Book Reviews, Cat Reviews and Life Reviews

A la Julia and Julie?

2011-01-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, I was cleaning my kitchen, and I realized I have a lot of cookbooks. I'm not sure if I was subliminally thinking of the recent Julie/Julia thing. Anyway, I came up with the bright idea of trying at least one new recipe a week. B (my husband) was very agreeable to this.

So, the next Saturday, which is when we usually do our shopping, I read through a bunch of recipes, and we agreed on one. Of course, this was so long ago that I can't remember what we chose. I do know that it was great fun, and it tasted wonderful.

So far (amazingly I have not missed a week) we have had some great meals. I have been doing a lot of Dutch and Indonesian food, and some intermittent exotic diversions. One huge thing I have learned how to be much more efficient when I am cooking.

I will attempt to blog about my recipe of the week every week. Last week, I made Kip met kerrie rijst (chicken with curry rice). We tend to like chicken and curry recipes, so I have made a lot of variations with these ingredients. One big day was making aspergesoep (cream of asparagus soup) from scratch.

Anyway, this has tuned out to be an adventure!

A Difficult Day

2007-03-01T13:36:00.000-08:00

I took my cat to the vet this morning because he hasn't been eating . The vet found a large tumor in his abdomen, and B and I have to have him put to sleep tonight. I don't handle death well, but animal death is the worst. I am just bawling.

RIP Kitten, and I will miss you so very much.

Writer's Block

2007-02-21T19:38:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it may be presumptuous for me to refer to myself as a "writer," but I am having the hardest time thinking of things to blog about. I nix ideas pretty fast, and I'm usually sure that I have repeated myself repeatedly.
How do you guys do it? I'm beginning to think that I have to go in search of memes so all I have to do is answer someone else's questions. So, does anyone know of any memes I can steal? Any repositories to draw from?
Does anyone have some questions that they want me to answer? Should I dig up weird stories and facts? Ghost stories? Horrible truths? Britney Spears (please, no!) I've got to get a grip so I can blog!!!
HELP!!!

Ooh-La-La, Olalla

2007-02-19T10:36:00.000-08:00

Another little MINI trip on Saturday. We drove to Ollalla, a little burg on the Kitsap Peninsula. It has a rather infamous history.

In the early 1900's, a quack doctor named Linda Hazzard set up a sanitarium in Olalla to "cure" people of all their illnesses. She claimed that total fasting would cure anything and everything. The end result (of course) was that people starved to death. The estimate was that about forty people died, but that is a guess. She got her "clients" to sign over their assets to her so she inherited all their earthly posessions.

Laura was eventually ratted out by one of her patients, and she went to trial and was convicted of manslaughter. She served onlyabout 8 years, and went on to open new practices.

Laura performed most of the autopsies herself, some in a bathtub. Her house is still standing, and that bathtub is still in the house. Anyone want a nice hot bath? Most of the bodies were buried in the front yard with a tree planted on the gravesites. Others were cremated in the incinerator, and others were simply thrown over a cliff.

Of course, paranormal activities have been reported in the house. The sanitorium burned down years ago.

History is wonderful.

Looking Forward to Spring

2007-01-23T13:39:00.000-08:00

Trip To Skagit Valley

2007-01-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

We went on a motor with the MINI Club today to Skagit County, which is where all the famous Washington State tulips are grown. It was beautiful! We actually had some snow, which made everything look a bit special. We had a particularly neet treat because the snow geese were out; people come from all around the world to see them (this is the only place where they gather.) Here are some pictures (of course including INAMINI.)

Holland Pictures

2007-01-04T16:19:00.000-08:00

Santa Taketh and Then Giveth

2007-01-03T14:55:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful Christmas. Santa decided to take my appendix on Christmas Day. Trying to get something out of the deal, I wanted to take the little bugger home pickled in a jar. B and the hospital wouldn't let me. It's all rather humiliating because this all takes place on my abdomen, which is pasty white and large. I don't know how they found my appendix (maybe they couldn't, and that's why they wouldn't let me take it home.) Of course the whole staff has to come and check it every 5 minutes, so now it it has become common knowledge that I'm fat, which, of course, draws more people.
I remember another bad medical day. I had a weird rash with blisters on my, you guessed it, abdomen. The doctor couldn't figure out what is was, so she invited about ten doctors in to come and look at my big whale belly covered with blisters. After they took pictures, they sent me home with home with a generic salve- even with all that exposure, no one knew what it was. No, they didn't actually take pictures.
After I had been home several days, Santa gave me a nice severe cold. I've been hacking uncontrollably, and darn it, it hurts to cough after an appendectomy. It also has the unfortunate side-effect of keeping me awake all night. Believe me, I've tried every cough syrup (gotten drunk, but still hacking,) and throat lozenge (ended up swallowing them whole while I'm coughing.) The only really good result of all this is that I'm not expected to do any work around the house .
I don't like Santa anymore.

Winter And I Never Wash The Car

2007-01-02T18:58:00.000-08:00

The whole time I've been involved with the MINI Club I've had a reputation for having a "dirty little car." Everybody likes to post pictures of the dirt, and brag how their cars always look beautiful. I admit that washing my car isn't always my favorite activity, but some people are real fanatics. There is the guy that pulls out the chrome cleaner, tire cleaner and Windex everytime we stop. You have got to be kidding!
I also have a tendency towards cracks in my windshield. On my old Cooper, I went through two windshields in two years. My Cooper S, which I got in June, and I already have two huge cracks going. I think I'll wait until winter is over to replace the windshield, while ignoring the pretty prisms that distort my vision when the sun shines. Since the sun doesn't shine very much right now, and the car is grossly filthy, it really doesn't make much difference. No "cracks" about the windshield, please- hahahahaha.
On a very "Bend the Rules, Rule the Bends" note, I got some added horsepower for for the MINI for my birthday. This usually means that I come out of corners much faster than I go into them. B doesn't like it because it is too easy to speed all the time.
But damn, that car is fun!

I've Got Me A Piano!

2006-12-17T11:12:00.000-08:00

I've got me a piano! Actually, not a whole, complete, real piano, but a little electric keyboard thingy. When we moved into our townhouse, I had to give up my piano due to lack of space. It went to my mommy, and I sure missed it.
My history with piano-ownership has been fraught with deceit and a distinct lack of musical talent. When I was in second grade, my parents bought an old upright piano. Half the keys didn't produce any sound, and it had probably never been tuned. I was "encouraged" to start piano lessons. I was "encouraged" for about five years, at which time I threatened to quit unless my parents got me a decent piano. They did, and I promptly quit the lessons anyway. I am not musically talented at all. Sure, I can read the music, but I'm more prone to banging on the keys than actually making it sound like music. But, since I was the only one who played, I got the piano. I loved closing all the windows and doors so no one could hear, and I would bang away at my heart's content. Oddly, the cats seemed to enjoy it. Whatever.
When we moved into the townhouse last year, the piano went to my mom, who plays it minimally. My mother had wanted my niece to start playing, so she bought an electric keyboard thingy. K played it for awhile, but was quickly bored. When I was at my sister's house recently, I asked K if she was still playing the piano, and she said "no." I told her I was going to take the keyboard home with me.
So, that's how I got it. Bullying little girls. Of course, if she decides she wants to resume her lessons, it will be returned to her. Yeah right.
I am quite grinchy.
The neatest thing- it has a volume control, so no one has to hear me.

Assorted Christmas Woes

2006-12-12T11:45:00.000-08:00

It's been a mixed bag of things going on lately. Of course, getting ready for Christmas has been the main thing. We bought an artificial tree for the townhouse. We didn't have a tree last year, so this was the first run-through. It became very clear I have way too many decorations. I gave a bunch of stuff to my sister, and will probably give more away. The cats love the tree, especially LOKi. I got a tree skirt for the first time, but I should have thought that through a little better. It's velvet, and so far, it has yet to spend even a complete hour under the tree. It's covered in cat hair that I can't remove, and it's usually in the middle of the living room with LOKi hiding under it. It wasn't supposed to be a toy.

Then there are the Christmas cards, and "The Letter." Yes, I have resorted to writing a computer letter. It's actually pretty sad, because we don't do much. I end up writing a bunch of filler material, and adding a couple of pictures. Then there always a bunch of missing addresses. For some reason, I am apparently unable to write addresses down in safe places. That results in cards that are in a holding pattern until I can get the addresses, or Christmas is over, and darn it, it's too embarrassing to mail them.

Yup, Merry Christmas. Or Happy Holidays (isn't that what you are supposed to say now so you don't offend anyone?)

Yet Another Stolen Meme- From Lizza

2006-11-29T17:44:00.000-08:00

Readers: Here's an interesting twist on the age-old meme. It's a ready made list of things you just copy into your post. Highlight/bold those things you've actually done and post.

Here are mine:

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse of the moon.
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign (Does watching-from-afar count??!)
46. Backpacked in Europe (No, but I want to do the Amazing Race)
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking 103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

I think I counted 53 things.

Another Stolen Meme- From Lizza

2006-11-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

Three Things That Scare Me:

Pictures of me (no visual for this one)
Heights- just thinking of heights makes the soles of my feet hurt
Violence- just can't handle it

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:

B- we can just sit and giggle about the most inane things
Skeezix the Cat- Does it have to be a person?
My hairdresser (at least I didn't say my bartender!)

Three Things I Love:

Books!
Sailing
Motoring fast around corners in my MINI Cooper

Three Things I Hate:

Brussel Sprouts- taste like cooked farts
Working
The myth of celebrity

Three Things I Don't Understand:

Electricity- still don't get it

Television- same issue
CD's, DVD's etc- Huh?

Three Thing On My Desk:

My cat LOKi
Some form of food
Water- to knock over onto my computer

Three Things I'm Doing Right Now:

This
Thinking about food
Watching the sun on the snow outside

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die:

Live in the Netherlands for at least a couple years (I'm so easy to statisfy!)
Pay off the mortgage
Drive across the US
One extra- be a history detective

Three Things I Can Do:

Waste time
Start a huge fire
Amuse cats

Three Things I Can't Do:

Tie up the boat correctly; B immediately unties everything I've done and does it "correctly"
Drive an automatic
Get tile grout clean

Three Things I Think You Should Listen To:

Wind
Silence
Water pounding on a boat hull

Three Things You Should Never Listen To:

The current US government
Shouting
Some else's cell phone conversation

Three Things I'd Like To Learn:

How to dress
How to magically lose weight and keep it off
How to rid the world of migraine headaches

Three Favorite Foods:

Nasi Goreng- Indonesian Fried Rice
Olie Bollen- Dutch apple fritter things
Dutch Chocolate- is there any other kind?

Three Beverages I Drink Regularly:

Water
Organic Milk
White Tea

Three Shows I Watched As A Kid:

None- we didn't have a TV

Logging Trucks

2006-11-27T14:36:00.000-08:00

A little over a year ago, a good friend of my father's was killed in an accident with a logging truck. He was driving behind the over-loaded logging truck when the logs became loose, and crashed into the car. He and the passenger didn't stand a chance- the logs went straight into the windshield. Further investigation found that the truck had not passed the mandatory safety inspection, and was legally not supposed to be on the road.

Logging is big business here, and logging trucks are everywhere. I get the creeps just being around them, and not just because I am driving a MINI Cooper. All I see is the truck falling apart and the logs rolling off onto me.

Last Friday, I was watching the local news, and there were some recent developments involving the accident. Apparently, the driver, Garland Massingham, is still driving logging trucks. He has been charged with two counts of vehicular homicide, but he has not been convicted yet (that's assuming he will be convicted.) The law says that until he is convicted, he is still qualified to drive personal and commercial vehicles, and that he can keep his job at JB Leonard.

Well, it seems that two weeks ago our little killer was driving another load of logs, and he turned a corner too sharply, and lost another load. He was also under the influence of meth. Thank goodness no one was hurt, although I wish that Massingham had sustained some life-altering injuries.

I'm fuming. I just love the legal system here.

I am not telling my father about this.

On a good note, Wal-Mart stock has dropped for the first time in a decade.

Blankies

2006-11-14T13:18:00.000-08:00

I got a new down comforter last weekend, the first blanket/comforter I have ever paid for. (P.S. This is not my bedroom- that would be just too embarrassing.)

I have had the same two wool blankets my whole life, along with rather anemic comforter I got for Christmas aeons ago. The blankets are from Holland (big surprise.) Lately, I just can't seem to stay very warm at night because the comforter has become anorexic and wasn't doing the job. I was talking to my mother about the old blankets. I thought they were inexpensive blankets my parents had gotten whenthey got married.

My mother told me those two wool blankets had kept my great-grandparents warm during the Hunger Winter during WWII. Wow. That sort of made me sit down (chances are I was already sitting down.) I had no idea! One of the blankets is a very thick wool blanket with a velvet edge around it, and the other is made of red and off-white wool. I have had the red one since I was in my cradle.

Immediately, I made plans to retire the wool blankets and get me a certified huge down comforter. And I did. The wool blankets are now in a safe place, where they will retain a place of honor in my house.

And I slept warmly ever after.

A Sort-Of-Non Birthday

2006-11-13T17:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my birthday- and this is a day that I usually don't really look forward to. I'm three years older than B, and all he keeps saying is "I'll never be as old as you!" Ha-ha-ha-ha. This coming from the same man who asks me if I've lost weight; my head looks smaller. Ha-ha-ha-ha.
Anyway, we invited a couple friends over (she has the same birthday as me- my birthday buddy) and ordered some Thai food. After they left, B said he was having trouble breathing, and that he might have had contact with peanuts, which he is allergic to. He had to go to the hospital, getting a bunch of medicine and throwing up, and so we ended up sleeping through my whole birthday.
So, I am older, and a bit well-rested, but unfortunately not any wiser.

