Kingfisher Cove

Time for Bullets!

Woohoo.

So, I’m home alone, possibly for the entire weekend! (Anyone want to come over and partay?) John left around noon today to go camping with his buddy, Lee, at Waddell Creek near Olympia so that they can get up at the buttcrack of dawn and go dredging for gold! There is a very limited “dredging season” and it begins August 1st, so they are stoked. It is hot-hot-HOT. Areas exceeded 100° today! (I wonder if John brought along any shorts? He’s not a big shorts wearer, but I suspect he’ll wish he had, if not).

He was so excited about this. Like a kid. It’s been a while (a month?) since he’s been out to do some prospecting and he’s been a busy guy in the interim, so he was due.

• Waiting to hear from my son (he was supposed to call me to discuss some wedding reception details—I have a list of questions—but he hasn’t yet. Which is fairly typical. His new bride is in San Antonio for a month of training, otherwise I’d chat with her.
• The Washington Post asked a question on Facebook: “Will you miss him (Jon Stewart)?” And I commented: “’Miss’ isn’t the word. There will be a deep, dark hole when he’s gone.”   As of this moment, 1,290 1,380 people have “liked” that comment.
• It’s true; Jon Stewart is absolutely brilliant. (Besides hysterically funny). It’s so sad he’s not hanging around through the upcoming presidential election season. *sob*
• I. Cannot. Believe. Trump. Is. A. Thing. What a bloviating twit he is. Ever notice that when he talks, his mouth takes the shape of an anus? It does!

 

                                           What a pompous ass.

• Of course, the entire GOP clown train of candidates (17 of them so far) makes me shudder from the insanity they spew from their alternate universe. “I do not and will never understand you or anything about you. You speak a foreign language; your priorities are beyond my comprehension.”
• Finished reading “The Martian,” and it was really good! No literary masterpiece by any means, but I loved the science of it! Wow, space is hard.
• Why can’t I order (and pay a nominal price) for small samples of lipsticks so I can try them out and determine what I like? I do NOT want to spend $27 on a tube of lipstick (or even $8!) to then discover that I hate it. Maybe I need to go to a mall and have a “make-over” by someone who knows what they’re doing and I can see firsthand what works and what doesn’t. Seems like that would be pretty fun. (Or not?)
• The oven repairman came (again) and determined that we need a new part (again) which will take another two weeks before I (maybe) have a properly working oven. We’ve been dealing with this for months now. Why is it so difficult to repair this damned thing?
• Tried Jamberry nail wraps today and it was pretty much a disaster, which I was afraid of. I really can’t blame the product though; it’s apparent that they are very good quality. But the thing is, you actually need to HAVE nails for them to work. I basically don’t. But I also fumbled everything pretty badly before I got the hang of it (one nail turned out half-way decently). They should provide a practice sheet!
• This broke my heart and filled me with rage. Why the HELL does anyone need to go “trophy hunting?” Get a penis enlargement instead!
• Woohoo, Russell Wilson agreed to an $88 million contract and will be with the Seahawks for the next five years! (Yes, it’s obscene how much these athletes earn. Definitely misplaced societal value.)
• Think I’ll find a movie to watch! Update: binge-watched several episodes of Grace and Frankie.

Alrighty, Then! (!)

Nate and Sandra’s wedding reception will now be held here at the Harstine house on Saturday, October 17th.

It makes sense. It’ll be fine. In fact, it’ll be a whole lot of fun!

We’re also hosting our annual neighborhood potluck in September so we’ll have a good test run!

Gulp!

A *Wee* Bit Grumpy

Being in cleaning mode will bring on the grumbly mood. Didn’t I just do this?

But I also had yet another glass kiln disaster and THAT just about sent me over the edge. (Plus, the glass bowl I tried to make with the partially “stuck” mold I attempted to pry loose later EXPLODED in my sink, scaring me to death! The glass shattered into a bunch of pieces.  John and I are baffled about the how and why that happened. I’m just glad I was across the room and that it was contained in the sink!)

(And yet another waste of glass…)

And we’re still waiting for the oven repairman. Oh! And one more frustration: I just learned that my MOST FAVORITE LIPSTICK COLOR IN THE WORLD IS BEING DISCONTINUED. I’ve been wearing Revlon Moon Drops #260 for years and I love it and they’re ending it. Just kill me now. (Yeah, I know. First world problems).

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On the “good news” front: We had our FINAL house inspection and totally passed! It was contingent on John completing the master bathroom (DONE) and addressing a handful of relatively minor “dings” from the contingent inspection (that still allowed us to move in. Heh.) So, it was a little anti-climatic, but still  important and still a relief.

