Yesterday Bob and I went to see the new Woody Allen movie Scoop. It's hilarious. If you hate Woody, this probably won't change your mind. But if you're ambivalent or like some of his movies, I think you'll find this entertaining. It stars Woody, Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman. Scarlett plays this nerdball aspiring journalist and Woody plays a goofy magician named: Splendini. They are hilarious together.

The theater was about 90% full which was amazing. Usually when we see a Woody Allen movie it's just us and a couple of angry looking foreign ladies. It was fun to see it in a big crowd with everybody laughing. Plus Woody's demographic is people our age or older so everyone was well behaved except the lady next to me was unable to go the full 96 minutes without eating something from her bag which was wrapped in crinkly paper which she unselfconsciously took her time peeling off. Also, I hate the sound of other people chewing so it was extra distressing for me but luckily she ate pretty fast.

There were two trailers for movies that looked good, another surprise as normally during the trailers I'm looking at Bob and going, "That's a movie?" I even did that yesterday with some stupid looking poker movie which, based on the trailer, I think is about a charming young woman played by Drew Barrymore who falls for a dreamy guy (the guy from the Hulk) except instead of having a job, he plays in poker tournaments and has Daddy issues and in the suspenseful climax, plays in the World Championship Poker Match and the last two players are he and his dad who is OF COURSE played by Robert Duvall. Please.

The movies that look good are The Science of Sleep directed by Michel Gondry who directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and which stars Gael Garcia Bernal who was in the The Motorcycle Diaries. During the trailer I leaned over to Bob and said, "I love it already." (And by the way, congratulations IMBD for adding those hideous animated mortgage ads to your site. They look like shit, bravo.)

The other movie is called Trust the Man and stars Dave Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup and Maggie Gyllenhaal and is about friends and relationships looks funny and good.

After movie time we went to the park where the Hawaiian festival was going on and were hoping to score some killer dinner even though I really wanted to eat leftovers at home because the refrigerator is too full. Sadly (or gladly) the food vendors had been cranking out the food all day and all that was left were two pitiful looking banana lumpia, some panini and some yakisoba. Not sure how panini fits in with the Hawaiian theme. I'm guessing someone coughed up a bunch of money for a panini machine and needs to pay it off. I was not about to stand in line for yakisoba so we had leftovers served in taco shells at home. It was awesome.

I Want A Sea-Monkey Now

Last week I saw this exciting news online:

Empire Pictures has signed a deal with Transcience Corp. to develop an animated film and possible franchise from the infamous children's toy line "The Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys," reports Variety. Under the deal, Empire acquired entertainment rights to the line, which has been on the market for 45 years and sold in more than 50 countries.

Full item here

Someone commented: Oh great, a movie about brine shrimp.

I read a lot of comics books as a kid and let me tell you, I wanted those sea-monkeys. Remember those ads with the sea-monkey family and their happy faces? I really thought that's what you were getting. They still advertise like that. How many kids are crushed when their sea-monkey's hatch and they're just brine shrimp, well "amazing new hybrids [that] live longer than any "natural" variety of brine shrimp."? Notice how few photos of actual sea-monkeys are on the website. Other troubling news: on the trouble-shooting page it says if you're having trouble seeing them, look more closely "Sea-Monkeys are as tiny as a pinpoint sized "dot" of white." Having fun yet kids? Be sure to click on the video. Love that groovin soundtrack.

Friday Morning Find
This morning we did a crepe walk. We walked downtown to have breakfast crepes at Mon Ami, a new place that opened about a month ago.

During the walk we stopped at a big garage sale which is going to benefit something with animals. They had all kinds of donations they were trying to organize.

I'm not a big garage sale person because I see it as more junk you're bringing it into the house but when I saw these cookie cutters, I had to have them.

These are the cookie cutters we used when we were kids. Mom or Erin probably still has them. There was a scary moment when I thought I might have them but the box is behind a bunch of stuff and I don't want to look right now.



