Hydrangea in the 'Hood
Here are the very first few tiny blossoms on a very large hydrangea down the street.
 

Safety-First Clyde (or not)...
Dave wisely dons his safety goggles to cut some wire shelving to size. Dave not-so wisely decides to use a crumpled up piece of paper to shield his hands from sparks and flying metal. When I mentioned the possibility of using a glove, he said, "Yeah, that would work too."

Anyway, I am happy to report that there were no industrial accidents and the shelving is now doing its job.

Flower Power
Coming back from the beach earlier today, I walked underneath all of these beautiful blossoms. I wonder how they're holding up to the rain that is falling now... 

Mike, Juliet, Dave
and I walked down to the beach to get Mike some coffee, and Dave and Juliet some lunch.
















Juliet picked a daisy that was poking through someone's fence and turned it into her own fashion statement.










View from Alki Bakery. The tide was low (minus two foot).

Dine Out for Life
We did.
At Blackbird Bistro.
We sat at a table in the bar.
Two Manny's.
Two market greens salads.
One macaroni and cheese.
One ravioli with pesto cream.
Carbs/Schmarbs!



http://blackbirdbistro.com/

Ferntastic
Look at how curly this guy is. I love it!

 

A Not-So Velvet Evening
OK. So I was hoping to report that my first coat of Velvet Evening had gone on smoothly and already looked terrific, even before being finished with a second coat of paint. No such luck.

Things looked suspicious the moment I opened up the can of paint. It had a consistency of something in between pudding and frosting. (All of the other colors of paint have been more like a half-melted milkshake.) I went ahead and put some on the wall, where it looked horrible. Then I consulted with Dave about it. We decided that we would just consider this to be primer or a base coat. I finished the whole wall, and it looks awful. I have a feeling it's going to take a few days to dry, and when it finally does, I'll have to sand half of it off and start all over again.

I thought I was so close to being finished with painting. But apparently, I'm not. 

Chive Talkin'...
So pretty...
and so
tasty!

Painting, Painting, Painting
So I spent most of the weekend painting the bedroom. (And it's still not quite done!) The Behr paint colors are: Squirrel - that's the greenish grey color on the wall...Light French Grey is on the ceiling...it's a very light bluish-grey. The weird "features" in our room (attic door and box that allows the basement door to open) are painted Dark Storm Cloud...which is a greyish blue. Coming attraction: Velvet Evening, which will be painted on the short wall in our room...pictures to follow. Dave has been (very!)busy constructing an IKEA-esque storage
entertainment unit...pictures to follow.












Painter's lunch & dinner (linner? dunch?): Salmon Burger from Pepperdock.

Friday Night at IKEA
One of my favorite (non-alcoholic) beverages:
Delicious lingonberry juice. Mmm. So refreshing.


















I have not tried any of these varieties of herring. But I find the brand name quite off-putting. I never liked ABBA.

Juliet Loses (N) (Lateral Incisor)
She "just wiggled it and wiggled it and then it came out. And when it did, it felt like...air."







Juliet showing off what she is missing...






What the tooth fairy will find.

The Great Escape
These are the things I'm used to seeing as I leave the office every day:
Giant painting in lobby.









Elevator bank.












Since there is no fire, I'm choosing to use the elevator.











Lobby please, and step on it!

Salmon Berries in the Making...
I noticed this salmon berry plant (Rubus spectabilis) poking out of the hillside on my walk down the hill from the bus to home today. I'll have to keep an eye on this, because a fresh berry or two on the way home is always a treat.

Fresh Batch
Dave brought home a pony keg of Manny's on Monday night. (We had had a measly sixth of a keg before.) This ought to see us through our next round of home improvements, which will start this weekend by clearing out our bedroom and ripping out the carpet. Then I'll paint it, then next weekend (probably) Dave will install new cork flooring planks. Then we will finally hang the drapery panels that Dave's mom sewed for us when she was up last summer. It's going to look great (hopefully!) when it's all done. But it's sure to be a "thirsty" project.