Sunrise today

 From the deck at Fox Spit

This was the first chance I’ve had since I’ve been here to shoot the sunrise from Dad and Anita’s deck. Every morning has been cloudy except today. Here’s a link to some photos I took around the house on Tuesday.

I’ve had it with Hillary

And her lies

I will not vote for Hillary Clinton. Today she said that Barack Obama’s campaign is about one speech given in 2002 while she has a lifetime of experience. Coupled with her negative ads and the way she misrepresents everything to bring her opponent down, I think I’ll probably not vote at all if Hillary wins the nomination. I am so sick of her tactics.

Now she’s running ads claiming Obama has failed to direct his subcommittee to hold hearings on thwarting Al Queda. As he explained, he was only given oversight of the committee in January and he’s been busy campaigning. Clinton’s true colors are showing and I don’t like the hue.

An eagle’s got to eat, yo!

But this eagle was just messing around

Today I’m making up for a missed photo opportunity of a bald eagle with the shot above, taken at Freeland. This ornery eagle was sitting in a tree minding his own business when he suddenly took off and started chasing a seagull. I’m sure he could have feasted on the smaller bird if he wanted to, but I think he just enjoyed the chase. Ornery thing. 

Got DSL hooked up for Dad and Anita on Tuesday. Because we added a new large, flatscreen monitor and Ethernet, I thought I’d better upgrade their RAM. They were running XP with Service Pack 2 and only had 256 mb of RAM. They have 1 gig now, which should be sufficient. There’s still an open port to add another gig of memory down the road, if they want. We stopped by the phone company to pick up a DSL router. What a change from Lincoln. People were friendly, we didn’t have to wait, and they were actually nice to us. Seems like Alltel makes you wait 45 minutes to tell you they can’t get you what you want. Big difference between a small, locally owned phone company and a large one like Alltel. We were in and out of there in about 15 minutes and they didn’t charge a thing for the router, the filters or anything else.

We had a burger at the Shell Shack, a gas station in Freeland. It was actually pretty good. Can’t say much for the atmosphere, but you couldn’t beat the price.

We baked some monkfish and I grilled some albacore for supper. There wasn’t any fresh (only frozen) salmon at the store today, so we’re snubbing our nose at that. If you ever got a look at a monkfish, you’d think we’d snub our nose at that too. Yikes! It turned out really good though – very tender.

I may not make it to downtown Seattle. I’m having a good time with Dad on the island and I hate to give up a day just so I can go take some photos downtown. I’m still debating though. I have about one more day before I need to decide. Anita is willing to take the bus with me on Friday, so it’s still a possibility.

Birding, monitors and pie

A day of this and that

Two bald eagles sniffed out some breakfast right outside Dad and Anita’s window this morning. The birds were nearly hovering in the air as they watched the water for the prey. It was incredible. So much so that I forgot to grab the camera until it was too late. I did manage to take a photo of Northern Flicker woodpecker (the yellow-shafted form of course) that seemed nonplussed by the predators hovering around him.

Since it was raining I couldn’t take many photos today. I got a great action shot of Dad’s pork chops cooking in the oven. I took advantage of the weather to install a flat screen computer monitor for Dad. It was not without its complications. The monitor wouldn’t work so, after being on hold for 45 minutes, I got some help from the technical service person who told me the minimum settings required for the new monitor. The new settings needed to be established before taking the old monitor off. It would have been nice to know that ahead of time.

We went to the public library in Freeland where I so wanted to shoot a photo of a white-haired man in his 60s who was sitting in a chair laughing to himself as he read Mad magazine. I admire the hell out of that.

We had lunch at the Dog House tavern in Langley where the fish and chips were surprisingly good. A nice delicate batter on the fish! After lunch I ducked into my favorite shop in Langley, Gregor’s rare books. About four or six years ago I passed on an autographed first edition of a Kurt Vonnegut book. I think it was “Slaughterhouse Five.” I kick myself to this day for not buying it, but I didn’t have the money then (nor do I now). The bookstore was all out of Vonnegut books today.

I plan to install an Ethernet card in Dad and Anita’s computer tomorrow so they can get DSL. The broadband service will actually be cheaper than the dial-up service they have now because they can get rid of the extra phone line they’ve been paying for.

Oooh! I almost forgot! I had a slice of huckleberry pie at Greenbank Farm this afternoon. We stopped by as I searched for cufflinks at the thrift stores in Langley and Freeland. No luck, but I scored big on the pie. Sweet! Reminds me of my sister Pam, who was working on fractions as in elementary school. She was explaining the concept to all of us and she said, “Henry Medina is smart. He’s a whole pie. I’m just half a pie.” I wish I was a whole pie.

