Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
We just got back today from a quick trip to Spokane to see Melody's family. In addition to Irene, Neal, and Barbara, all the Knoepfel family from IL were there, and it was great to see everyone.
Yet another anniversary today, as the Looff Carrousel at Spokane's Riverfront Park turns 100. We happen to be in Spokane for this weekend, but this is probably the first time we haven't made it to Riverfront at some point. However, it sounds as if Melody's relatives made it there earlier in the week and got t-shirts.
Melody and I are heading east to Spokane this morning to see not only her relatives and friends there, but to meet up with the Knopefls from IL, who are there this week too. We've been fortunate enough to have seen them all within the past couple years (Brian and Frances last year, Kevin, Joanna, Jenny, and Hans the year before) but don't want to miss an opportunity to see them again.
All of our Project 365 pictures for the first partial week and the first full week are posted. We're still working out a good way for Tynor to send his pictures to me, which is why there aren't any week 2 photos for him yet.
This must be the month for notable anniversaries. Ten years ago today the first pitch was thrown at Safeco Field, the new home for the Seattle Mariners. I had only attended one Mariners game in the Kingdome, but it definitely didn't fell like a ballpark. Most years I've been to at least one game at Safeco, and it feels right, with the open air and great views all around. Even when high against the upper railing behind home plate (nose bleed territory) we could still see everything that was going on.
Farmers Market in Los Angeles is celebrating its 75th anniversary this week. Seattle is understandably proud of its own Pike Place Market (which will celebrate its 102nd anniversary next month) and I've been there many times, but I don't remember ever going to Farmers Market. It is, however a landmark in the area.
Even though we fill up the car perhaps once a month, we need to do more planning than you would think at first. For example, this past weekend we were thinking that the car was pretty low on gas and we should fill it up, but we're planning on going to Spokane next weekend. We decided it was low enough that we should fill it, and it'd still be close to full by the time we leave. But that's not where it ends.
If you like expanding your musical horizons beyond what's on the radio or want to learn new connections between various songs and artists, the iTunes Weekly Rewind is a great podcast. Every week they take a look at some of the songs which have been playing on the radio, on TV, in movies, even in ad spots. But more than just giving a name and artist to a song you heard just fleetingly, they also use songs, artists, or events as springboards to not only go into depth, but to point out both what influenced an artist and whom that artist influenced. There are a lot of music geeks out there, and these guys rate right up there. As they should, since they're on the team which compiles the iTunes Essentials collections.
Kellen decided he wanted to document his 20th year by doing a Project 365, where he will take one picture each day and post all of them online. I asked what he thought about Tynor and me doing it along with him, and he said it would be great. So we can look at all of our pictures side-by-side, I've also set up a Fujimoto Project 365 page, optimistically labeling it as 2009-2010; I figured we may do it again sometime in the future.
Being July 4th, I thought it would be appropriate to post a photo of fireworks. This was taken in 2003 at Gas Works Park in Seattle. You can just make out some of the original gas works machinery at the lower left, and just some of the tens of thousands of people in the park on at the lower right.
There are many great science shows around, NPR's Science Friday being one of them. However, I find WNYC's Radiolab to be more of a must-listen because of they way they are able to find an over-arching story from seemingly disparate interview clips or even show segments, for the extra content they inject into the podcast, and how they are willing to go beyond science towards topics such as art.
Many people asked "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?" when the holder of the most impressive sports record (56 game hitting streak) died in 1999. Many will be citing Paul Simon this week about how Eastman Kodak will "take my Kodachrome away" after the company announced that it will retire the venerable slide film of my youth.
As part of the last week of school the music students at PSCS held a concert today at the Comedy Underground in Pioneer Square. Everyone got to showcase talents and the crowd had a great time!
As I was walking up to this cat boarding building I saw a cat walking around the corner, which struck me as humorous. My first thought was either the cat had escaped or was looking for a place to stay. Or perhaps this is that particular cat's accommodations?
Every parent goes through milestones, and without a doubt one of them is watching your child graduate from High School. Last night Kellen went through his graduation ceremony from Puget Sound Community School, and while I naturally have high regard for him, it's great to see his classmates do, too.
I needed some small gifts for this month so I went to an old standby, cutting boards. They're relatively quick to make, offer lots of possibilities for variation, and usually end up looking pretty nice.
Mariners fans are used to Ichiro Suzuki getting hits, and it seems he does so every game. Of course he doesn't, but one doesn't get 200 hits every season without putting together some impressive streaks. Ichiro just ended a 27 game hitting streak last night, the second-longest streak in the Major leagues this season.
A couple years ago we had some flagstone installed for paths in our front yard. That fall we planted groundcover, each smaller than the size of a quarter and about a foot apart. We weren't sure how well they'd do, but it was a relatively small investment.
Today was the first day of the Meadowbrook Farmers Market, so Melody and I went to take a look. It's not far at all from the house (less than 3/4 mile).
The latest set of blooms we're getting in the Seattle area is wisteria, which has unmistakable blossom clusters and a penchant to climb. There are several specimens on the walk between work and the house.
