days away

tomorrow morning, early, my ladyfriend and i are heading off to roam/drive, somewhat, aimlessly around washington and oregon for a few days - seattle, bainbridge, portland, yachats - yes yachats, bend, etc. there will be mexican food, wool shopping, reading, staying in dodgy hotel/motels, more mexican food, some not-mexican food, looks at the ocean from the oregon seaside, and more dodgy hotels/motels. love it.
then, after we get home, i am back for one day and then will head off to philadelphia, washington, d.c., and houston to see a few baseball games. three for sure with the fourth nooner thrown in if i feel the urge before i fly out of houston back to seattle on the sunday evening. i may just wanna find the best bbq in houston and settle in until my flight leaves.
so the next communiques will likely be from south of the border...where? i have no idea.

g. xo

potato action

i couldn't wait any longer. i had never grown these before - purple or otherwise - but now i know the drill. i had heard rumblings of some others harvesting their potatoes so today i started digging. sure. i only had one plant, and yes, i only got enough for a few meals...and yes, i could have bought the same amount of spuds for a couple bucks.
but i didn't.

i grew mine.
so there.
and now i have to figure out what to do with them..a salad, boiled up with some butter, baked in the oven....

nice.

g. xo

i do, i do...i don't...

yesterday, after a what seems like years in the making, my cousin roz got married to, as my uncle glen likes to call him, randy andy (real name andrew.) and he's a bit of a quiet sort so you could probably call him a number of different things and he'd not correct you. andy, drew, randy andy, snookums, etc...all workable.

it was a very nice affair out on what could be described as a farm pasture in a rural section of langley not far from the US/CDN border. the actual 'i do's' were said in the shade of a oak tree and once the crying had stopped, we had mr. and mrs. hale, i think...or mr. hale and ms. harry, or  some combination of such things - hale-harry, harry-hale, hey-you-hale, harry-and what's his name...all that. maybe the're just use initials AHH and RHH. either way or whichever way, the taxes are different now.
congrats to them.

the reception was a backyard affair - and i had heard tale that a: it was an all veggie affair (and there's nothing wrong with that i just knew i needed a little something more..), and that the likelyhood of a margarita was unlikely - garvie, floyd, janine and i headed to the local cactus club and had a few pre-game snacks after the wedding i-dos. there was an hour and half gap between the actual wedding and the receiving of guests at the house so it was a good call and gave us all a chance to sit and chat and just relax. the 'family' was off doing photos and such so weren't needed anyways.



i, after many unsuccessful tries, managed to finally tie a bowtie i could live with and wore it proudly for the entire day/night....and i had grand plans of being home by nine pm but we didn't roll in until much later and i am a bit tuckered out today - we made our way to the farmer's market thingy in ladner this morning to meet-up with fiona and dorothy as they had a grand daughter and grandma night last night in tsawwassen watching movies outdoors at the park there. good times.



so here i sit, enjoying the cold air of eco-air conditioning - geothermal - and contemplating seeing what goes in in the world outside my window...but i may just have a nap instead.

g. xo

long overdue

i remember the last time i rode it. clearly. garvie and i rode over to bowen island - well, took it on the ferry to bowen island - to visit my pal hamish. he has, most every year, a gathering at his place - his family's compound - and tons of people go. so we did too.
we rode the bike. and it started off badly.
ailsa burnt her leg on the pipe. nice. i couldn't have felt worse. but we/she  moved on and made our way to bowen. then things went south. actually, the time at hamish's was great. swam in a pool, etc. nice. then, on the way back, i think i/we became the victims of some bad gas. and it was touch and go to whether or not we'd make it back home. but we did and the bike has sat ever since. i was pissed-off. two years pissed-off i guess.
until today.

i had been thinking about taking the cover off and starting it up. so today was the day. and after just a few kicks, it started up. very nice. and i rode it around the underground a little, the tires flat-ish, and it seems ok. the real test will be out on the road for a few miles - get the gas running through (i drained most fo the old gas and will replace it with some nice high octane juice.)
so..we'll see. there could be some riding in my future.