I picked through the whole box for all the familiar ones. I thought I might even make sugar cookies for the writers tomorrow except I'm not sure I'm up for the effort right now. I already had planned to pick up another half flat of blueberries and throw together a quick crisp. I already know it's yummy and whatever's leftover won't go to waste.

When I put on my shorts this morning I found a dollar in my pocket. Perfect for my purchase. We needed two more cookie cutters to make it a dollar. And I found two we didn't have.



A witch. How cool is that? Also note I realize these photos are crap. I have a lot to learn.

Here's another shot of the Frank Gehry building in Cleveland. If I was a bit more energetic I could Photoshop that lamppost out of there. Running late, decided to keep it real.

We finally had a cool night last night and were able to open the windows up again. I don't like to sleep with the air conditioner on if I don't have to. Bob grilled some portabella mushrooms, green pepper and onion for dinner. He's got the routine down now, they were awesome. We had some rice and cleared out a dab of leftover bean salad and green beans. I had a lime popcicle while I watched my Battlestar Galactica DVD.

When I watered the yard, I found two tomatoes that are yellow-y orange. Getting closer. Also a couple of cucumbers. I remember planting tons of cucumber seeds but looks like I only have two vines. That'll be enough.

I found this in the restaurant guide of one of the visitor magazines in Cleveland.

Lazy Sunday
Today I spent a better part of the afternoon trying to wrangle my digital photos. Since Frodo's color went wonky I got lazy and haven't named or organized photos in at least a dozen downloads. They're still haphazard but at least in folders with general dates and I deleted dozens of blurry crap shots that I don't need to save.

I also played with iMovie. I made a little movie of my pumpkins (what else?) with my camera. I figured 40 seconds or so would be perfect to start out. It's a somewhat intuitive program. I managed to tack on a fade in and fade out and put it to some music but I would have liked to understand how the program works.

I tried the help window which very helpfully told me I could make a movie and do tricky stuff like fade in and fade out and add music. It didn't tell me out to do it so I would say that's not help that's marketing. Bob says he has a book but I bet it's about 400 pages long and starts with instructions like: plug your computer into the wall and hit the on switch.

Who decided that computer books have to be giant tomes? What if you could tell someone everything she needed to know in 30 pages?

This evening I made a blueberry brown betty which was fantastic. I would have eaten a trough-full but I was full from dinner. Brown betty is the way to go. I think this fall I will develop the pumpkin brown betty. At last, I realize my life purpose.

Paddle to the Sea
Last weekend when we were in Tacoma, we had a chance to see Phil's latest project. He's working with a group to carve a Salish canoe. Lots of info and photos here.

Looking at Phil's bio just now, his parents met at Chemawa Indian School. When I met them I told them that some of my family had attended Chemawa and they knew the name Wilder right away. Indian Country: not so big.

I'm impressed with the project. It's one thing to see a canoe and another thing to see the work in progress. I found this article that tells a little bit more about canoe technology.

And here's a photo of roughly what they're going for.


I would have loved to put these photos up earlier except I've been in camera hell for the past several days trying to get my new computer to make friends with my camera and transfer the images. I've been downloading and installing software, firmware and trading out memory cards and batteries. Ultimately I had to put a question in to support because no matter what I do I either get a spinning beachball of frozen hell OR I get an error message that tells me there is no memory card.

I can download the photos onto the old system, no problem. Meanwhile, while looking for cds and instruction manuals I've torn my room apart and found all sorts of other things I didn't remember I had. Possibly a good thing.

Swiss Pamily Robinson
Something I forgot to mention yesterday when I was talking about last week's food section was this recent fixation with chutney. It seems like everywhere I turn I see a chutney recipe, which my research tells me "is a term for a variety of sweet and spicy condiments." I'm so not interested in making chutney or having it served to me. It's a 4 year old's mentality because I don't think I've eaten much chutney and I don't know where the resistance comes from but enough with the chutney already.

A recipe that thrilled me appeared in today's Foodday which featured a huge article about cheese and had a tidbit about the woman who won the Tillamook Macaroni and Cheese Bake-Off with a recipe called Crab and Macaroni Bake. It doesn't sound good for the middle of summer but when the first cool days are here, I can't wait to try it.

