Album MEME

Karl at White Noise has the most interesting blog.  He is creative and always sharing what he finds.   I  am compelled to participate in the latest meme on his blog.  Try it for yourself.  This was fun.

 

1 – Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 – Go to Random quotations: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3. The last four words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

 3- Go to flickr’s “explore the last seven days” http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/. Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Put it all together, that’s your debut album.

My Band name:   Oppdal Station

My debut album:  “Poor to your friends”.

The cover:  The photo posted above. 

I’d like to hear about yours.

Off Season

I’ve been meaning to post this picture for quite a while now….yah, since about March 2008. So sue me, I forgot.  This is Seattle Mariner Ryan Rowland-Smith with Flat Jessi.  You remember Flat Jessi don’t you?  Flat Jessi was a project from a little girl in Ohio.  We showed Jessi the following places, Seattle, Spring Training, Argentina and Uruguay and then we mailed her back home.    Here she is with her favorite Mariner.

Flat Jessi and Ryan

 While we were in Arizona for Spring Training  earlier this year, we had the opportunity to visit with a few of the pitchers from the Seattle Mariners as well as a couple of the “On Air” personalities.  We were still on a mission with Flat Jessi so we captured a few shots with the talent.  Sad to say I hadn’t really watched any baseball since spring training until last night, when I saw Jamie Moyer pitch a few innings for the Phillies.  Yes on the TV.  Don’t get me wrong I like baseball, I just don’t take the time to watch. I did listen a few times during the season.  So last night was a double bonus TV and baseball. 

I did have lunch the other day at Safeco field.  Ichiro was playing short stop with a bunch of his friends but I failed to get a picture.  The speaker at our lunch was the person in charge of player development (who’s name I can’t recall) and he said that Ryan Rowland-Smith is the best prospect for Mariners pitching next year.  That’s cool!  Go Ryan…

Don’t be late

 

 

Pond scum.   Usually those two words are used as a derogatory remark.  But throughout today if you are in Seattle you could attend the Algae Summit.  Doesn’t that sound fun?  Maybe they have good treats at break time… 

There are some incredible breakthroughs with Algae these days…I know it’s changed my life.  But seriously folks, isn’t is incredible all the careers that people have.  I once, just ONCE, dated this guy that was a research scientist.  He studied worm poop.  Really!  What good can come of that?  Man I’m falling asleep just thinking about it.

I fell into my career through a series of choices.  I didn’t go to school to learn how to be a deli broker, it just happened.  But alot of people do things on purpose, like study algae to see how it can make our lives better.  For that I give them a hearty “hip hip hooray”.  Ok, call me a nerd, I do find it a teensy bit fascinating.  But I prefer to call it being informed. 

Happy Friday!

Minutes of fun!

…because I haven’t weighed in on this topic yet.  Make sure you click around and you have the sound up.  yep yep

 

Veien å gå deg stor ost

                                                       

Way back in the olden days when I was visiting Norway I learned a phrase that I thought was very complimentary and I would use it every chance I got.  Until one day some one asked me why I was calling a very respectable gentleman, “the big cheese’?  “Um, because that’s what they taught me to say as a greeting” I said, as I swung around pointing my finger at a group of giggling teenagers.  They got me, I had been greeting each and every one I met, with: ”How ya doin, ya big cheese?” in my weak Norwegian. What I thought I was saying was, “Hello, it’s very nice to meet you”.  More often than not,  I would get a hearty hello and a big grin in return. Dur, now I knew why all the bigs grins.

Being in Norway, was perhaps my first run in with foreign cheese, even if it was only in the form of a word.  Growing up in Idaho the most exotic cheese we had in the house was sharp cheddar, or the parm that came in a green can.  But then again a salad was a wedge of iceberg lettuce and a knife. As I grew up and moved away from home,  I worked several Christmas’s at Hickory Farms while in college and learned more about cheese when I became a full time employee with a store of my own.  And yes I was a sample girl. That’s a whole other blog post.

I’ve morphed my way through many jobs involving food and most specifically the grocery industry.   For the last several years I’ve worked as a food broker.  We are the people that set up grocery stores.  What? You thought that just happened overnight by a group of fairies?  I wish I could bring you all along so you could experience the process of outfitting a new store, but then with all those people standing around you would be put to work stocking beans or sweeping floors.  And yes, we are also the people that mess up the grocery aisles and move your favorite peanut butter so you can’t find it. It’s generally not vindictive when things are moved, there is some logic involved.  Somewhere.  Really.  I’m sure of it. And yes we are those people that tease you with things to eat while you shop as you try to contain your children in the cart after a hard days work.  That’s me and about 125000 jillion other people.