Friday Fourteen- # 2

2006-11-10T10:26:00.000-08:00

Thirteen Ways I Like to Waste Time (No Particular Order)

Watch TV
Rearrange pictures and doo-dads
Surf the net
Imagine what could be if I won the lottery
Enjoy the couch
Sit and stare at whatever
Drive nowhere
Light lots of candles and sit with them
Wonder what it would be like to be skinny
Dream of cool shoes
Hug any cat that's near me
Think of getting up
Think of writing long-overdue letters
Do nothing, as opposed to doing anything

"Oopsie"

2006-11-05T16:44:00.000-08:00

My younger sister had to put her cat to sleep yesterday. This, of course, was devastating for her. J had had Oopsie (so named because she fell out of a window when she was a kitten, effectively changing her name) for over half her life. Oopsie was, get this, 23 years old. In the end, Oopsie had lung cancer, which I have never heard of a cat getting. No, J doesn't smoke, and never has.
Oopsie's personality was probably what helped her live to such a ripe age. One word- BITCH. That cat didn't love, nor even like anyone but J. In fact, Oopsie once chased my 6' brother around the house. Us bitches are the ones that will live forever, whether we like it or not.
R.I.P., Oopsie. J will miss you something fierce.

Silence

2006-11-04T16:54:00.000-08:00

Friday Fourteen- # 1

2006-11-03T14:38:00.000-08:00

Fourteen Stupid Things I Have Done

1. One morning, I looked down and discovered that I had been wearing two different shoes for several hours.

2. Wore some really unflattering and uncomfortable clothes to the "Nutcracker" and spent the whole time sqirming, taking my shoes off while weeping and trying to keep my skirt from riding up to my crotch. Lovely.

3. Locked my keys in my car at the gas station when there were cars lined up waiting for the pump. A pattern maybe?

4. Dreamt that I hadn't brought enough underwear on a trip.

5. Overestimated my skiing abilty (or was it someone who talked me into the intermediate run) and basically sat myself down to the bottom.

6. While delivering a sailboat at night, I completely erased all the waypoints on the GPS, and they needed to be re-configured (that was a doozy.)

7. When B and I were hanging a bathroom cabinet, I was holding it up and told him when it was perfect and he could screw it in. It was perfect, for a 5'2" person. In the mirror, B was cut off at the neck

8. Appeared in public in a bathing suit.

9. Cooked some really awful food and made B eat it.

10. Had my purse stolen twice in 6 months, EXACTLY the same way. Didn't learn anything the first time.

11. When getting my driver's lisence replaced for said thefts, wore the exact same shirt three times.

12. Home-permed my hair and thought it looked really good.

13. Took four rolls of pictures- with the film not loaded in the camera.

14. My friend and I thought it would be fun to bathe topless in a park, and wouldn't you know it, a father and son appeared out of nowhere, and god- forbid, saw us. Probably wanted to poke out their minds-eyes after that.

Post Halloween

2006-11-02T12:46:00.000-08:00

Yup, I'm finally back. This pictures how sloppy I was for Halloween this year. Obviously didn't have very good spray paint coverage.I'm going to blame it on the fumes.

This picture shows that we got prematurely excited and carved the poor squash too soon. We'll hopefully remember this gaff next year and not repeat history.

Here we see that I can't organize a display. I threw everything everywhere, BUT... we were the best (and almost only) decorated house in the neightborhood. For once we were the unattainable Joneses. Lots of Trick-or-Treaters too, but not enough to keep me from looking for the Tootsie Rolls in between doorbell rings. MMM, MMM GOOD!

How We Met- The Technical Part

2006-10-27T14:40:00.001-07:00

Here is video about the International 14s we were sailing when we met. Please note the frequent capsizing occurences. You can become so skilled at capsizing that you can get the boat upright without getting wet. Priceless. Now that's a great ride!

"The High I.Q. Couple"

2006-10-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

My husband and I refer to ourselves as the "High I.Q. Couple." Our motto is "We Find the Longest and Slowest Line so You Don't Have To." This our way of dealing with the stupid things we do and decisions we make. Humor has kept us together.One prime example:Years ago we had to buy a car because mine was having some incomprehensible behaviors. B's mother was in the hospital, very ill, and we were under a lot of pressure time-wise. On a freezing January day, we went to a car dealer to look at a CRX. It was late in the afternoon, and it was glaringly sunny. The test drive went well, and we looked the car over closely, and decided to buy it. After we signed all our money over, they brought the car to the front of the dealership so we could drive it off into the sunset. As we got close to it, we saw a huge dent on the passenger side. Yea yea, we looked the car over closely before buying it. So we were stuck. As we were driving home, B said, "Well, we just got f-d over again. The sad part is, I'm starting to enjoy it." I broke out in loud guffaws. This is how the "High I.Q. Couple" stumbles through life. Crap happens- we laugh.

How I Met My Husband, And Why He Should Have Run

2006-10-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

Cemetery, Cemetery, Come To Me

2006-10-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I have revealed this earlier, but it seems appropriate due to the season and the "Why I'm Weird" meme traveling the net, but I started a strange project. I have been trying to find all the little, off-the-beaten-path cemeteries while I'm on my travels, and taking a picture of my MINI at each of them. So while these were taken mostly during the summer, imagine, if you will, dark, spooky nights, and then put the car there.

Bay Center Cemetery, Bay Center, Washington

Fern Hill Cemetery, Mason County, Washington

Kinder Cemetery, Off HWY 30, East of Portland, Oregon

(There are tales of a ghost of an old man haunting the rear of the cemetery!)

Thievery

2006-10-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay. I am a thief.I am stealing a meme from lizza, dr. a and Morgen. I have no muse today.

Five Things I Would Do If I Were A Millionaire

* Make sure my family was taken care of
* Get a really nice sailboat
* Donate to animal/environmental causes
* Finally have my private island and dream retirement home
* Travel, travel, travel!

Five Bad Habits

* Shopping
* Eating
* Being very out-spoken/opinionated/strong-minded
* Starting projects and not finishing them
* Not using hand-lotion

Five Things I Hate Doing

* Cleaning the cat boxes
* Changing light-bulbs
* Looking for the Christmas ornaments
* Clothes shopping (eeeuw)
* Charging the cell phone

Five Things I Would Never Do

* Sail across the ocean
* Be a key-note speaker
* Walk across a bridge (I am so afraid of heights!)
* Have my picture taken
* Hurt an animal

Five Things I Regret Doing

* Some of my old boyfiends- what was I thinking?
* Not asking now-gone family about our family history
* Not taking advantage of travelling opportunities
* Not realizing until now that there were guys in my life that may have
actually liked me
* Letting the migraines get the best of me

Five Favorite Things (Objects)

* My MINI Cooper S
* My books
* My home
* My computer
* My food

Thanks for the meme (from the thief!)

A Little More Family History

2006-10-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a bit more of my family history, beginning with my parents' marriage.My parents were married in September 1958, in Ede. Because of the housing situation and job shortages, two weeks later, they were on the converted troopship, the "Zuiderkruis" (the "Southern Cross.) At that time, Canada had very desirable job opportunities for the Dutch, and many people emigrated to Canada. They then took a train all the way across Canada, and ended up in Victoria, BC. My older sister and I were born there (I have dual Dutch-Canadian citizenship.) We then returned to Holland and lived in Kraggenburg (our house is picture on the left), which was a brand new town on reclaimed polder land. My younger sister was born there. Jobs and housing again became an issue, and my dad found a job in Wyoming, so after two years in Holland, we again picked up everything and moved just outside Sheridan. My mother says my older sister and I went to neighboring farms and spoke Dutch, and nobody knew what to do with us.We went on vacation to Vancouver, BC, and my parents really liked the area. He was able to find a job at the University of Washington, and so, with my mother pregnant with my brother, we drove from Sheridan to Washington State. I learned English in Kindergarten (I missed all my playtime) and have lived in the area ever since.This is probably way too much information, but, if you miraculously need anymore, please do ask!

Migraine

2006-10-20T12:48:00.000-07:00

I'm sure this is the picture of a migraine. I should cut it out and wear it. I've had a headache everyday for the past two weeks, and frankly, I'm tired of it. Migraines first appeared in my life when I was 18 and in Alaska. I remember hiking into a friend's cabin, and then it hit. I spent two nights and days sitting up in the attic, not being able to sleep. I couldn't put my head down because it hurt too much, and I couldn't take any light or noise. I ended up hiking back out (blindly), having to be driven 80 miles to Anchorage and to the ER. I think that was my first narcotic shot.

Things haven't neccessarily improved. Nothing seems to work, and the neurologist says that it's basically due to heredity. Lucky me.

Okay, done with venting. It just has gotten to be too much today.

Will change topic tomorrow.

A Little Family Story

2006-10-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

Recently my mother gave me a few family items that had come back to her after a long absence. The items: a necklace, bracelet and earrings made from Dutch dimes, and two handmade dolls. They held a wonderful little family story.The dimes- dubbeltjes- are all dated between 1930 and 1941. This was before the occupation, and they are solid silver. There were no coins minted during the war. My grandmother had a step-cousin that had moved to the United States in the 1920's. After the war, she wanted my grandmother to send her some Dutch coins. The U.S. policies did not allow importation of foreign coins so my grandmother saved some of the first dubbeltjes that came back into circulation. She then took them to a jeweler to have the necklace, bracelet and earrings made. When new dimes finally started to be minted again, they were much smaller and not made of solid silver.My grandmother then made two dolls, a boy and a girl. They are about 16" tall. My mother remembers her painstakingly hand-sewing the bodies and the Dutch costumes for them. My grandmother then stuffed the jewelry into the dolls' bodies and then sewed them shut. The dolls were then mailed to America.The dolls and jewelry stayed with the step-cousin's family until they were returned to my mother a couple months ago.Try as I might, I can't picture my grandmother doing something morally questionable let alone illegal. She was very religious and lived a very quiet life.

I guess you never know...

A Pumpkining We Will Go

2006-10-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

We went to the pumpkin patch last week to hunt for pumpkins. The patch is near the river cabin, and we have been going there for about 18 years. The farmer has a trailer with straw on it, and everyone gets on the trailer and he tractors it to the pumpkin patch. Everyone runs and finds their pumpkins, and he comes back and picks us all up with the trailer.

I never get tired of this ritual. Most of the time we are the only ones there, so it's like our own private family pumpkin patch. There are sheep and horses there, and the kids get to pet them and feed them treats. Of course, the animals are my favorite (still not really a child person.) This year was sort of fun because right when we got there, a huge flock of crows suddenly swooped over us and cawed and gathered in the trees. Straight out of Alfred Hitchcock and Edgar Allen Poe (who was a big cat-lover, BTW.)

I probably won't carve the pumpkins until next week. No rotting squash on my porch! I finally dragged the decorations out of the garage, but I seem to be missing some. Probably due the move last year! Maybe I have to go buy a new bunch of them (sound of hands rubbing together gleefully.) I'm also being slowed down by the darn migraines. I'm exhausted form the poor sleep and the extreme pain. Got to get some artificial life.

Morgen- I will post pics- I've got plans!

OMG

2006-10-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

How time runs away! I've really missed my blog and blog family- I hope you haven't forgotten about me! In between actually doing a lot of things, I have had a pretty much continuous migraine and been sort of medicated.
I have been on several different trips (Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier, as well as my dad's). The cats are a bit upset, and even Bean has become a lap cat, which she never has been. As we speak, LOKi is draping himself and his formidable weight on my arm as I am trying to type. So much competition!

We went to Mt. Baker with a couple of our MINI friends. The weather was beautiful, and since they have a MINI convertible, they had the top down most of the way.It's a very curvy steep road to the top. It always amazes me how quiet it is in the mountains, even when there are a lot of people around. Once we were above the treeline, the fall colors came out- not in the trees, but in the bushes. I think the light up there does something to the brightness and contrast . We drove a bunch of backroads home, even finding the industrial district of a very samll town (B was navigating).

Mt. Rainier wasn't quite so successful. I think we had more rain yesterday than we have had all year. It was pouring. I was afraid the windshield might break. We had 45 MINIs, but I couldn't see them. I'm so glad we took the time to wash and wax the car. Fifteen dollars to get in the park, and then a windy river to Paradise, which is at the 6,000 foot level. I'm sure the mountain was somewhere up there. At some point I just couldn't stand the rain anymore, and we cut our losses at Paradise and did a solo descent, which was actually quite fun, minus the mini-vans and SUVs that were going way too slow.
Now I am getting ready for Halloween. I went to the pumpkin patch and picked out five beauties, along with some MINI (ha-ha) pumpkins. I found the boxes of decorations, but they haven't made it up the stairs yet.
Oh, but I have plans!

The Hunger Winter

2006-10-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

Another re-run due very little time. This is a little more about my family history and the "Hunger Winter" in Holland (1944-45.)

The "war" in the Netherlands lasted only three days- they capitulated on 10 May 1940. They then endured five years of Nazi occupation. My father was born in 1932 in Utrecht, which is geographicaly the center of the Netherlands. He spent the war years in Bilthoven, which is about 4 miles east of Utrecht. Bilthoven is next to the airport at Soesterberg, which the Germans used as a weapon depot. Consequently, the Allies strafed the town regularly. My dad showed me the bullet wounds on the trees when we went back in 2001. He remembers that there were never any windows in his house because of the constant bombings.

My mother was born in 1936 in Den Haag (The Hague.) She spent the war years in Ede, which is east of Bilthoven. Her father, grandmother and grandfather all died in her house during the war. She remembers that a Jewish family down the street was sent off to the concentration camps, and the neighbors were asked to keep their furniture for when they came back- they never came back. The house was still there when I went back in 2001. Her mother was forced to house German POWs during the war. My mother remembers having to walk for miles to beg for food for the family.

