Hollywog's Pond

Black Hole, with Stars and Stripes

A little dramatic but that is sometimes (a lot of the time) how I feel.  Time seems to spin away and I can only assume that it is eaten up by some black hole.  How did it get to be the 4^th of July weekend?  We haven’t had any decent spring weather much less summer.  It can’t possibly be time to blow stuff up and bring out the red, white and blue decorations.  I still remember being a kid and thinking that summer days dragged on forever and how much I loved the long break from school.  It allowed for fort building, bike rides, camping trips and swimming.  I’m not too big on the living room forts anymore, keep waiting for the weather to clear before riding my bike, camping trips are scheduled regardless (fingers crossed for no rain!) and swimming is a joke in Seattle unless it takes place at the city pool for aerobics.  And that’s not really swimming anyway.

I have managed to leave the house a little.  Hung out at the Solstice Parade and got a pretty sweet pic of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.  No noodley appendage for me as they were attacking the other side of the street at my point in the parade.  I loved that they handed out sidewalk chalk for all the kiddos (big and small) during space lapses in the procession.  Any other year that would have been my favorite part because it lasts so long on the road.  Our ill tempered weather has robbed me of that as well.  Had a father’s day dinner with lots of food and nice wine.  Would like to do that more often.  Not sure how to break in on a dining group though as I haven’t had any luck starting one on my own.

Meetup has been kind of light at the end of the tunnel for me.  Really should have joined sooner.  Even if I can’t make the engagements there is a world of possibilities with people that actually want to DO stuff.  Novel idea.  Haven’t found a free yoga group yet but I keep looking.  Board games group was a hit and I intend to do that more.  They meet so frequently it shouldn’t be too difficult to get my fill there.  There’s a travel group too but no surprise at the expense.  To be involved would involve some serious budgeting.  Still deciding how to place value and worth on different experiences and how that equates to a dollar sign.

Figured out how to make yogurt.  The “French Women Don’t Get Fat” cookbook has inspired me. Giovanna’s take on the author’s breakfast of choice has converted me to a Greek yogurt junkie.  Can make as much as I want with my dehydrator.  The first batch was a little runny so I used more starter and will incubate for longer this time.  Hoping it comes out thicker.  Delicious even when it’s not perfect though!

I actually sewed something, kind of.  I bought a shirt that fit perfectly but had too short of sleeves.  Practically the story of my life.  I decided to attempt to make short sleeves with a nice hem and everything.  It isn’t as it should be (the same stitching as the bottom hem) but I don’t think you can really tell.  The only bad thing is that after crowing my success I noticed after one wash one of the seams has already started to unravel.  Gah!  Not enough back stitching I guess.

Made my first (to the best of my knowledge) television appearance.  My boss spotted me watching the last US match of the World Cup at a pub downtown.  Kelly and I got there two hours early and still had to sit outside due to crowding.  Luckily we brought chairs the second time we tried to get in so we didn't have to stand for five hours.  Was fun even if we lost because we played so poorly.  Hello, heard of defense guys?

As if I hadn't had enough butt time in my camp chair I decided to check out a Twilight event at Fremont outdoor movies.  I thought they were showing Eclipse and having fanfare.  I was wrong.  They were having fanfare, a 10 minute teaser to Eclipse and then showing New Moon.  Was still fun even if I left way early due to freezing temps (despite layers, hat, gloves and a blanket).  Come ON summer!  The twi-hards, as they call themselves, were hysterical.  Truly mad.  I saw a 40+ woman kissing a cardboard cutout of Edward.  Ew.  There was one woman that brought a framed movie poster to sit next to her.  Another with a t-shirt that said, "future twi-hard" with a down arrow pointing to her belly.  Really?!?!  And anytime there were some shirtless shots - and if you know the books/movies there are several - there was a deafening squeal that probably made dogs uncomfortable.  The MC was going around at one point before the screening asking a lot of people what their favorite scene was from Twilight (movie or book).  A male photographer shooting the event got caught and responded, "the credits because then I knew it was over".  Ha.  and  =P

Geocaching craziness this weekend.  Looking forward to GeoWoodstock and starting the trifecta soon.

Update: Blogger wouldn't let me do jack this morning so I am here now post-GeoWoodstock.  It was lots of fun!

And nummy food.  Go Remlinger Farms!  Lots of interesting people and I purchased a TB for my car.  Our Blessed Lady of Acceleration is now a trackable item.  Sigh {tear}, I'm so proud!  I was mostly overwhelmed as I've never been to a mega event before.  Next time I'm bringing more money.  I think.  I got two caches that are the hidden in plain sight style.  Want to convince someone with a house to let me put one in their yard and I'm hoping to get one near work so I can monitor it during lunch.  And it would be awesome if I got Dad involved with his car - he drives everywhere in that thing!  Mine won't get too much love as it is mostly in a garage at home or in a garage at work.  It's the fuzzy white thing in the left bottom corner of my rear window.  It looks like this but mine is the other way up.

Someone stole the cover to the APE cache.  How freakin' rude.  They did it purposely, I'm sure, the day before 500 people gathered for the sole purpose of finding this cache.  Whoever you are, you are L-A-M-E.  And a rotten person that takes pleasure in the suffering of others.  Feel really bad about yourself and your act of selfishness and then give the cover back to groundspeak.

On schedule for the rest of this holiday weekend is fireworks from my deck for the big show that wasn’t supposed to go on and a day off before back to work insanity.  So much going on there I find it easier to not go into detail at the moment.  Will just make me mad.  Again.  Hoping for bluer skies!

Photo courtesy of Kelly, from my deck.