Louisa Boren Lookout

Well, it's been a week post rapture and we're all still here for another 5 months at least, so I guess it's time for some new blogs.

If I go to Crossfit on Saturday mornings, I like to take Otto on a 'adventure' walk afterwards. An adventure walk is really nothing more than a walk that is different than the walks we take every day, twice a day, ad nausea. Today I decided to take him for a walk around the civil war cemetery on Capitol Hill. Yes, there is one. It's officially called the Grand Army of the Republic Park and full of civil war veteran graves! (Howe and 12th Ave E). As I drove up, there seemed to be a 'happening'. Oh, Memorial Day. Hmmm, some people actually find more ways to celebrate memorial day than just getting excited about a day off work. There were lots of people milling and planting flags.

Adventure walks aren't much fun with lots of people around so, Otto and I went for plan B. Just down the street is Louisa Boren Lookout, which has a pretty view, a cool (though muddy) trail, AND happens to be on the street where I grew up. I can't remember what was originally on the Louisa Boren Lookout site. A few Facebook friends seem to be remembering some type of old house. But, at some point in the mid 70s someone decided it needed to be a park. It's a cool little park with an amazing view of Lake Washington, the 520 bridge and the east side. In a cooler fun fact, my mom was on the committee that named the park AND actually came up with the name. The park is on top of a ravine and it seems (even though I am guessing no one in this city knows this but me) the ravine is called Louisa Boren Park (Louisa Boren being a Seattle early/founding resident). Anyhow, my mom thought it would be snazzy to call the park on top of the ravine Louisa Boren Lookout and others agreed. Of course, when I was growing up, no one actually knew it was called Louisa Boren Lookout. Everyone I knew called it either Hi Park or High Park. Actually, I thought everyone called it High Park (because teenagers, well, you know), but it seems people my mom's generation called it Hi Park because it contains a statue that looks like a 'Hi' when viewed from the right angle.

Hi Statue

So Otto and I hiked down the trail, heady from memories of childhood (well, one of us was heady, one of us was more muddy). And at some point I decided to 'check in' on Facebook. I mostly wanted to see if Louisa Boren Lookout was thing on Facebook. And guess what, it is. It was the first place my phone found as a check in location! So Otto and I checked in at Louisa Boren Lookout. So Facebook can locate a tiny little park named by my mom in the 1970s with a name that no one uses. I just find that amazing. Back when that park was named, no one would have even fathomed such a thing!

Some photos.....

Maybe it still is High Park.

Happy Memorial Day. Flag man looking at the view from Louisa Boren/Hi/High park!

And finally, just for fun, this is my house.

Well, of course not my house, but the house my parents purchased in honor of my impending birth for $22,500.

So, it will always be my house.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

2011 AD—On May 21^st, Judgment Day will begin and the rapture (the taking up into heaven of God’s elect people) will occur at the end of the 23-year great tribulation. On October 21^st, the world will be destroyed by fire (7000 years from the flood; 13,023 years from creation).

If it wasn't for Facebook I wouldn't know most of what is going on in this world. For example, I probably would have completely missed the rapture. Fortunately, my Facebook friends have been posting and commenting on this life changing event for days now. There is even a Facebook 'event', "Post Rapture Looting", in which many of my friends seem to be ready to participate. Being rather naive about such things, I have spent the last couple days assuming the rapture meant the world was coming to an end. It wasn't until I took it upon myself to do a little Google research that I found the above and figured out that I actually have a few more months before my world is thrown into upheaval. I mean it's possible that I will be plucked up into heaven on Saturday, but it's likely that I will be left to slog out the last few months on earth with the other heathens.

Before I found the true meaning of rapture, I did some considering of what I might do if the world were in fact coming to an end in a mere 4 days.

Here's the list:

1. Eat sugar, lots and lots of sugar. Chocolate, baby cheese cakes from Whole Foods, milkshakes, soft serve ice cream with lots of toppings.
2. Fool around. Okay, I realize this is normally a g rated blog, but I'm just saying, if the world were coming to an end I might try to get a little action (not telling who).
3. NOT go to work.
4. Go shopping and just buy everything I like regardless of the cost, maxing all my credit cards. (This one might not actually be very interesting and there wouldn't be time to use/wear everything, but in the movies when they go on shopping sprees and end up with lots of pretty bags and boxes it always looks like fun.)
5. Take a nap every day.
6. Throw dinner parties every night with various people I really like (many of whom I am possibly to shy to invite over otherwise).
7. Drink lots of wine at the dinner parties and maybe a Manhattan or two.
8. Do lots of Crossfit (yes, I love it that much, though with all the sugar eating and wine drinking it might not actually be that much fun).
9. Take Otto for long walks in the woods.

And that might be it! The good news is that I did many of those things on my staycation, which clearly means I'm living the dream. The bad news is that now I have to wait for October to carry out the plan.

