Memorial Day
Veterans on Memorial Day Call For End To Iraq War
How should we support our newest veterans? By bringing them home, and taking care of them once they’re back. It’s that easy.
This is more a Veteran’s Day post than a Memorial Day post; I guess I’m more focused on those who are still with us.
D.
Mo pix
We saw a cute bird over near Pike’s Market. Me, I don’t know birds. I can distinguish crows from herons, vultures from pigeons, and that’s about it. To me, anything small and brown like this is a sparrow. If anyone wishes to correct me, go right ahead.
During lunch, we had an entertaining view.
More photos below the fold.
Pals
Stan, that handsome devil on the right, fixed me up with Karen some 25 years ago. He told Jake today, “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t exist. I guess that makes me your real dad.”
Yup. Stan has always been this way.
Left to right: Jayna, Elissa, and Stan. Tonight was a hoot.
(When I’m back home tomorrow, I’ll be able to use my Paintshop Pro and give y’all more photos with better quality. Right now, I’m using some freeware which I’m not altogether comfortable with. Hence the crappy quality.)
D.
Best sushi ever
Karen and I know our sushi. We may not be the most knowledgeable sushiphiles out there, but we’re competent, okay?
Sam’s Sushi Bar & Grill in Ballard (a neighborhood north of Seattle) had some of the freshest sushi, biggest portions, and reasonable prices that we’ve ever seen.
And if that didn’t make much sense, let me add that they serve a terrific tall hot sake.
At that link (above), this negative review tickled me:
I think there are Chinese making Japanese food,Food is bad,Service was’nt good also!
This reminded me of my high school friend, Weyton. He used to say, “Chinese make food that tastes good, Japanese makes food that looks good.” (He’s Chinese. Could you guess?) When I read that review, I imagined Weyton saying, “See? We even do sushi better than those Japanese.”
Protected Static: take your pick between this and Volterra. Next time we’re up, we’ll treat you & your fam. (We’d have done so this time around, except that Karen has been so wiped most of the time.)
BTW: The interviews are history, and now I’m waiting for the offers to roll in 🙂
D.
Finish this sentence: location, location . . .
We looked at real estate in the Seattle area today, and Jake radiated disappointment in great, mighty waves. How dare they charge this much for this little? seemed to be his feeling. Problem is, we visited the Olympia area first, and of course you get more for your dollar there. A lot more. Twice as much, seems like.
So, no, we didn’t see any homes we fell in love with, not that it would make a difference; no matter where I go, it’ll be a few months before we’re ready to buy. CREDENTIALING! Hospitals don’t give just any shmoe privileges. Well, sometimes they do (hey, Leann, you reading this?) But even when they do, they still have to go through the credentialing process, and that takes time.
Back to the homes. It seemed like a good idea at the time to have the agent drive us around the various neighborhoods, but by the second hour of this (in the back seat of her Beamer — and why exactly did I go into medicine instead of real estate sales?) I felt sick. Perhaps I wasn’t in the best mood to look at homes.
Deep down, I agree with Jake. I understand the location3 rule on an intellectual level, but my gut still isn’t down with it. I should be less of an idjit about this, though. After all, if our present home weren’t on the ocean, it would be worth about $39.95.
D.
PS: Here’s where we ate tonight. Mmmmmm.
Sentiment
Bloggin’ on the Blackberry tonight, so this will have to be a short one.
Driving to my interview this morning, I remembered something I hadn’t thought of in years. The hospital’s impressive size jarred the memory; that,and the inevitable comparison to my little 44-bed (or whatever) hospital.
We had just moved to Crescent City a scant few weeks before, and Jake had just had his third birthday. While walking with me through our hospital’s foyer, he said, “I like your hospital, Daddy. It’s very nice.”
I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it choked me up a bit to think of it. “My” hospital. There’s such innocence there, and such sweetness in the sentiment.
We had dinner with my friend Stan last night, as I’ve mentioned. His baby girl took a shine to me and insisted I spoon-feed her her dinner. I haven’t done that in a long, long time. So maybe that’s on my mind; maybe I’m remembering Jake at that age; maybe I’m thinking about how much he has changed in the last nine or ten years.
It seems like such a long time . . . and it has gone by way too fast.
D.
Wish me luck
Interview #1 is tomorrow (Wednesday). Today, we looked at real estate & saw some amazing homes. Then we caught up with our friend Stan and his new baby girl, Jayna, and ate at a great Chinese restaurant (Shanghai Garden).
Over dinner, Stan said, “You have nothing to worry about. The most difficult question they’re going to ask you tomorrow is, ‘What happened to your hair? What is that, chemo or something?'”
I love my friends 🙂
D.
Monday Evening Snippet
I’m exhausted from traveling, so I’m gonna pull a fast one on you. A really fast one. I’m posting a short excerpt from my WiP, She Came From Earth.
Here’s what you need to know: Lisa and her baby brother Billy Ray have been abducted by an extraterrestrial cyborg Brad Pitt. She’s not sure what they want with her, but she’s figured out why they want Billy Ray: extraterrestrial cyborg Angelina Jolie wants to adopt a real human baby!
Meanwhile, extraterrestrial cyborg Steven Spielberg is busy directing a rip-off of Lost and he’s keeping Lisa nearby because all the cyborg actors want to steal glances at the Real Human Girl.
Lisa’s has had just about enough of all these extraterrestrial cyborg pseudo-Hollywood types, but she’s held captive by two burly Roon Vissars named Rolf and Kevin. Roon Vissars are . . . well, you’ll figure it out.
And not even a good fake
What’s wrong with this picture?
Write your answers in the form of questions and cue appropriate music. My question below the fold . . .
Dig the frog
Sighted this morning, perched atop our algae-overgrown tub “pond”:
My best guess, this is Rana aurora, the Northern Red-legged Frog, indigenous to Del Norte and Curry Counties. I saw two of them this morning, but the smaller of the two was camera shy. Nothing could perturb this big fellow.
The call doesn’t sound familiar, though . . . and that means we have another species lurking about. Probably several.
***
We are NOT in transit to Seattle. Karen had some severe abdominal pain last night, so we spent the evening at our friendly neighborhood ER. Nothing serious, she’s fine, but we decided to scrub our Saturday departure date until she felt better. Current plan is to depart Monday morning. Since my first interview is Wednesday, we still have some wiggle room.
***
Coasting on 2.5 hours of sleep, I have this overwhelming desire to do nothing but veg out playing some old computer game — Civilization III, perhaps, or Diablo III. Both of those games are mindless and endlessly replayable. I never could get my head around Civ IV; Leonard Nimoy’s voice-overs were fun, but the slow, tedious, and bloodless gameplay made Civ IV a yawn-fest. Someone decided to make military conquest nearly impossible in that game. Not my idea of escapist fun.
***
A patient’s husband picked up my tab for breakfast this morning. That’s never happened to me before.
I liked it.
Live blogging tonight? Maybe, if I’m not too sleepy.
D.