In September 1944, there was an Allied plan to move north into Holland to end the war quickly. "Operation Marketgarden" (A Bridge Too Far) failed miserably, and so Holland had to wait for 8 more months to be liberated. During this last winter, the weather was very cold and there was no food. Over 16,000 people starved to death during this time. The Germans made a virtual wall around Northern and central Holland and no food or other humanitarian aid could enter. My father had to eat his pet crow and tulip bulbs, among other things. The house he lived in (pictured) had no windows because the Allies strafed the town almost every day. My father never knew if he would be alive for another day. Finally, when it was obvious that Germany was going to lose the war, a tentative agreement was reached that Allied planes could come and drop food over pre-determined sites to help the people.

The operation was called "Operation Chowhound" for the Americans and "Operation Manna" for the British. The planes (B-17's and Lancasters) were in instructed to fly between 300-400 feet over the drop sites. Even before the papers were signed, planes began the food drops. The Germans had anti-aircraft weapons in case the Allied were going to bomb instead of drop food. Although the food drops were maybe too late to prevent much of the starvation, they did wonders for the morale of the people. The Canadians were then able to liberate Holland on the fifth of May 1945. My mother remembers riding on the Canadian tanks when they liberated Ede. There is still avery special bond between the Dutch and their liberators. After the war, the restoration of Holland was very diffiicult. Most of the infrastructure was completely destroyed. A new government was set up (Socialist) and a new economy was established. The rebuilding was slow and hard. Much farmland had been destroyed, and housing was at a premium for many years.

Since this is a long post, I will continue the story later. Please let me know if you find this interesting!

Our First Halloween

2006-10-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

Here is the story of our first Halloween that I mentioned in my last post. It seems like a good time to repeat it.
Our first Halloween was a bit different than most Halloween experiences. My mother made our costumes. We (my older sister, younger sister and I) became witches. My mother made the tall hats, skirts and aprons and put all sorts of "witch-type figures" on them. We carved our pumpkins, and they were attached to the end of sticks so we could carry them. They had lit candles in them (this was before the days of fire safety awareness.)
Okay, here is the corker. My mother knew nothing about Halloween, and the actual day of Halloween fell on a school-night that year. She couldn't imagine that everyone would go out on a school-night, so she took us out on the preceding Saturday. We got some weird looks, but people gave us candy anyway. Needless to say, we were the only costumed kids out there. We got candy!
When my mother found out that kids do go out for Halloween on school nights, she took us out again. We got candy twice!
That was how we learned a little bit more about Halloween.

Tag! I'm It!

2006-10-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged by Morgen. It's Morgen's Halloween Meme. So, here goes!

What's the scariest movie you've ever seen? I don't remember the name, but it was a flick about an evil doll/puppet, released in 1979. Dolls give me the creeps, especially when they form their own pesonality (like Barbie). I don't watch horror films because my unconcious seems to suck them up and regurgitate them as horror dreams at night.
What was your favorite Halloween Costume from childhood? Probably the witch costume my mother made for my sisters and I when we first came to America. That Halloween has a wonderful story behind it- please see 13 August 2006 post (I'm having a hell of a time formatting links to my previous posts).
If you had an unlimited budget, what would your Fantasy Costume be for this Halloween? A Victorian Mourning costume, complete with mourning jewelry made of the deceased hair. It's Halloween, isn't it?
When was the last time you went Trick Or Treating? I think I was in fifth grade. It didn't stop me from begging and stealing candy out of the bowl, though, or buying it well before Halloween and eating it all. This also proved to make the haul successful, because I got to pick out what I like.
What's your favorite Halloween Candy? Almond Roca and candy corn (which I have a weird year-round fondness for).
Tell us about a scary nightmare you had. OMG- this could take days. I don't always remember them, but I know I do a lot of screaming. B has had to wake me 3 times in one night because I was screaming. I have tons of night terrors (Halloween never ends, does it?) and I usually have to take a shower when I wake up. I know there are bloody knives, machine guns, and a lot of chasing.
What is your Supernatural Fear? Erm, Chucky? Dolls that come to life? Barbie?
What is your Creepy-Crawlie Fear? I have two- flying ants and slugs. Like you, Morgen, I witnessed acrege covered with flying ants, and god, they make my skin crawl. Just thinking back...I don't mind any other insects (except for killer bees, which still haven't materialized up here) and actually enjoy watching them, but acres covered with buzzing, marching flying ants- gives me the kriebles. Slugs- grew up with them and I still have not made peace with them. The first time you step on with your bare feet one stays with you the rest of your life. Even though they move slowly- ick. I have been known to pick them up with a shovel and quickly flip them into the neighbors' yard. I will not touch them.
Tell us about a time when you saw a ghost, or heard something go Bump in the night. This one is easy. We used to live in an old house (1906) and I know we had some old-timers in there with us. I remember sitting on the couch in the living room, with the cats, and suddenly there was a blast of cold air going by us, along with a heavy scent of perfume. Weird. One of the bathrooms upstairs had a clawfoot tub, and it was generally considered to be my territory. A couple times pictures flew off the wall in front of me. B said the hair on the back of his neck would rise when he was in there, so he pretty much avoided it. Another sort of weird thing was that our bedroom door would open suddenly, at odd times. I would be laying in bed (a favorite hobby) and it would fly open. I wonder if the present owner is getting company.

Would you ever stay in a real Haunted House overnight? Well, based on my previous entry, I have! The Amityville House, I'm not so sure.
Are you a traditionalist (just a face) Jack O'Lantern Carver, or do you get really creative with your pumpkins? These pictures of a couple of my pumpkins, and I have big plans for this year's. We go to a real pumpkin patch every year and find our perfect carving pumpkins. I love decorationg for Halloween!
How much do you decorate your home for Halloween? As I said above, I love decorating!I have black cat accessories everywhere, and I make ghosts with balloons and cheesecloth. I have a lit spiderweb that I put over the front doors, and all sorts of halloween candle holders. We have a skeleton for the door, and vintage Halloween stuff from when B was a children. Storage is a problem!
What do you want on your Tombstone? No tombstone for me. I plan on being made into dust, and scattered from our saiboat where B and I first met. This comes from a close friend's very sudden death. We made a sailboat train, with us in his boat first, and went out on the water. We then said a few things and scattered his ashes on the water. This has been the most meaningful memorial service I've ever been to.

This has been a lot of fun! Thanks, Morgen!

Laugh, Laugh

2006-10-04T18:47:00.000-07:00

I needed a good laugh today, and this did it-

Remember it takes a college degree to fly a plane, but only a high school diploma to fix one. Reassurance for those of us who fly routinely in our jobs.

After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a "gripesheet," which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas' pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.

By the way, Qantas is the only major airline that has never, ever, had a fatal jet accident (corrected as per Kara's comment).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what friction locks are for.

P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny. (I love this one!)
S: Aircraft warned to: straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last..................

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget

Makes you look at solving problems a different way, doesn't it?

Another Post of Pictures

2006-10-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

In honor of the beginning of fall, here are some memories of falls past.

Comments

2006-10-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

I don't know what's happening, but I am unable to leave comments on any blogs, icluding my own! Where's the justice? I will comment on the comments tomorrow.
Nothing is working correctly! I'm tired! I think I will go cry for awhile, and see if I can fix this *&()$%?> software tomorrow!

Wine on a Saturday

2006-10-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I didn't post anything yesterday. But I had a good reason! We went on 2 winery tours with the MINI people. Although the weather was not as good as we had hoped, the convertibles had their tops down, but from what I heard, the seat warmers were on also.
The first winery was in Port Townsend, which is a wonderful Victorian town, with lots of houses dating from the late 1800's. It has become a haven for artists and wooden boat artisans. The wine was so-so (I'll try to be graceful and not mention their name), but please remember I am very inexperienced in the fine art of wine-tasting. I'm just not that sophisticated.
From the Port Townsend, we took the ferry to Keystone, on Whidbey Island. The pictures were taken on the ferry, which is probably fairly obvious. We had a picnic lunch at Fort Casey. There are three forts (Fort Casey, Fort Flagler and Fort Worden) in the north part of Puget Sound, all built together to defend against a foreign attack. They date from before WWI, and were used in both World Wars (no attacks from foreigners, though.) Eventually they were sold to the State of Washington to made into parks. There are concrete tunnels tunnels that run from gun emplacements to God-Knows-where. They can be fun, but also very scary to semi-claustrophobic persons.There are no lights, and frankly, it's just plain frightening. I don't go in them anymore, no matter what promises people make.
The next winery is near Langley, on Whidbey Island. I liked them better, so here is their name- Whidbey Island Winery (didn't see that coming, did you?) They were just finishing grape-squashing, which is weirdly hypnotic to watch. One of the ladies that work there races her British Racing Green MINI Cooper. Cool. They even handed out lots of cheese-and-cracker accompaniments. Very cool. B and I ended up with some sort of red wine, rhubarb wine, local honey and lavender jelly. I will eat food made out of most anything.
I want go visit chocolate makers next.

LOKi's Log

2006-09-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

My cat LOKi decided he wants a blog. We started one today, and we had quite a time working with Blogger Beta. He is fairly proud of what he has so far, but, knowing him, he'll be morphing it as he goes along.
LOKi invites everyone to check it out, and offer suggestions, etc. The address is http://lokislog.blogspot.com.

My Own Private Stonehenge

2006-09-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

After writing about Stonehenge in Eastern Washington, I remembered that I had indeed seen yet another Stonehenge, and promptly forgotten about it. I hauled out my old pictures and scanned them, and then I sepiaed them to give them the feeling of antiquity. I'm not sure if this Stonehenge was actually formed before the one in England, but it sure felt like it.
This Stonehenge is also in Eastern Washington, but much further north. You had to know it was there to get there- no road signs. The road let into a sort of bowl-like valley. It is all volcanic, and the columns are made from basalt. We drove onto the valley floor to set up camp, so all these columns were lined up way above us. From the first time I saw them, I felt weirdly spiritual. Not something I'm used to. The whole frist night was sort of woogly-feeling. We had arrived just as it was getting dark, and set up the tent in the dark. I was looking into the tent-pole bag (filled with dangerous shock-cord poles,) pulled out a handful of poles, and managed to stick one in my eye, which had remained open because I didn't anticipate the danger. I managed to break a bunch of blood vessels in my eye (luckily no permanant damage,) and my eye continued to drool for a long time. All this time, the columns stood over us. Shortly after this boo-boo, we saw a blob of light in the northern sky. It was reddish, and it had a tail. How many people seeing something does it take for it to be a real UFO? We all saw it, and watched it go over us and down through the southern horizon.
That night, I had my usual insomnia, so I decided to go for a walk. The skies was very clear, and there was full moon. It was like walking in the daytime, complete with odd shadows. I climbed up to the circle of basalt columns, and walked through them. They were stunning. It was other-worldly, spooky, beautiful, Halloween-y.
I felt like there were dead people there, although I couldn't see them.
Okay, does anyone know of any other Stonehenges that I've missed? Maybe my next goal is to see every one of them except for the original.

P.S. The glowing orb that we saw was a Soviet (yes, this was that long ago) satellite re-entering the atmosphere. Pretty spooky, huh?

Don't You Hope You'll End Up Like This

2006-09-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

B and I have been married for almost 17 years. Since I never expected to make it to 30 years old (which, much to my chagrin, I did, and then some), let alone get married, I never developed a mental picture for my future. I know we will never have kids (by choice), so no one to take care of us when we get old(er.) (My, it's a parenthetical kind of day.) Sometimes, I see elderly couples walking and holding hands. They may even be smiling. I like it best when they are walking an elderly dog.
I would like B and I to be that kind of couple. Still speaking, wanting each other's company, and walking our cats. It's probably time to start training them.

Maybe we'll still be sleeping in the same bed, and enjoy our memory lapses. I'm hoping my migraines will have stopped by then (they say menopause may end them- something else to look forward to.) I'll probably still have the MINI Cooper, and I will have taken the Defensive Driving courses to give us a discount on our car insurance. Rest assured that I will still be Bending the Rules, and Ruling the Bends.

Since I don't like (and don't allow) having my picture taken, no one will know I'm getting old. I can use a picture of a good-looking couple and say it's B and I, and no one will be the wiser. I'm not sure what my natural hair color is now, so I can do anything purple and just focus on covering the gray.

I will probably be surrounded by books in Large Print, and lots of magnifying glasses. I'll buy 20 pairs of reading glasses for $20 at Costco, and put them everywhere so I don't have to remember where they are. I'll still be using my current laptop, which will be dated like the old 1926 Royal Typewriter I saved from a dumpster (yes, I'm also a lowly dumpster-diver) at the University of Washington. Oh my, I just realized that I have vintage raingear from REI, and a vintage Kelty frame backpack, and Oh My, LEATHER Vasque hiking boots. Maybe I'll grow old having some vintage value. Maybe you'll want to know me when I grow old...

All of this, of course, depends on if I actually get old.

Things I Finally Know

2006-09-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

At this stage in my life, and during another bout of insomnia last night, I've decided that there are a few things I know:

I know that flannel sheets are great year-round.
I know that I'm nothing in the great scheme of things, and that's okay.
I know that great chocolate can make my day; maybe even save the world.
I know there are things I will never discuss with my parents.
I know there are times I like coloring in the lines, but I'm happiest coloring outside the lines.
I know that just watching my cats get through a day, without my interfering, can be one of my greatest joys, while also being a great mystery.
I know that a good book will always be one of my best friends.
I know that my car makes me feel like I am someone (sadly enough.)
I know I will never understand children.
I know that my cat Bean will probably never really know what's going on.
I know that chocolate is good on bread (weird Dutch food.)
I know that violence is offensive, not sex.
I know that I'm great at starting things, but not so great at finishing them.
I know that Black Hook Porter makes me happy.
I know that knowing never ends, and it's my perogative to change what I know.

