Magical Mango

Sometimes its the smallest things that are such a delight in your day - thank you Chris B for the delicious bowl of sliced mango, possibly the greatest thing ever.  Mango's are such a plethora of magicalness

#1 You smell soooo good

#2 You are a cheerful color reminiscent of fall, my favorite season

#3 Im partial to your texture when you are perfectly ripe, just firm enough to have to use a knife to cut you, but not so hard that it breaks a tooth to devour you

#4 You're tasty, oh so tasty

Corner Tavern

Ahhhh Corner Tavern - I love you.  You are so cozy, your following quirky and your chicken wings, legendary.  Can't wait to kick off my birthday weekend in your presence!

Autumn - only days away

I am so thrilled, my favorite seasons are almost upon us and pesky summer will be laid to rest! 

Fall is simply the most delicious time of the year here in yankie land - the colors are so breathtaking and make me filled up with happiness.  Mr Big and I fortunatly live right across the road from Clark Park which is one of the oldest parks in Everett and we get to see the colors from our front room.  Clark Park is bordered on three sides with old chestnut trees and the leaves on this tree are turning gold now and falling onto the green grass underneath.  I saw the blanket of leaves this morning on my way to work and wished that I had brought one of my camera with me so I could have taken a picture for you - maybe there will be one tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to so many things this fall - obviously the colors I've already touched on but I am also looking forward to:

boots

sloshing through puddles

listening to the rain on the windows

steaming hot baths (I know, not very enviromentally concious)

autumnal candles (HEYYYY pumpkin spice, I lurve you)

crafts of every kind

crocheting with Hailey

Adele (the dark seasons best friend)

roast veggies

thanksgiving

and course this is just the beginning of the list - whats on yours?

Sweet Nephew!

I love my niece Lauryn and my baby nephew sooooo much - and it kills me that it has to be from afar...but whats an ex-pat to do?  

This was one of him this past summer

1. This is my favorite photo of Al (brother) and Riley 2. This is my favorite place, Whangamata in New Zealand 3. This is right close to where Al and Verna got married!

This is the most recent picture of the wee man - experiencing the snow for the first time, I think he is also rocking the sunglasses as he does the robot. 

This is a recent picture of Laurie my sweet niece.  Thanks sissy in advance for letting me steal this picture from your FB page - you are a gem.

Weekly Photo Challenge - Summer in Review

I love these photo challenges so much! Im entering one of my favorite photos of the summer which is called "little fish big pond" and is a picture of a little boy standing considering plunging into the fridgid waters of the Puget Sound on a tar melting day! I loved the light on his face and his manly stance.

View other great entries by clicking this button:

A big weekend!

This was one of those weekends I just didn't want to end.  We were one family member down, Mr Elliott was gainfully employed as part of the Technical Crew at the Bothell High School Drama Production presenting a medley of Broadway favorites - whose favorites im not entirely certain, but they were someones favorites...more about that later.

Saturday morning was spent hacking into the jungle that has become our own personal amazon here in E-town.  Today was finally the day we had been dreading .... the unseasonal and early pruning of one of Washington's own, the Rhodie.  Dont get me wrong, rhododendrens...they are a nice enough plant - in fact I was telling the kids that when I lived in Rotorua, the lovely house we had on the hill had a rhodie tree that was one of the most beautiful things ever with huge scarlet blossoms it rose about 25 feet into the air.  This is the sort of rhodie I want our 2 foot want to aspire to be.  Mr Big worked hard and sawed off all the limbs that had decided to go out instead of up and we put steaks into the ground around it to encourage the reaching towards the sky thing.  Watch this space, luscious and tall rhodie here we come SPEAKING OF WHICH - check out Audrey.....

We had to name her when her leaves grew (literally) overnight to be larger that our heads and her height tipped 6ft.  If you come visit the Allen Abode anytime soon you might want to give her a wide birth  in case she is the man eater we named her after!

After gardening we decided to do back to school re-enactment photos even though we were sans Elmo.  I felt the desire to do these pictures because, well, I pretty much was compelled by jealousy, of all those awesome Moms that thought to do this who posted their awesome pictures on Facebook.  I salute you and your pictures.  My dear girls which wonderful sports about my request and here are the results.  Love you more than words can express Bob and Spot.

 

Beautiful girls inside and out.

Once we had finished up with the photos we chatted for a while with Tiffany our lovely neighbor.  Tiffany has a gianomic rhubarb plant in her garden and gave us some to stew up.  I knew you would'nt believe how gianormic unless I showed you evidence.  It looks somewhat juarasic dont you think?