I forgot to mention that on the way to Tacoma the train showed Swiss Family Robinson. Yes, the Disney movie that came out in 1960. I thought that was odd, too. I've never seen the movie or read the book and everything I know about the story comes from an attraction at Disneyland that I played on as a kid. According to this website (which includes some wonderful photos) the attraction is no longer at the California Disneyland where it was transformed into some sort of Tarzan thing, but it still exists in Florida.

The original book Swiss Family Robinson was written in 1812 (!) and you can read it for free at Project Gutenberg.

The movie is completely loopy. Especially if you're not really watching it because you want to read your book but you can't help but look up at the screen because of all the crazy stuff going on. There was a shipwreck and an island and the Swiss family managed to adapt to the new situation pretty quickly. In Lost everyone wandered around in a daze picking through refuse and arguing about a rescue fire. In SFR they were all running around in clean clothes teasing elephants and riding ostriches right after they slapped up their tree house. What sort of magical wonderland was this because in addition to elephants and ostriches, I saw giant snakes, tigers and a zebra. And these goofy pirates of possible Asian origin. And the pirates were looting a different ship with Euro-type occupants including the Captain's boy who was really a girl (his daughter or granddaughter?) who hooked up with the Swiss Family. (Probably a more amazing plot twist in 1960). It seems like the island wasn't all that deserted. I guess I'll have to netflix it and watch it because I'm intrigued now.

Posting About Not Posting
I can't explain it but sometimes I can't bear to sit here and organize my thoughts / adventures into words for a post here. Other times I can hardly pry myself away.

I never wrote about my Michigan adventure which was lovely. I hung out with Auntie and Jennifer and the kiddiepies. We went to swimming lessons and outlet stores and did crossword puzzles and had a faboo dinner at Five Lakes Grill in Milford. One of those dinners you keep thinking about.

I decided I was going to start doing crosswords puzzles again. I used to do them all the time when I lived in L.A. We get the NY Times and the Monday puzzle is the easiest and a satisfying experience. I can finish it and revel in my smartness. By Thursday I'm toast and even cheating on the Internet, it takes me about an hour and a half to do two thirds of the puzzle. I used to love the Sunday puzzle but I guess that was the LA Times, not NY Times. I checked out the online LA Times puzzle but you had to do it on the computer which ruins all the fun because it's nice to leave on the kitchen counter and come back to all day long.

On Saturday we took the train to Tacoma for an Indian Arts Fair at the Washington State History Museum and met Ballard Avenue. Phil Red Eagle picked us up and took us to see the Salish canoe he's carving with a group of carvers. He gave me a card with a URL but I can't find it right now. Maybe I'll remember and update later. We had lunch and checked out the fair and walked around downtown Tacoma which is looking good in some places, like around the museums. A nice day trip.

My garden bounty hasn't quite kicked in yet. I've got zillions of green tomatoes but not one with even a hint of red. Our next door neighbors have a huge raspberry patch and they've been unloading lots on us. I was inspired by Foodday's cobbler v. crisp article this week and made a raspberry crisp which included a sprinkling of chocolate chips and was fantastic. I was going to do a whole post about cobbler v. crisps (which I call Brown Bettys) and maybe even do some Cooks Illustrated research and throw in some informative info on buckles and crumbles, as well. Maybe next weekend.

Bob and I got new computers so I spent all day yesterday getting my iTunes and photos moved over, reinstalling computer programs, and getting things configured the way I like it. At last a color screen that works. I've dusted off all my Photoshop books. Perhaps the remodel of this space will happen now.

Slow News Day
I know, I know. World Cup ends and I have nothing. I hardly know what to do with myself these days. I wander around the house in fugue with visions of Cannavaro vacuuming my house in his underwear dancing through my head. (My ultimate fantasy is to have an unbelievably sexy man clean my house in his underwear.)