The End

A Long Time Ago

2006-09-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

A Long Time Ago.... was the last time I posted in this here blog. For shame! My bad! I think I have a reason that might suffice for two of those days; the rest of the days fell into my becoming even more compulsive-obsessive.
The large into the small- I came into possession of a bunch of old family papers/documents. For a history fanatic, this was a gold-mine. Included was the service record of my great-great grandfather, dated 1876. What is wonderful is that it has a complete physical description of him, with the shape of his chin and mouth, and even the color of his eyebrows. Way cool. All of this information in beautiful calligraphy (and all in Dutch!) The most emotional were my mother's and grandparents identifications from the war. My mother had no idea that these papers even existed. Most people threw them out after the liberation. There were also food ration coupons from during the war. There were letters dated from 1902, and also during the war.
In Holland, when someone dies, the family has a death notice made. They are on cards with a gray or black border (the envelopes also has the borders.) They are sent out and delivered immediately. I think this is a wonderful thing to do; it honors the person. My grandmother had saved them all from 1905 until she died (1987.) Here are all these cards that people had held so long ago, and meant so much to them. And my grandmothere had saved them.
She had saved a ton of letters also. It amazed me that she kept in such close contact with everyone after she emmigrated. Reading the letters are somewhat of a chore, not only are they in Dutch, the handwriting! Some of it is extremely diagonal.
I am still trying to translate everything, and then I have to scan it and save it to CDs. I have entered everything that I could get so far into the family tree. Based on the information, I was able to add over 100 names to the tree, all by searching the Dutch databases.
I can't figure out how my grandmother was able to save all this stuff. Two World Wars and an emmigration. And my mother didn't even know all these papers still existed. Blows my mind.
So, I'm sorry that I haven't written anything on the blog, but I have been working!

A Turbulent Mind

2006-09-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

I just read an interesting little blurb(this is copied from the article in Discover magazine- Oct. 2006). Apparently, the paintings that Vincent van Gogh produced when he was at his most psychotic depicted natural phenomena brilliantly. Two men from the National Autonomous University in Mexico plotted the swirls in van Gogh's most turbulent paintings, which coincidentally or not, were made during his most serious dips in mental health. Van Gogh's spiral brushstrokes are near-perfect renderings of turbulence. From the largest visible swaths of paint to the tiniest strokes , his brushwork seems to simulate river eddies and cloud rotations.
Starry Night was painted during a stay in a French insane asylum. Road With Cypress and Star was made after a prolonged bout of disturbing hallucinations and Wheat Field With Crows was finished just before van Gogh committed suicide.
They found that van Gogh's eddies matched the famous (although never heard of by me) Kolmogorov statistical model of turbulence. For a laymen like van Gogh, that's qite a coup, since the problem of turbulence is generally considered the last unsolved mystery of classical physics. It could be possible that van Gogh's mind, warped by disease , was prepared to grasp phenomena that have baffled physicists for centuries.
Van Gogh's talent with natural forms has made an impact in science before. Last year a study found that bumblebees thay had never encountered real flowers favored his Sunflowers over the floral works of other well-known artists.
I went to the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam when I was in Holland. It was absolutely fascinating. The exhibit was presented chronologically, and the first works were the black and white sketches made of the Potato Eaters, and as I moved through the museum, I could see his art change as his mental illness took grip. Towards the end, the paint is very thick and aggressively applied. He was very aware of his mental problems, and he wrote letters to his brother Theo describing his pain. He also committed himself voluntarily off and on into mental hospitals. If you ever have the chance to see van Gogh's work, go see it!!!

A Tour Of Tiles

2006-09-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

This will be sort of a picture post- I seem to have run out of day. Hate it when that happens.

All my life, not surprisingly, I have been surrounded by Dutch tiles. Most are known as Delft tiles, but there other types of tiles also. When I went back, I fell in love with the extravagent displays of tiles in fireplace design. I've had a secret desire (yes, a very tame desire) to tile my kitchens with Dutch tiles, but then I would have to tear up my kitchen and bring it with us every time we move. Not very practical.

The first picture is from a house dated 1764, belonging to a friend of my father's. It was so 'gezelig' (roughly meaning cozy, cofortable) to sit in the arm chair and read in this room. The fireplace was magnificent- they were in the process of restoring it.The next two pictures are from Rembrandt's house, dated 1606. I wasn't allowed to get really close to the fireplaces, but they were beautiful. Just being in the house that he painted "The Nightwatch" was something special. Seeing his studio and the tools he used made me feel a little closer to history.
The last picture is from the "Openlucht Museum" in Arnhem, where actual old buildings have been moved from the whole country to make an open-air museum. This was the interior of a middle-class family's house. Very gezelig!

PS- I'm sorry this post looks so bad. I couldn't for the life of me get the pictures to post more attractively, and I finally cried myself to sleep.

Are You A Crazy Cat Person?

2006-09-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

One of my friends has noticed the life-path I'm taking, and wanted me to admit it. Here is the quiz (you can get your own Crazy Cat Lady Action Figure below):

Are You A Crazy Cat Person?

Do you get excited when you hear a can opener?
Do you think cats are smarter than people?
Do you feel Tom is more talented than Jerry?
Do you have more cats than ex-boyfriends?
Do you bring new boyfriends home so the cats can meet them?
Do you later break up with them because the cats weren't impressed?
Do you spend more on doctor bills for your cats than yourself?
Do you buy the ice cream your cats prefer instead of the kind you like?
Can you tell your cats apart from the roughness of their tongues?
Have you ever warned a guest not to sit on a specific piece of furniture because it belongs to the cats?
Do you own more than one piece of clothing with a cat on it? (erm, I have some cat socks...)
Do you have a website devoted to your cats? Do you have a website for each cat?
Do you spend more on Christmas presents for your cats than your famliy?
Do you buy more than one kind of cat food because a few of your cats are picky cats?
Have you ever had to explain to a police officer that the stuff in the bag really is catnip?
Do you feel that the ancient Egyptian tradition of cat worship is the one true religion?
Is the sheet of instructions for watching your cats while you're on vacation longer than a page? Two pages? What vacation?

If you answered yes to seven or more of these questions, you may be a crazy cat person!

You can get your own Crazy Cat Lady Action Figure for yourself or someone you love!

Where I Was

2006-09-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

Where was I on 9/11? I was in Holland on a long-awaited journey into my past and my future. I wanted to see how all my parts fit together, and what might happen to the whole.
On 9/11, I was sitting at home alone, surfing the channels. My father and B were out grocery shopping. The house was pretty dark, and I was enjoying the aloneness. We'd been around each other a lot in the preceding weeks, and were, in fact, scheduled to come home on 15 September.
I ended up on CNN, and I saw the first plane hit the tower. I thought it was a movie special effect, and then I saw the second plane hit. Then I knew it was real. I sort of sat there in shock, and then I wanted to say something, but there was no one else there. It was a weird feeling. I just didn't know what to do.
B and my dad finally came home. We watched the news- stunned. What do you say? We watched it over and over again, but nothing got better. I don't even remember if we called my mother- I think my dad did. Since she was on the west coast, she found out after it had happened..

What was unexpected was that neighbors that we hadn't even met came over to say how sorry they were about the attacks. The owner of the house said that we could stay there as long as we needed if we couldn't return home as scheduled. The kindness of strangers... It was all a great upheaval, and we had no precedent to guide us. We didn'tnow if we were going to get home, if we had to contact a bunch of people to rearrange our return
As it was, we were able to return. Our tickets were through a Canadian airline (read cheap), and while their were no U.S. flights going out of Schiphol, the Canadian ones were. I'm not sure if I should say we were lucky...

New Links

2006-09-10T15:54:00.000-07:00

I have added a few more links to blogs that I enjoy.
Please check them out!

A Day in the Life...
Human Reflections
Waiting, wishing

Enjoy!

A Drive Over A Lake

2006-09-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

The IJsselmeer was created in 1932 when the Zuiderzee, an inland sea, was closed by a 32km (19.88 mile) dam, the Afsluitdijk. This was a part of a major land-reclamation project, which was known as the Zuiderzee Works. The IJsselmeer is now used as a major fresh-water reserve- for drinking water, agriculture and recreational activities (although I don't think my father's antics could exactly be construed as a recreational activity.) Continued draining of the IJsselmeer polders exposed many planes that had crashed into the lake during WWII.
My father's little escapade took place in a Citroen 2CV, a "lelijke eend" (ugly duckling.) My father and a couple of his buddies thought it would be a real hoot to drive the Lelijke Eend over the frozen IJsselmeer at night. Their destination- Urk.
Urk was a small isolated (and very religious) island for over 900 years, with salt-water fishing as its main economy. This ended when the Afsluitdijk was built. Urk was then connected to the mainland for the first time. Today, fishing is still the main industry.
Here is a little Urkian story:
The most famous Urkish folktale must be the tale parents tell their children when they want to know where little babies come from. The tale involves a big stone which is about 30 metres from the shore of this former island. This stone is known as the Ommelebommelestien (I dare you to pronounce that!) Legend has it that on this earth there are two kinds of people, strangers and Urkers (people from Urk). Strangers are usually born from a cabbage or a stork brings them to their new parents; however Urkers come from this big stone which lies about 30 meters from the shores of their former island.
Nowadays the stone is usually called 'Ommelebommelestien'(Ommel Bommel Stone), but in older days people used to call this stone the Ommelmoerstien: moer means "mother" in the Urkish dialect.
Father stork comes all the way from Egypt to put babies in this stone. When the baby is about to be born the baby's father has to go to Schokland to pick up the key that gives access to the stone. So when you ask a Urkish man if he has been to Schokland, you actually ask if he has children.
In the older days when both Urk and Schokland were still islands in the Zuiderzee, the father had to take the obstetritian in his boat and row from Urk to Schokland to get the key, and from Schokland to the Ommelebommelestien to get the baby. Nowadays he can probably just go to Schokland by car, but has to row to the stone anyway. The door to the stone is somewhere below sea level, so pretty hard to find.
Once the door is found a small price had to be paid for the baby, one Dutch Guilder for a girl but two for a boy. That was in the old days; nowadays the same amount has to be paid in euros, and because Dutch law does not allow sex discrimination, the price for both a girl and a boy is the same: 2 euros.
Mother is kept in bed with a nail through her right foot. She must celebrate that she has just become a mother. I'd rather celebrate with a gin and tonic. When you visit Urk be sure to have a look at this wonderful stone. Right in front of it a small statue is erected. It shows the father rowing to the stone and the obstetrician holding the baby.
Anyway, back to the intrepid travellers. It was dark, and since the IJsselmeer was a lake, there were no streetlights. Their only guidance was Urk's lighthouse. I'm not sure if most lighthouses are used this way. They had a couple of scares with rough ice, and thin ice. The conclusion is not very exciting, although the drive certainly was. They made it safely, and for some reason, this is one of my dad's favorite memories. My father- parting the Red Sea. He seems very proud when he tells it. I'm sure if I did the same thing I would hear forever about how stupid this kind of motoring is.

But then again, it might be just another reason why I do the sometimes not-so-wise things I do, and that I'm very proud of doing them.

Palouse Falls

2006-09-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

Palouse Falls is in Southeastern Washington. It is spectacular. It looks like you're driving on a flat plateau, and then, bam, you're standing over these falls. The view of all that water going down into a deep pool, and then flowing down the canyon, is mesmerizing.
There are five small falls above the main falls. Native American legend has it that the beaver god was being chased down the canyon, and then he flapped his tail five times, creating the smaller falls. The god then jumped down and landed at the bottom of the falls, and then resumed running. The streaks of basalt rock were formed by the beaver clawing the sides of the basalt walls.
These pictures were taken over many years, during different seasons. The falls and canyon are always beautiful. Eastern Washington's geology was formed mainly by volcanic basalt eruptions and glacial activity. Palouse Falls is south of the glacial activity, and it is mainly basalt and basalt formations Another Native American story is that the lichen plants that bloom along the canyon walls were the result of a food fight among some female gods.

Aren't these stories better than boring old geology?

Additional Non-Marketable Skills

2006-09-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

Since I was nowhere near listing all my lack of skills, here are some more.

I know the botanical names of native plants.
I can clip cats' nails.
I can give myself shots, and I can give myself IV meds.
I can hand-write.
I can give a cat a bath.
I know one good winery (let me know if you want the name)
I can spot a Dutch accent from hundreds of feet away.
I can eat with a fork and a knife.
I can tell the difference between Dutch and German (no, they are not the same!)
I know the Dewey Decimal System.
I can start a camp-fire.
I can make hot chocolate from scratch.
I can write a blog, at least I think I can.

Stealth Gardening

2006-09-07T13:14:00.000-07:00

I just realized that it's getting time to buy bulbs for spring flowering. The rules at our townhouse prohibit planting stuff in the small space in the back and the one in the front. They have planted these ugly shrubs and used the mulch that means that we did something really bad in our previous life- beauty bark.

That stuff is nasty. If you don't know what it is, it's chunks of cedar bark, a by-product of logging. I'll give that it looks nice at first- all woody and red-brown. Then it starts to fade, and now it just looks like dried-out crap. It is terrible to work with; I don't know how many invisible splinters I have gotten.
Anyway, I have planted some pots, but it just isn't the same as having a garden. That is truly the one thing I miss from having a house. B and I have decided to "Bend the Rules," and plant tulip and daffodil bulbs. We're pretty sure that we'll have to do it late at night. We'll rake up the beauty bark, find the soil, which will probably be mostly clay. Then we'll add good soil, get those bulbs stuffed down there, and add bulb food. Return the beauty bark, and no-one will know until the flowers pop up. Won't they be surprised!

