Susie's Meanderings

Bald Eagles

Today when I came home from shopping, the Bald Eagle was back with a friend, which prompted a whole photo frenzy... anyway, here are a few pictures of the new place..the outside anyway.

Lake View

Now that the sun has come out, I see that my lake view apartment also comes with an occasional view of Mt Baker (I think). In the summer the trees will obscure it, but today it's very pretty. Now, while I wait for my DSL to be hooked up, in good BMGF fashion, I'm at the library, taking advantage of their wireless internet connection. Thanks Bill! I may have to make a habit of it, since their connection seems to be a lot speedier than I expect my $14.95 special from Verizon will be....pictures soon. I still have to do a little rearranging before the apartment is camera ready.

Still Moving

Well, now that I've ensured Ikea will stay in business for another 5 years, I'm mostly moved in. My couch is set up for optimum lake views, I finally have phone service after 23 minutes on hold with Verizon (yes, I timed it.. I was going to hang up after 20 minutes but then my mug of coffee spilled all over the counter, in the drawers below, and under the refrigerator, and while I was cleaning that up, the service rep answered the phone. ) So in 5 -7 days I should be able to check my email from the comfort of my own home. Oh, and I saw a bald eagle in the tree next to my apartment yesterday.

Digs Part II - Moving Day

So here it is, not even 2:00, and I'm done with my move. The nice moving van came an hour early, the nice men with hand trucks did all the heavy lifting, and now it's all over but the sorting. Much to my surprise, I had 21 boxes stored in my sister's attic (I had airily told the movers "about 7 boxes"), which all had to be moved down to ground level so the movers could whisk them away. I'm pretty sure I don't need or want any of it, being as it's been 2 years since I've even looked at it, but one never knows. Now I'm back at my sister's house, having a last peek at the internet ( my connection isn't likely to be up for a few days) and "shopping" in her Costco surplus for staples. I love my family.

New Digs!

So I've been in Seattle for two days, and already I've got a new apartment. I went out just to see what might be in the neighborhood, and I took my Mom along, because she's good at seeing the flaws my kind eye is eager to gloss over and I figured she'd keep me from making a precipitate decision. But we found one on the lake (my balcony is a mere 20 feet from the waters edge...) complete with cheeping birds and she was sold. There wasn't even a token protest. So tomorrow I go down to sign the papers, and Thursday the movers are coming to extract my paltry belongings from my sister's house. So finally, once again I'm available for book clubs and barbecues and pumpkin carvings. Yay. Housewarming at my place soon.

Banned in Abu Dhabi

I just got this email from my friend who's living in the UAE. I always thought my pictures were pretty inoffensive, but it just goes to show, you never know... maybe it's just all of Flickr that's banned...
"You are going to be so proud!! I was looking at your website and saw the blog for the gingerbread house, so I clicked on the link to the photo of the gummy bear outpost, and the site was blocked!! As in, the UAE censors who block sites they deem inappropriate for viewing by your regular Muslim Joe have found your photos of the gingerbread orgy to be an offense to the moral fiber of the residents of this country. Is that the biggest hoot on record or what?!?"

I've never been offensive to the moral fiber of an entire country before. It's pretty exciting.

Sunbreak!

So there I was, sitting at my computer, chatting with one of my friends, and the sun came out! Clear blue skies, little puffy clouds...it was glorious. I had to cut my chat short so I could go out for a run (since I suspected the sun was only good for about an hour). When I ventured outside I discovered the squirrels had been gnawing on their feeder because I hadn't been out to fill it that morning (sigh), but the run was glorious. Everyone was out with their happy dogs, little newts ran across my path, steam rose from the fields...and sure enough, as I finished, the clouds began to loom on the horizon, sliding insidiously in to renew the rain. So Brenda - I'd love a little sunshine shop right about now.

Power Outage

So after a month of relentless drizzle, finally the weather got up enough energy to do something really interesting, and just as I was about to go downstairs and happily ensconce myself in the latest offering from Netflix last night, the lights went out. Being that the wind had blown all the clouds away, it was a glorious moonlit night, and we went out for a walk up on our hill to see how much of the town was knocked out ( a lot of it). It's funny how much light the houses usually cast, because without them, the moonlight was almost as bright as day, and certainly cast a sharper shadow than the sun has bothered to do this last month.
Anyway, obviously the power is back, and the rain has returned. The forecast for this week - rain, showers, rain, rain, cloudy, showers. Sigh.

Sigh...

I've been taking a lot of the free time I have at home to sort through my old childhood books - most of which (almost my entire Nancy Drew collection) are going to get passed on to people who can appreciate them... but this caused me to remember a book I had loved much, and could only get in the library, because even 20 years ago, it was pretty well out of date. The internet is a miracle though, because in a delightful ironic twist, I was not only able to find a copy of this book online, I'm pretty sure I got the VERY copy I used to check out of the library so faithfully, since it was a library copy, sold by a local used book store. I couldn't wait to settle in to this bit of nostalgia... but as so often happens, you just can't go home again. It turns out to be an awful book - bad writing, silly plot, wooden characters...my imagination must have made up for a lot in those days.

New Year

The candy canes weren't appropriate anymore, so it's back to the pansies. In other news.. despite the fact that it's been raining non-stop here for a week, the floodwaters in the Willamette have receded (though it made for a very impressive walk by the river this weekend, where the opposite bank of the river had become a mid-channel island. I have a new squirrel visiting the feeder, a little tiny red one, so that now at lunch our back deck is beginning to look like a wildlife refuge with two types of squirrels and flocks of birds. I'm beginning to think I need to find a job...