to the dogs!

I have been extremely tired and going and going....

Tonight we went to the Seattle Canine Club Help the Animals Benefit & Auction and scored! With memories of the Whole Foods Specialty Department in mind I could not help but bid on a Classic Raclette Grill and we were excited to see 2 Nas tickets up for the bidding!!!! (That's my boy!)
Yes, his new album is N*gger and the title track is "Be A N*gger Too" and that makes people uncomfortable, but I heard the song and it is DEEP and needed in this day and age. Wanna listen?...click here. (I am a baby in the world of the internet and this is the only link I know of.)

As for everything else? My position at my school was cut, so I will be applying for other jobs around town and trying to build my craft stash up for extra income.

Topher is lovingly watching basketball with me and it is so exciting. I am so happy to see Mike Bibby's new crew doing well and on the other side is Kevin Garrett and Ray Allen...so it's all good! The playoffs are truly always a high point of my year and it is nice to have someone to enjoy it with once again! I was so pleased to see the Hornets take the first round and let's all be honest the Lakers and Spurs are just plain snoresville. (Also isn't it a shame that KG and Allen's good nature has not rubbed off on Pierce yet?)

Go Hawks! And that moustache is truly amazing....

April 30th

It's the end of April and we're deep into spring in Seattle. We can walk around the neighborhood without our jackets (at least while the sun is out) and the view from our window is a little smaller because the trees all have leaves and flowers.

Last weekend we drove over to the Olympic Peninsula and went for a walk on the Dungeness Spit. It's a 5-mile long sandbar that is probably most famous for being the discovery place of the Dungeness crab. I was hoping we could catch a crab and have it for dinner, but we didn't see any live crabs, just some crab shells and lots of birds.

The seagulls made me jealous because they kept eating clams right in front of us. They would fly up and drop the clams on the rocks below, then swoop down and feast. This was fun to watch but it eventually made us hungry enough to hike back to the car and drive to Port Townsend where we watched the NBA playoffs and got some steamed mussels and clams and some really tasty fried oysters.

For those of you who don't know, the NBA playoffs are closing in on the end of week 2 and tonight is game 5 of the big Celtics - Hawks series. We've been watching lots of the games (which is kind of tough because we don't have cable TV) and I've been learning a lot about the players and the sport from Heather. (It's fun to get weird looks from macho bartenders who quickly realize that I don't know anything about basketball, but my girlfriend does.)
Even if you dont like basketball, you should tune in tonight to help me figure out how Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Woodson keeps his moustache so impeccably neat and tidy. It's amazing! My new theory is that it's actually a fake moustache molded out of plastic that he just glues on his face right before game time.

Okay, I'm gonna go out on the balcony and repot some plants now. Have a good wednesday.

ps. This Saturday is the first Saturday in May. Which is one of my favorite holidays: Free Comic Book Day. Everybody be sure to stop by your local comic book shop and pick up your free book. Stop pretending you're not a nerd.

success!

I just saw a hummingbird at the hummingbird feeder! Woo hoo! I was sitting at the computer writing an e-mail and then the wind started blowing real hard and I thought "I hope that hummingbird feeder doesn't blow off the dang window." and then I saw a hummingbird come and take a drink! It was small and gray-green and it reminded me that I still have not bought a bird identification book. So I'm gonna go do that now.
have a nice thursday!

Movie time

The lucky kids at Heather's school made a video about compassion last week. Check it out:
(if the video is stopping just wait a little bit for the whole movie to load before you press play.)

Thursday...

hey everybody,
We went to the soccer game. It was awesome! 56,000 people were there, I think about fifteen of them we're rooting for China. Mexico won. Here's some cellphone pictures i took:

Today is my day off and I've done nothing but play around on the internet all day. Very lazy. I made that new mixtape thingy on the right, if you folks wanna listen to some music. It's kinda cool.
I'm gonna go check the mail now. Then maybe I'll go buy some flowerpots for my new plants. Or maybe I'll just keep doing nothing until H. gets home.
Have a good Thursday.

OLE!

Hola...

Estoy tan excitado por esta noche! Vamos a juego de futbol! Mexico y China juegan! Man, my Spanish really sucks! I try....it's hard here is the states. And writing it is also really hard! I have never been to a big Futbol game! When I say big, I mean BIG!!! It's at Qwest Field, where the Seahawks play. We listened to a Reggaetron Podcast from Puerto Rico and now we are chillin' to Los Tigres Del Norte, while Topher is making me Vegan Eggs Benedict for dinner! We are meeting up with his sister and brother in law in the parking lot to celebrate first....and then the cathartic act of watching MEXICO beat China.

OLE.....

p.s. Though part of my beef with China is Human Rights, ie. Tibet, but it is also Animal Rights. Listen to this Radio Lab (Which is always awesome by the way.) on Zoos and see how you feel...

DOGBLOG

I would like to introduce you to my new favorite dog at the shelter! I must admit I have not met this lady, but she is super cute! Her name is Parsley and she can be found HERE, along with

Popeye

and Bonnie & Clyde

We always have adorable amazing dogs and I obviously have a dog type!
Tell your friends!
The Seattle Animal Shelter has many animals looking for forever homes and many
volunteer opportunities, including a serious need for Foster Parents right now!!!

an actual weekend

Topher took Saturday off and we went to the Seeds of Compassion Program. The day could not have been better, sunny, in the 70s with Mount Rainier and The Olympics in full sight! We attended Compassion at Home, in Schools and the Community, the Procession of Cultures and the Main Event with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who spoke with other people working for compassion in the Seattle community. It was amazing! There were so many people there and Topher finally got to know His Holiness a little better. On Monday my school will attend Children and Youth Day at the Key Arena. A group of students made a stop motion animation short that will show during the program, which is pretty amazing.