Stonehenge- The Copy

2006-09-06T19:03:00.000-07:00

Here is another attempt at posting some pics of Stonehenge- the one in Washington State.
It looks like we have a lift-off! Yay!
The Journey- Continued...
After the stop at Stonehenge, we drove north to Yakima, and then through the Yakima Canyon, which has always been one of my favorite roads, and has turned out to be a great MINI-road. It was another sunny day, and we killed many a bug. All in all, a 750-mile trip.

Okay- here's a quick thought- I just read in the news that taller people are more intelligent than shorter people, based on a study from the U.K. This poses an issue for me since I am a big 5'2" tall. Okay, here's another thought. My parents aren't very tall because they grew up during the war and had very little food and no medical care. Of the kids in my family (4 of us,) none of us are tall (I am the shortest.) After the war, a new government was put into place, with emphasis on social issues. Everyone has free medical care and education, along with other benefits. Since all this has been in place, the Dutch population has become taller, and is now the tallest society in the world. When B and I were there, we were dwarfed. The women on average are 6 feet tall, and they pretty much looked like models.
Anyway, back to the original thought. I am going to go on believing that I'm okay even though I'm short. I wonder if I would have been smarter if I had grown up in Holland, notwithstanding the fact that their education system is leagues ahead of the U.S. Notwithstanding that the social system here sucks.

The Long Way Home

2006-09-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

For our route home, we decided to go through the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon side, and then cross the river back into Washington. We got our free continental (free is important) at the hotel, packed our large amount of stuff into the MINI, and took off into the sunrise. We stopped at several waterfalls- I couldn't believe how high and steep they were. I tried taking some pictures, and this one was the best. It was still pretty dark, and my digital couldn't handle it very well.

We stopped at Hood River to check out the "famous windsurfing scene". For future reference, know that Hood River has a lot of not-very-well-marked one-way streets. We got honked at embarrassingsly often. There was no wind, so no windsurfing scene. I remember going to a windsurfing area on Maui, and I have never seen anything like it. Hood River disappointed me.
.
After we crossed to Washington, the first stop was Maryhill Museum. It is modeled after a Flemish (read Southern Holland) chateau, and sits high all by its lonesome on a cliff over the Columbia River. It has several original Rodin sculptures and Romanian furniture. It was built by Sam Hill, of "What The Sam Hill" fame. There was no wood used in the building; interior walls are made of steel-stud construction with plaster over metal lath.

About four miles east of Maryhill, there is a replica of Stonehenge. It was also built by Sam Hill as a monument to the 8 young men from Klickitat County who were killed in WWI. I haven't been there for over 23 years, so it was really neat to see it again. I have always wanted to got to Great Britain to see the real Stonehenge. The idea of something made so long ago makes me almost tingle. I'm thinking that this may be the closest I'll get to the real one. Sigh...
I have pictures, but Blogger doesn't seem to be too excited about posting them. I will keep trying.
Maybe Blogger is anti-paganist?

Catch-Up (Not Ketchup) Day

2006-09-04T15:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, now I will try to get to today, which means dealing with previous days. First, I added a couple links to other blogs. Please check them out! They are "I Am Woman, Hear Me Blog," and "It's A Blog Eat Blog World."

I think this guy had the right idea!

The car show was a lot of fun.We met a lot of nice people, and worked hard to remain cool (yes, we are soooo cool!) and hydrated. The temperature was 93 degrees. On the trip down to Portland, we decided to go the scenic route. We went to the coast to see the Pacific Ocean, which was grand, to say the least. I never get sick of smelling the salt air and listening to the wind. Th weather was sunny, so the colors are beautiful. One place I was determined ti go to was Oysterville, a historic little town on the Long Beach Peninsula, which has over 25 miles of sandy ocean beaches. Leave me there! What a wonderful little town.. B and I have found another place to retire to. Again, as per our nature, more talking about retiring and not working. We'd be sitting on the beach everyday, just staring at the water and listening to the wind- we are easily occupied. That's a wonderful by-product of being the "High I.Q. Couple.
Back to the car show- here are some pictures:

I just love the Classic Minis!

Tomorrow, I will write about our trip home (we took the long way home!) I could post a lot more tonight, but I have to deal with real life, which sucks.

Here is a book about Oysterville, which was written by a member of the founding family of the town. Maybe it will convince you to visit also!

Okay, So I Missed a Day

2006-09-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, I didn't post anything yesterday. I would have, honest, but Internet access at the hotel pretty much sucked. I'm not writing much today, due to driving exhaustion. I will address everyone's comments tomorrow, after I have taken a really long shower. Thanks for reading and commenting! Here are a couple of pictures from the car show. Okay, so I didn't follow through on that either (computer and/or Blogger won't let me.)
Tomorrow, tomorrow! Gives you something to look forward to!

On the Way to the Car Show

2006-09-01T19:12:00.000-07:00

Yes, today we motored a great distance to go to a car show. We finally made it to Portland, OR- and after a tussle with the hotel staff (they said that we didn't have reservations- but I convinced them we did) we re-washed the car. God, I didn't know that large wasps can wedge themselves so deeply in a car's orifices. Maybe that's not so unusual at high speeds. It sure didn't look like we spent four hours washing it yesterday.
It was a day to be thankful for air-conditioning. I didn't know it would be so warm- usually I prepare the night ahead by spraying Febreze on my clothes as a pre-emptive strike. Today I simply stunk.
Okay- big question- is it all right to wrap your whole identity around a car? My answer is yes- especially if you don't have one to begin with.
Remember that.

Flowers

2006-08-31T11:03:00.000-07:00

I don't have much energy today (med foul-ups; don't ya hate them?) so I thought I would post some flower pictures.

One Drunken New Year's Eve

2006-08-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, B and I invited some friends over for New Year's Eve. Since our house welcomes animals, their two dogs came over also, joining our cats for the big celebration.
As a new touch, my friend L and I decided to make Advocaat, which is a Dutch version of spiked egg nog. It's made with brandy and aromatic spirits. I had a new recipe to try- one more attempt in a long row of bad results. The recipe reqired about a dozen eggs, so we made a real mess. Finally, the stuff was done.
It was awful. The recipe was another dud to add to my collection. We couldn't drink it. It almost made me weep, it was so gross. It sat on the table, all by itself. We went upstairs to watch the fireworks from the window.
When we came back downstairs, all the glasses were empty. We looked at each animal closely. Sprankeltje was the one that looked drunk, and... she will eat almost anything. We watched her walk around like she had a stick up her butt.
After a while, my friends were preparing to leave. One of the dogs, Woody, a rescued Doberman, tried to stand up on his spindly legs. He couldn't. It was then we realized that it was Woody was the alky. It was really funny to watch poor Woody. He had cleaned out 4 glasses of the Advocaat. I was amazed that he didn't throw up. He had to be carried to the car.
Luckily, we were able to get drunk anyway. We had champagne and wine, so Woody wasn't the only who got to party down.

Learning to Drive- The Dad Way

2006-08-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

Learning to drive left permanent scars in my head. My dad was the lucky one who got to teach me. We were the only kids in our school whose parents had Volkswagens. Everyone else had the land-barges of the seventies. My parents were sort of hippies as far as their politics. From the time we could stand up, we washed the cars. Those were the days of chrome bumpers, and those got rust on them. I remember sitting on the driveway cement and applying "Brasso" until the rust came off. It took a lot of elbow grease. I still use "Brasso" today, as a matter of fact.
Anyway, before I was even allowed to sit behind the wheel, I had to read "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-By-Step Procedures For The Compleat Idiot" cover to cover (I think this book was the mother of all the "Dummy/Idiot" books you see today.) My dad took me to a parking lot to learn the basics of handling a stick- shift; unfortunately my parents didn't believe in automatic transmissions. I remember the poor Bug jerking violently in 1st gear, and my dad asking me "Now what happens in the car when you push the clutch in?" My thought(answer) was "I don't give a flying ?%#@%*^ what is happening in the car- I just want to get out of 1st gear." To this day, I still hear his voice when I'm pushing the clutch in.
But, as a result of all this, I do know a bit about car repair and trouble-shooting.
My dad also sort of taught me to drive the Dutch way. I'm thinking that most police would frown on this. I remember when I got my first car. It was a 1969 Volvo, and I can hear my dad telling me to go ten miles over the speed limit around corners-"these cars just love to corner!"
Maybe that's why I grew up to own a MINI Cooper S that has the bumper sticker "Bend the Rules-Rule the Bends" on the back.
Damn you, Daddy.

Here it is today:

On Having an Accent

2006-08-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

My family has been in America for a long time, but my parents still have heavy accents. Us kids learned English too early in life to retain an accent- I think you have to be about ten or eleven years old to keep one. Given this, we have a lot of fun with our parents' accents.
My brother had these little stories.
My dad called my brother L's office, and said that he was L's dad. L's boss thought my dad said that L was dead.
One day, L's boss said that a lady with a sexy European accent was on the phone. My brother answered the phone expecting something, and then it was "Hi Ma."
Then there was an incident with my younger sister. My mother was telling my older sister that she had a hard time turning people down with invitations to go out. S suggested that she say "I think I'll have to pass on that one." When my younger sister called to ask her out, my mother replied with "I think I'll have to pass on that one." A few minutes later, J called my mother back and said, "Why do you have to take a bath at one? That's the worst excuse I've ever heard."

A Birthday at the Cabin

2006-08-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

We have a cabin on "THE RIVER," as we affectionately call it . My nephew's birthday was the 25th, and we have historically spent it at the cabin. If we can pull it together, all the boys go floating for about three miles down the river to the cabin (my niece went with them this year.) My sister and the mini-van, filled with her husband and kids, plus food, chairs and floating implements; us in the pick-up (sob- we don't get to motor on this trip) with our food and floaters, first headed to the cabin to unload. Then it was to the gas station to fill up the rafts and inner tubes with air.
The drop-off spot for the floaters was at a park under the bridge. My sister asked B how long it would take for them to get down the river to the cabin, and he blithely answered, "About an hour." My sister and I looked at each other- sure, about an hour. The river is really low this year- the spring and summer have been dry. The last time we remember it being this low was about 19 years ago, and then we were able to walk across it.
There was no current. It took forever for them to round the first corner. We went back to the cabin to wait for them and to enjoy ourselves. My parents and brother showed up, and we ate and talked. It's wonderfully quiet there, but the road has gotten busier. At one point, a herd of about 50 motorcyclists went by. We saw eagles, though, and watched and listened to the wind blowing through the trees. That certainly makes up for the extra traffic!
We talked and we talked. We talked some more. Finally, after about three hours, the rafts appeared upriver. It took about another half-hour for them to get to the cabin. An hour- right.
Everyone unloaded. They were all tired from being in the sun for so long. Luckily no one got sunburned.
It was a wonderful no-tech day for the kids. They need reminders that that is still possible. No harm to the environment either! Double-whammy.

Non-Marketable Skills

2006-08-26T19:20:00.000-07:00

I have skills that don't really help me get jobs. Lots of useless skills:

Being able to say the alphabet backwards (I'm an insomniac)
Spell words backwards (again, insomnia)
I speak Dutch
I remember all the license plate numbers on all the old family cars
I have a bionic nose (according to B)
I tat (make lace)
I can motor fast around corners
My head contains lots of useless music trivia
I have a collection of weird facts about cats
I can race sailboats, but I don't care if we win
I can make left-handed bowlines and coil lines in a figure-eight pattern (due to left-handedness)
I know way too much about Migraine medicines
I can cook obscure Dutch foods
I can rebuild a Zenith-Stromberg Dual Carburetor

The list can go much further.

Does anyone know of any jobs for these particular skills? I would appreciate any feed-back or any criticism!

Some Scenic Pictures

2006-08-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures I took on a trip to the Olympic Peninsula, one of the most beautiful places on earth!
I have been going there since I was little, and it is still one of the most spiritiual places for me.

A Castle in Holland

2006-08-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

When B and I went to Holland in 2001, a main goal was for him to visit his first castle.
It is not generally known that Holland has many castles scattered over the land. Muiderslot is one, complete with a moat and drawbridge. It is about 9 miles north of Amsterdam, which helps make it the most visited castle in Holland. It was built in 1280 by Count Floris V, who used it to enforce a toll on traders. After Floris was killed in 1296 by rebelling noblemen, the castle was besieged and destroyed. In 1370, a new castle was built on the remains of the old one, and it is still there.

The Muiderslot has been used as a courthouse, national prison and the official residence of castellans (castle constables.) The writer and poet P.C. Hooft was one the most famous castellans. He lived there from 1609 to 1674, and during this time, the castle was the center of science and art. Hooft also the large gardens around the castle, which are still there today.
After being used as a prison in the end of the 18th century, the castle fell into ruins. It went up for sale in 1825, with the purpose of wrecking it. Due to protests, King Willem I stopped the sale, and Muiderslot was restored. It is now a national museum. The interior now looks much like it did in the 17th century, and it has an excellent collection of arms and armor.
We went to Muiderslot the first day B was in Holland (I had already been there for two weeks.)B loved being in a real castle. We really regret that we didn't have enough time to see more of them. You know, it's funny that we were in a country that we could drive through in two and a half hours, yet we barely got to see anything. And it's not like we were sitting around; everday we were out and about.
There will be more stories about this trip. The major memory was that we were there during 9/11, my purse was stolen, and we were scheduled to return 9/15. Just a bit of a teaser...

A Peaceful Day

2006-08-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

I went to visit my father on the island again today. The weather has cooled off a bit, which is really nice. Here are some pictures of the old ferry and the island.

