still aching plus i've moved on flickr or should that be fuckr?

no pics today, my little loves. and it's not because your auntie mame is hung.

if you've been keeping up with my tiny life, you know that i've been dealing with the back issue. that continued on monday and tuesday.

the good news is that i'm getting better! in fact, today i might even be able to pick things off of the floor.

the bad news is that i have to rush the healing process because we're having company in from out of town on sat and i have to clean.

while we're on the subject of bad news (well, no, not really. perhaps it's just annoying news.) i've had to abandon the rakka fuckr, er, flickr account. why? because yahoo is a bitch, that's why.

oh, i could ramble on about how much i hate them and their pathetic company but i think perhaps i'll just sit back and enjoy the hostile takeover bid that microsoft is throwing their way. again. go get 'em, bill! kill their stock value! *huge grin*

anyway, if you'd like to continue following my mudane existence in pictorial form, you'll have to do it at the new rakkadeer account.

i'm not sure if i'm going to bother going pro with it. i'm loathe to give those little bitches the money. i'll keep you posted.

as for now, however, i have a date with a bottle of mrs. meyers cleaner. ciao, bellas!

i am not taking full advantage of shark week

even though it is



i'm not living my life like it is at the moment. things are feeling a bit more



in fact because i haven't been able to move around very well. (my back. she is out. if i could go back in time and tell my 18 year old self not to jump off that stupid fucking moving truck, i *so* would. 35 year old me does not appreciate the back and knee injuries that we have to deal with as a result. asshole.)

anyway, i missed the top pot donut eating contest. again. leff made it though and he took lots of pics and video for me! isn't he sweet? (he also wrote about it.)

guess it's back to the couch to stare at the ceiling again. sigh...

(ps--for those of you who are interested, i'm still dealing with the yahoo bs. did i mention that their customer service rep couldn't remember my name throughout the short call. also, he hadn't even heard of flickr. stay classy, yahoo!)

two more days

despite dealing with the annoyances of yahoo's minions (the less said about the better), it hasn't been such a bad two days. j and i attended "the boss of you" event at velocity.







yes, yes. it's blurry but here are the authors, emira mears and lauren bacon.



next month, i'll be one of the people presenting at the "bring and brag" lab. it'll be about suspect and fugitive. i'll post details closer to the date for those of you that care.

i know i say this every year, but i cannot believe that there are hydrangeas blooming so late in the year here.



that is absolutely one of my most favorite blues in the world. it's, like, phthalo blue mixed with titanium white. delicious!

what else? oh, yes! leff received a nice bonus at his job (i won't mention why because it'll embarrass him but he's awesome and i'm really quite proud of him.) so we've put a rush on spiffy-ing up the place. here are two pillows that he bought on etsy. peel loves them!



recognize the one on the right? it was on craft blog the other day. i have to admit to that having been a bit disorienting at first. but then i thought, to quote leff, "you snooze, you lose, bitches!"

k, it's time for me to get back to work. just remember, nobody fucks with the cheesus.

feast!

i'm not going to go into how much i fucking hate yahoo. i'm just not going to do it.

i'm also not going to bore you with the details of my work filled monday and tuesday.

i will, however, show you the incredible sushi that leff and i had last night at shiki. every roll was super delicious.







tonight's velocity lab, sweet meats! be there or be a geometric shape!

a couple of days in the neighborhood

thanks to "the blues brothers", mild weather and not leaving the boundaries of queen anne (but not venturing to the bite of seattle), it was an all around satisfactory weekend.

instead of the bite, leff and i attended the opening of the new counterbalance park. there were city council members galore (along with greg nichols) as well as many dogs. here is one of them.



it's appropriate really since the first passenger on the trolley was a terrier. for realsies.



who likes to rock the party? that's right! new zealand!



why were we in the new zealand section at larry's/metro? because leff and i bought quite a bit of wine this weekend now that we have a "wine cellar". you know, an ikea wine rack inside of the malkovich space?

my favorite of the bunch label wise? ('cause we buy primarily by the way the label looks) layer cake. although i'll probably be disappointed when it doesn't taste like cake.



no, that's not really a related picture. so what? this next one isn't either but it's divine.



really. it is.

i get pretty bitchy plus some photos

i need to air a grievance, puptents. you know how i don't like to talk smack about people that i know in rl online. while i won't name names, today i'm making an exception to that rule. a certain someone (actually a few someones) who live in eastern standard and central time zones keep forgetting that i fucking live in the pacific time zone and am, therefore, SEVERAL HOURS BEHIND THEM.

