Gay Bingo Rides Again!!

Feeling Flamboyant?

Feeling Pink all Over?


Feeling like Supporting the Lifelong AIDS Alliance....



Well then you must feel like:
GAY BINGO!!

Aaron and I checked out Gay Bing0 for a Mystery Date in January. We had a good time but walked away saying, "That would be a LOT of fun with a table full of friends." Not to do anything halfway ....we managed to talked TWO tables of friends into joining us. We were right: Gay Bingo with a bunch of friends is what it is all about!

Martin and Cynthia

Jack and Anastasia

Anner and Rabbit-Ears-Aaron

Gay Bingo is in it's 16th year here in Seattle. They support care, prevention, and education efforts. Besides doing a whole lot of good stuff for Seattle they know how to throw a damned fine party! Last night's theme was: Gay Paris.

Our pal Big Hannah (aka -- Big Hannah the Wedding Planner) used her connections in the burlesque community to get glamour makeovers for the girls right before the event. Us girls headed to Capital Hill to meet with "The Shanghai Pearl" for a complete lesson before meeting up wiht our fellas at the party.

Shanghai giving a glamour lesson to Anastatia

Everyone was tarted up in their best gayness and we know we did a good job because more than one stranger stopped by to take our picture.

At the beginning of the night all guests have to take a pledge. With our dopper raised in our right hands we pledged, "...I promise to have fun and remember bingo is just a stupid game..." (this really sets the tone and damppend the people who can get totally competitive and ruin the fun for everyone else)

Chris and Paula taking the pledge

Several of us came within one square of having bingo but by halftime a few folks were a little frustrated by juuust falling short and not winning. We reminded ourselves of the Gay Bingo Pledge "...I promise to have fun..." and got another bag of popcorn.

Ahh! The Frustration!!! Ed and Brigit looking for a win.

By game 16 it looked like we would have to go home empty handed but you wouldn't believe it but Big Hannah won the final round of bingo. BINGO!!!! WE HAVE A BINGO!!!!!

One of the Sisters confirming Hannah has bingo.

WE'RE BIG WINNERS AFTER ALL!!!

...well us and, of course, The Lifelong AIDS Alliance.

PLAY BALL!

Tuesday was it.... the home opener. As tradition dictates, Aaron and I took the day off of work and ate pancakes for breakfast. Then we headed to Safeco to meet our friends. It was one of the nicest openers ever. It wasn't raining and wasn't totally freezing out. We'll take it!!! The M's won in extra innings and they took the series. So far it's a great start to the season!!!

The roof opening:

Start of the game..in the sun.

Anner & Aaron:

Our homeplate:

Spring Flower And Table Update

Hello Spring time!!!

When we looked out our windows at least we don't see big fat flakes of snow like last Sunday. Still, from the window it looks pretty plain...UNTIL you go outside take a closer look. Then you can see little leaves starting to grow on the hydrangeas, lilys are poking out, at least one of the wedding fuchsias shows signs of life, tulips are up and just waiting to blossom, raspberries have little shoots coming up, and the crocuses are in full bloom!! On this second day of spring here are some photos of what's growing in the back yard.

Our Table Continues to Grow

St. Patty's Day marked the end of winter quarter. So far we have all the pieces cut, all the veneering is done, the moldings have been made, cut, glued (see pictures below...I'm good with glue), and we've started sanding. If we're not careful we might beat our 2012 scheduled finish date.

Alaska 2009

BRRRRRRRRRRRR

We had another successful weekend trip. Aaron and I are hope and have finally warmed up from our trip to Anchorage. It was a perfect weekend.

We got to spend time with our good friend Karen. She never got a chance to properly "check out" Aaron before we got married. Rest assured he got the official "nod" by the end of the weekend!

Highlights were ---

• Anner nearly froze. Okay, it wasn't cold for Anchorage, but cold for Seattle. We've been home for a week and I'm thawed out now.


• Aaron saw his first ever moose! Two of them, in fact. Mama and her yearling, munching on trees in some foothills in Anchorage.


• We saw the start of the Iditarod for many places. We walked around and wished mushers good luck. We watched the start on the street. We watched from inside some offices. We watched from a few blocks up the road to see the dogs in full stride. The dogs are SO excited to run. Most mushers hold them back with a fleet of handlers, multiple sleds, a lot of dead weight and a heavy foot on the break. The dogs still seemed thrilled to get to run. There's nothing like it. This includes a picture of us and Martin Buser, currently in 22nd place.

• We took dog sled rides and decided we'd like to come back for a real dog-sled tour someday. I can't wait for that! Anyone want to join us?

We had Jane's birthday party at an Anchorage institution: The Moose's Tooth, a wildly popular pizzeria. Happy 29th Jane! (not actually her birthday picture)

• We went to the mushers banquet and bid on Iditarod wine, and more importantly - we we're big winners.

• Aaron got his first pair of Carharts -- ooo la la!