Book Shopping

2006-08-22T16:31:00.000-07:00

Today I went to a bookstore just to browse. When I go to bookstores, I forget the the names of the twelve thousand books I want, and I end up waiting for them to jump off the shelf and remind me. Anyway, after about a half hour of this, I remembered that I wanted to look at some books about cemeteries. I'm pretty sure this is considered a somewhat-taboo subject in society. There didn't seem to be a special section on cemeteries, like there was for photography and children's books.
I froze. I suddenly realized that I couldn't come up with a socially acceptable way to ask for help.
I decided to leave the store and look it up on my computer. Thank goodness for technology.

The Desire to Retire

2006-08-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

B (my husband) and I spend an inordinate amount of time talking and dreaming of retirement. When we motor, we look for place to retire to. Given a couple of free minutes, we talk about our dreams for when we retire. We have our house planned, with the master suite on the main floor so when I am crippled I will still be able to make to the bedroom for my beauty sleep. The last idea was provided by B (he calls me "grandma.") The master bathtub would have a view, and B would finally have his workshop, where he would be able to break things in peace.
We would like to have a few acres, so we can have some chickens, horses and fainting goats. For those of you not familiar with fainting goats, when they get frightened, their muscles freeze and they fall over. When everything is okay, they get right back up and proceed with life as if nothing happened. Just think of the power! Everyone falls over in your presence. Ultimately, as long as I have internet and bookmobile access, I will be fine. We would also like to have enough land so that we can lay naked outside and no one would ever know.
A few years ago, I found an interesting ad in one of our local sailing rags. Someone was selling a private 16-acre island up in British Columbia for $495,000. This was when the exchange rate was extremely favorable. We were ready to sell our house and get the hell out of Dodge! Finally, our ugly little sailboat would have a purpose. Alas, 'twas not to be. I still have the ad in case we might want to buy an island some day.
In reality, we are unfortunately a ways away from retirement. We spend a disproportionate amount of time talking about not working as opposed to actually working. We are not people who get bored if they aren't working. What is wrong with people who have to work to fill their time? Isn't time for reading, motoring, sailing, watching PBS?
Maybe someone will die and leave us some cash...

An Eerie Coincidence

2006-08-20T17:43:00.000-07:00

few years ago, I went to a mall to see a movie with my mother. After the movie, we wandered around the mall to look at an antique fair they were hosting. After about 45 minutes of antiquing, I noticed that I didn't have my keys. Oh, good gravy, where could I have left them? Somewhere in that huge mall? The theater? Trying to start at the easiest place, I went back to the theatre to see if anyone had turned them in. No success. They told me I could go in to the place I was sitting to see if the keys were there. This was a big theater. I found my seat, and asked the occupant had seen my keys. She asked me what they looked like, and I described them. She then asked me if I had a CRX. Yes, I did. By some wild, weird coincidence, she had parked next to my car, which wasn't even parked close to the theater. She said she had seen my keys in the door lock. She removed them and put them under my rear tire. I could have kissed her.
What are the chances of that happening?

More Books

2006-08-18T14:53:00.000-07:00

I am reading this book. I wrote about the Hunger Winter in Holland in an earlier post. Here is a very good book about the German Occupation and the Hunger Winter. It provides a lot of background information and the author's memories of that last winter. I highly reccommend it!

This book sort of reflects my gallows humor. It is written by a woman who travels to places that have ties with the assassinations of three Presidents. She describes the political environments of the times, and the lives of the assassins. There also tons of little-known facts and stories. A very good history book, with a humorous twist.

Sailing Pics

2006-08-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my favorite sailing pictures that I have taken over the years.

The "High I.Q. Couple" in Victoria, B.C.

2006-08-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

The "High I.Q. Couple" (see 8 August 2006 post) has been to Victoria, B.C., which is on Vancouver Island, quite a few times, leaving our indelible mark. These are
Laser racing in Oak Bay, Victoria, B.C.
two examples.
1) We were on our way to our hotel. I was diving and B was navigating with the map on his lap. He was telling me where to turn and which street to turn on. I looked over, and he had the map of Vancouver displayed. I tell this story a lot, much
to B's embarrassment. It's especially fun to tell the MINI Club.
2) We tried to be savvy travellers and leave our passports and important things in the hotel safe. On the ferry ride back, I asked B if he had picked up everything before we left. No, he hadn't (didn't see that coming, did you?) So, the ferry docks, we wait for our turn to disembark, and then as we get to the toll-booths, we do a u-turn and buy tickets to go back. That's $50.00 a trip, plus the hour that it takes to get back to Vancouver Island, plus the half- hour it takes to drive to Victoria. Than back to the ferry, dish out another $50.00, sit on the boat for an hour, and finally get on the road to drive back home. We made a solemn promise not to add up how much money our little weekend cost.
Please re-enter our world at a later date!

A Look at Tom Poes

2006-08-15T15:25:00.000-07:00

I think I will finally officially introduce Tom Poes, more commonly known as "Kitten." He is a Shaded Silver Persian, and he is now about 14 years old. I got him when he was six months old. He appears to be angelic, but he is pretty macho underneath all that hair. Although he is an inside kitty, he lives to be in the jungle.
Kitten's goal in life is to get outside at all costs. Barging, screaming, waiting by the door until it magically opens all by itself, just for him.
He's been known to launch himself like a missile to the top half of a screen door, and hang there, meowing loud enough for the neighbors across the street to hear him. Once, when our front steps were being worked on, he barged as the the door opened, and he ended up sailing into the front lawn with his legs spread-eagled- there were no steps. Didn't dissuade him from his ultimate mission- to get outside. He's a stealth kitten.
Kitten weighs only 6.5 pounds, although he looks like he weighs twice that. All volume- no substance. He doesn't care about eating. Kitten lets his food drip out of his mouth, and allows the others to take what they want from his dish. He can be picked up with one hand, but he doesn't really like to be held, so he starts to "helicopter."
The one thing that is amazing about Kitten is that he loves to be washed- ergo the picture carefully placed to catch your eye and suck you into reading this blog. We took him to a groomer one time to help out with some hair clots. The groomer said that Kitten fought the razor tooth and nail, but the second he was put into water, Kitten just sat there. That's a good Kitten...
Poor Kitten has some arthritis now, but he gets glucosamine everyday, which helps a lot. He runs up and down the stairs like a real kitten.
Right now, he is waiting for me to feed him. He says he will do a post himself soon.

Emmigrating From Holland to Canada

2006-08-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

Emmigrating From the Netherlands- September 1958

As told to me by my father, May2006
My father and mother immigrated to Canada two weeks after they married. They boarded the "Zuiderkruis", a converted troop ship, in the Port of Rotterdam. The ship was moored at the Holland-America dock. They got a room to themselves because they were newlyweds. Toward the end of the voyage, they encountered a huge storm. The ship lost contact, and the shipping company thoght they had sunk. They made it to Canada though, albeit a week late.
The ship travelled through the St. Lawrence Seaway to Quebec, the first stop. My parents didn't have much money, and they bought an "Orange Crush" for the first time ever. The ship then travelled to Montreal.
My parents had to go through customs, which was a awful expereince. They had a box and some trunks. The trunks had been in the family for many generations, and I have them now. Luckily they didn't have to unpack anything. My dad had a British surplus radio, and the customs officer ended up being a radio enthusiast, so they ended up talking about the radio.
They boarded a train to travel across Canada to Victoria. There was no place to sleep on the train, so they ended up sleeping on the seats, which wasn't very comfortable.
Since they didn't have much money, they survived on bread and milk. They stopped at Banff, Alberta. This was the fist time they had been in the mountains, and they loved it. They thought the mountains were so beautiful!
Eventually, they ended up in Vancouver, and they slept in the waiting room at the station. No washing, no money- feeling pretty icky.
In the morning, they went on the ferry to Nanaimo, which is on Vancouver Island. The weather was gorgeous, and the ferry ride was wonderful. Some old friends met them in Nanaino, and drove them to Victoria. Vic was in the Navy in Esquimalt. One morning, Vic had to get to work, and woke my dad up in a horrible way. My dad had to drive him to work in his pajamas, and he didn't know his way around Victoria very well. He says it was a miracle he ever got back home.

Our First Halloween

2006-08-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

I know this is a bit out of season, but I would probably forget to post this around Halloween, so here it is.
Our first Halloween was a bit different than most Halloween experiences. My mother made our costumes. We (my older sister, younger sister and I) became witches. My mother made the tall hats, skirts and aprons and put all sorts of "witch-type figures" on them. We carved our pumpkins, and they were attached to the end of sticks so we could carry them. They had lit candles in them (this was before the days of fire safety awareness.)
Okay, here is the corker. My mother knew nothing about Halloween, and the actual day of Halloween fell on a school-night that year. She couldn't imagine that everyone would go out on a school-night, so she took us out on the preceding Saturday. We got some weird looks, but people gave us candy anyway. Needless to say, we were the only costumed kids out there. We got candy!
When my mother found out that kids do go out for Halloween on school nights, she took us out again. We got candy twice!
That was how we learned a little bit more about Halloween.

Short List of Motoring Songs

2006-08-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

My Short List of Great Motoring Songs:
~ Let the Good Times Roll- The Cars
~ How Soon is Now- The Smiths
~ Save it For Later- The English Beat
~ Anything by Bob Marley
~ Psycho Killer- The Talking Heads
~ My Sharona- The Knack
~ Anything by U2
~ Avalon- Roxy Music
~ Born to Run- Bruce Springsteen

MOTOR ON!

A Short One

2006-08-11T13:35:00.000-07:00

Today, I can only manage a short entry. I've been busy printing up a back-log of pictures that I've been promising to friends and family. I have another car show tonight, so I've also had to clean the MINI really well. It's surprising what pops up from under the seats and other hidden places. I found parts of my phone that have been missing for awhile, and some combs and hair implements. It's good I have a "no eating in the car" policy (I'm a spiller) or goodness knows what kind of awful, rotten things I would have found.
Have a great evening!

Some Favorite Lyrics and Quotes

2006-08-10T19:06:00.000-07:00

1. "Why do you tell me all your secrets when it's hard enough to love you knowing nothing?"
- Lloyd Cole
2. What's madness but nobility of the soul at odds with circumstance?
- Theodore Roethke
3. Interesting if true- and interesting anyway.
- Mark Twain
4. The moment that stuns us in life is the moment in which dreams become a reality.
- Barbara Sjoholm
5. What greater gift than the love of a cat?
- Charles Dickens
6. Life without a cat is not an option.
- Edward Gorey
7. The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
- Mahatma Gandhi
8. Lead me from death to life
From falsehood to truth
Lead me from despair to hope
From fear to trust
Lead me from hate to love
From war to peace
Let peace fill our hearts
Our world, our universe
Peace
- Cliff Hunt; "Cliffs of Despair"
9. If man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve man, but diminish the cat.
- Mark Twain
10. You are my cat, and I am your human.
- Hilaire Belloc
11. May Beauty be behind you;
May Beauty be ahead of you;
May Beauty be above you;
May Beauty be below you;
And may Beauty be in you.
- ?

My Things

2006-08-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

If you see my house, the first thing you would notice is that I'm a maximumalist, not a minimalist. We recently down-sized from a 4-bedroom house to a 2-bedroom townhouse. There were a few non-negotiable items, mainly my library. One of the bedrooms in the other house had been devoted to all my books. We bought a bunch of bookcases and put a small desk, as well as a couple of comfortable chairs, in the room. It was my escape place. All my books represent my whole life. I still have books that my dad gave me when I was little. I love to just stare at them. Pretty sad.
Anyway, the move required some serious redistribution of goods. My piano went to my mother; my antique butcher-block went to my younger sister, and my four-poster bed went to my niece. These are all on loan, at least in theory. Will we ever up-size again? That's a doozy of a question.
In the mean-time, I still have all my books, albeit they are all over the house instead of one room. I have all my things that make me feel at home. People probably make fun of me, but I didn't have much as a kid, and I'm very attached to the items that I've acquired over the years. They all make me feel secure. I have a family picture wall, a sailing picture wall and lots of etcetera walls. I love color and comfort. I love mixtures of old and new, hairy and bare. I once read that a room is incomplete if it doesn't have at least seven different kinds of wood. Not surprisingly, I meet that requirement. I love finding odd-ball things, but I have drastically cut back.
Just don't have the room anymore.

A great book for learning how to make wonderful knots:

"Adventures?"

2006-08-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, my husband and I went out for a motor (that's what you call it when you're in a MINI Cooper.) We made it point to keep turning right, and found some neat roads. We discovered a park that we had heard of but never actually seen. We decided to motor (yes, "motor" will be used ad-nauseum) through the camping area. It was packed. Tons of RV's, trailers, and a few tents. There were even some yurts available for rent. As I mentioned earlier, I remember camping a totally different way. Here, there were people walking around looking like they were desperately searching for a shower and a toilet that flushed. It weren't pretty. I told B that I am way past wanting to camp anymore. He accused me of not being adventurous in my old age. This coming from a guy that only went trailer camping when he was young. I reminded him that I had hiked the 70-mile Washington Coast, made it to the 10,000-foot level of Mt. Rainier twice, and hiked/camped all over the state and into british Columbia. I have driven to Alaska in a 1967 VW bus with a big black dog and an 18-year-old cat.
Anyway, the realization comes that I would rather stay in a motel where they will clean up after me, with a flushing toilet and a shower. I would rather sleep in a nice bed, and maybe watch some bad cable TV (can't do it at home- no cable!) I like it when someone cooks my meals and washes my dishes. The same concerns come up when the other half of "The High I.Q. Couple" suggests going cruising in our itty-bitty sailboat. Porta-potty? No way! Trying to cook when you can't even stand up? Uh-uh! Sleeping in a cramped little bunk with all our junk right in our faces? Yea, right!
I see my future as motoring long distances and finding places where others take care of me. All I want to do is drive!