While you are looking and marvelling at the size of this leaf let your eye look towards the house in the background.  Yes - you are seeing a yellow house with orange trim.  Let me tell you that this is our neighbors new neighbors house AND they just moved in and repainted it this color, by choice.  This friends, is evidence in plain sight that contridicts what I have always thought - that ALL gays have good taste.  Sad, but true..

After gardening we headed out to spectacular spectacular AKA Bothell High School Drama Production.  We were forboden to use flash photography because "the actors" didnt like the flash and it took them away from "their art" so the only pictures I could snap were right at the end when the thank you's were going on.  Unfortunatly I wasnt at the ready with the camera and so the best I got of El was...

Anyways - thank you BHS, a tres fun eve.  The confetti glitter cannon was worth every penny. 

Sunday we were up pretty late but not too late to call and serenade the Grammie with a lovely happy grandparent day original song we made up on the fly.  Even though we never heard it in her voice when she thanked us, Im sure she was misty up and had already perhaps shed a tear at the haunting beauty that is the Allen Family Choir.  We all got ready and headed over to Gramsterdam AKA Monroe and took her to the Sultan Bakery Cafe for lunch.  I have mentioned this terrific little spot in the the past - she seemed to like it alot too.  Just for the record, this picture has not been digitally altered and is a true representation of the enormity of the sandwiches (this blog is turning into stories about big things inadvertently..)

This is HALF of a turkey/cream cheese/cranberry sandwich - we were guessing that about 1/2 of a can of cranberry jelly was used in the making of this monolith.  Love you Evelyn, thanks for being you and just shining as you always do!

Labor Weekend

* This part of the blog is sadly not written in real time due to the week I've had ...

YES!!!! It's 6.30am and time to rise and shine for God Dave Matthews! Thanks to Mr Big and his clever Craigslisting ways we (the merry trio Fee, Mr Big and Tadpole) are in the gleemobile and off over the mountians to Eastern Washington and Dave Matthews Band SOLD OUT Saturday performance. 

All I need is my men and the camera                       and breakfast!  Yes, it's raining on this side of the mountian but hey - we are headed (in Dave's words) to a little bit of heaven and a little bit of oh yea! 

See you soon Sultan Bakery

Though they don't look very happy - I think its more that a. its 7am and they would rather be sleeping   b. I'm not letting them nosh till we have a photo - I mean, who wouldnt be happy at this restaurant?  Sultan Bakery http://www.yelp.com/biz/sultan-bakery-sultan-2 is surely one of the most scrumptious places in the world if you are a breakfast type like me and if you havent been and can drive here...you should - whether its breakfast, lunch or dinner.  The fare is simple Americana but cooked/baked to perfection.  Its also right at the bottom of the moutian and the mouth to Tumwater canyon so it is very well placed for Steven Pass, Leavenworth and Dave-goers like ourselves.  **CAUTION** you really should be sharing these portions, its a PLATTER of stuff that you get, as is evidenced in exhibit a, b and c below.

For those non-yanks the breakfast is ham and cheese scrambles and hashbrowns (the little container on the top is jam...random but typical in US restaurants, some folks here...MIX THEIR JAM IN WITH THEIR EGGS AND THE LIKE.....ewwww), to the right of that is country fried steak and country gravy (basically chopped beef seasoned and breadcrumbed with a white sausage gravy) and then Tadpole was adventureous and went for the swiss ham and pineapple omelette.  Half of what we were served was left but Im sure that it went to a good home.  We are on our way!

Pretty much as soon as we left the bakery the weather started brightening up (actually to be perfectly honestly it felt like an instantaneous weather change because as soon as I got back in the car full of breakfast I fell asleep - so we were quite a ways up the road when I awoke to Tumwater Canyon Glory.

Tad poked a toe in the water to test the temp, I think he was ready to strip down to his jocks to swim if it were remotely mediterreanean ...

but it was as frigid as melted snow from the nearby alps should be....

A few miles more and we were at the gorge with a few of our closest friends.  We were fortunate enough to have priority parking (thank you Gary for making the arrangements) so in fact the position where this photo was taken was pretty much the entrance to the concert/our parking place.  Believe me, there was some glances, but Im sure they were glances and looks of admiration rather than jealously.

This is a tiny view of what is an expanse of camping area.  This is a three day concert and many folks come as much for the camping experience with Dave fantatics as they do for the music.  Somewhere over there was a mound of crazy Canadians that had a band (not DMB) and their own mini concert - it was incredible! Also somewhere in there (with their cloaking device in the on position) were friends Mary and Maher...try as we did we could'nt find them.

