

6:30 am, downtown...

the duck!

our AP dept totally kicked ass on a goal and for a reward, our managers took us all out to lunch and then on a duck ride.  if you don't live in seattle and don't know what a duck ride is, it's a ride the duck tour of seattle.  my co-worker's girlfriend is a tour guide and she drove us for our very own duck tour!  it was super fun!

but first we got taken out to lunch at jalisco's up the street from work. 

here's one half of our department:

and the other half:

nicole...you look so dreamy.  why are you looking at me like that??

and rebecca...you popped yourself out of the picture.  you silly.

jane and i both wanted the same two things, so each of us got one and split it!  such a good idea.  i got the chicken flautas and she got the spinach enchilada.  unfortunately, jim didn't think my idea of pitchers of margaritas was as good of an idea as i did.  sad face.

i thought the spinach enchilada was DELICOUS:

much to our surprise and delight, our managers dressed up as ducks for the actual duck ride.  nice.

just really really fantastic.

then the duck pulled up outside jalisco's and it was time for the tour!

jozette (i really hope i'm spelling her name right. i'm probably not) is a great tour guide and we were all cracking up.  pretty much everybody had already met her since her and emily (my coworker) are really social and our job makes people drink.  hee hee.

nicole and i spent a lot of the ride waving and yelling at people out on the street.  it made me happy.

QUACK QUACK!

even though we all obviously live in seattle, it was still pretty cool to take a tour and see things up close i'm never close enough to to take pictures of.

the duckmobile is also able to go on water, so part of the tour is a water tour around lake union.

driving into the water:

gasworks park:

a seaplane was taking off and went right over us:

it was a loop around the lake and then on out again.

the university bridge? is that what this is?  the bridge I-5 takes leaving the udistrict?  or is the university bridge the smaller one?  the one westlake goes over?  the one that goes up?  i've only lived here 11 years, you would think i know what the names of the bridges are.  yeesh.

all in all, it was an absolutely beautiful day and we lucked out being able to wear short sleeves on the tour!

we learned little known facts about seattle and had a lot of laughs.  i know we have another goal for the end of november and i hope we make it.  i hear the next activity is bowling.  that would be good!!

i also had my kowa six with me and apparently, all the pics of the outside of the duck are on film.  i'll be sending it off to get developed soon, so i'll put up a part II post with the black and white pics :)

pigs in a blanket!!!

so last friday at work we were told that june was actually AP dept's turn to throw the deck party.  this was quite a shock seeings as how the ENTIRE DEPARTMENT thought that we had july.  later in the day it was revealed to us that it was to be thrown the following wednesday.  which was yesterday.  so denise and nicole grabbed me and we started planning the picnic style (denise and nicole's idea) deck party.  we decided that we would all three cook for the event and that denise and i would go shopping on saturday for food.  

on saturday denise showed up armed with a pcard and re-useable grocery bags and off we went to grocery outlet.  i'd never actually been in grocery outlet and i'd always been interested in what kind of a grocery store they were and we were not disappointed.

i decided to make mini pigs in a blanket and to throw together ingredients for simple sandwiches.  denise was making a bean dip, macaroni and cheese and banana nilla wafer pudding desert.  nicole was making tater tot casserole.

it was nice to see such healthy food in the basket.

then we stopped off at fred meyers and got the beer and some other stuff:

we even got julie her very own beer:

she was either going to be super pissed about the clamato and bud light or super excited.  i wasn't too sure which one it was going to be.

after work on tuesday i made the pigs in a blanket:

alistair always cuts frozen blueberries on the cutting board, so it's stained a nice brownish purple!

i was really proud of myself that i only stuffed one in my face when i was cooking them.

i didn't get much work done at work on wednesday and pretty much spent the whole day setting shit up for the deck party.  other people from our dept volunteered to help out:

xine looked fabulous in her apron.  julie and her made ants on a log.  and julie got her beer early.  she needed a little something to help her through shiteloads of celery, peanut butter and raisins.  needless to say, she LOVED her beer!

everything looked fantastic.  amy found red and white tablecloths.  xine busted out a killer watermelon basket.  i think it all came together nicely!

the deck party was supposed to be located out on the new 6th floor deck, but since this is seattle and it's june  that was pretty much out of the question.  we stuck the beer out there in coolers and let people fight for their lives in the horrible wind.

it was a typical grey cloudy crappy june day.  although the sun did come out right when i was coming home at 5:30 so that's super neat.

i had a little of everything except the mac n cheese.

emily made the announcements: new hires, birthday and anniversaries for june.

i think everyone had fun...

it doesn't look like there were many people there, but that room was CROWDED and loud!  i really should have taken a shot of the line of people for food.  impressive.

dan didn't come up when ivy told him to and he missed all the food.  so he scraped the pans and got what he could:

ivy had a glucose test for the baby scheduled for today and she was drinking a tiki punch and then realized just HOW MUCH sugar was in it!

i'm sure she had fun fasting all night and today.

the wind was horrible and these brave souls were out there.  for hours. 

this was fun, but i hope we have a little more notice next year.  we were rushed, but i think we pulled it off!

YAY!