The "High I.Q. Couple"

2006-08-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

My husband and I refer to ourselves as the "High I.Q. Couple." Our motto is "We Find the Longest and Slowest Line so You Don't Have To." This our way of dealing with the stupid things we do and decisions we make. Humor has kept us together.One prime example:Years ago we had to buy a car because mine was having some incomprehensible behaviors. B's mother was in the hospital, very ill, and we were under a lot of pressure time-wise. On a freezing January day, we went to a car dealer to look at a CRX. It was late in the afternoon, and it was glaringly sunny. The test drive went well, and we looked the car over closely, and decided to buy it. After we signed all our money over, they brought the car to the front of the dealership so we could drive it off into the sunset. As we got close to it, we saw a huge dent on the passenger side. Yea yea, we looked the car over closely before buying it. So we were stuck. As we were driving home, B said, "Well, we just got f-d over again. The sad part is, I'm starting to enjoy it." I broke out in loud guffaws, and all was well. What could have been a very stressful event was now in our "High I.Q." files.The "High I.Q." theory will be revisited.

How to be in the Woods When You're in the City

2006-08-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

Most of the time, I would rather be out in the woods instead of the city. One of my friends and I figured out how to pretend. She used to live in a houseboat under the freeway. The houseboat had a wood stove, and was pretty rustic.
This is how you can fool yourself- we would make a big fire in the stove, close all the curtains, and pretend the sound of the freeway was a river flowing by. We would have warm drinks and tell stories. Believe it or not, this worked.
Remembering this always brings me peace of mind.

A book about a resistence fighter in the Netherlands during WWII- also made into a movie.

Link With "Bestest Blog of All Time"

2006-08-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

After a bit of flithering about, I have officially created a link with "The Bestest Blog of All Time" (http://bestestblogofalltime.blogspot.com.) Please check it out, and I would love any feedback!
Enjoy!

A Little Bit More LOKi

2006-08-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

LOKi-
What a guy. He has beautiful intense green eyes. He has really long legs, and feet with white mittens. His coloring is very soft- more of a buff color than a true orange. We have conversations about everything, and he always has an opinion. LOKi has a sense of humor, and sees the light side of life. He also has terrible fears from a life that precedes this one- one that I can’t seem to crack or help him with. His appetite is gargantuan, for food and for life and for love. His purr is a rumbling indication that he has achieved happiness, almost to the point of becoming rusty. LOKi likes to be physical- on my lap, helping me on the computer, running to me when I call his name, and playing with inanimate objects that come to life with his touch. He wants to see what is going on all the time, except when there are strangers here!

LOKi’s entrance into our family unit was not a smooth one. There were two resident felines that made LOKi’s life quite miserable. Sprankeltje (AKA Bean) and Tom Poes (AKA Kitten) did not have a very close relationship, but when LOKi came into the fray, they suddenly became co-conspirators, making sure that LOKi had absolutely no rights. LOKi spent most of the time under an old chair that was on the upstairs landing. All that was visible was those huge eyes with anxiety written all over them. Bean or Kitten would always be sitting on guard next to the chair and they would not allow him to go downstairs. I began to wonder if LOKi would ever be allowed into the real world, whatever that consisted of.

Slowly, things got a bit better. LOKi was able to eat his food and use the litter box, just like a real cat. He was still the outcast, though, and he also had to adjust to being a kitty with a home. He very obviously had not been indoors at all. I can still see him trying to jump onto the windowsill in the living room, and then crashing into the window. Glass was new to him. There were some lessons to be learned about the litter box also. LOKi was very enthusiastic about using it, but his methods left a bit to be desired. He would have his body in it, but his behind would stick out, the result of which was that he weed all over the floor. I had to admire his attempts.

As LOKi started to develop some self-esteem, a bit of payback began to occur. He found out he could really bother Kitten without even making contact. He would get into Kitten’s face, and basically back Kitten around the perimeter of the living room. This continued ad-nauseum. I was quite amused at first; pretty much convinced that Kitten had it coming to him. It got a little too mean-spirited and it started to happen too often, so I tried to intervene on Kitten’s behalf. I yelled at LOKi to stop it- didn’t work. I picked him up and physically removed him from Kitten’s face- didn’t work. LOKi obviously was getting a huge kick out of Kitten’s misery. I finally had too much, and I began to wonder if Kitten’s old heart could continue to take this abuse (even if he did deserve it!) I yelled at LOKi that he was going to go to jail. I picked him up locked him in our dining room to let him ruminate about the bad things he had done to be sentenced to jail. The picking on Kitten continued, and I was regularly telling LOKi that had to go to jail. After awhile, I began to notice that LOKi seemed to want to go to jail. . He picked on Kitten deliberately so he would be sentenced. I would tell him that he had to go, and he would take himself to the door to be thrown into jail. Now, I thought, this is pretty weird. When I began to get lazy and ignore his despicable behavior, he sat himself in front of the jail door until I threw him in. He would then look out into the living room and Kitten and Bean would sit and look at him while he was in jail. When B and I went to Holland and the neighbor was taking care of the cats, she reported that LOKi regularly sent himself to jail.

There are many future LOKi stories to look forward to.

Family Trees

2006-08-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

I've been working on my husband's and my family trees. While there have been a lot of dead-ends, there have also been a lot of funky stories. These are from my husband's side.
One almost unbelievable tale begins with "Big William," who was 6'4" tall and weighed about 350 pounds. A woman named Elizabeth fell in love with him, but he married her sister Sarah. Nonetheless, Elizabeth swore she would have William's children. William and Elizabeth had 5 children while he was married to Sarah. Sarah and William had 11 children. After Sarah died, William married another woman named Elizabeth, and proceeded to have 16 children with her. William fathered a total of 32 children. This was obviously before the days of child support! He was eventually buried next to the river where he had lived his entire life. What a tale.
Another episode: I noticed a couple had died on the same day. That piqued my interest, so I dug a little bit further. The official account was that the husband shot his wife and then himself. The unofficial account, from the wife's brother, was that it was a Mafia hit due to a union dispute. Very interesting.
There was a young man who was shot by the local sheriff for stealing two horses. Another died when a horse kicked him in the chest. A young woman died when the horse pulling her carriage was spooked and ran off. A 17-year-old boy was shot and killed in a hunting accident. An elderly woman wrote about how difficult her life had been- no running water or plumbing, and raising 14 children.
These are all the folks that make us the people we are today. Everyday happenings and survival stories. I never get tired of it.

I bought this book to get help with researching cemeteries and gathering family tree information. It gives a lot of hints on getting death certificates, etc and interpreting the information on gravestones.

Vacations Past

2006-08-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my sister and I were remembering some of our family vacations when we were children. We usually went camping in a different part Washington State every year. Our family (four kids, two adults and a Black Lab named Sheba) all packed into a red 1969 Volkswagen bus. It was amazing that all our junk, including a couple tents, all our clothes and food fit in it. VW buses are notoriously underpowered, so we didn't get anywhere very quickly. The amount of noise coming from the engine in the back, even with added insulation, made for poor conversations. I recall one time that we got ice cream cones, and we were in the bus eating them. Someone's ice cream fell off the cone and landed on Sheba's head. A dairy bonus for the dog.
My sister and I especially remember camping at Lake Cushman, which is in the Olympic National Park on the Olympic Peninsula. These were the days before reservations were needed. We basically had the whole campground to ourselves. Our special camp-spot was at the end of the road, and it had a little trail to the lake. There was a tiny beach area. We had one of the old canvas tents that had the umbrella-type interior pole system. It collapsed a lot of times before it actually connected correctly and stayed up, but we had to be really careful not to hit it accidently or down it would go. There was no such thing as a rain fly, so we made do with a plastic tarp attached to trees. It didn't always work very well. There was no electricity, so out came the Coleman camp stove. My dad would always make oatmeal, and he would invariably let the milk boil over or burn, Yum-yum.
We had an inflatable canoe that we would take out on the lake. Lake Cushman is a man-made lake (made in 1920 as a reservoir for Tacoma,) so there were stumps sticking out of the water. I always felt it sort of made a weird moonscape. Water safety was not really practiced at that time, so we went all over the lake without life jackets. Sheba loved the canoe. She was able to jump out and clamber back in on her own. She would also let us hold on to her tail while she was swimming. A very patient animal. Those were also the days before there was fear that kids might be kidnapped, so we had a wonderful amount of freedom. I'm sure the feelings of freedom descended on our parents while we were running loose.
The campground was very forested. There were a lot of Douglas Firs (you can tell a Doug Fir by their pinecones- legend has it that there was a forest fire and the chipmunks ran into the cones, and their back legs and tails still appear on the cones) and cedars, so it was relatively cool. In that tent, it made a lot of difference. When it did get hot, you couldn't breathe in there, and that canvas could sure smell awful.
A few years ago, I went back to the campground, maybe to recapture some of my youth and happier memories. I could barely recognize it. It was filled with RV's and Satellite Dishes, and nary a tent. Every spot was taken or had a reservation tag. I guess now you have to reserve spots sometimes a year ahead of time. I had trouble finding our old spot- it wasn't as forested as before, and the campground looked so different full. What a let-down. I really didn't like being in what was essentially a crowd.
I guess memories are sometimes just that, memories.

This is a story of a woman who inherits her small family cemetery in Oregon. She becomes the sexton (caretaker) and this her story of her family and also the stories of the other people buried there. It's a moving book, and an introduction of how a small cemetery survives.

Another Lovely Day, Another Lovely Island

2006-08-01T18:54:00.000-07:00

I went on a a little trip to visit a friend on Whidbey Island, which is supposedly the longest island in the United States. D was staying at a house on the water on Honeymoon Bay. Whidbey Island has lot of neat bays- including Useless Bay and Mutiny Bay. Penn Cove is the home of the famous Penn Cove mussels. MMMMM. Coupeville is the Island County seat. It is a very beautiful little place, full of well-preserved Victorian and Italianate houses. Whidbey Island Race Week (billed as "Adult Day Camp") is held every July. It is a week of sailboat racing and social events, and usaully hosts ~200 sailboats. They usually race in Penn Cove, so the view from Coupeville is really amazing. The movie "Practical Magic," starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman was filmed there, so if you want to see it without having to travel, it's easy!

D and I went to the Sunnnyside Cemetery, which is just outside Coupeville proper. It is in a National Historic Reserve, and sits on a hill overlooking the water and farmland. D and I both think that this would be a wonderful place to spend eternity, as places for eternity go. He has a friend buried there in a family plot, but try as we might, we weren't able to find it.
It gives us a good reason to return.

Book, Book!

2006-07-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

I have been reading this book. It combines my afore-mentioned love of forensics, mysteries and the sea. Deep sea forensics is a newer field, and it is fascinating to read about what turns out be just plain accidents to spying and subterfuge expeditions.
Enjoy!

LOKi

2006-07-31T16:30:00.000-07:00

LOKi came into my life in the summer of 2000. I was living on Capitol Hill in an old (1906) house. Our backyard was not finished, and we parked our cars back there. There was a huge laurel bush along the back, and it grew on a slope. I liked to sit out there and enjoy the sun. There were cats that came to visit me, and we would have little parties together.
During the beginning of that summer, a gray kitten with soft stripes and a light orange tabby kitten would come out of the laurel bushes and sit and play in the sun. They were very shy and skinny. I would sit and just watch them, trying not to scare them away and let them get used to me. If I stood up or made any move towards them, they would scatter. One vision I remember is them playing with leaves that were coming down. The leaves would float back and forth, and they would both dance and weave trying to catch them. "The Little Gray Kitty" and "The Little Orange Kitty." I made up the story that they were brothers, although I never knew for sure if that was the case.
I put food out every time I saw them. I had to sit very still and very far away, and then they slowly started to come and eat some food. A lot of days I sat in the sun on a large chunk of concrete that was sitting there like a glacial erratic. It was very peaceful, and at some point we attained a balance of the positions of where we could be and not bother each other.
"Little Gray Kitty" was more shy than "Little Orange Kitty". Their stripe patterns were identical, and they had the same graceful, long-legged build. They both had huge ears and eyes that dominated their faces.
Food became more of a draw as the summer went on. I put the food closer to me, and sort of dared them to come get it. I remember times, when I became a bit greedy, that "Little Orange Kitty" dodged under my car and would not come out. I sometimes walked him all around the perimeter of the car when he was afraid to come out from under it. After a lot of time, ‘Little Orange Kitty" let me pet him. It took even more time before he would let me sort of hold him. This was when the food came in very handy. "Little Gray Kitty" never really came around to that stage. He would eat only when I was far away.
As summer turned into fall, I made plans to catch "Little Orange Kitty" and get him neutered, etc. and find him a good home. I never really made any similar plans for "Little Gray Kitty"- he never came close. If he had, I would have done the same. I made sure I always left him food.
I caught "Little Orange Kitty" in October. We put him in the mudroom and made an appointment at the vet for him. B left the light on all night the first night LOKi was with us, and LOKi tore up a whole roll of toilet paper (B said he didn’t want the cat to get scared in the dark; I explained that he was a feral cat and probably had been through a lot of dark nights.) He slept in the bathroom sink.
He made it through his appointment with flying colors, and he became a member of our household. We bonded immediately and completely. We had our "quality time" every evening, and became even better friends. He would sit on my head, purr and be all over me. At this time, I found a home for him. A friend from work said she would love to have him.
When A came over to pick him up, he was still incredibly, horribly afraid of strangers. He managed to crawl under the dishwasher (through a very small opening) with the strength and agility connected with blind fear. I made A a pot of tea, and we waited for the kitty to come out from under the dishwasher. It never happened. After an hour and a half, I finally told A that when he came out, I would deliver him to her house.
He came out- I began to bawl and hang on to him and realize that we had bonded too deeply, and that I could not give him up. B was kind enough to look at me and say "Merry Christmas."
That’s how LOKi came to be in our family.
His name- I couldn’t think of him as anything but "Little Orange Kitty" although I tried to give him a unique name. It finally occurred to me- "L"ittle "O"range "Ki"tty- LOKi. TA-DA!

