New Park

Today I went exploring and I found a new park. Well, I knew the park was there but I didn't know the extent to which the park was there! It is carved into a very steep hillside and runs from the top of the hill to the bottom through a forest with twisty turny pathways. It was a very lovely little forest oasis and I wouldn't have known I was in a city at all except that it has become a sort of transient camp for some homeless people. I felt a little unsafe walking there alone but I did find a somewhat-secret tennis court that J and I might go back to try.

A

Mrs. Cylcone brought over one of her great "secret test wines", this time champagne for celebrating, the bottle marked simply "A".

We toasted the happy couple and the end to a great weekend.

You'll have to live with this as the last post for the moment since my husband is home from work, my kids are awake from their naps, my clock says 7:08 PM, and real life beckons!

One Last Dinner

On their way back through town, we got to see the Dragon-Fires one last time, on their actual anniversary. So, we had a little dinner at the house and got to use the Wine Barfing Chicken from our honeymoon. Another link to Mrs. D-F's blog for some additional commentary: Wine Barfing Chicken

My Muse

Click here to see what I wrote about her.

Sunday

I have this one group of friends here in Seattle (or 4 separate friends, depending on how you look at) who shall remain nameless...with whom it is nearly impossible to schedule a single date in 6 months when we can all get together. But, sometimes, if you call SUPER LAST MINUTE and say something like "what are you doing right now can you/I come over in say 15 minutes?" you get lucky.

I shot this in the always weird wait between ringing a doorbell and someone coming to answer it.

Lincoln Park

Sometimes I think, if I didn't take a photo every day, and I didn't have this blog, I wouldn't remember a single day of my life.

With the D-F's off anniversarying in the islands, I went out on a shooting trip with my good friends from RMSP, L and D. We went driving around looking for new neighborhoods to shoot and though we didn't find much, D did introduce me to a completely new beach and park in West Seattle called Lincoln Park. It has a huge stone beach!

My notes from the day:
Found a new beach. Full of wood and stones.

A little boy: "Do you want to see some animals?"

Me: "Sure, yes, of course I do."

J

J at the pizza place.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary you two! You are such a wonderful couple. I can only hope that J and I love and annoy each other as much in 9 years...

Mrs. Dragon-Fire Gets her own page

I am still practicing with my new 50mm lens that many, many photographers SWEAR will create beautiful portraits for me. I usually refrain from trying to post too many/too close/or potentially not-liked photographs of my friends on the blog but after what Mrs. Dragon-Fire posted of me on her blog...I am not holding back! She gets her own page!

Scroll down for lots of photos.

Mrs. Cyclone Gets her own page

Back to the awesome weekend with friends...it was the Dragon-Fires anniversary so Mrs. Cyclone joined us after work, and she always brings us delicious wine (one of the perks of having a friend who works at a winery). Here are some pics of her enjoying the fruit (juice) of her labor...

Scroll down for three photos

Pause

Ok, I am going to take a little pause here to remind you of a few things and make you click on a few links! Yay!

Many of you were throwing cute little tantrums about my lack of recent posting. I would just like to remind you that:

- I am often posting new work on my "real website" - most recently an entire new portfolio of "Timeless Women".
- I post EVERY SINGLE DAY to my blog Sea and Sky so if you really need an M fix, there's one waiting for you every single morning! Plus, you have Sky's photos too.
- I post somewhat frequently to my other blog, for my "work" here.
- I have been working almost every single day in April, including weekends, and while J was gone in NY for a week I kind of forgot to do anything BUT work so, you know, I'm not slacking.
- After 12-14 hours of staring at my screen a day, I have to learn to get away from it for most of my evenings and weekends. I am trying to unplug.
- If you're still really bored at work, go check out the blogs I list below under "people I like".
- You could always console yourself by buying some FREAKING NOTECARDS from my store! Then, you could look at them every day.
- Also, you should go look at this and make it tonight - doesn't it look delicious?

Fergalicious

Yeah, that is, unfortunately, one of Fergus' many nicknames. Fergalicious! Because he SO is, ya know?

Interesting story behind this post. This was a Friday, and our friends the Dragon-Fires were passing through town to go off and celebrate their 11th wedding anniversary like two newlyweds. We were all chatting in the living room, but I always have a camera nearby, and when Fergus decided to sit in such a great sunspot I had to photograph him. While I was doing this, my friend Mrs. Dragon-Fire was photographing me photographing Fergus. She has a hilarious account of our weekend on her own blog Parenthetical Statement. It's worth the read because on Grumblehog, you are 1) used to getting only MY take on the events in our lives and 2) you never get to see unflattering portraits of my ass.

Hardtack II

Mmm...delicious looking hardtack...just scrape off most of the mold and you'll be good to go.

Hardtack dough

Here is J really using his muscles to work on the ridiculous dough for hardtack. I am quite serious people, we are preparing to live in the post apocalyptic world - come be in our commune and we will at least eat relatively well.

Oatmeal Cookies

So, Anzac Biscuits are apparently "oatmeal cookies". I had already filed away in my permanent food filing cabinet...O...oatmeal...oatmeal cookies..."No, I don't like oatmeal cookies." But one of the things I love about my husband is his ability to be like "M, you only THINK you don't like [insert anything here]" and be right. Because, apparently, I DO like GOOD oatmeal cookies...a very KEY distinction.

