Photoessay #900 - Many headaches

There are many ways to get a headache in our modern world. One is to have your last day of your job when you can't be invested and you really don't get to be part of anything. Even the free lunch can fall short. Ilana's last day at one of her jobs. Though she did appreciate the free coffees.

Or, like myself, support a family in court. Emotionally charged. You can sit ALL afternoon waiting for your court hearing when you already know what will happen. A modern mystery known only to deities; the order the cases are called at Juvenile Court. Can you buy it? Why, why must you wait all afternoon, until nobody's really left and the janitors bring out their supplies? And the judge is too pooped to really give a decent hearing. And that's YOUR KID up there!!!!

So today I helped all afternoon. When we first got there, we thought the child would be released. But I attended the earlier hearing for his buddy in the alleged incident. And no way was the judge letting him out, nope, going with the prosecutor's recommendations. Thanksgiving was just so many vacation days. So pretty clear what would happen to this family's son HOURS later. Yet it all turns when you realize there's a good possibility that this kid may be charged as an adult. So, at first, you loathe Juvenile Court, you want out of there so bad. But then, on reflection, you love Juvenile Court, you want to marry it, please please, Juvenile Court is GREAT. We really want to STAY in Juvenile Court.

It really can make your head hurt. Picture taken by me at the King County Juvenile Justice Center this afternoon.

Photoessay #899 - Sunday Thanksgiving

The group shot from my Sunday early Thanksgiving from this afternoon. Involves my kids and significant others plus Dennis' immediate family. Susanna and Alice did come later; she participated in a coaching clinic down in Tacoma. My usual deal, I had the turkey (22 lbs) ready by 12:30 pm. Cooked in 4 hrs 20 minutes. This group is small enough to do in the dining room. There was talk this year about moving to a different venue, maybe to Harstene Island. But I found that I wanted to keep it just to have my adult kids come.

We celebrate Thanksgiving big time at our house. We've had two different (but similar) dinners for several years. And you might as well do it twice, you have everything out, really you just have to buy another turkey and make up everything else again. We also do a pretty big deal for Passover.

We have a new method for discouraging Teddy from jumping. Really, nobody likes a 70 pound compact dog jumping on them. A sharp 'shhhh' and pinch his neck. So far so good. He didn't jump at all though,as usual, he was quite social. His first thanksgiving. He loved the preparation, he loved the cooking, he loved the people coming, just a great deal all around for a young dog. "It's all good!" says Teddy.

Later a team meeting for a family with their son in detention, I promised to attend the court hearing on Monday afternoon.

Photoessay #899 - Squash and Stuffing

As promised, a shot of my $27 potato peeler. Can't believe I own and paid for such a device. But I did. We bought 3 pieces from Janelle when she started. A knife, kitchen shears and this potato peeler. Now I wish the person who peels potatos so efficiently and cleanly would be by to use said peeler. But she has a softball clinic and coach's meeting so we're on our own. When Susanna peels a potato, it's PEELED. No spots left.

As always, I'm into squash. The squash on the right, looks like a striped green pumpkin is actually a Hubbard squash. Little table down the street manned by an older couple who sell the organic produce from their son's farm. I'm a frequent customer. Dennis just saws it with a garden saw. You can cook the parts in the microwave for about 15 minutes. Butter and brown sugar.....mmmmm I'm a fan! But pretty.

And an extreme closeup of the stuffing for tomorrow's turkey. Features chestnuts and apricots. I had a recipe but where? I winged it. You can't go wrong with stuffing.

Photoessay #898 - Thanksgiving imagery

I love Thanksgiving imagery, the warm colors, the harvest products, the food, the people. I have a whole cupboard of Thanksgiving napkins. Another cupboard of Thanksgiving decorations. Years ago, I purchased a wicker cornucopia at a yard sale. Great buy! I use it everyyear, so much you can put in it, just from your own larder. And aren't we so fortunate to be able to fill it so easily. I even have a hubbard squash which I bought from the little table setup by some neighbors whose son grows organic crops in the Skagit Valley. Plus those gourds I bought at the roadside vegetable stand in rural Poplar Grove (what a great name for a small town) on the blustery chilly autumn day a few weeks ago.