All in all, we had a great time!!! I just love going up there. It was fabulous to see Jane and Karen. I'll visit good friends no matter how cold it is.

A parting shot, "a good day for a bike ride":

A Man and His Safety Glasses: Woodshop Revealed

It took 3 1/2 quarters but we finally remembered to bring a camera to Woodshop class. We should have been taking pictures all along but better later than never, I guess. Here's a picutre of Aaron in action.
This week we realized we've, eh hem..."misplaced", one of our pieces of wood. We're not sure where it was "misplaced" to. We're checking all over: Garage, woodshop storage area, areas in the house like 'behind the washer' in hopes it'll suddenly just pop up! Like, "TADA!!! Here I am!" as if the missing piece is just playing a funny little joke on us. Ha Ha. When really, we either never made it, we lost it, we threw it out, it fell out of the car...who knows but I'm pretty sure it's gone. That is, if it ever existed. I'm sure we can spend at least a few weeks looking for it and a few more weeks remaking the 48" x 2 1/2" nicely planed piece of lyptus wood.

No matter what: this is going to be the best table EVER!

You can never have too many clamps!

Today Aaron and I veneered the top of our table (still on track to be completed in 2012). I got Aaron some clamps for Valentine's Day (nothing says, "I love you " like a set of bar clamps). That whetted his appetite and he found a clamp sale. One thing led to another and now you know what we need.... a clamp holder. Anyway... here's what veneering looks like.

We also planted our new finds from the flower and garden show. That just made us want to have even more so we went to the nursery and got even more flowers. Like clamps, you never can have too many flowers. Our bulbs are busting out of the soil AND we even have our first bloom. Thaaank goodness. Between the one crocus and Griffy signing, we know spring is nearly here.

Flower Show / Lion King Whirl Wind Tour

Holy Cows whatta day. In short:

I left work early and Aaron met me downtown. We sprinted to the convention center for the 21st annual Northwest Flower and Garden Show. It was stunning as always. We were guest bloggers for the 2nd time. It should end up on: http://www.mygardenblogs.com/NWblog/ sometime tomorrow.

After about 3 1/2 hours of buying exotic tubers and bulbs and saying "hello" to our favorite dahlia dealers (The Dahlia Barn) we grabbed a little dinner on the go, wrote the blog from my office, and then headed to the Broadway Tour of Lion King. Let me just say ALL the hype is true. Mark it on the calendar, I was misty before the end of the first number. It was AWESOME!!!

Here are some photos from garden day.

Stunning Orchids

Sadly, we'd kill them waay too fast to warrent buying any.

Anner's first dahlia purchase of the day.

Aaron & Anner at the Dahlia Barn (3rd dahlia purchase of the day)

We want one of these!!! What mystery and suspense....

I need this too! A giant wood carved eagle surrounded

by circles of heaths and heathers. It'll go great in the

the front yard.... a nice compliment to the flag.

HAPPY INAUGURATION DAY!!!

After celebrating my birthday in California we kept the party going with a fun and festive Inauguration Day Brunch with as many people as we could convince to go to work late. There were 10 of us total. We had a huge, beautiful brunch that would have normally gotten a lot of attention but on this day no amount of homemade food could distract from the heady history being made. We were all glued to the TV. No one talked. There was a little misty-ness and we hummed a long to the National Anthem.

Most of our guests left in the next hour or two but I stayed glued to the TV for the next 14 hours.

I called mom first thing in the morning, as the scones were going in to the oven. She tends to sleep. The phone rang. She answered and without saying hello, "you're bothering me!" At least I knew she was awake and watching. I told her I'd call her after the cemerony, which was still an hour away. I called later in the afternoon. Mom picks up the phone, "stop interupting". After that I decided we could catch up on Wednesday. I later heard my cousins got the same response. I guess none of us wanted mom to miss it and thankfully she didn't!!!

Happy Birthday Month!!

HOLY COWS - WHAT A FUN BIRTHDAY!


Aaron and I spent my birthday weekend in California. We were invited to a wedding reception but spend an additional 3 days there. I expected California to be totally stuck up and boy was I wrong! Everyone was really nice and very helpful. It was a great birthday. Mostly it was nice to have 80 degrees, sunshine, and a breeze. As I type, it's back to snowing here in Seattle. Our bults started to sprout after the last snow melted. I don't know what they'll do now. Stay tuned!


Out and about on my birthday. I take HDR with me whereever I go...



We ate at all sorts of local Greasy Spoons. Home fries everyday. YUMMY!




Check out the giant pine cones?!

Air Force One at the Reagan Museum.

Never too far from Boeing; wheels from Air Force One

Aaron and Ronny. Together at last!

Sunset at Robert H Meyer State Beach (a little traveled beach on our way home from the Reagan's).

Sunset at Seal Beach

Nixon's birthplace

Aaron's mustang.... SO COOL!