YESSS! We are here!

So you walk down a long and winding road and come to the edge of the gorge - before getting to the edge you see nothing pretty much, then when you step onto the edge this is the glory that is...THE GORGE

Here are the boys waiting for Ben Harper and Dave - as you can see, you are sitting on a pretty steep embankment but we considered this to be a good pozzie - right next to the beer/hot dog shed and also it wasn't far from toilet town.

Tadpole's first beer

Me taking a picture of myself....one has to do what one has to do

and this friends....is where the camera RAN OUT OF BATTERIES!!!!! Sad day.

It was an incredible concert - Dave was his usual wonderful self, one of the highlights was DMB/Ben Harper cover of All Along The Watchtower if you have time you should for sure check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L68lfeL5HMI

What you dont see in this vid is the fact that the tribute to Leroi Moore who was a part of the band till his too soon passing in 2008.  25, 000 glow sticks were thrown into the crowd from all directions and as they were thrown in people would catch them and throw them up again in the air - it was so colorful and so amazing to see with all this music going on.

I was so grateful for our close by parking before the show but especially after the show - it meant we could get immediatly into the car and head back to our hotel in Wenatchee...speaking of which:  Motel 6 in Wenatchee is probably to be avoided unless you are looking for an overly priced dirty motel - then its your place for sure.  Two highlights were the "sitting chair" which curiously had a weird bleached out shape on the seat part - right in the center, in the shape of a fork.  Couple this with the unwelcome discovery the morning after the show is strange orange drip shaped stains on the base on the bed Tadpole was sleeping in.  We summize that the room we were in "217" actually was in days past, a crime scene and that the fork shape was in fact where the murder weapon lay and the drippy orange stains on the bed actually faded BLOOD.....needless to say we got the hell out of there as fast as our legs could carry us following discovery of said ickyness.

Apart from this last part it was a sensational couple of days  - thanks Mr Big for making one of my dreams come true and thanks Tadpole for joining us, we love you.

Catch Up

Time - foe or friend?  At the moment it's my foe and for some reason I just feel like I don't have enough hours in the day to do all the things I would like to be doing...you know how it is!  If any of you holds any sway with the lottery fairies I would be grateful for you putting in a good word.  We dont need gobs of money - just enough to be able to travel, take care of our family finanically, have no mortgage and have enough to be able to live the high life, along with enough to make in unneccessary to work..course, its not that I don't love where I work, I do...its just that it really put's a hitch in my proverbial giddy up in relation to what I would love to be doing.

One of the things that has been a little neglected is my new found enjoyment of writing for your dear readers - as one person pointed out - its been a whole 7 days since I entertained you with the ramble that is my life.  Sorry pals...I'll try to do better, promise.

YAY Offerings to the birthday altar

As I have said in the past I am a lucky lady to have met Mr Big and to have him join in my farscal made up festivals.  Today was the first day of the birthday celebration polooza, and imagine my surprise when he turned up with my favorite sandwich (whole wheat bread, lightly toasted with sliced turkey, crispy bacon, jalapenos, banana peppers, black olives, tomatoes - ranch chipotle....mmmmm) at lunchtime, followed by a visit from the pixies AND home made cupcakes frosted with york peppermint patties....we then go out for dinner to the greatest Indian Restaurant around, Mayuri  http://www.mayuriseattle.com/ - I always have the same thing, chicken or shrimp tikka masala - hot, with a side of raita and garlic naan bread.  The sauce tastes like its been slowly, lovingly cooked for hours, the chicken is always perfectly tandoor roasted, the bread bubbly and crispy all at once.  Mr Big is much more adventuresome than me and is still busy making his way through the menu.  His favorite this is the Chat menu which is full of all kinds of deliciousness and is very inexpensive ($4-$7 a plate).  What other restaurant is full of people, continually coming and going, on a Wednesday night?

We came home and walked the pups and sat on the couch to relax when my eye is caught by a little bird sitting on the hutch - none other than yet another gift.

this time a dear little bird, just perfect for adding to the autumnal centerpiece in the dining room.  Thanks Mr Big, you complete me. (and not just because of your gift giving prowess).

Back in the land of the living

What kind of glory is it to be back at work!  I'm feeling so much better and am glad to be back at work...at least till I can find a way to make my millions selling artwork!  And it's amazing how many things I have had in my day already to delight me....first, Mr Big drove me to work (he is home today) AND confirmed he will sweep me out to lunch with him (a rare treat indeed).........then, Geneva (the middle steppie) put a delightful post on my facebook page acknowledging the fact that TODAY IS DAY ONE of my month long birthday celebration "let the festivities begin!" is what her message proclaimed.  I love her!

