Compulsive Cleaning

Hey what did you do for your thanksgiving? I mean other than eat.
I cleaned and sorted at my parents house. Certain kinds of clutter and dust bother me and I can't help myself. It's the out of the way corners that are prone to mildew and dust and I have a very hard time that produce in me the nagging desire to excavate and organize. I have a dream of a style of living where everything in storage lives in labeled plastic bins with desiccants, where books live on bookshelves, where if you want a stapler, pliers, a glue stick, you know where to look because it lives in a logical place.

An October Adventure with Rose Part 2

Yep, Rose definitely sees me trying to sneakily take her picture. 

Uh oh, I think she's taking my picture!f

Gull hangin' out

So our adventure took us down to Alki beach and along the water front.

Cormorant

Same Cormorant but he's looking around

He's still looking around. Yeah I like Cormorants.

Cormorant holding up his wings to dry them while is friends preen. 

The color of the water has changed

The fog retreats

Sunlight through the mist

Pretty leaves

Rose looks a lot like her mom in this picture

The mysterious pathway beckons

We are going to have to climb back up the hill to get back to my house. Good thing our road look exciting. But wait!

What is that poking up above the fog?

Downtown Seattle appears as if by magic

Also the Sea Lions- due to the incredible zoom on my camera you can actually see them better in this picture than you could standing on the beach.  

Comments

Just to let you know, I love your comments. Most of the stuff that I need to work on is the sort of stuff that I do alone so getting comments on my blog brightens up my day.

A Few Things Mostly Sad But Not Heartbreaking

A few things that I wanted to write about for posterity. Non of them are earth shattering (because as you know the world revolves around me)

1. Anna, the chicken died about a month ago while I was visiting my parents. I said hi to her along with the rest of them when I arrived. The next morning Mom found her dead in the chicken house. I went out to look at her body. It looked like she had died in her sleep. It's an unusually peacefully way to go for a chicken. That makes it a little less sad somehow.
Mom said that Trouble was staying in the hen house with Anna's body. The two of them were friends especially. Trouble is the lead chicken and Anna was at the bottom of the pecking order and Trouble kept Penny from picking on Anna too much.

2. Andrew didn't get that job. Yeah, you guessed that already. If he'd gotten the job I surely would have written something about it.

3. My Masters of Engineering Final Oral Examination is coming up. It looks like it will happen December 5th. I'm scared. I don't think they are in the habit of failing people but what if I just spin in a circle an pea myself like Micky (my parents dog.)

4. I've been depressed, bored and lonely a lot lately. It's a hard life stage. Andrew's done with school and looking for a job, but no job yet. I'm almost done with school and looking for a job but no job yet. A lot is uncertain and I have a hard time finding things to be proud of myself about. I'm constantly falling short of my own impossible expectations.

5. Here's something happy. My friend Kate got her dream job as a Head Start Counselor. She finally gets to do what she loves for a living.

A day in My Life

Some wonderful cookies that Andrew made.

I may have eaten 90% of the cookies.

My sweeties. (Andrew, Ember and Alex)

Alex demonstrating one of his less charming behaviors

Alex has a habit of hugging my leg when he wants attention which is really adorable. Unfortunately he also has a habit of clawing my leg (or my butt) to get attention. That is far far less adorable and generally gets him yelled at.

Ember, the resident princess

Sometimes I really wish it didn't take me so long to "get" this stuff.

There is a ferret going into that watering can.

Pip and Bear sleeping in the towel hammock that Andrew made them.

Sweet Potatoes and Ferrets

Otaku fast asleep. 

Bear wants to be held.

Sweet potatoes and ferrets don't have much in common but I'm putting them in this post together. I also threw in a picture of Alex. You want to know why? Cuz I want to. Hah Hah! 

Sliced baked sweet potatoes

 I recently learned that sweet from Mom that potatoes are really good sliced up and backed with salt. I have been eating them for breakfast as a welcome break from oatmeal.

Yummy

Good morning from Alex.

The Effects of The Cheese

Here is, to the best of my ability, a reproduction of conversation between Joe and Sarah that I witnessed when visiting them the other night. Thud-thud (the cat) is in these pictures too.

Joe-"Why am I eating so much cheese?" 

Sarah- "You are going to have some nasty poops later."

Joe- "Or no poops."

Another Day Another Differential Equation

Alex being cute

My one goal for today was to spend four hours studying. I think I did about five. Andrew came in to fine me holding the two halves of a torn piece of paper together puzzling over the contents.
Andrew looked at me quizzically, "did you tear up your homework?"
"Err..sort of... yes, err...it's not what you think," I fumbled
Andrew made his amused face. .
"I wasn't mad at it. Well I was, but that's not why I tore it."
I managed to explain that I tear my drafts in half to keep them separate from the finished product and Andrew laughed at me.

An October Adventure With Rose part 1

As is turns out our neighborhood (West Seattle) is home to a locally famous and extremely popular bakery. The lines stretching into the sidewalk on weekends make it easy to find.  I, however, am not a bold enough pastry lover to be willing to deal with the weekend crowds.

Fortuitously, Rose and I set forth upon an expedition one foggy morning that was not weekend. First we mailed one of Rose's old text books. Then to Bakery Noureau  we went (home to the famous phoenix cake which I misheard and mistook for Kleenex cake.) 

By the time I remembered to take a picture of my delicious food, this was all that was left of my pastry

Don't worry the pigeons don't come with the deserts. They just hang out outside. I saved some morsels of pastry and a big glob of whipped cream just for them. That's what they've managed to get all over their feathers. 

These are some very happy pigeons.They are making the contented pigeon coo as they eat. 

Mysterious and creepy fog

Mysterious and creepy Rose

Rose- "Rah! Rah!" 

Run away!

A beautiful view of water and apartments. 

We tramped down to peer into the pools along the shor and look what we found.

Rose, the daring explorer takes a picture.

House sparrows (I think).

Me with the Puget Sound in the background

A handsome sparrow indeed

I am taking sneak pictures of Rose

I think she may have noticed

A few of my favorite things

I put up the hummingbird feeder on the front porch in October. I took this picture the next day.

The feeder gets a lot of visitors

Alex kneading the blanket

Alex- "I love this blanket almost as much as I love you."

Alex- "Aren't you going to pet me now?"

Ember falling asleep rather awkwardly

It seems like I take nearly the same set of pictures every fall.

But for some reason I never get tired of pointing my camera at leaves.

The red and gold part of fall is so beautiful and so short. I guess that's what makes it special.