The image with the sheaf of wheat came from a Thanksgiving card I received today from our financial person. The other two are stolen internet pictures. Love all of 'em. Google Thanksgiving images and there's so many pretty things to see.

You can see that it's not a burden for me to put on Thanksgiving dinners.

Plus I have a new extremely fancy potato peeler which I got talked into when Janelle was selling knives.

Wow, you now know what will be featured in this space tomorrow!

Photoessay #897 - The rains of November

I should know by now. It pours all during November. The leaves pile up and it rains some more making a several inch thick layer of gross soggy leaves in my yard. The winds blow and then we lose our power. Very disheartening. The basements of the houses on either side of me flood.

Knock on wood, ours never has. I know as I write this that now our lower floor will flood. Everything's damp. Towels do not dry here. Maybe after 3 days. The dog is wet, my shoes are wet. Rain. Wet. Rain Wet.

But one thing about Seattleites, the rain doesn't stop us. I have been to the dog park every afternoon and they've all been rainy. I've never been alone. Usually Tony is there in all of his six month old german shepherd goofiness. Who cares if it's pouring, stand under the trees. The dogs continue to frolic and wrestle. My sister explained that people weren't at the dog park in Rockford because it was rainy. And rain doesn't deter you from a trip to the Anderson Japanese Garden. My mother marveled that on the rainy evening coming out of the chinese buffet, I just walked right out into the rain not paying it no never mind.

The rain does weigh heavily at times. Cliff says "Very substantial precipitation during the next two days" Greatttttt. More rain. And Wind.

Ny dog Teddy loves to do obedience work. I taught him how to heel (sort of) yesterday. He loves to sit and stay and lie down and lay on his side. He finds it very enjoyable. Luna, a white german shepherd likes to do obedience. Her owner is always putting her through her paces. Teddy was so interested. When Luna did her trick, her owner would throw the ball. Teddy didn't care about the thrown ball, he just wanted to do the tricks.

I have a talent on my hands.

Picture used from www.kidtruant.com which I found very amusing. Including this very cool sentence about rain. It's dark and grey, and the rain is bouncing back up from the puddles on the sidewalk so it feels as if the air itself is soaking wet.

Photoessay #896 - More 'Hey ya'

More on the 'Hey ya' Shorecrest video. I really wondered how it came together. The piece on Channel 5 was not very good, just hype. But this interview with the teacher in the PI gives a lot more detail. The discussion afterwards also gives some insights including the challenge to Shorewood (rival school)

Curtis also shared a video (mentioned in the discussion) out of Quebec as inspiration. I think that seeing some videos done by others and then suggesting to your own students that they, together, can make one themselves can be very powerful.

Great excitement for the local high school kids.

Picture of Mr. Mitchell, the teacher

below is part of the PI article

A clip shot by the video production class at Shorecrest High School in Shoreline has gone viral, drawing more than 10,000 page views on YouTube and raising excitement to levels so unprecedented that teacher Trent Mitchell could hardly keep his students quiet while he talked to me on the phone this morning.

"The energy level in my class the last couple weeks has been really, really high," he said. "It's kind of the talk of the school."

It all started when a student -- no one can remember who -- introduced Mitchell to the YouTube music genre known as "lip dubs," one-take videos featuring multiple people lip syncing to the words of a popular song.

The students loved it, and Mitchell assigned a "lip dub" as a class project. The kids picked their song -- the Outkast hit "Hey Ya," in mid-October and posted the video on Nov. 5.

But not before a lot of work -- and a lot of worry.

"After the first day, we thought there was no way this was going to work," Mitchell said. The kids hadn't memorized their lines. The pacing was all off. "Oh it was terrible."