Fanciful sufficiency

On a trip to Bellingham

Drove to Oak Harbor this morning for breakfast at Frank’s, where filthy cloth-covered car seats add to the ambiance of a Naval-themed diner, complete with a life-sized Elvis statue at the front door. I don’t know why. The same mystery surrounds the “eat Spam here” portion of the sign at Franks. The patriotic news clippings on the wall helped me decide that this wasn’t the place to speak publicly about my thoughts about the war in Iraq.

The food was good though, and the portions were huge. My omelet and hash browns could have fed two. Pushing myself away from the table, I thought of Anita’s cousin Carrie Elizabeth Wagoner, who finished her meals with the phrase: “I’ve had a fanciful sufficiency!” Indeed, Carrie Elizabeth. Indeed.

We continued on into Bellingham where we visited Anita’s parents’ final resting place. It was a serene portion of Greenacres (the place to be) Cemetery with water features and nice trees. We stopped at the church where Anita’s grandpa was once a preacher and had a nice tour of the building by Mary Ann Teeter. She was very interested in the history that Anita gave her.

It was very interesting to see Anita recall so many childhood memories of her grandpa and his church. I took several photos that I will give to Anita.

Ahi, cod and beer

One small bite for man…

Ike’s in the main terminal (Lindbergh Terminal) at Minneapolis/ St. Paul has an awesome seared ahi sandwich. The fish is sliced pretty thin but then it’s quick-seared and served rare with a wasabi mayo and ginger. DELICIOUS!

I added a side of two tall regional brews: Summit Pale Ale and ended up with a full stomach and a warm disposition for my flight to Seattle.

Here’s a tip. If you’re ever at the airport, sit at the bar at Ike’s and have the seared ahi. If you are lucky, you’ll have time for a couple of drinks and Bill will be working. He’s an old-school Italian who has been bartending 40 years. He has friends in prison, friends in rehab, heck, I think he makes friends wherever he happens to be. He reads the World Almanac just for the fun of it and he’s a real interesting cat. I would have liked to have hung out there more but I needed to catch my flight.

I had a great time watching a stereotypical young southern Californian have a loud, one-sided conversation on his cell phone at the bar. He managed to end the conversation in time to eat his salad that he promptly sent back because it was inedible (looked fine to me) but he made the whole process easier for the woman behind the bar to understand by explaining that he’s from southern California. What a DICK! Unlike Joe, this guy apparently hasn’t met a person he can’t domineer.

Arrived at the ferry landing at Mukilteo around 8:30 p.m. Had a little time so we enjoyed some Ivar’s fish and chips (I skipped the “chips” and just ordered the fish) with cod supplied exclusively by an Alaskan fishing vessel whose name escapes me, something like Mary Ann. Wow! I could have eaten myself sick there. I had a cup of smoked salmon chowder that was unbelievable. I’m pretty sure it took five years off my life because it must have had about a stick of butter in it as well as heavy cream, but I can’t be certain. Anything that tastes that good is surely going to kill you.

Here we go!

 
It’s chow time!

I’ll be chowing on some fish here in short order! The plane lands Saturday around 7 p.m., so it will be a late supper. Can’t wait.

I will be posting my Seattle wanderings from time to time and keeping you up to date on what fish I’ve eaten. Mmmmmmmmm, fish.

I will tell you that Monk fish is a strong possibility in spite of this disturbing image. OK, maybe not *that* strong of a possibility. Whew!

Just add heat

And a cast iron stomach

I don’t think we can find canned cheeseburgers in the grocery store here in the Midwest, but wouldn’t that be … interesting. I’m sure it looks just like the photo. I can’t believe anyone would eat this.

There may have been a day, however, when you could get canned bacon.

“Eek” and “psssst”

And other lines from Brigadoon

Ellen was cast in the ensemble and as the character, Kate, in the spring musical Brigadoon at Lincoln Southwest High School. You will recognize her by her two memorable lines: “Eek” and “pssssst!” You may also recognize her by angelic singing and graceful dancing, but I’m guessing you’ll mostly recognize her from those two lines.

Amendment 1

There is a now-archaic law that forces public endowments to be invested only in bonds and savings accounts. Endowments could make a lot more money if they aren’t forced into such strict investments rules.

This Web site can explain more.