Oh Seattle… Why can’t you be pretty and green and sort of warm all year? I keep telling myself that Summer and early fall here make the crappy six month of fallwinterspring all worth it, but that is a hard pill to swallow right now. This has been an especially dreary winter: rain, cooler than…
Continue reading →Each year after Thanksgiving, we take an afternoon, go to our local tree-seller and pick out a fine Noble Fir for our Christmas tree. I then pull out our integrated reservoir tree stand, a carpenter’s level, and set the whole assemblage on top of our large, round, lipped Christmas tree spill pan – I have…
Continue reading →Every summer, my son and I go camping. Some years his sister has gone and my wife has started joining us, but there is a lot of quality father/son time. Discussions swirl around knights, swords, native American tribes/practices, foreign places/peoples, battles, gvns, more sword talk, camping skills, camp cooking, and the merits of boxing/judo/Krav Maga/etc… This year, The…
Continue reading →I have been out of pocket the last couple of months and just haven’t found the time to post anything. Home repairs/maintenance, a really long sleepless trip to China for my J-O-B, local elections, the presidential election, deadlines and long hours at work, laziness, etc… have claimed all my waking hours. I am spending the…
Continue reading →We have a new resident living at La Maison du Talley: Izzy Osborne the cat. My mother recently moved from a house to a smaller apartment and her cat went nuts. Screaming, scratching, and peeing on everything and everyone. The Nana was beside herself with anger over the mess and with worry about what would…
Continue reading →Horror of horrors, I did not touch my yard this weekend. My lush, Ireland-green grass (I am a wee bit narcissistic about my grass) was left to grow and stretch toward the sky in the weekend sunshine. I spent all available daylight hours outside and didn’t even attempt to take the mower out, turn the…
Continue reading →Spring has finally decided to show up in Seattle! I am all giddy. Yesterday was Easter and the sun was out, birds were singing, my flowers are blooming, and my grass in Ireland green. I spent the morning, edging, mowing, raking, reseeding and assaulting my hated foe, the dandelions. I spent ALL DAY outside working…
Continue reading →I resolved not to travel as much in 2012 as I did in 2011 (over 150K air miles), but I am not off to an auspicious start: by January 17th, I already had just over 9,000 miles and I am booked for another British/European tour in March, but I can say for a fact that…
Continue reading →My wife ran into our local pharmacy to get a prescription and when she came out our car and an SUV next to us had been broken into. The other party had a gym bag stolen and our GPS and iPod were left alone, but they TOOK OUR DOG!!! My wife was inconsolable! All she…
Continue reading →Anytime my wife leaves the house, the dog runs to the window, watches her walk out of the gate, puts on the saddest puppy face you have ever seen, and whimpers like she is never coming home. He then quickly looks over at me like he is trying to say, “Do SOMETHING pink monkey!! She…
Continue reading →I have mentioned previously that my relationship with my wife is a Polaroid of happy modern love, with a side order of belligerent puppy. Her dog REALLY wants to be alpha-male in our house ! He wants prime the snuggling position when TV watching. If I get up off the couch or chair, he is…
Continue reading →We had to take a trip to the vet early this morning. I was reading the West Seattle Blog and there was a post about a couple of dogs dying of something called leptospirosis. As I read the article, I grew increasingly alarmed and upon seeing that we live two blocks from where the deceased dogs lived, I…
Continue reading →We sent this note out with our Christmas cards this year: Hello Friends and Family!! It has been quite a year for us and as neither of us have the necessary literary skill or dextérité to write a full clear, concise, and truthful tale, we have decided to send out the truncated version in list…
Continue reading →The following pictures are how every night of my life now goes. Cute sleepy wife goes to bed and puppy follows her. I follow mere seconds to an hour later and this is what I find: Stamps-With-Foot sound asleep, Dog (Brodie) on my side and in my spot. Wife snuggling dog. I walk in and…
Continue reading →Apparently we are now effete bourgeoisie snobs: we have a house cleaner and a someone who walks our puppy when we are not home. Well, we are between house cleaners right now (message me and I will tell you who NOT to use), but we have found the greatest dog walker in Seattle: David the…
Continue reading →While most people wait until their 20th anniversary to marry their spouse again, we decided to move the time-line up a bit and do it on our 3.75 year anniversary. We is just sort of roll like that… No really, we eloped those long many years ago in Southern California just before our move to…
Continue reading →I was a whirlwind of activity on Saturday. I got tons of “to-dos” accomplished, TONS! Not sure what it was – the sun finally shining, nervous energy, the continuous day-long ingestion of coffee, or what but I wish I had that much fire every day. Here is how it went down: Awakened at 5:30 –…
Continue reading →There is a special place in Hell for people that wantonly abuse animals. Seriously, a small metal closet where Hitler holds their hand and whispers sweet nothings as they are tater-holed by a Santa suit-clad Mephistopheles. Our first puppy was rescued after being mistreated and dumped at a shelter. He is such a lover and…
Continue reading →Moved from Germany back to US for job in Seattle Drove cross-country in the middle of winter Started new job Lived in temporary basement apartment Laurel took 1week trip with her mom Survived lay-off at work Laurel started new job Started traveling for work Laurel hated new job Road trip to Portland Laurel gets new…
Continue reading →Ha!! Our home loan funded and was recorded today and we are now the proud owners of a GREAT Jewel-box house!! Our agent handed us the keys just after 6:00 and let us wander around our new place unmolested. I unloaded four boxes from the car, we let Brodie sniff all the corners, Laurel started…
Continue reading →Why do pets eat people? We have all heard the horror stories about someone found in their home after being missing for a few days, the authorities finding them in a ‘snacked upon’ state. Most people feel it happens because the animal is left alone, gets hungry, there is semi-fresh meat about, and nature takes…
Continue reading →Alarm at 6:50 Snuggling for 10 minutes after the snooze let the puppy out shower/shave make coffee have breakfast Kiss Laurel bye Hang out with puppy for 15 in front of CNN Get clothes together Pack bag Forget belt Ride to work Change Discover belt missing Say dirty, hateful things Get dressed Shirt untucked 🙁…
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