Brand New, Second-Hand

Today's comforts all came in shades of orange:


The tulips are starting to bloom in the garden!


Homemade banana bread, YUM.


And the best of all: a perfect 70's fireplace. Cozy times, northwest style.

Way to Bowl

Rosebud and I walked through the woods today.


The trees are covered in a beautiful moss,


and I spent a few moments staring at all the colors, channeling Andy Goldsworthy:


We went down to the beach, and crunched our feet on thousands of mussel shells. It sounded, truly, like we were stepping on fortune cookies.


The sky couldn't decide if it wanted to be sunny or stormy, so it split the difference:


I took Rosebud home, drove into the neighboring town, and walked around. Unfortunately the library was closed for some reason, but the tortilla factory was open. So was the the little book shop and the hobby store. And Ernie's.


It's different here.

The Soggy Bouquet

Apologies for my absence! Moving is crazy. I try not to do it very often. My friend Amanda told me it's up there with a death in the family, as far as trauma goes. Yipes.

Things are beautiful here. And strange.. I went into the gigantic Indian Casino that's near my house. It's like a combo of the Great Northern, One-Eyed Jack's, and Reno. They have a swimming pool that looked very break-in-able. And there was some sort of serious ladies' pool tournament going on in the event hall where REO Speedwagon will be playing in a few weeks.

The bad news: my camera is broken. Usually when it decides to quit working, I just have to drop it a few times onto concrete and it comes back to life. This time it looks like some sort of climate-change issues have finally sent it to the great digital graveyard in the sky. Luckily, I was still able to download some of the pics from the great California to Washington road trip. I drove by myself, in a fairly rickety '86 toyota, with two very angry cats and one crazy dog for three days! I found two things that, no matter how gross they sound, really work for long-distance driving: Coca-Cola 'Blaq' and audiobooks. I listened to James Ellroy's 'The Black Dahlia', and the miles flew by. The drive was perfect: beautiful blue skies through Northern California and Southern Oregon, Mt. Shasta all covered in snow. Lodging with so many pets and humans at Motel 6, however, was a little upsetting for some:


Ringo says: 'Go away! I'm dosed on kitty valium and hating life..'


'..and that awful dog and terrible bedspread are not helping!'


This is what our Sun Valley shanty looked like, the morning we left.


Goodbye beautiful stove. Hello Kamilche.. land of cedar-shingled cabins, sparkling water, and rain rain rain. I'm home.

Another World

Oh my blog.. the northwest is treating me right. Mossy trees, the puget sound, vistas of the olympic mountains in the distance. Seals, great blue herons, bald eagles and woodpeckers! It feels good to be home, but also confusing. I feel disoriented. Where is the smog and garbage? Ice cream trucks? Iron fences around every house? I'm rolling with the changes and trying not to panic.
I have so many new pictures to share, but unfortunately the internet situation at my new place is a little, uh, out-of-date. We live so far out in the boonies that cable doesn't exist, so we're getting a dial-up activated later in the week (I'm at a Kinko's in the vast metropolis of Olympia's westside).
That's all for now. Hopefully I'll be back later this week! I need to do some serious unpacking, nature trekking, and beachcombing. I already bought my new rubber boots. It's going to be a good year.

Totally Gamed

We had our last Valley Game Night. It was pretty much 'off the hook':



Look at those red pants!


Jessica is either trying to be the Terminator, or Alf. I'm not sure which one..


We got home at 4 a.m. to find that our once cozy home had morphed into a squat. One day left to pack.

Box City and Tape Harbor

I wrote a song today! My song is called TAPEGUN.
It is sung to the tune of 'Rawhide':

Packing, packing, packing
Keep those boxes stacking
Load them front to back-ing
Tapegun!

Keep sorting, sorting, sorting
Lots of junk that we're transporting
And some that needs aborting
Goodwill!

I think delirium has finally set in. Is moving the worst thing ever? Perhaps. But the archaeological dig always yields such great artifacts:



There was a time when I-zones were all the rage, I was in a band, and rearranging the Subway sign was as much fun as you could have on a Saturday night.

Last Days

Yesterday was beautiful.


Justin and I said goodbye to Leonor's, and passed on the secret of the Forever Young Salad and Golden Nugget sandwich to Tamala and Joanne.


The spirit serpent watched us depart, saying 'Sssssseeee you later, sssssssssuckersss!'


Back in Sun Valley, Joanne presented me with my very own tarot deck! And then gave me a full reading! I really want to put her in my pocket and take her to the Northwest (she's pretty little). If you look closely at the very upper right corner, you can see my card that tells of my 'natural expression': Change.

Side note: Change is symbolized by the yin-yang, encircled by a serpent. Who wants to bring back the yin-yang with me?? I'm serious.


Joanne is interpreting my tarot spread under the watchful gaze of the Great Mystic, Otis. I saw him levitate once, and if you don't believe me, ask Justin. Otis is magic.

Nature Notes

I saw the cutest thing in front of my house today: a little squirrel carrying a big orange back to it's tree. We only have one squirrel in our neighborhood, which is odd, but he sure must be a healthy little guy.


Then I saw this, under the tree, on the sidewalk:


Ever since the African Chimpanzees started to make weapons, I've been wondering if the full-fledged animal revolt could be far off. Apparently squirrels are developing opposable thumbs, and yesterday a moose made the ultimate sacrifice while trying to kill a research helicopter.

On an unrelated Animal Arts note, our dog Otis once sculpted what is now infamously known as 'The Bread Slipper'. This picture shows what we found after returning home from an evening out a few years back:


He also writes poetry while we are sleeping.

Spotlight On: Soft Focus

I'm in the middle of packing/moving insanity.. the blogging may get thin this week, but trust me: the Snazzy Boquet Pacific Northwest Edition will be in full effect after we settle in.


Let me just quickly share some more Ian Svenonious magic with you.. my friend showed me this last night, and oh man does it rule! It's Ian's new online interview show, 'Soft Focus', which he filmed at the Guggenheim in front of a live studio audience. He wears clogs and interviews Rollins (who by the way, and this embarrasses me to say, I found to be a little sexy in that American Hardcore film.. back in the day, short-shorts, sweaty. Lame, I know.) and Ian Mackaye and other musicians. Good stuff. If you haven't read Ian's book, The Psychic Soviet, be sure to check that out too! He'll be doing a reading in L.A. on Sunday, the day I'm leaving (boo), and playing records later in the night at the Echo.

Storewide Clearance

It feels good to purge sometimes. I have this vision of re-inventing myself as a classy minimalist, de-cluttering my life of stuff like this:


When I was a kid, I saved everything.. in a superstitious way. Gum wrappers, sugar packets, empty perfume bottles from my sister. Somewhere along the line I toned it down a bit, but I still seem to accumulate piles of stuff wherever I go. When you look at this picture, maybe you see a bunch of junk. When I look at this picture, I see: matches from the Tyee (an institution of Tumwater that they knocked down to build a supermarket), a penguin from Yard Birds (institution of Olympia that burned to the ground), the porcupine quills that Otis ran into on the Farm, the homemade crawfish pin that Justin brought me from Louisiana when we were first dating. A lapel pin from Valley Martial Arts of numchucks.


Then there are the things that I truly don't need anymore.. enter The Great Sun Valley Grunge Sale and Send-Off! Need some smutty books? snowglobes? a plastic cow? Or how about some music:


Justin is clearing out some great records, and everything is priced to move. We won't be undersold! Friday night, 7 pm. Email me for directions. Prizes for best Grunge outfit: vintage Tad tshirts, flannels, and alternative haircuts encouraged. See you in the pit!