Oh, and I hope our 6 months after the rapture aren't filled with storms, famines and other disasters, natural or otherwise.

Hood Canal, New and Improved

New paint + fancy porch that goes around the front of the house + new metal roof.

It now has a foundation, turns out it didn't before.

I have had some requests for pictures of Hood Canal. Well, not the canal, but my family's cabin on the canal (in my family we refer to the cabin as 'Hood Canal', as if we own the whole thing, really the Gates (Bill and family), 10 or so miles down the road, probably own a good bit more than we do). As some of you know my family's cabin suffered a major catastrophe a year and a half ago. This catastrophe involved a lot of warm water spewing into the cabin for 6 weeks or so, a very high electricity bill (much higher than the water bill), AND an insane amount of mold which resulted in the entire cabin being gutted. Now, a year and a half + a huge amount of work, decision making and trips to Seattle on my mom's part + some major amounts of stress and strife, the cabin is almost done. Here is yet another photo montage. (Some day soon I will once again think of a blog topic and stop with the photo montages!)

Shiny kitchen! Fir floors recycled from some floor somewhere.

Walls are recycled wood too, from wood that was logged in the early 1900s(?)

and had been sitting as logs for about 100 years. The project had to stop for a couple months while it dried out.

This isn't a very good picture, but this is in the living room looking up at the new attic room.

To the left is a very steep stair way which has a name (that I can't recall at the moment). Again, recycled wood walls. Light is from a schoolhouse somewhere, recycled.

Mom on the stairs, still can't recall the name alternating tread?

Otto checking it all out + new stove!

Bathroom, the walls are the small amount of wood that we

were able to salvage from the old house.

Tub is original, everything else new.

Otto moping in the closet, probably staking his claim for a 4th of July hiding place.

On demand hot water heater!! Let me tell you, doing anything the environmentally sound way is super expensive and lots of extra stress. In 2011 you'd think these things would be encouraged.

Mom obsessing over details, Otto and I hard at work as usual.

Back door.

We're now working on furniture. We have exactly what you see in these pictures.

Oh, and nice work Mom!!!

Mom

Mom and me, 1966!

I think I'll just jump on the mother's day band wagon and do a little photo homage to my mom. I don't acknowledge it enough, but my mom is awesome. Professionally, she has dedicated her life to improving education and schools. Mom wise, she is the most supportive person in my life, dedicated, always loves me unconditionally (even when I'm a total pain in the ass) and always willing to jump in and help. Socially she has much more umph and energy than I could ever imagine having!

My mom on one of our family 'excursions'. Mom would decide we would need to take an excursion and we would head out to Foster's Island or some such place (for some reason, I can only remember Foster's Island excursions, there must have been others). I didn't realize my mom had a special yellow leather coat she wore for the events.

(Note provided by her when she added the picture to a photo album. I think it's actually referred to as her 'cool' leather coat.)

This has to be one of the cutest pictures of all time. My mom, sister and me.

My mom is super good at jumping in and helping, particularly when I take on the most frustrating of tasks. I decided to dig a drainage ditch in my back yard. It sucked and then involved a $2000 sewer replacement. Here my mom had just helped dig the trench underneath the cement pathway. I can't believe I managed a smile during any of this event. (Note the sexy flannel shorts, circa late 1990s and Clayton helping as usual!)

My mom likes to commemorate events and even non events with pictures, frequently when I look like hell. I like to respond with a face much like this!

Again, mom helping out. In 2005 I decided at the spur of the moment to sell my house in a week. My mom flew out. Here she is helping Rosemary write the listing for the house. She also cleaned the refrigerator!

She does Crossfit!

Doing two of her favorite things, eating food out in the sun on hood canal and wearing lavender.

Mom and me strutting our stuff in Spain!

Getting Carded

I have gotten carded TWO TIMES in the last week. The first time it happened I was annoyed, I looked at the woman thinking, why are you bothering me with this nonsense, clearly I am over 21. But then I decided it was kind of cool. I mean, I don't think anyone actually thinks I'm under 21, but maybe they think I'm some age that should still be carded - 30ish? Early 30ish? Maybe?

As many of you know, it was my birthday last week. I turned an age that, well, maybe needs to be considered middle age. According to Wikipedia, the Oxford English Dictionary defines middle age as "the period between early adulthood and old age, usually considered as the years from about 45 to 65". Others classify it 40-65. Both would be me (46). But, I don't want to be middle aged. I have very negative connotations of middle age women. When I think middle age I think suburban, over weight, a couple kids (not that kids is a negative thing), mini van, polyester, not very happy, helmet hair. None of these are things that I want to be. Actually, I think I can say pretty safely that none of these are things I am.