Six rehearsals later, things came together. The props were ready. The words memorized. The students learned where to walk so as not to get in the way of the next singer or trip up the Steadicam senior Kollin O'Dannel weaved down the hallways.

Meanwhile, other teachers were getting hounded by requests to leave class and be part of this crazy video thing. Four teachers caved, and about 150 students appeared in the final take, shot over four minutes and 29 seconds at about 11 a.m. that obnoxious Thursday.

Mitchell laughed at his grading criteria: lip-syncing ability, dance moves, costumes.

But the lip dubbing won't end with his class. Mitchell challenged the video production teacher at nearby Shorewood High School to beat his students' masterpiece. That teacher accepted -- with the principal's blessing.

Meanwhile, Shorecrest students are loving the attention. The whole student body heard the announcement this morning: The video will be featured on KING-5's "Evening Magazine" tonight. KUBE 93 also did some interviews, and the calls keep coming in.

Photoessay #895 - We did NOT lose our power

I mentioned 'Cliff' yesterday. I'm referring to Cliff Mass a local weather expert and faculty member at UW. His blog

One important fact, not only does Cliff predict and educate us all about the weather, he is responsible for the weather and also CONTROLS the weather. He's the man.

So the windstorm hit, I had all the flashlights and candles out.

Side note: where do all of your flashlights go, I had enough flashlights for everybody within a two block radius but now they've disappeared.

The wind blew and blew. Rained and rained. But still did not blow the last of the leaves off the trees. I firmly believe in only raking the lawn (or, let's be real, getting the lawn raked) ONE time. No raking until all of the leaves are off. So I have a six inch layer of wet gross leaves covering my yard. I'm hoping that neighbor kid Peter will do it for a large sum of money. He's already promised.

I'm fearful of losing my power. Awful. I'm still traumatized from the Hanukah-Eve storm of 2006 when we were without power for over 5 days. With a houseful of people. Not fun! Not at all! Never have recovered from that.

Only good thing about losing your power. You no longer have to worry about losing your poser because you ALREADY HAVE! Take that worry right off your plate.

Constantly polling. Are the light still on? still on? still on? still on? etc

Or maybe it's because I'm a little older, don't know. We have gas water heater and gas stove. Lousy fireplace but some wood. But no light, no internet, etc.

Cool picture, huh? It's Anderson Alpine Lodge in New Zealand. Wanted to show a house in darkness that STILL HAS it's power. Used without permission

Photoessay #894 - Friends?

Another request (from Margaret) for a Teddy post!

As winter approaches (hey it's already here, one of those dreaded November windstorms coming right up), our cat Starbaby has decided it's time to come in. She's been on strike in regards to Teddy but now, time to bring Teddy into line.

She had an intense weird relationship with Shadow, she loved Shadow to 'chew her up' and drag her around. She encouraged it.

So time to train the boy into a good cat companion, Starbaby-style. She likes to be nuzzled and groomed. Teddy would like to see some wrestling, you know "I knock you down, you knock me down" but Starbaby's not going for it. She will allow herself to be pawed a bit. And "I'll sit right up herE and whack at you" is always popular.

Plus go out into the backyard and play games. Shadow did this, problem was...Starbaby always chose the game. The last game being "Ditch Shadow".

Things will look up for Starbaby because Naomi is coming home at the end of this week.

The local channel King 5 is doing apiece on Shorecrest's 'Hey Ya' video. The things got legs.

I would freak out about the windstorm that's coming but Clint says, I repeat Clint Says:

But this is not a major windstorm like the one in Dec 2006.

I'm holding you to that!!

He's referring to the "Hannukah Eve" windstorm that left us without power for over 5 days.

Photoessay #893 - The Wine Cellar

ILana and I went to Costco on a mission; time to purchase the sparkling cider for the holiday season. We put them on the table on the back deck; the 'wine cellar'. 36 bottles to start with. For two Thanksgiving Dinners (currently at 14 and 10 participants) and also xmas morning. Have to be careful not to call open season or they would all be gone just about immediately.