He separated the permitting of the house from the driveway/retaining walls/storm drainage and he’s now focusing on that part of it. He’s been building forms for the concrete footings and then we wait for the concrete guy to be available to come pour. Then, retaining walls (the concrete guy will construct those forms). There will also be block walls along the driveway, which will be a lot more attractive than the concrete ones. I’m not very excited about those (concrete), but they are required. Maybe someday I’ll have wisteria draping off them or something.

Lots of shoveling. (And that’s after a lot of excavating). He’s a sore puppy.

So, this is weird. While he was shoveling, John encountered a grouping of strange rocks. They are truly curious! They are much lighter weight than they look like they should be, and they have some kind of a metallic “coating” on the surface. They don’t respond to a magnet, but when I did the “ice test,” the ice immediately started to melt (which means it could be silver? I doubt it, though). Aren’t they strange looking?

Anybody in the know?

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The weekend was gloomy and showery, and on Saturday we ventured to the Olympia area and took in the Pacific Northwest Mushroom Festival. It was fun! Lots of hawkers selling lame/awesome things. These flavored olive oils (for dipping, marinating, and cooking) seem to be uber-popular! I picked up a couple:

Locals know Ciscoe Morris, our Seattle-based Master Gardener. Oooo la la!

We also picked up a bunch of mushrooms, of course!

Afterward, we drove over to the Olympia Farmers Market and got some nummy cucumbers and cabbage. Didn’t see anything else we needed, plus no room in the fridge! It was nice to get away (and leave the dogs at  home).

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And finally…in the same category of “things not working right,” my laptop has been hiccupping a lot lately. It’s pretty old as far as laptops go (6 or 7 years? Maybe more?) Part of the problem is that the hard drive is really full. It’s sluggish and overwhelmed. It’s also a mess with layers upon layers of photos and documents after migrating all that crap two or three times over from previous computers. It’s confused and over-burdened.

So I had this great idea to transfer the majority of my photos to a cloud-based site. I have Dropbox, but the storage is paltry and I really don’t want to have to pay! I learned that Flickr allows an entire terabyte of free storage! So my computer via my relatively slow DSL internet connection has been uploading photos to Flickr for the past FOUR ENTIRE DAYS STRAIGHT. And it’s STILL uploading! Jeeze. I figured I could then (safely) delete a bunch of the photos on my hard drive, freeing up a ton of space. But I’ve since read that I shouldn’t do that! That I should get myself an external hard drive and store them on that in addition to Flickr, THEN delete them from my hard drive. (To be uber-safe). So I guess that’s next.

I can’t believe how long it’s taking to upload those photos to Flickr. But it is nice to go there and see my photos. There’s even a “magic view” that sorts them by “cat” or “dog” or “sunset” or whatever! So far I have 11,350 photos on there!

Just Chatting

I’ve got both glass kilns cooking at once and I’ll probably head back into the studio shortly to prepare some more goodies for upcoming “cooking.” I’m pretty excited about the item that’s currently in the Beast Kiln. I found a mold (new on the market, I believe) for bookends, something I’ve been searching for months. There used to be a wrought iron bookend frame that I coveted, but it’s not manufactured anymore. It looked like this:

I’m sooooo disappointed I can’t find these frames anymore! They’d be so much fun for either stained glass or fused glass. Anyway, the mold I found is for casting glass and the only picture I could find of the end result was this:

I only bought one mold so I have to make one at a time (unless I fall in love with the outcome and decide to spring for the 2nd one). And it takes a LOT of glass! 3 lbs. worth of scrap! (And of course my palette is in blues and greens!) I hope I like it.

Update: Total bust. Literally. The glass cracked and stuck to the mold, completely ruining it. Yes, I’ve sent a nastygram to the company where I purchased it.

What a waste of money and GLASS.

Have I mentioned lately how frustrated I am with things not WORKING? Like my OVEN!!!! Grrrrr!

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We’ve been busy doing this and that. We took the long way to the grocery store last Saturday and drove the curvy highway along Hood Canal. It was so pretty! Lots and lots of houses and cabins along that road, all very close to one another. (It made us appreciate our quiet, spacious acre on Harstine with a NON-busy road to get here!) But, Hood Canal is gorgeous. And I understand the shrimp harvest from there is amazing.

And, John finished my vanity in the walk-in closet! I’ve been using it and I love it! I picked up a very nifty “carrousel” for all of my earrings I finally unearthed. I also tossed a bunch, but the keepers are plentiful and it’s fun to have easily accessible choices!