g.xx

my little garlic

yup.
there is it..or they are. that there in that yellow plastic bucket thingy, is my very first attempt at growing garlic. pretty good i'd say. smells amazing. first i ate all the scapes - a month or so ago. now, on to the main event.
i am patting myself on the back - mainly because the rest of my garden this year really, really blows.

so. hats off to you fine garlic...

g. xx

cleveland rocks

muc sent me a text a while back asking if i would be interested in seeing a ball game in seattle on the 24th...it was my first real week off the big lizard show so i had the time. so, yes. i'd love to go. while he and i worked out some of the details - muc lives in victoria and he'd either take the 'clipper' down from victoria to seattle and i'd meet him there or...he'd come over and i'd pick him up from the ferry and then, when we came back (as it was a day game) i'd drop him back off at the ferry and he'd get the last ferry back home. perfect plan.
i asked pete if he was interested as well, he was and then brent and rave got on board. it was to be a boys day out. good.
day off rave was nowhere to be found - not answering his phone, etc. so he was and hasn't been seen since. brent had to attend an important meeting, so he was out. that's cool - work first. so i grabbed pete and we went and picked up muc at the ferry. all good.

we had a great time at the game - the mariners were clocked by the indians to the tune of 10-1 and i was the lone one with cleveland gear on - hat, t-shirt so i went away a happy cleveland fan (though really i was just happy to be with pete and muc..) we ate some crappy baseball park food, they drank overpriced beer and saw a couple home runs - one grand slam and some very poor fielding my the mariners centre fielder. good times.


after a filling burrito lunch at bimbos in capital hill, followed by a lovely coffee next door at cafe vita - we were on our way back. muc had looked at the ferry schedule and there was a ten o'clock ferry leaving tsawwassen so we were good. got through the border at 9 and we were away. lots of time.
to get the next ferry - at 7 am.
yup. no ten o'clock ferry. hhmmmm.
i mentioned that he could stay at my mom's place in tswawwassen or come to my place and take the bus out in the morning...or, at it turned out in the end - stay at matt (fellow bomber) and megan's place, also in tsawwassen, and get a ride to the ferry in the morning. so a few texts were sent, calls made and shortly we were at matt's place dropping off muc - who made it to the ferry sometime this morning. all's well that end's well...
i took pete home to his fancy 16th floor apartment in the west end and came home to fall into bed.
long day. good fun.

g. xo

and this is where the car broke down

short update.
i was asked a while back to participate in a slide show at the VAG by david wisdom - he of the famous slide show's from years back (including some i attended at his house many years ago).
i was thrilled to be included. and is the company of such others participating as marv newland and james o'mara. good god.
it was great and besides a little awkward speech i gave that made no sense and meandered, like one of my roadtrips (of which most of my slides/pictures were based) it went well.
if he'd have me, i'd love to do it again.
thanks david.

g. xx

a couple of the 'slides' i presented...

bow tie bullshit

yes. i can give up to easily. it's the truth. and today i may be, once again, letting the better of 'it' get the better of me.
i have been trying to teach myself how to tie a bow tie and am failing terribly. i rarely do anything in front of the mirror, so i am pulling when i should be pushing, etc. it's very frustrating. i can tie a regular tie several different ways producing a fine knot - full and half - but this is killing me.
i think the wedding saturday will be sans tie of any sort. none of the youtube videos are helping either...
it's ok...who needs a tie anyways?

g. xx

tonight! words, music and pictures....

i am participating in this tonight.

https://www.facebook.com/events/539002076159190/

i was thrilled when david asked me be in this...or if i would be at all interested. yes. very very much. thrilled. and even more thrilled that one of my all-time favorite people, marv newland, would be showing some of his 'slides' as well. that's worth it in itself.

it's at the VAG tonight starting at seven pm. please come.

g. xo

you there?

let me know...



the blog vacation may be over. maybe.

g. xo