I was going to write some things in response to this half-wit who thought that since Zidane's headbutt was in response to an racial/family insult, that made him a hero. Why yes, that makes sense. Someone insults you with words and you respond with violence. Well, good thing the rest of the world doesn't solve problems that way. (Blistering sarcasm in case you weren't getting it.)

If you want about 12 seconds of fun you might try finding your Brazilian soccer name.

When I use Pamela I get RA and while it might be fun to be associated with the sun god it's not that much fun as a soccer name. Pammy results in the super sexy Pildo and Pam gets me Rio which isn't too bad. If I reverse my names, Rentz Pamela generates Rinho, Pammy gets Rildo and Rentz Pam gives me my favorite: Pinho Santos.

Bob got the first disk for a show called Weeds which is fantastic. Hilarious, sick and twisted. I'd search it out if I were you.

FIFA World Cup Final Game
I thought the game started at Noon but at 11:00a I had my brunch fixins spread out on the counter and laundry half sorted for the wash and the dishwasher open and half emptied and I thought I'd turn on the TV real quick to just see and turns out we were already 5 minutes into it. I didn't even have my Italia soccer jersey on.

I abandoned everything I was doing because soccer must be watched. You can't finish emptying the dishwasher and come back later because you might miss something.

About 15 minutes into it I decided that I could not listen to that imbecile Dave O'Brien for one more minute and I wanted to try Univision. But I didn't know what number it was and I scrolled through the channels and saw something in the 700s that said World Cup so I clicked on that and it was the high definition channel. We don't have HD but it was widescreen and it would have been nice to know that existed about 63 games ago.

It still had yammering Dave but apparently when you put your TV on HD the remote control takes on a life of its own and me, being on the slow side, had to click every button and remove the batteries to try to troubleshoot the problem with zero results. So now we're 20 minutes into the game and I'm overwhelmed with anxiety because my remote won't work and I can't manually change channels back to the original broadcast because it will take too long and I might miss something critical in the game.

Finally at the half I got out of remote hell and switched to Univision for the second half. Univision is awesome. Even though my Spanish vocabulary is limited to words you find on a Taco Bell menu, I felt like I understood exactly what they were saying. Plus they were so excited about it. And the commercials were way better, too.

The highlight of the second half was when Zidane went down with an injury around the 80th minute and Cannavaro stepped in front of the camera and adjusted his shorts (rear view) which involved hiking way them up for an excellent leg/butt view. I almost passed out. They should make a calendar of that.

I don't know what to say about that whole Zidane red card business. Sorry way to end a career. I don't care what the other guy said. Also I meant to mention earlier that I don't like those blue Italy uniforms. That dark blue swatch around the arms looks like a big pit stain. At least they won. Yay, Italia.

FIFA World Cup Games huh, what and 63
I thought I should at least check in and tell you that I'm over Germany's loss to Italy in the semis.

I was really burnt and it pretty much ruined my 4th of July. But we went for a walk at the Fort and saw the gathered masses for the big 4th of July display which made up for it. A little. We saw some live music and ran into a few people we know. Tried to cruise through the Pearson Air Museum which I'm sure is wonderful when there aren't already a gajillion people crowded in there. Ate a corn dog and rode the Zipper. (Totally kidding, I can't even look at the zipper without my last 3 meals lurching in my stomach.)

If Germany wasn't in it I was hoping for Portugal since it would have been nice to see them win their first Cup. But France destroyed that fantasy. So now I was in the position of having to watch two teams I couldn't bear to see lose again in the 3rd place game.

That game was today and it was good for a game that two broken-hearted teams who didn't really want to play. I still wanted Germany to win, which they did. And it was fun to see Oliver Kahn play although you have to feel a teeny bit bad for Lehman the way the crowd and commentators treated it like the second coming. I love Ollie as much as the next guy but Lehman has done a bust up job this WC. Italy's first goal was a brilliant play. It was nice that the referee didn't decide the game. (This is poor reporting because I'm talking about two games in 1 paragraph. Italy made a great goal in the semi-final against Germany on July 4th. Today's game involved Germany and Portugal.)