so no matter how well meaning their texts and phone calls are when it's 8am their time (which, honestly, still too fucking early to call), it's FUCKING 5 A.M. MY TIME. i can't be bothered to give a shit about ANYTHING at that hour much less social niceties particularly if i've just finally managed to fall sleep. i've lived here almost 3 years now. how long is it going to take you to learn to do the simple math?!?!

so a warning to you few. CUT IT THE FUCK OUT#@!!#@#@!!#@ if it happens again, i'll call you at 2 am MY time just to shoot the shit.

ok. sorry to get all stabbity but, you know, sleep is a big deal to me. esp since i'm in the middle of another bout of insomnia.

moving on, jessie is awesome!



i tagged along with her to venue the other day. sadly there was a broken gnome.





but, happily, a cute puppy.



aww!

what else? um, i'm working on a lot of things that i can't talk about yet. like, a LOT of things. hopefully, i'll be able to tell you about them soon. until then, check out a sketch for a new project i've started working on. (yes, in addition to s&f.)



tigers are fucking awesome.

back on friday

things are busy. back on friday.

openings and other things

so what did you do this fine july weekend, chitterlings? did you attend a billion art openings? me neither. but i did manage to make it to two! the first of which was for hello, brute/jon knox's show at schmancy!







i adore jon and his roomie tim! if you guys are reading this back in san fran, it was a *lot* of fun hanging out on friday night! i hope that you got to see david cross!

also, thanks for all the beer!



while at jon's opening, leff and i were lucky enough to score some free tickets to the sp20 comedy show!



we were able to see both kristen schaal's and todd barry's acts! so hooray for us! and many, many thanks to the sub pop employee who slid the tickets our way! you rock!

wait, i just realized that if you're not in the seattle area, you might not be aware of the big 20th anniversary celebration of sub pop records that was going on this weekend. it was a sizable deal. don't believe me? check out exhibit a.



and for those of you who like motion, here's the city flyin' the flannel.



(yeah, yeah, i know that fIREHOSE was never on sub pop. shut up.)

in all honesty, i was fairly excited about this whole anniversary thing. in fact, the 15 year old me (that is, sadly, still not far from the surface all these years later) was beside her flannel clad, steel toed boot wearing, tad listening, grape kool aid hair dyed, sassy reading self.

you know what's even scarier than being a 15 year old trapped in a 35 year old's body? this!



archie mcphee can be so, so creepy at times.

anyway, let's move on to opening two! saturday night saw leff and me at venue for cakespy jessie's show! sadly none of the photos of her work came out. (you can go to her etsy shop, however, and get a good idea of what it's like!)

she made some *adorable* cupcakes. here's a blurry shot of her twinkie hot dogs!



and of the chicken ring.



sorry, inside joke.

sunday was, when compared to friday and saturday, quite dead.



but there were fluffy pink scooters



and we finally bought curtains for the living room.



(they need to be slightly adjusted but i'm happy with the overall look.)

k, i need to finish up the apt before wed (when leff has an old college roomie in town) so smell you later!

sweetness and light (with a second hand celebrity sighting!)

first things first! here're a couple of opening announcements that should be of particular interest to you if you happen to live in the seattle area.

numero uno: jon knox/hello brute's opening for "a boy who won't be good" is from 6-9p tonight at schmancy. jon is already in town so please swing by and give him a warm pnw welcome!

secondly! cakespy jessie is the featured artist this month at venue! (more info) she'll be a part of the ballard art walk on saturday.



go give her a high five and have a cupcake!

speaking of cakespy jessie, she invited me to tag along to the daily candy book launch. (thanks, jessie!) it was exactly what i thought it would be but still managed to be fun. (i'll let you figure that one out on your own, gpiss sherlocks. *wink*)



i wonder if anyone ever ate any of these cupcakes...

okok, so sp20 is going on, right? there are several of my favorite people in town (the conchords, david cross, kristen schaal...)

speaking of kristen schaal, leff saw her last night when he was on the bus! i'm so jealous!