For those of you that might be interested, the month long birthday celebration started off as a lark actually - when Mr Big and I first got together we were chatting about one thing and another and I mentioned that I had this little tradition of having the entire month of September dedicated to my glory and that I expected a grand gesture daily but especially on the birthday day.  Of course I was joking (not) ... but being the wonderful person that he is Mr Big bought into this fantasy and has, for the last 8 years, delighted me in continuing on this celebration... and I for one am not disuading him.

Life List

I found this spectacular idea a couple of weeks ago on the blog site of Epiphany Camera bags (by the way, if you want a camera bag that is built for girls this is the place to go ) of creating a life list.  When I've mentioned this to friends they also used the term "bucket list".  Basically its a list of things you want to achieve/get/do/experience and course, Im a visual type of lass so the idea that she showed was perfect.  My friend Hailey and I, and Gen and Dottie spent the good part of an evening HANDCUTTING millions of butterflies - it was a really fun evening that could have been tedious, but was in fact incredibly calming and inspirational with the ladies sitting and talking about their dreams.  Well friends, after many days ticking by - I finally have them up.

Each butterfly carries a different life list item and when its achieved you can take your butterfly into the can 

What do you intend to do with your one precious life?

Emmy's

Today is Sunday - the best day of the week as my hoards of readers know, this is my favorite day.  Mr Big came in quite late last night (actually, this morning) so he didn't make it to church with us, bad luck on his part I say - Margaret Owens was there http://www.margaretowens.com/Links.html and I found my eyes filled with tears more than once - so I decided I had to have  some of her lovely tunes, they''ll be coming to work with my daily drive.

Its now only 5 sleeps till Dave Matthews at the Gorge, so I'm in full on planning mode for our road trip, I think about the only thing I need to get now is a rain slicker.  I know, its weird I don't have one when I live in a place that gets so much moisture... but the closest thing is a snow jacket and it wont be cold enough for that...so Geneva and I went to Burlington Coat Factory to find a light jacket - sad for me, there was nothing that would work for the body - but good news, I did find a fantastic pair of shoes to wear with my birthday outfit - arent these beautiful, and a complete steal at $16.99

Happy Saturday

Gaz and I had a late night last night and we kind of slept in which we felt guilty for - especially because it is one of those treasured weekends that we have with the three musketeers.  Once we'd had lunch we headed out to Pike Place Market - a Seattle landmark and one of the oldest continuous operating Farmers Markets in the country.  Course, because this was one of the last weekends of summer, and it was blue sunny skies - everyone else had the same idea.  Still, a lovely afternoon!  The flowers are one of my favorite things about the market and arriving there all the window boxes are filled with a riot of color

The flower sellers are legendary here and at the moment the fleurs du jour are zinnias (my birthday flower), dahlias, sunflowers and gladioli - you can snap up a huge bunch for less than $10 - they are so thoughtful they even wrap the stems in wet newspaper because most people are going to be walking around with them before going home! 

Most of these flowers are brought in first thing from local flower farms - you see everyone walking around with them especially on 1st Avenue.  They are almost like the most fashionable accessory!

I made the gals crouch down in front of some of the buckets - right after I snapped this picture they fell backwards and almost took out the two buckets behind them, luckily they inherited Gary's feline relexes and regained their composures before it was too late!

and here's my heart, Mr Big, bringing me flowers....he's awesome.

After we walked the top floor where else is one to end up but the Allen Family favorite - Daily Donut.  We have had many a drive from Everett to here only to find them out of donuts (a travisty) or closed (yes...a tear or two is shed at these times).  Daily Donut is the perfect moist mouthful of fried dough, grease and sugar.  Thanks Gary for standing in line for our bagful!

While we were there I took the opportunity to snap a picture of Elliott - he should be renamed Gigantiott now that he is equal in size to Mr Big at 6ft 4in, so I guess he should be named Mr Big Jnr?  Anyways - as you can see, he was rocking the pink!  This is possibly my favorite all time picture of him so far.

Oh - and check out the wedding snap, these two were having fun threading their way through the crowd while two photographers tried their best to take some memorable images.  I never really thought about the market for wedding pictures because of the crowds, but I would love to have seen how these turned out

I've heard of the bubble gum wall but I never realized that it was at Pike Place - so we paid a visit and left our DNA on the wall by way of gum. 

It was a very lovely day!