So I come by my exposure to cheese honestly.  In fact I was compelled to share some of my bounty with a fellow blogger yesterday.  Kathy at the Junk Drawer  was cleaning out her fridge the other day and found four jars of Parmesan cheese and posted a picture of her findings.  I knew the instant I saw her photo that I had to take a picture of the cheese in my drawer and email it to her.  I wasn’t bragging, I simply had a surplus.  But I took it a step further.  I loaded up a bunch of goodies, surrounded them with ice packs and sent them off to her. I get lots of samples, samples that can’t be sold, but are shown to buyers or used in food shows or simply for tasting and there is always a bit left over.   Is it any wonder that I’m known as the “Cheese lady” in our neighborhood?  So why shouldn’t I be the cheese lady to an unsuspecting person every once in a while?  After all, half the fun of a surprise is how much the recipient likes it.  I wish I could do it for everyone, but I guess that’s why we have grocery stores isn’t it?

 

 

Cheese from my Fridge

This is new to me.

If someone had told me 2 years ago, that I would STILL be interested in the upcoming election, I would have thought they were crazy and seeing Jesus in their soup.  Here we are, a few weeks away from the most historic election of this country and I still dig around for more information. For the record I DO NOT get my news from TV or their websites, but I do read websites from a lot of different directions, including international. I always thought that John Edwards would be in the middle of the fray, but he messed that up didn’t he?  I think that Hillary will make a great Senate Majority leader or a member of the cabinet, because she has the skills and passion to hold that torch.  Joe Biden has the international political experience that rounds out a potentially great administration.

I give. You can see that I am tipping my hand don’t you, you know that my vote is going to be cast for Barack Obama.  This decision wasn’t made on a whim.  When Barack Obama came to Seattle to give his speech way back in the spring, I had not decided who I was going to vote for.  However when I watched that speech and heard the substance of what he had to say, I was persuaded.  But let’s go back in time a few years.  When I watched the Democratic convention in 2004 and Barack gave his keynote address, I remember thinking that this man could be our president one day.  Little did I know that it would be so soon.  At this point I feel just a teensy bit bad for Hillary since she has worked her ass off for several decades to occupy the White House as it’s main resident, not the first wife.  I think she would have made a great president or a vice president, but I’m happy with our choices.

A few years back I didn’t know the difference between pundit and house whip mostly because I thought government was too big to think about and I simply didn’t care.  Now I care.  Sweet Husband and I always have this conversation wondering if this happens to everybody, where one day you don’t care about what is going on around you, then something clicks and now you feel compelled to become educated.  We wonder if our parents went through the same process?  Is this part of being a grown up? At 50 I’d guess so. 

My point is, I have made a conscious choice to know what is happening to our country.  Now more than ever I feel that the choices that we make during this election will have far reaching consequences.  We are not only voting for a president and his running mate, we are setting the direction of this country.  When looking in the rearview mirror I do not like what I see.  I do not want someone like me running the country. (runnin around droppin my ‘g’s) I want the most educated, progressive, people-first person available and I see that in Barack Obama. 

I did something yesterday I’ve never done.  I went to the Democratic Headquarters and got yard signs and bumper stickers.  I have always been sort of an accidential voter, but now I do it on purpose. 

I leave you with this one thought, “If we have ‘always done it that way” only means that we’ve may have been doing it wrong for a long time”.

 

  It IS time for a change! My name is blog-o-licious and I approve this message.

Make you wonder

Courtesy of Natalie Dee.  I’ve been thinking this since 9/11.

 

Say-ah!

 

 

 

The other day I went to the Doctor for my yearly check up and she told me that I needed more Vitamin D.  I asked her what is the most natural and best source of Vitamin D.  She told me sunshine, on the skin.  Then she the  wrote out this prescription for me.  I love my Doctor.

 

Very well, I accept!

RE-do

 

 

I understand that some of you were unable to view the Summer Remodel.  How about this link to YouTube, with enhanced captions.  And just in case you can’t view that video, here are some after pictures.

At the beach

Right now as I look out the window the sun is shining and people are walking along the beach.  We’ve been in search of a great spot for pictures and the rain has been beating down on us…yikes it’s been ugly.  But don’t you know that the second we decide to come in and take a rest from all of our resting, the sun comes out.  Oh well, it’s still VERY nice.

I’ll post more photos when we get home.  Stay dry, I know we’re trying to.