We meandered from Qwest Field towards our house and along the way did things that couples usually get to do on weekends together! We window shopped, got iced tea and ended up at Racha in lower Queen Anne for dinner. It was really good. Seattle has some really good Thai food! Then we stopped at Twice Sold Tales, a neat bookstore with lots of cats, and I finally got a copy of Art Spiegelman's In The Shadow Of No Towers, a book we have both been wanting for a long time about living in New York during the Twin Towers attack. We opted to take the bus up the hill instead of walking.

Once home, we did not want the day to end! Topher remembered the Emerald City Soul Club was holding a Soul Dance Party at the Lo_Fi Performance Gallery in Eastlake, so we got our dancing shoes on and headed out to shake it. Wow. It was tight, people losing it all over the dance floor and great music from the 50s, 60s and 70s. When it got too hot and crowded we decided to go home and sleep. While we waited a while for a cab we enjoyed the scene at the bar next door...which reminded me of the Midwest. Dru Hill and 50 Cent mixed with Van Morrison, people from both spilling out on the sidewalk and mingling...without a problem.

Topher had to work early today and I am having a relaxing Sunday. Later, I am meeting him down by Boat Street and we are going to see The Cup, which is about young Buddhist Monks and The World Cup! Seattle International Film Festival is currently showing films which are Reflections on the Buddhist World, they all sounded really good, but we had to limit ourselves to one. As soon as Topher heard World Cup, he was excited. Speaking of Soccer, this week I go to my first real Futbol game!

namaste

Springtime in Seattle

I chatted with my parents last night. They tell me it snowed last night in Colorado. We'll its springtime in Seattle. The weatherman says it might get up to 70 tomorrow.

In other news, we got a hummingbird feeder. It's the kind that sticks to the window. I stare at it all the time but I haven't seen any hummingbirds yet. I'll let you all know when they show up.

i need to laugh.

Munchies

1. Baked Tator Tots, topped with Cheddar cheese and bacon

2. Mozzarella sticks dipped in Cool Whip

3. Take the chewed-up cracker that is in your mouth and top it on another cracker and eat it

4. Peanut butter sandwich with grapes, bananas and honey on toasted bread

5. Cold peanuts with milk

6. Toasted frozen waffles with ice cream between them

7. A glass of milk with four milk duds at the bottom

8. Popcorn popped in bacon grease

9. Banana with peanut butter on it

10. Coconut and peanut butter mixed together

11. Block of Cheddar cheese with mayonnaise on it

12. Grilled cheese and corn sandwich

13. Powdered sugar on any kind cheese

14. Banana dipped in Jell-O powder

15. Potato chips dipped in ketchup or mustard or salad dressing

16. Stovetop s'mores

17. Crushed pretzels with cream cheese on toast

18. Uncooked hot dog dipped in Swiss Miss

19. Turkey sandwich with Doritos crunched inside

20. Pretzels dipped in peanut butter

21. Grape jelly with chocolate sauce

22. Cake mix milk shake made with water

23. Crisco mixed with sugar

24. Kool-Aid mix and pickle spears
25. Fudgesicle

from I Like You by Amy Sedaris

and then... I am pondering the fluid line that must exist between "sex positive" and just plain nasty...(damn that lil'wayne!)

and then... loving The Fader for the free downloads and urban flavor news...hmmmm good...especially this Cool Kids jam

and this is how good i am; check out this npr story on shepard fairey's obama image i had to add to our blog.

Heather!

Heather isn't in the blog enough. Heather writes most of the blog and Heather takes most of the pictures, but there aren't enough pictures of Heather actually in the blog. So I'm putting some here. (You folks can also click on that little slideshow thingy to the right to see a bunch more pictures we've got on the web.) These pictures are:
1. Heather in the kitchen cooking an awesome dinner for us to eat.
2. The Trini Food Heather made for dinner.
3. Heather correcting papers for her lucky students.
4. Heather's new shoes.
Stay tuned for more Heather news and photos.

I love Heather.

morning surfing

I rarely "dork around" on the internet, but this morning as I attempt to return to my work schedule, I have some extra time. I have discovered some very interesting tidbits, which I feel the need to share with you...I was wondering how healthy the plastic Nalgene bottle I use once in a while is for me. It never seems to get really clean and oh yeah they make cages for animal testing. So the alternatives seem to be SIGG (aluminum and enamel) or Klean Kanteen (Steel and might or might not taste like metal). I have been using an IKEA plastic cup at work and drinking the tap water...in Seattle this is an okay thing to do. It's just water...so much drama...

Many people use the term "kitschy" almost as if it is a bad word, writing off objects that may be to meaningful to others...I found this on Lady Parts:
This is the contrast between high art and kitsch, the principle conceptualization of the self. Does thinking about your existence paralyze you and cause you to isolate yourself, or does it numb your brain and make you completely able to roll over, completely able to forget and move on. The lonely artist sitting in a studio, birthing the idea that will revolutionize our perception of the human condition is an icon of the elite, wealthy class. But kitsch just is the human condition, taking time and being itself. It does not continue into frustration, it feels warm and touched by the small plastic figurine of a lamb.

And our favorites, the Hot Knives at the Grilled Cheese Guantlet!

ohhh Kansas! Monday nite in the 206

Spring break...

From our top of the hill to Leavenworth and back...