Also today is was fun to see Klinsman do his best Bad News Bears and make sure everyone got to play. Also I got to see my favorite referee Toru Kamikawa one more time.

I like France a lot. How can you not love Zidane? And Henry and the rest of the gang as well. That game against Brazil is unforgettable. But I'm going to root for Italy. That Cannavaro is something else. (As a player and to look at although I think he should grow out a big shaggy doo.) And I don't think anything can get through the Italy defense except possibly their own feet. (yeah USA).

The U.S. press has had a field day with articles about why the US isn't more into WC soccer. Including the buckethead who wrote that maybe the question was why Europe was so into WC and maybe because they didn't have any better sports to watch. Isn't US mentality great that if US doesn't like it then somehow it isn't valid?

Plus there are plenty of US people who are soccer freaks. For example, twice we went up to Seattle to see European teams play in exhibition games. Events that sold out in minutes. Portland's Pioneer Square "the city's living room" hosted a big screen for the semis and will host the finals for fans to come down and watch the games. They had 5000 people down there.

Bob thought his sounded great and all I could think about was: where will I go to the bathroom? (This is what I thought about the big crowds shown in Berlin and Munich. I'm single-minded about this sort of thing.)

Plus I find that the more people involved with watching the game, the more distracted I am, the more I can't see and hear what is going on. I like actually seeing the game. There was a picture in the paper and it looked pretty civilized but I still would rather see it in Pam's living room.

I still have a few photos and stories for you on my Michigan trip. And the garden has all sorts of fun stuff to share. Dahlias. Tomatoes. Little frogs.

Tonight is a perfect night. Clear sky with pretty clouds. A nice breeze. Third place Germany or no, I'm feeling pretty lucky right now.

Pay Attention to the Spelling
Shortly after you cross the Interstate Bridge there is a large landscaped area that includes an outline of the state of Washington in plants. It also includes the letters ALKI in flowers.

I drive by this almost every day and for the life of me couldn't think of what ALKI could stand for.

This morning Bob and I drove past it together and I said, "What's ALKI?"

Bob: It's a Ferry. There's going to be a big celebration this year.

Me, completely agog: They're having a celebration for a Fairy?

Bob: Yeah! A big one.

Me, still completely agog, my pea brain wheels spinning like mad trying to figure out why the state would be celebrating a big Fairy and why I'd never heard about it before. I actually said outloud: Have I just fallen into a parallel universe or are we talking about the state celebrating a Fairy?

Bob, perplexed why I'm having such a hard time with this: Yeah, it's a really big deal. It's like 50 years old.

Me, still agog: And we're talking about a little creature like Tinkerbell with wings?

Bob: A Ferry Boat.

--

This is absolutely a true conversation. I don't know where my head was at. I was completely sober, not hungover, although I have a lingering chest cough and hadn't had breakfast yet.

I did a bit of research and turns out ALKI is the Washington State Motto and it roughly translates to "by and by" in the Chinook Indian language. I didn't see anything about a Washington Ferry Vessel called ALKI but I only investigated for about 3 minutes because I'm not in the mood for a major online project right now.

I also found reference to an Alki Transportation company, an Alki Point and an Alki beach.

I found nothing about Alki the Fairy.

He Even Uses A Turtle!

I don't know how I can go on living without giving you this link for for 1000 ways to open a beer bottle. German, but important.

Also, I can't even tell you how high strung I am about Germany's game tomorrow against Italy. 10 years of my life, soon to be gone. If Germany wins, expect spunky commentary. If not, I'll be crying in my beer. For days.

Cleveland Rocks
The day after we arrived in Cleveland there was an article in the paper that listed the top 5 cities losing population and the top 5 cities gaining population. Ohio was the only state that had two cities in the top 5: Cleveland and Cincinnati.



We had a great trip, and Cleveland does have something to offer but it's hard not to think that the only thing holding the place together is duct tape and chewing gum. (Other parts are blocked off my massive amounts of orange cones, "the state flower of Ohio" we were told.) I don't think anything in that city works any better than it has to and people were super nice and eager to be helpful but consistently completely worthless.

