Day 310 - Burke Museum Presents Trivia Night

A small group got together in the U-District for an evening of vegetarian asian cuisine at Araya's Place and natural history inspired trivia at the College Inn Pub. We were lured because who doesn't like trivia and the poster said "free". Apparently free means $5.00 per team. We were relieved when other teams struggled along with us on some of the first round questions.  During the second round, we hit our stride and finished strong.  One highlight was the nerdy science t-shirt competition; the winner was "Reunite Pangea".  One note to self; if we play here again, bring a headlamp because it was dark as a dungeon.

Team Moose Knuckle - Holly, Kelly, Emily, Eric (and me)

Day 309 - Grocery Store Marketing

Several days ago I came across something new in the produce section at Safeway.  It was a display of eye catching paper bags full of ripe bananas.  The bags were covered with recipes/banana facts and the price of the bananas was only .59/pound.  My only complaint is that although they were perfectly ripe for eating, they could have used another week or so to ripen for cooking.  I made my favorite banana chocolate chip muffins as a treat for my neighbors to snack on during their garage sale and while they were good, they lacked their typical moistness and rich banana flavor.  Have you seen these at your store?

Day 308 - Summer's Bounty

Although it may not feel like summer, it's really here.  Farmer's markets are up and running and the local produce is finally coming in.  I love Rainier cherries so much more than the Bing variety and I've always wanted to make jam but you don't see many recipes.  I knew one reason might be that the color would be so pale.  I decided to search the internet and found a great recipe that uses both Rainier cherries and strawberries.  Headed to the local produce stand and picked up the goods.

Local, not from California

Day 307 - Fourth of July

Fireworks started going off in my neighborhood several days prior to the 4th. They are illegal in the City of Everett and while it has been better the past several years, there's a great deal of room for improvement.  What is it that is so irresistible about fireworks because I just don't get it.  Maybe it's because we never even went to the fireworks when I was growing up (Canadian parents?) and we certainly didn't light off our own.  I have to admit I was even a bit terrified of the sparklers that our neighbor Joe Thompson would give us.  And now, as far as shooting off a bottle rocket in front of my house goes. . .not interested.

It is amazing to me how many fireworks stands pop up around the area once the holiday looms near.  Here was a small one in a parking lot in Marysville.

Think they took in a few bad checks?  And the no smoking. . .DUH!

Now take a look at the madness at Boom City located on Tulalip Indian land.  I just wanted to drive by and there was a traffic jam that required people directing cars.

I guess the numbers refer to the booth or stand numbers.

With all the $ they must bring in, you'd think they spend more on their advertising signs.

Seriously. . .who needs this much stuff??

I headed into Seattle around 5:00 pm to have dinner at my friend's home.  Cliff made his amazing ribs and I enjoyed my first gin and tonic of the season with Laura.  Cliff is a Kirkland firefighter so no fireworks here!  Here are a few shots.

Relaxing on their front porch

Laura in the kitchen

The "kids" (Alex, Zach and Alex's boyfriend John) playing Pandemic

The neighbor's swiss mountain dog named Seamus

Cliff holding Alanis, a guide dog they raised who lives in the neighborhood

Their sweet, aging lab named Singer

Day 306 - Lunch and a Late Christmas Gift

My friend Paul is going through some ups and downs lately regarding his lymphoma status so I decided we should get together for lunch.  Like me, he loves a good deal so we decided to use a Living Social coupon I had for the Mukilteo Lodge and Sports Bar.  You could have shot a cannon through the place it was so empty but it WAS a Sunday afternoon, the day before July 4th.  The food was actually pretty good. . .I had a great cobb style salad with grilled flank steak which I washed down with a delicious Georgetown Porter.

As we were leaving Paul told me he had a very belated Christmas gift for me.  Long story short; he ordered it before he went in the hospital last December, a friend picked it up and checked it over but had to return it due to shipping damage and Paul waited until he found another with the "right price" before he bought it.  You gotta love a bargain hunter and check out this awesome piece of cookware.

Tramontina 6.5 qt. cast iron dutch oven

Day 305 - Damages

With so much bad television out there, I went in search of a series I could sink my teeth into and watch at my own pace.  As I was perusing the shelves at the Everett Public Library, I came across Damages and I remembered a number of friends recommending it.  Checked out season one and was literally hooked within the first 10 minutes - same sort of tension as Fox's 24.  Went online and put season two on hold at the library.  Stayed up until 1:30 AM one night to finish the first season.  I'm now into season two and have all 3 discs for season 3 in my Netflix queue.

Day 304 - Canada Day

My mother was Canadian, my sister is Canadian, my father was raised in Canada and literally all of my extended family is from Canada.  My paternal great grandfather, James Watson MacPhail, was born in Scotland in 1863.  When he was a little boy, his family emigrated from North Eastern Scotland to North Eastern Canada (New Brunswick) in the early 1870's.   They were part of a group of over 800 Scottish settlers, many of whom were poor and despondent tenant farmers, who sailed across the ocean in two separate ships, with the goal of building new lives through free land grants.

Books handed down through my mother's family
which record the history of this Scottish Settlement

My father's mother was an avid family historian.  Her father, William Merton Whitman, descended from John Whitman, an Englishman who arrived in Weymouth, Massachusetts some years prior to 1638.  His great grandson Deacon John moved to Nova Scotia, Canada in 1761.  This move is linked to thousands of descendants in this small Canadian province alone.  We are even related to writer Walt Whitman and the missionary Marcus Whitman who brought religion (and measles) to the indians who later killed him in Washington state.

Books handed down from my father's mother detailing
Nova Scotia Whitman family geneology and history

Canada Day, formerly known as Dominion Day, marks the joining of the British North American Colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada (later Quebec and Ontario) into a federation of four provinces in 1867. Canada became a kingdom in its own right at that time but Britain retained limited political control until 1982.  Needless to say, Canada Day is just as significant, if not more significant for me than Independence Day.