Baking

I knew J would want to make Anzac Biscuits, for Anzac Day...but I had no idea the kind of baking binge I was in for tonight. He made like 5 things over 6.5 hours! I am sure when he catches up on his blog posts he will fill you in on more details but if memory serves me (and mostly, it doesn't) it was bagel dough, Anzac Biscuits, Hardtack, a regular bread, and...something else?!

Fergus is Trashy

Yeah, another too-cute-not-to-post rule-#1-breaker here...but come on, he's a kitten in a trash can! Too cute...

Kitten thinks of nothing but murder all day...

So, these aren't particularly blog worthy shots of Fergus (they break rule #1 - good photos). But, I think we've had enough of the serene portraits for a while and need to show his maniac side! He loves to kill things! Attack! Teeth! Claws! Killkillkill! (thankfully, only toys so far)

Squirrel-o-vision

So, I still don't really have any birds, except for 2 Stellar Jays (the West Coast equivalent of the Blue Jay) but the squirrels are like cable television for Mushroom. He spends a lot of time in the front window and threatens to rip the blinds down if we forget to open them. Plus, Fergus still hasn't figured out how to get in the window (although I think he's very close to realizing that he can do it) so it's a good place for Mush to hang out.

Small

Oh my god, he's so small...

Markings

Ok people, chill the heck out! I am going to post! Geez! You know, I do have a job that's going really well and that makes me busy, ya know?! And that's what we all want for me, right?!? Let's keep focused here people!

So, I have been trying to get a good photo of Fergus' super cool markings and they aren't easy to see in many of the pictures. This one shows his side pretty well.

Are we all breathing more deeply now? Good, relax...more are on the way!

The Death of News

Oh, you have GOT to be freaking kidding me!!! I just checked CNN to see about how many outrageous headlines we have today and I saw THIS. They now offer a little icon, next to some of their more ridiculous "news items", that allows to you click and make your own T-SHIRT. Seriously, I am not making this up. I want one that says "Analysts report unfathomable nosedive in the quality of journalism in America".

p.s. This was a real headline that you can make a real t-shirt from.
p.p.s. Why isn't it available on ALL their headlines. Like, for example, "Rampaging elephant kills 3 at temple" - now THAT'S a t-shirt!

Fergus

I am just going to sign off with this little one of Fergus. Hope you enjoy it.

Things I've done recently:
- taken a hot bath with a bowl of strawberries
- slept late
- stayed up late reading
- picked up an old chair off a street corner for free
- bathed an unhappy kitten
- watched old movies: Sahara with Humphrey Bogart and The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Happymeal

That's what you call food in a box, right? So Fergus gets to eat in the comfort and privacy of this cardboard box that, needless to say, Mush can't even get his head into!

Shoes

Also, in a non-Fergus related blog post, B had these kick-ass shoes!

B and Fergus

Here's one I forgot to post earlier. B, hope you don't mind.

More 50mm

Snapped this quick portrait of B. I can't decide if I like it or hate it so comments are welcome.

A friend recently took a photograph she described as her "favorite photograph ever taken EVER" and I was incredibly jealous because I haven't had one of those in far FAR too long. If I had to pick one that fit that right now, it would probably be this, which was way too long ago.

50mm

I am still trying to get the hang of this new 50mm lens. I have seen it work beautifully and incredibly for others but we are still on an awkward first date. Maybe it will work out, maybe it won't! I think it's a bit like Harry Potter...the wand chooses the wizard...maybe I've got the wrong one.

Chardonnay

Here is B, with her lovely ring, warming up the chardonnay in her hands.

Winery Tour

A friend from NY was in town this weekend so Mrs. Cyclone took us to the winery for a tour and a tasting (my second time)! It's a beautiful place to photograph and we got to taste lots of wine. The tour was better this time too - I learned some new things, which is good for me, right?

Naptime

I know, ridiculous, right?

Backlight

Sunlight, showing off Fergus' fluff.

Fergus

Fergus loves the orange sofa, and the little sunny spot that falls on it in the late afternoon. He is getting mush bigger and FAST! His eyes are definitely an olive color, not yellow-green like Mush's.

Snow II

I know for many of you, this quantity wouldn't even really count as "having snowed" but it's a big deal here. It has snowed two times this year with this weird miniature snowball snow. It's not hail, it's not frozen rain, it is definitely snow, but it falls in circles instead of flakes. It's really weird! It's like you cut open a giant bean-bag chair in the sky.

Snow!

The last time I lived somewhere where it snowed on April 18th was in BOSTON! This time it didn't really piss me off, though it was unusual, because in Boston it was the last straw in an unrelenting winter where here it was a freak few days in April (and February was a freak beautiful spring month when we picnicked on the beach).

By the way, we've officially been in Seattle for exactly a year now. Did I already mention that? Happy anniversary to us!

Mushroom

Mush is holding up pretty well, all things considered. But I definitely miss my one-on-one time with him and I know he misses it too. He is in a state of "general grump", so when I brought home a sheepskin from Ikea and he commandeered it into a new cat bed...I didn't have the heart to say no. He even gave it a bath.

You are getting....

...very...very...sleepy...

Tail Hunting

Fergus, intently stalking his own tail. He's on the hunt! Unfortunately, he prefers to hunt Mush's tail which Mush is not too crazy about. Fergus also doesn't seem to have any internal alarms that tell him when Mush might be reaching his threshold.

Fergus

You guys have been waiting patiently for over a week for more updates on Fergus! It has been really busy around here - I am working 10-12 hour days and with J in NY all the kitten babysitting duties have been on me.