17 December 2006
of trees and beef jerky and breakfasts downtown
We survived the Big Storm 2006 in Seattle, which left over a million people without power. The bridge over which my sweetie commutes was closed for almost a day, meaning: he couldn't go into work. (I was not disappointed Friday morning, no, in fact, I was cheering!) Some of our friends didn't have power for 48 hours. Our lights flickered once, and we had power the whole time. With freezing temperatures, it has been rough for those without power, and I'm grateful, with a nearly three month old baby, to have been warm the whole time....
She is fascinated by the world, this little one. Most anything new is delightful (she stared at plates hung on our kitchen wall for minutes today), and she is amazingly good natured if she has her regular naps. If she misses one, however, woe be us! Then "Cranky Baby" emerges, not to disappear until she falls into a sound sleep at 9 pm from which she only awakes, when woken, the next morning around 6, 7, 8, even 9.... Ah, 12 hours of sleep! Those were the days for me, too....
We got our first Christmas tree today, and the smell of what I think is Royal Fir is permeating the house. We decorated it. Since my parents split up and the holidays have gotten harder, so since 2003, my sweetie (who doesn't celebrate Christmas but participates in the holiday spirit, which is very sweet) and I have been getting one new special ornament a year, to make it somehow special. The first year we got a big, straw star to top the tree. The second year we got a carved gourd from Peru that is neat. Year three we got a cheesy Hallmark ornament that looks like a door of a house, with a "new home" sign on it, and the year, 2006. That was to commemorate our first house. This year we have a white porcelain star with a picture of our Miss E. on it. I hope it is the type of thing she'll look at each year, and, when she's twenty and comes home for the holidays, pull out of the box and hang on the tree and smile about, and say "this used to be one of my favorite ornaments"....
Waxing nostalgic already for events still in the future. By definition that is NOT possible!
Listened to Prairie Home Companion this morning on NPR, where they had the former Poet Laureate Billy Collins on. I'm not generally a fan of poetry, but I have to admit I'm hooked now to his sense of humor. Not to mention that Guy Noir, Detective, always makes me smile.
A friend from the UK with her fiance were in town, and we had a lovely breakfast with them yesterday at Etta's, a restaurant just north of Pike's Place Market. Always good to see them! Lucky ducks are getting married in the Caribbean in a few short months. The Market is always a joy to shop at... I nosh on beef jerky, sample jam, suck on honey sticks, avoid tourists with the ubiquitous backpacks clutching their purses as if there were muggers around every pretty bouquet of flowers... and it was Miss E's first visit there. We took the requisite picture, though you can't see her at all... she was bundled up in her Bjorn carrier, toasty from head to, well, toe.
The kitchen pots, empty, await some sort of delicious concoction... wish there was some easy leftover to reheat instead....
dandlioneyes at 6:29 pm