A Couple of Books

2006-07-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

I tried to get these on my post last night, but nothing went right. Anyway, here are a couple of books I recently finished:

I love mysteries and how they are solved. This book is from the show "Cold Case Files."

This next one is sort of an odd-ball story. It's about a teenage boy who builds a nuclear reactor in his back yard. As I read how he had done this, it begged the question whether these were instructions on how someone could duplicate the project. I hope the author left out some important details!

How I Met My Husband, and Why He Should Have Run

2006-07-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

Many, many years ago, my husband and I met. It was fate, it was kismet.
I raced on an International 14 sailboat (a development-class dinghy capable of going up to 20 knots) every Thursday, and one evening I went down to meet my usual skipper. He said that he had tried to call me, but he couldn't get a hold of me (days before cell-phones.) He wasn't able to sail that night. That was okay- I could say hello to people and then go home. Someone told me that there was a guy looking for someone to sail with, and that's how we met.
The 14 is a very squirrely boat- you look at it and it turtles. This was B's first time in one, and since I don't like to skipper, B was on the helm. He didn't believe me when I told him to drop the main NOW, and we capsized frequently and regularly. We were sailing in cold seawater, and even though we were wearing wetsuits, we got pretty cold.
I was house-sitting for a friend about a half-hour north of the marina, and she always let me drive her car (a Volvo station wagon.) When I went back to the car, I found that I had locked the keys (including the house keys) in the car, along with all my clean, non-smelly clothes.
B was nice enough to drive me in my smelly wet-suit (I never was a pretty sight in one) all the way up the house. I had to crawl in a window and unlock the house, and after I changed, we looked for a spare car key. We thought we had one, and then back down to the car.
It wasn't a match. B then turned around once again and drove me to the house. I ended up calling a locksmith the next day.
Now, wouldn't you have run?

Some maritime books-

This is the story of a man that entered the first round-the-world solo sailing race. Donald Crowhurst and his boat were ill-prepared to take this on, and things start to go wrong almost immediately. In the end, his boat was found abandoned in the Atlantic, and one of sailing's great stories was born. In the boat, two logs are found- a fake one that indicates that Crowhurst is winning, and a real one. The real one follows Crowhurst's decline into madness and proves that he never left the Atlantic. I have read this book several times, and it never fails to fascinate me.

Hal Roth covered the whole race in this book. There were nine entries in this race, and they all had interesting stories. One, Bernard Moitessier, who was winning the race, decided to keep sailing and ended up living in French Polynesia. It is interesting how Crowhurst's so-called winning affected the other sailors.

Happy Reading!

More Family History

2006-07-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a bit more of my family history, beginning with my parents' marriage.
My parents were married in September 1958, in Ede. Because of the housing situation and job shortages, two weeks later, they were on the converted troopship, the "Zuiderkruis" (the "Southern Cross.) At that time, Canada had very desirable job opportunities for the Dutch, and many people emigrated to Canada. They then took a train all the way across Canada, and ended up in Victoria, BC. My older sister and I were born there (I have dual Dutch-Canadian citizenship.) We then returned to Holland and lived in Kraggenburg, which was a brand new town on reclaimed polder land. My younger sister was born there. Jobs and housing again became an issue, and my dad found a job in Wyoming, so after two years in Holland, we again picked up everything and moved just outside Sheridan. My mothere says my older sister and I went to neighboring farms and spoke Dutch, and nobody knew what to do with us.
We went on vacation to Vancouver, BC, and my parents really liked the area. He was able to find a job at the University of Washington, and so, with my mother pregnant with my brother, we drove from Sheridan to Washington State. I learned English in Kindergarten (I missed all my playtime) and have lived in the area ever since.
This is probably way too much information, but, if you miraculously need anymore, please do ask!

A Little Family Story

2006-07-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

Recently my mother gave me a few family items that had come back to her after a long absence. The items: a necklace, bracelet and earrings made from Dutch dimes, and two handmade dolls. They held a wonderful little family story.
The dimes- dubbeltjes- are all dated between 1930 and 1941. This was before the occupation, and they are solid silver. There were no coins minted during the war.
My grandmother had a step-cousin that had moved to the United States in the 1920's. After the war, she wanted my grandmother to send her some Dutch coins. The U.S. policies did not allow importation of foreign coins so my grandmother saved some of the first dubbeltjes that came back into circulation. She then took them to a jeweler to have the necklace, bracelet and earrings made. When new dimes finally started to be minted again, they were much smaller and not made of solid silver.
My grandmother then made two dolls, a boy and a girl. They are about 16" tall. My mother remembers her painstakingly hand-sewing the bodies and the Dutch costumes for them. My grandmother then stuffed the jewelry into the dolls' bodies and then sewed them shut. The dolls were then mailed to America.
The dolls and jewelry stayed with the step-cousin's family until they were returned to my mother a couple months ago.
Try as I might, I can't picture my grandmother doing something morally questionable let alone illegal. She was very religious and lived a very quiet life.
I guess you never know...

A Lovely Day on the Island

2006-07-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

went to visit my dad again today. It was a beautiful day, and we decided to go to the small cemetery. I really like old cemeteries, and I sort of started a weird project. I'm trying to take pictures of my MINI at every cemetery I can find. Anyway, we started taking a walk and looking at the gravestones. The cemetery is at the end of a little dirt road, and it is very secluded. The oldest gravestones were from the 1880's. A lot of markers were made from cement, and they were illegible due to erosion.
We started talking about how we had absolutely no physical history in this country . No graves to visit, no trace of our family history. We are the first ones to come here. In Holland, it is very expensive to be buried. Land is at a premium. When you bury someone, a gravesite holds ~5 people, and after 20 years, they are exhumed. The gravesite is then re-rented (for lack of a better word.) My dad said he never saw his father's grave, and he has no idea what happened after the grave was re-used. He assumes that he was cremated and then buried in a communal grave with other people. My dad at least has a picture of the gravestone.
We took a little tour, and my dad filled me in on some of the Island personalities and families that are buried there. There is the former Island Fire Chief who fought in WWII and the man from the electric company that no one liked. There are a lot of Johnsons buried there. It looked like the apples didn't fall far from the tree! There are several roads named after them on the Island.
It is definitely a peaceful place. There are dandelions blooming everywhere, and some graves had lavender plants that were thriving in the brown grass. Bees were buzzing in their flowers, and we watched a dragonfly flit around and eat things (I'm not sure what he was dining on exactly.)
I will sleep well tonight.

The "Hunger Winter"- World War II

2006-07-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

Today is thankfully cooler. I think I will write a little about my family history and the "Hunger Winter" in Holland (1944-45.)

The "war" In the Netherlands lasted only three days- they capitulated on 10 May 1940. They then endured five years of Nazi occupation. My father was born in 1932 in Utrecht, which is geographicaly the center of the Netherlands. He spent the war years in Bilthoven, which is about 4 miles east of Utrecht. Bilthoven is next to the airport at Soesterberg, which the Germans used as a weapon depot. Consequently, the Allies strafed the town regularly. My dad showed me the bullet wounds on the trees when we went back in 2001. He remembers that there were never any windows in his house because of the constant bombings.

In September 1944, there was an Allied plan to move north into Holland to end the war quickly. "Operation Marketgarden" (A Bridge Too Far) failed miserably, and so Holland had to wait for 8 more months to be liberated. During this last winter, the weather was very cold and there was no food. Over 16,000 people starved to death during this time. The Germans made a virtual wall around Northern and central Holland and no food or othere humanitarian aid could enter. My father had to eat his pet crow and tulip bulbs, among other things. Finally, when it was obvious that Germany was going to lose the war, a tentative agreement was reached that Allied planes could come and drop food over pre-determined sites to help the people.

Since this is a long post, I will continue the story later. Please let me know if you find this interesting!

Monday, 24 July 2006- Sprankeltje Introduced

2006-07-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Sprankeltje, which means "Little Sparkle" in Dutch. I am a Calico, and therefore weird. I was adopted from the Humane Society when I was 6 weeks old. The Humane Society had just started spaying/neutering animals before they could leave the shelter, so I had some stitches on my belly. I had an amazingly loud voice for my size- in fact I had been left at the shelter because I was "too loud." When I arrived at my new home, I just had to run up the stairs, which I had never seen before. I made it most of the way up before I went tumbling down ass over teakettle. Mom was wailing about my stitches, but they remained intact.
I was weird from the get-go. I didn't like people being nice to me- I enjoyed abuse. I wanted to be dropped upside down on chairs, being stuffed in a bag and twirled around and being pounded on. If I purred, it was purely against my will, and it meant that my body was betraying me.
I also love water. I pat it with my paws, splash around and put my paw in it and drag the dish out into the middle of the floor so Mom can step in it- it just never gets old. I love getting baths, and sit like a lump in the tub.
My nick-name "Bean" came from "String Bean" because I had long skinny legs. Those days are gone. I am guided by the hunt for constant food. I walk like an armadillo, with my back humped up. I am a stealth-eater, and I will sit immobile over a dish so that it looks like I'm not really eating. Fools them every time. Mom always says that I don't really look very bright (like I can't even hear her!) Apparently I have no pupils and I'm always looking at nothing. I have a really hard time focusing on what is happening directly around me. I like to sit in a corner and stare into it.
As time wore on (I'm now 10 years old) I began to re-think the kindness angle, but in a weird S&M-kind-of-way. I found I really, really like to be spanked, and that it was wonderful to purr while getting spanked. When visitors come over, I will approach them and assume the position to be spanked. It makes Mom sort of uncomfortable, and it's hard to explain to the poor visitors. I guess in proper society spanking is frowned upon. I'm not that smart.
It's time for me to go put my head into Mom's purse and sleep. Yes, I like to do that.
A fun little book- simple reading for a simple cat

marginheight="0" frameborder="0">

A book of cat pictures, short stories and poems from all over-

23 July 2006- A Drive in the Country

2006-07-23T16:55:00.000-07:00

I hate to be repetitive, but it was very hot again today. I went on a drive with the local MGClub, and it was a lot of fun. An MGA from Canada experienced fuel pump problems, but luckily an MGB had a spare one, you know, just in case.... I hope the MGA made it home okay! It sure makes me appreciate a care-free car. It was an odd variety of cars, a Lotus, a TR6, the MGA, the MGB and my MINI Cooper S. The only requirement was that the car is English. I also now know that I really like air-conditioning. There is a show down in Portland that I am now interested in. The show-life is starting to hook me in. ...Not that I'm going to win anything!
The cats are still looking pretty hopeless. There are some pathetic meows and sad eyes. LOKi really tries to be happy and purr, but I can tell it's an effort for him. He discovered that I applied perfume this morning, and he keeps trying to lick it off. Perfume is supposed to be a real turn-off for cats- I've read that it can be used to help keep them from scratching furniture because they supposedly hate the stuff so much. No, LOKi is certainly not normal.
Time to enter the hallowed, air-conditioned bedroom, and read the night away.

22 July 2006- Another Hotttt Day

2006-07-22T17:04:00.000-07:00

Today was another cooker. Luckily there was a little bit of a breeze for the car show. I spent the day talking to old friends and some new friends. Lots and lots of water, and staying out of the sun as much as possible. Tomorrow we'll go on a breakfast drive with the British Car Association on a bunch of backroads. The good thing is that we'll be in an air-condtioned car.
I'm tempted to hose the cats down. They are very listless, and look hopeless. Will this heat ever end? Meow.

21 July 2006- One Hot Day

2006-07-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

Today has been really hot for this area. LOKi, Sprankeltje and Tom Poes have had absolutely zero energy. I feel pretty sorry for them. They get up, take a couple steps, and then collapse. It's supposed to be even hotter this weekend. I'm actually eating a cucumber for dinner.
This morning at 7:00, I was out detailing the inside of my car. It took 3 hours, and a lot of sweat. I normally wouldn't be doing this, but my car is entered in a car show (All-British Field Meet.) I'm never in these to win, but it is so much fun meeting new people and seeing all the different cars. I'm leaving notes everywhere to remind me of things not to forget.
All this work for a non-competitive person. My sailboat-racing days are over, due to the fact that I don't really care how we do (everyone else is usually pretty serious about it.) I say it's a good day if nothing breaks, we don't lose anything overboard, and there is no blood. Don't get me wrong, I do like to sail a boat to go as fast as possible. I am very anal and excel at flying the spinnaker. I am not a good driver. I am afraid of driving downwind (there's a reason it's called a "boom.") I remember all the very small, minute things that everyone else sort of forgets(tweekers, boom vangs, outhauls and such.)
Well, time to finally take a shower. Time to sit in the air-conditioned bedroom and read a good book. !
Sleep tight

20 July 2006

2006-07-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

Good Morning,
Today I will actually write the post myself. LOKi is busy being a baaad cat, which is entertaining me no end. He is purring loudly and doing his laps. Sprankeltje and Tom Poes are just watching. It's easy to guess who has the most muscle mass.
I have been digging through some of my books. One is "50 Simple Ways to Pamper Your Cat" by Arden Moore. There are more than the implied 50 suggestions, from sailing with your cat, to a first aid kit for your cat, to recipes for home made treats and more. I refer to it often.
Today's entry is appallingly short. I will be out for most of the day, and I hope tomorrow will be a better entry day.