Celebrating Virginia

Virginia Maher would be 98 years old on this 28th day of May if she were still alive. Today we celebrated her birthday as we've done for years with the usual meal shared in a booth at Spiros Restaurant in north Seattle.  The Vangelis Special pizza is the only pizza we'd consider ordering on this important day. It's a good thing it's the favorite. Virginia enjoyed this tasty pizza on many an occasion when she lived in Seattle. The tradition of a medium Vangelis Special, iced tea and a small salad lives on today and hopefully for years to come. Delicioso!

Happy Birthday Virginia!

I found this photograph of Virginia and her three children taken on Memorial Day 2002, the day before she turned 88. We had a party for her at our house and the family gathered to celebrate. The rhodie was in full bloom on that day, just like today. Happy memories.

May 2002/Memoiral Day

Three Day Weekend

Sometimes it feels really good to do very little except what pleases. This three day holiday weekend has so far been all about a bit of this and a bit of that. In the case of games on the I-Phone, I'll admit it's been a lot of time spent playing Words with Friends, Hanging with Friends, and Scramble with Friends. I let myself play as much as my little heart desired, figuring that I'll slip into my age related dementia more slowly if I challenge my mind with word games.

There was also a trip to church with Dad yesterday which left me feeling guilt-free for the day.

Plus, 3 two mile walks, amazing food (D made halibut, spaghetti, and sirloin sliders), sorting, cleaning, fresh air, sleep, television shows, a dumb Netflix movie (Midnight in Paris), The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on audio book, and an old fashioned in-the-hand book which I'm loving called Swamplandia!. How does Karen Russell write like this? She looks about eighteen years old.

Plus the weekend will end with an annual tradition planned for later today. More on that in a blog post if I can find the photograph that tells part of the story.

Happy Memorial Weekend!
Happy Birthday Virginia!

Hacked Accounts Have an Upside

Both my email and Facebook accounts got hacked this past weekend while we were in Chelan. Did this annoyance have something to do with the unsecured hotel internet connection? I'll never know. I've no idea how hackers do their bad deeds in the first place. I only know they create havoc, a sense of dis-ease and concern over what else they might have accessed while they were busy creating bogus emails and sending them to everyone in my address book.Sigh.

Fortunately, I was tipped off by a friend who received the "click here and make an easy buck" email that went out under my name within an hour and I was able to change my password. All back to normal? Hopefully.

Hackers and their nasty work piss me off.

What surprised me, however, was the unexpected benefit that came of this mess.. I received emails from three people I hadn't heard from in a long, long time who wanted to let me know that my account had been hacked. But that wasn't all; their messages contained personal messages and an update on their "news". Nice to hear from these folks even if it took scammers to bring us back in touch. Who would have thought?

Good to hear from y'all again; P, P, and S!

Now, NO MORE HACKERS. Be gone you turds.

On Heading Home after a Good Weekend

The long weekend in Chelan (sadly) comes to an end today but I'm looking forward to the drive home. We've some gorgeous terrain to revisit as we retrace the miles back to Seattle. I'm hoping to check out some fresh produce stands; the local asparagus should be great right now.

I'm also salivating over the requisite stop at the DQ in Cle Elum for the soft serve vanilla cone. I strayed from my usual on Thursday last and ate a hot fudge sundae; not nearly as good as the cone. Something about the cold ice cream and the crunch of the cone does me in. Gotta. have. it.  Denny will sit in the car, indulging my persuasion patiently. He'll only eat one of DQ's cones if it's dipped in that waxy chocolate stuff. Oh well, leaves more for me.

This weekend has been all about rest, walks by the lake, food and visits  to local wineries offering barrel tasting this weekend. Barrel tasting? That was a new one for us but quite interesting. On the  third weekend of May, wineries in this area offer a taste of their youngest wines, right from the barrel. We tasted a Pinot Noir that won't be bottled for several  more years and (kind of) got the sense of what the wine would become. That sort of expertise we'll leave to the vintners but it was fun nonetheless. As usual, we ended up buying lots of wine; mostly white but some of those nice(older) pinot noirs as well. My sad comment was, "There's a headache in every bottle". Oh well.

Another nice treat was to read an entire, albeit short, book this weekend.  I loved the feel of a "real" book in hand after "Kindling" for the last years. The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka is but 129 pages but  each one reads like poetry. She's a beautiful writer.. The first few chapters were especially touching, personal and full of longing. Now there's a good book.

As an aside, Denny wouldn't touch this book with a ten foot pole. We have such disparate tastes in what constitutes a good read. Even the books I think he'll love, like Killing Lincoln  or  11/23/63, are met with comments like......"it's OK", "or, " it's taking me awhile to get into it". Seriously; it took the man 6 weeks to finish King's 11/23/63 which I'd purchased him for Christmas.  He probably finished it because he can tough out almost anything (think of those law books), even  Moby Dick back in the day. What he won't do is get started on one of my hard core reads; he can tell in an instant that it's literary poison. I digress.

So,  now we head home. Here's to ice cream and asparagus. But, not together. And, no wine either.

Roughing It (not) in Chelan

A short vacation in the middle of May is a nice treat. This is the second year I've accompanied Denny to his WSMA sponsored Leadership Development Conference. This is half work, half play for him and all play for me. I'm not an attendee at the conference; rather just along for the experience of sunny Chelan, the views of the lake, wineries, and plenty of rest. We're staying in a great room overlooking the lake with a deck that was quite pleasant this morning as I sipped a cup of coffee. Ahhhhh. Wonderful.

Last year I found a lovely bookstore on the main street of the small town of  Chelan called Riverwalk Books and bought the Locavore Way. I can't walk passed a used bookstore or an Indie bookseller and not go in for a look. Even though I'm reading most of my books on a Kindle or listening to audiobooks in the car, I bought two that look like good reads. I can't get away from the feel of a book in hand. There's not substitute.
 

I'm headed out for a walk soon. The day is perfection; cloudless blue and low 70's. Last year we had low clouds and cooler temperatures. There's no predicting Washington weather. I'll take today over just about anything else.

Mama Duck and her ducklings

View of Lake Chelan from hotel deck

Nothing Sweeter than an Orange Cat

If it Explodes in Fuschia; it's May in Seattle

The burst of May 2012 color