We watched this movie the other night, and it was very well done (which I suspected from all of the positive critical reviews), but the ending was quite jarring. It was more of a “head game” type of sci-fi movie (with astounding CGI) rather than explosions, which I appreciated. Pretty mind-blowing.

Speaking of sci-fi, I’m currently reading The Martian (recommended by Margaret) and it’s goooooood. It’s coming out as a movie this fall with Matt Damon. MacGyver on Mars!

While we were eating steamer clams Sunday evening on the deck, we enjoyed this view of the moon and Venus (click to embiggen)!

The night before, we saw THIS:

It’s been such an amazing summer.

Fridge, Vanity, Friends, and African Stew

Ugh. Just came back in from John’s shop from cleaning (barf) the old (and I mean old) refrigerator that he hauled down here from the Des Moines house garage. It had been sitting in that garage for several years. He’d originally had it in the kitchen there and I even used it for a few years until he expanded the space to accommodate MY (bigger/newer) refrigerator that I’d had at my condo. When we talked about having “the spare fridge” in the shop, I was thinking MY fridge and he was thinking the old smaller one. After he’d installed his workbench and side cabinets and he’d installed the small standup freezer, I said, “That space doesn’t look big enough for my fridge.” Well, it wasn’t intended to be and it’s not. Such a bummer. So…the smaller icky fridge will have to do. There’s a possibility we can put mine in the pantry, but for all the space that would take up, I don’t think it’ll be worthwhile. Sigh.

At any rate, it WILL be nice to have the extra fridge for company and overspill. And the shop is easy access from the house (just through the mudroom). Cleaning it was sure gross, though.

Speaking of appliances, we had an oven repairman come out from Frigidaire (we had to wait WEEKS for him) and he replaced a part. (The oven wasn’t maintaining temperature). Well, guess what? It’s STILL not maintaining temperature. The part was apparently faulty! And now we have to wait AGAIN for the stupid repairman to come out and fix it. Yeah, I’m grumpy.

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John has been busy working on my vanity area in the walk-in closet! Really, all that needs to be done now is tiling the countertop and installing drawer/cupboard handles. Honestly, it’s lovely and I don’t think these pictures capture how awesome it is!

The lighting fixtures match the ones in the master bathroom, and again they look like glowy blobs in a photo when they’re turned on. They really don’t look like that!

I can hardly wait until I can use it!

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The night that Nate and Sandra got married, John and I were invited to our friends’ house for dinner. I’ve known Diane for as long as I’ve known Helen—since the 2nd grade! And I was in Diane and Tim’s wedding 38 years ago! (Wow!) Then…Diane cared for Nate for the first two years of his life. I had to go back to work when he was just eight weeks old, and Di-Di was his “other” mama! She saw him take his first steps, and also noticed his first chicken pox pustule (which, of course, meant that their two young daughters caught it…) They recently moved into a lovely, sprawling home on an acre of woodsy park-like paradise. It’s absolutely beautiful.

Diane made a wonderful dinner—African Gold Coast Stew. And she gave me the recipe! It’s a perfect dish for a group of people, and I’m considering it for our neighborhood potluck that is coming up in September (and we’re hosting). I can make it in advance and freeze it! It’s absolutely delicious, easy to make, and it reminds me somewhat of Pad Thai (but with rice). Here is the recipe! (I don’t think she’ll mind if I share!)

 

African Gold Coast Stew

2 green peppers, diced (can use red, yellow, or orange or combo)
1 med onion diced
2 Tbs olive oil
1 can tomato paste (6 oz.)
3/4 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
3 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 cups cooked chicken, cut up (chicken breasts or thighs)
6 cups rice (Jasmine, but can mix in brown rice if desired)

Toppings

Shredded coconut
Coarsely chopped peanuts
Broiled banana slices (with butter spray)
Pineapple tidbits
Golden raisins
Diced green/red peppers
Major Grey’s chutney
Fresh lime wedges (“fresh spritz of lime really finishes the dish!”)

Directions

1. In a large skillet, cook and stir peppers and onion in olive oil until onion is tender. Drain off fat.
2. In a medium bowl, blend tomato paste and peanut butter then stir in broth and seasonings.
3. Add broth mixture to skillet with onion and peppers – add cooked chicken and cook and stir over low heat until heated through. (“Mixture can scorch so I often use my microwave or crock pot to heat.”)
4. If the stew is too thick, stir in additional chicken broth.
5. Serve over rice (like gravy).