(kissten schaal for s&f)

i'm hoping to catch a glimpse of her and the other aforementioned people while i'm near the moore this afternoon. (it's weird! i've never been excited by the possible proximity of celebrity before. it's like i don't even know myself!)

in other not as thrilling news, i should have time to try out my new ceramic coffee cup.



i'm *really* into this thing! (esp since my coffee "cosy" fits around it.)

that pretty much sums up the past two days. i've been scattered because there's been a lot going on behind the scenes but i'm absolutely into all of the sunshine we've been having this week! (you were wondering when the "light" part of the title was going to happen, weren't you?)

when a wed feels like a mon

today is off to a really slow start. not even this picture of leff with a tiny cowboy hat is making me laugh as much as it should.



in other words, i'm phoning this one in. have some ambient style ferry photos and a movie







and then decide if you'd like to use my new swurl page where you can keep up with everything that i'm doing at once. it's a pretty handy link, friends and family. hint, hint.

july 4th weekend = more photos (and vid) than you can shake a stick at (even if you had a really big stick)

i honestly didn't think this weekend was going to be as jam packed and action filled as it ended up being. in fact, those adjectives made me feel kinda' like a super hero.

kapow.

speaking of kapow or, rather, kaboom, leff and i caught the jul-iver's fireworks from the lqa overlook on friday night.



they were ok but i enjoyed the chicago and chili dogs that we'd eaten earlier in the day a bit more.



contrary to the introductory paragraph, friday was rather laid back. we watched hitchcock movies. a *lot* of hitchcock movies. which, to me, is the perfect way to spend a patriotic holiday. you know, by watching the films of a british director and skipping all that apple pie nonsense.

saturday was all about the id. we had lunch at a great little place that leff is sure to write about on his food blog. after lunch, we dropped by uwajimaya in search of mangosteens but found geoducks (pronounced goo-e-ducks for those of you not in the pnw) instead.



that was the first time i had ever seen geoducks in person. my response? "fuck! what the...fuck! *camera sounds*".

i honestly hope that it will be the last time that i see one of them as well. i can't get my head around eating one of them (a KNIFE? i have to CUT them?!) but i should quickly add that i'm not a seafood eating person in general (aside from tuna in a can, crabcakes, prawns, tuna steaks and the odd scallop) because of a terrible case of food poisoning that i had when i was little that came from eating a sea beast.

that being said, please don't hate me because i hate geoducks. hate me because i have lychees ripening on top of my microwave.



i'll also allow you to hate me for getting this sushi platter for around $4.



and now we come to sunday, sunday, sunday. you'll never guess where we went!



yes, mt. rainier! sadly, the need for an arrow marker would turn out to be a theme for the day (it was so foggy that we couldn't see the mountain even when we were at its base in paradise.) but it was still a lot of fun.

well, except for puyalllup and its strip malls. but i digress. the mt. rainier park was beautiful!



and fucking snowy! in july! (yes, altitude plus record snowfall year. i get it. still, it's JULY!)



one nice thing about the trails is that there are no weapons allowed.



no, international readers, not all americans carry guns. in fact, i have never opened a ketchup bottle with a pistol at a picnic in my entire life! fact!

one big reason for our hightailing it out of seattle (other than the need to get. out. of. the. city.) was the fact that the old 60's information center will be closed this fall.



it's kinda' sad. i really like bizarre u.s. architecture from the 50's and 60's. it's got a lot to do with that sense of hope for the future. (this is that same reason that i adore the monorail.)

there's another picture of the interior in a moment (consider yourself lucky that i'm only posting one. i took almost 75 photos of it.) but let us consider the view.



like i mentioned earlier, the view was nonexistent on sunday. ergo, i had no need for distant viewing. in fact,this is how we saw rainier.



good thing i like plastic models.

k, here's the visitor's center again.



cool, huh? now let's get to the snow.

leff and i took this trail. did i mention that it was july? oh yes, i did.



just so you can see that i'm not kidding about poor visibility, here we are at the base of the mountain.



and, for the hell of it, a video.




do you hear that? the sound of nothing?

but, like i said, there was still plenty to do even though my favorite volcano decided to sleep in. things like the paradise inn lobby!



and blurry wildlife!



animal viewing tally: 10 deer, 2 marmots, 3 chipmunks, too many tourists to count

oh! and a bear!



at longmire, we took the trail of shadows



which was not only hobbity



but also had a geothermal spring!



i promised myself that i would limit the wordage regarding my love of tavertine mound so, i'll just say this: "fuck! what the...fuck! *camera noises*"

and throw in a video of the bubbling for good measure.




one last bit about rainier and i'll move on. there is water. oh yes, lots and lots of water. see for yourself!







the only other thing that i did this weekend was beat "professor layton and the curious village".



i'm telling you, drop what you're doing and get your hands on this game. it's simply wonderful! (and wonderfully difficult until you get your head back into logic problem mode.)

can i stop writing now? good. leff has another day off today and we need to go do something.