Here's what else wikipedia has to say "Physical fitness usually wanes, with a 5–10 kg (10-20 lb) accumulation of body fat, reduction in aerobic performance and a decrease in maximal heart rate. " Okay, so none of those things have happened either. Maybe one is only middle age if they gain weight and get lazy and out of shape. Maybe one in only middle age if they DON'T GET CARDED TWICE IN ONE WEEK.

Last week. I squatted 176 pounds 15 times. I deadlifted 200 pounds 24 times. I cleaned and jerked 77 pounds 91 (yes 91!) times (that's 7007 pounds from ground to over head in 17 minutes). And I bench pressed my body weight. So, maybe I get a couple more years before I turn middle age.......

We'll talk next year.

The Staycation

Is there anything more brilliant than being on vacation? I've been taking a the day of my birth off of work forever (why the hell would you work on your birthday?). But about 4 years ago I started taking time off for my birthday. For the last few years this has involved some type of trip, but this year I decided to just take a week off. I have been extremely excited for weeks now and yesterday was the first day.

And it was absolutely perfect!

1. 65-70 degrees. WARM. It was warm. If you don't live in Seattle at the moment you cannot truly understand the brilliance of this. It has not been warm in Seattle this year. Even if it happens to manage to be sunny, it has been COLD! I can't tell you how many times I have gone outside in normal spring time clothes and nearly frozen to death. Really! All 'spring' if I haven't had a down coat and gloves on I've been cold (and, of course, grouchy). But yesterday, all one can really say is OMG. We all lay in the sun and just felt warm.
2. Crossfit. Have I mentioned I LOVE Crossfit? Yesterday morning I arrived at Crossfit with low expectation after not sleeping properly for 3 nights. All my favorite Crossfiters were there including some very strong ladies. Typically these women are just a little bit faster than me (especially if there any jumping involved - as my legs are virtually fast twitch free). Yesterday, we did a lot of running (starting with 1200 meters), pullups and thrusters (heavy bar held at chest level, squat down and stand up thrusting bar overhead). I decided I just needed to go at my own pace and not worry about trying to keep up with the fast ladies. So at the end of the 1200 meter run they were well ahead of me. Jump ahead a few levels of pain later to the second set of thrusters, I pulled ahead and never looked back!! Fastest female at proscribed weight, second fastest overall!
3. Spring greens = the best salad ever! I forgot about farmer's markets and really really fresh light FLAVORFUL vegetables. Yes I have been going to the farmer's market all 'spring', but heavy root winter vegetables are not the same as a truly fresh, light salad mix. I can't wait for the real stuff to start (strawberries, raspberries, peaches, tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, broccoli that taste like candy!).
4. 8pm bed time. Yes it was Saturday. And yes it had been sunny all day so everyone in the city was probably out having an incredible amount of fun. But I'd been out two nights in a row and hadn't been sleeping so at 8 I got in bed to read and the next thing you know I'm sound asleep -- for 10 beautiful glorious hours of rest!

I'm trying to think what else made yesterday so awesome. It's not like I did anything outstanding. I think it was the summer break feeling. You know when it's warm out and you know you're going to be free for a long time. So the first couple days (before the 'mom, I'm bored' sets in), you're just happy!

South Lake Union

See how happy SLU people are!

Any of you who have driven in Seattle have probably at some point been plagued by traffic on Mercer Street. It's a mess. And now that Amazon has moved their head quarters to the area, it's only getting worse. The city has a plan to make this better, they're making it two way, instead of one way. I'm really not sure how a two way street is going to improve things, but, I digress. The real point is that yesterday Mercer was closed in preparation of it's new bi status, and I had to detour into the heart of South Lake Union to get myself up to Capitol Hill.

So yesterday, I had a little impromptu tour of South Lake Union. And let me tell you, it kind of rocks! There are lots of fancy new condo buildings (filled with Amazon working hipsters), tons of restaurants including a new Tom Douglas hot spot. There is a fancy new park (with the extra fancy title of Lake Union Park) that has a toy boat pond and a bunch of cool old ships. There is a pea patch! A street car name SLUT that people actually ride (it seems like it doesn't go very far, so I'm always surprised when people ride it). Not to mention, massage, yoga, martial arts, coffee shops, a hardware store, whole foods! Seriously it's all there.

As I drove through, I saw lots of smiley people in restaurants and people meandering to places they needed to be. I guess you could say it looked very self contained without being in the middle of downtown.

So, I think that's where I want to live. Not now. Now I have my house that I love. I have my own personal green space. I have lots of cute little sprouting plants that need a place to live. A dog that lives only to lie in the 'sun'. But, I think that might be my 10 year plan. In 10 years, when I get sick of taking care of my house, buying new roofs, weeding the endless blackberry, dandelion and ivy sprouts that will not stop cropping up. In 10 years, I will buy a cute little condo in walking distance of everything. Of course, in 10 years I will be the old lady in a sea of old hipsters, but as long as I'm still doing Crossfit, at least I'll be able to kick their butts!

'Please please, don't take me away from my sun spot!'