This can be made ahead and freezes well. If the chicken is cooked up ahead (I cook it and freeze it in 4 C bags), this dish can be completed in 30 min. Just steam the rice while you are putting the stew together.

For a large group, I use 2 crock pots for serving – one for rice and one for the stew, then use a Lazy Susan with all the toppings in separate serving bowls. Serve with a nice green salad and it’s plenty.

This dish is gluten free (if there has been no cross contamination)

Basic recipe serves 8

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I’ll leave you with a gorgeous sunset from Wednesday night. They have been stunning lately!

Just Married!!

Monday evening, July 13th, just before 7:00 p.m., Nate and Sandra were married on a lovely oceanside cliff in San Diego.

The backstory is that a local pastor offers free “elopement” ceremonies on Mondays to members of the military. Nothing is paid for; he even provided a professional photographer and violinist for free! But the ceremony only allows for the bride and groom and their witnesses. No guests. It’s an elopement, after all!

We were at our friends’ house for dinner that evening, and soon after their ceremony, Nate sent me this (rather poor quality) video that brought such a smile to all of our faces! [For some reason, Youtube isn’t letting me embed the video here on da blog, but hopefully the link works…]

Then, some photos started showing up, and these were the ones that Sandra’s niece (who stood up for her) took on her phone. (The professional photos are yet to come, and they will include photos of the ceremony itself). But aren’t these lovely? (be sure to click to embiggen!)

After the 20-minute ceremony, they went to a fancy restaurant (La Jolla Marine Room) for a heckuva fancy dinner (steak and lobster with pinot noir!)

They’re now making plans for the reception party they’ll have up here in October. Then, off on a wedding trip (TBD)!

So happy for them!!!!

The OTHER Little Yellow Car

So, John has his sporty little (yellow) Solstice that he bought brand new back in 2007 (and promptly beefed up with uber-power). Cute lil’ thang, but did I mention that it’s little? I’ve never driven it. Waaayyy too much power for me (I picture doing an unintentional wheelie in it), plus I haven’t driven a standard shift in quite a few years. But when he isn’t hauling crap in the pickup (which he does 99% of the time), he enjoys spinning it around the curvy roads here on the island.

We actually took a trip in it shortly after he got it, with the dogs, down the Oregon coast. In pouring rain. How we really managed that—with the dogs—is beyond me.

All this time, including the time Before Tonya, John has had another little yellow car buried in the bowels of his garage/shop at the Des Moines house. I’ve only seen partial glimpses of it since it was tucked far in the depths and was always covered with a myriad of shop debris (and sawdust). It’s his 1972 Lotus Europa, which he used to drive everywhere (back in the early 1980s) until the motor blew a rod (or something very dire) and died the big bad death. He kept it as a “retirement project,” you know, “way-in-the-future” when he’d have the time to rebuild it.

Well, today was the day that it finally emerged from it’s decades-long dungeon and was hauled on a car trailer from Des Moines to Harstine! Our friend, young Lee (who did our siding and a bunch of other work on our house, plus is John’s gold prospecting buddy) and Lee’s father, met John in Des Moines and they loaded it up on the trailer.

Here it is after they pulled it off the trailer and were about to ratchet it down the driveway to its new home:

 

Isn’t it odd looking? The engine is in the back! (Actually, it has no engine; John pulled it long ago). And it is much smaller than his Solstice and extremely light. (It can pretty easily be manhandled by two guys). It’s British (Series 2), and only 800 of them were imported to the U.S. Lee said that during their drive down here, lots of people were slowing down and taking pictures. “What the hell is that?”

And now it’s in the Harstine garage:

There are still lots of house projects (right now the driveway retaining walls are a huge ordeal), but eventually when John really IS retired, he’ll start working on this thing. Over the years, he’s accumulated a bunch of engine parts for it so he’s got a good foundation when the time comes.

Why yellow? Well, he likes the color, for one thing (not high on my list…), but it’s also important for these little cars to be SEEN on the roads so a bright color helps. In fact, there’s a dent on the passenger door caused by a guy in a truck moving over a lane right into John (he couldn’t see him).

Something tells me that in the interim, the car will once again be buried in garage debris. Much like the boat (which is beside it) already is.

On another note, John also hauled my old 10-speed bike down here, circa 1979. I hadn’t ridden it all that much, so ultimately it should be in pretty good shape, aside from needing new tires and gone over with chain oil, etc. And WASHED. Yep, I got it brand new in 1979!

God, when was the last time I rode a bike? You never forget how, right?