Our checked bag didn't arrive with us and after wrangling that bit at the airport, we took the Red Line into town which was easy and offered a nice view of rusted broken down stuff overgrown with rich green foliage.

When we checked into the hotel we let them know we were missing a bag and we found food and went to bed.

The next morning I watched the USA gets their butts kicked by Ghana and Bob spent almost the entire time on the phone trying to track down the bag. The airline said the delivery people had it. The delivery people said the hotel had it. The hotel said they didn't have it. Bob went around in circles, with much more patience that I would have had.

Finally, when my game ended, we went downstairs to check again and what do you know, the hotel had the bag. It had been delivered in the middle of the night. It had our name on it. They knew we were looking for it. You'd think they would have tried to get it to us.

We spent some time wandering around downtown and then met a friend of Bob's from high school who drove us around. We went to University Circle and looked at the Frank Gehry building and walked around enjoying the day. We had great weather, mostly mild, sure-muggy, and a fair amount of rain but nothing we couldn't handle. While we were there, there were areas of flooding in Ohio but not near us.

On our way back into town we got turned around and ended up driving around East Cleveland which was quite an adventure. My favorite shop was the Bible Shop/Exterminator. I'm not making this up.



We had a wonderful dinner at the Great Lakes Brewing Company and later had ice cream and wandered around a little bit.

The next day we switched to the hotel where the wedding was going to be and then went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I wasn't knocked out by the whole thing. If you've ever been to EMP (Experience Music Project) in Seattle, you've more or less seen it AND you've seen a Gehry building all at the same time. I think EMP is a little better.

Some great things were the movies. There's a montage of inductee ceremonies that I loved and another movie about the inductees that's fantastic.



By the time we were wrapped up there and had some lunch it was time to meet the girls coming into town from the west coast. We all gathered for some cocktails and a fun dinner and then early to bed. We had a big day on Saturday.

I took in the Germany v. Sweden game and then walked around downtown until I met up with Bob. We had a late lunch and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the big party.

I'm running out of steam here so the quick version is: the ceremony was in the Old Stone Church and a great celebration followed. Everyone was thrilled for the Bride and Groom. Super fun party, yay.

Chore-O-Rama
One thing I forgot to mention earlier was that when Friday's first game went into penalty kicks ESPN had to preempt some sort of Paintball Championship. I'm sure all three people who tuned in to watch it were devastated.

Today was my first full weekend day at home without soccer. It was chore-o-rama.

I did laundry and a bit of yardwork. Cleaned up the cupboards and fridge. My main thing was defrosting the outside freezer and tidying up the shop which had gotten so overrun with empty boxes, Home Improvement Project detritus and every day stuff piled around that you couldn't find anything or get around in there.

Tonight I'm whipping up a salad from leftovers and roasting some turnips. yum.

FIFA World Cup Games 59 and 60
Good thing we're getting down to the end because these games are taking years off my life. The penalty kicks are so nerve wracking.

I would have been okay with either England or Portugal winning game 59 until Rooney stepped on that guy's crotch. Come on. Who does that? Ever. But especially in a World Cup game. I don't think I've ever been glad to see a guy get sent off the field and I was glad about this.

Portugal managed to pull it off thanks to a brilliant goal keeper. They all need to go home and do 100 penalty kicks a day. Okay, maybe I should try kicking the ball into the goal myself to see how easy it is. Especially when I'm dead tired. But then that's their job. They play soccer. What if missed when I was stapling a document because I was tired? Or accidentally put all my mail through the postage machine at the wrong postage rate? Okay, okay. Sometimes you miss the goal. Understood.

In the France v. Brazil game I was leaning towards Brazil. What happened to those guys? France looked fantastic and did Brazil even get a shot on goal? France was barely on my radar after what I thought was a weak showing in group play. Now I can't wait to see them again. Two great games.

I have to ask: who makes those Red Stripe commercials? Some guy in his garage? They don't actually pay someone to make those, do they?