The Week

The INSTANT I coiled up the hose and stuck it in its storage pot after watering the deck flower pots this morning, it started to rain. It looked like it could, but it did yesterday, too, but didn’t. And it’s when it’s cloudy (but not rainy) that I tend to slide on watering. When it’s sunny and hot, it’s foremost on my mind. Not so much when it’s cloudy and cool! That can bite me in the butt because there can be stretches of cloudy days without rain, and the flowers still get thirsty! They got a bit of a double dose today, but I don’t think they’ll mind.

It rained off and on today, pretty hard later this afternoon for a brief time after we returned home from grocery-getting. The air smells fresh! It’s the first rain we’ve had since June 2nd. I don’t know if it was enough everywhere to help with the fire danger. Probably “help,” but not “ease.” The birds liked it (the feeder was a busy place), and I saw Mojo drinking from a puddle on a deck board. (Cats…)

Speaking of which, John rescued another chipmunk that Mojo hauled inside the house, which then got free and hid in the pantry. Both Mojo and Bailey knew it was still in there, and Bailey was staring at a bottom shelf of miscellaneous pantry goods, wagging her tail. This resulted in removing said cat and dog from the pantry, wedging open the pet door, clearing the bottom shelf to expose the critter, and then coaxing the critter toward the pet door—where it zoomed away! Jeesh. It’s a freaking zoo here.

My week? Somewhat productive! I finally went through a big stack of boxes that were obstructing my route to the cupboards and sink in the glass studio. I’d procrastinated long enough—boxes of leftover paperwork from when I was on our high school’s TENTH class reunion committee (tossed!); more framed art/pictures that would cover many times the walls that we have in this house (argh); more photos to store but not necessarily organize; AND a large bin of early fused glass items that I’d brought to the Harstine Farmers Market a couple (3?!) years ago. Many made me eyeroll, but there were a few things that made me go “OH!”

Been working in the glass studio, too. Several years ago, I made this in stained glass:

It used to hang by the entrance to the camping trailer, often tangled in the grape foliage. I’ve always really liked it, but it had become quite grungy, so I cleaned it up and re-siliconed it into the frame. Then I thought: “How can I adapt this into fused glass?”

They are two different animals. For the structure to hold, stained glass has to be cut in connecting segments (and then copper-foiled and soldered). Fused glass is more freeing with the design, but also doesn’t have the solder to define the design segments, plus there isn’t the variety of glass colors and textures available as stained glass. So this is what I came up with for the fused glass design:

Different glass types and colors, but the same basic pattern. I have more ideas to experiment with this, too! The problem is, I can’t find those wrought iron round framer hangers anymore. ANYWHERE. I have a few left, and then…that’s it! (Such a bummer, because I’ve really enjoyed making them).

I can see some different designs hanging along the entry deck. And Wiener Deck. Or whatever. (Add a little color on cloudy days?)

ANNOUNCING!

One week from today, on Monday, July 13th…

These two very special people…

…my one and only kiddo, Nate, and his lovely young lady, Sandra…

…who have persevered through lengthy Navy deployments and challenges for well over two years together…

…are getting hitched!

It’ll be an “elopement” ceremony on the beach in San Diego, then in October when they both have a nice banked stretch of leave from the Navy, they will come to Washington for a Big Party at The Cove!

I’m over the moon! 

                                          

Honestly Awesome 4th!

The sizzle continues!

We had a wonderful day with my BFF, Helen and her husband, Ron, who drove up from Sandy, OR and spent the night. Such a whole load of fun in the sun! (And shade….)

Those are Crantinis we’re drinking. It’s pretty much the Helen-and-Tonya Go-To Cocktail. (It’s also known as a Metropolitan).

For two:

In a shaker with ice, add 3 ounces of vodka (Absolut Citron); 1 ounce of Grand Marnier; a splash of lime juice; and 4 ounces of cranberry juice (I use Ocean Spray “diet” because it isn’t so sicky-sweet but still has lots of tarty flavor).

Shake really well and pour into martini glasses. It’s refreshing and incredibly delicious!

When that’s gone, make another one!

 

Food! Oh, we had marvelous food! So marvelous that I didn’t take any pictures of it. Dinner was grilled marinated rib-eyes, berry salad, crash hot potatoes, grilled veggies and corn on the cob, and burgundy mushrooms and crusty bread. Just wow.

Then there was this!

 

Followed by our neighbors’ annual gobsmacking fireworks show.

It was heavenly, and hard to see Helen and Ron leave late this morning. But, they have kitties and chickens who needed tending.

This entire beach was BUSY all day yesterday, with boaters and jet skiers and kayakers and swimmers and partiers. Today?

It’s almost like the apocalypse came!