Airbrushing..Yes !!!

Gimme some of that airbrushing !!!!

Nancy looks fantastic on the cover of Capitol File and not so good on capitol hill. When young, she was a very beautiful woman, and as she ages, she is still very attractive, with a great shape and gorgeous wardrobe.

But, she is the same age as I am, give or take a few days, and I know what I know about a 70 years old woman, and it ain't pretty without a whole lot of airbrushing :o)

April Snow

Only 3 days left in April and it's snowing in Paradise. If I hear one word about draught or conserving water, I'll faint !!!

Another thing that makes me faint is our government's handling of the illegals problem. One of my favorite columnists is Victor Davis Hansen and his piece today is really worth the read.

I especially like this comment from one of his readers.....

8. steveaz
Thanks for this one, Victor.
I rub elbows with lefty academics all the time in Flagstaff, and the other night, between Tequila shots and fits of dancing to Santana’s latest disc, the issue of Mexicans’ immigration flows into the SW came up.
I asked a liberal acquaintance (she used to work for Jerry Torricelli’s campaigns in NJ) what the hang up was. Why, I asked, shouldn’t Mexico’s citizens line up to apply just like Polish, Indian, Russian and Chilean citizens have historically done. She said I was racist for asking.
But I wouldn’t drop it…I replied that the hang-up is Mexico’s citizens have never adopted the American Bill of Rights, and that if they did I’d be the first to push for El Norte’s unification with the Mexican South and to add one more star to our flag. My liberal friend turned pale, her mouth hung open, and she gasped for air like a landed lung-fish. She had never entertained the idea that there may something special about America, and something lacking in Mexicans’ traditional jurusprudence that might argue against permitting their un-documented immigration.
After blustering and waving her hands in the air, finally she blurted out, "Mexico would NEVER want to join America!" Of course, every Mexican national who crosses into Arizona, California or Texas is refuting her, and she knows it, but still she could not relinquish her liberal anti-American talking point. The seconds passed uninterrupted, and I let silence slowly make my point for me: my "liberal" fellow-citizen neither relishes the Bill of Rights that her political party claims to champion, nor does she thinks that any other person in the world should.
But there is one more juicy contradiction to note. When I floated the topic of unification with Mexico my interlocuter got flabbergasted: any extension of America’s Constitutional order, even if it is sanctioned by a public referendum in a neighboring state like Mexico, is to be opposed. This, she says, is "extending American Imperialism," and, furthermore, nations are oppressive, patriarchal constructs that should be dissolved in order to achieve "global harmony." Problem is, this registered Democrat (an American political party) cloaks her defense of illegal immigration in racialist terms that invoke "Hispanics," and "Latinos" as facile proxies for the Mexican nation and its government policies – which she has no problem whatsoever defending and extending.
So which is it? Is all nationalism bad, or is just American nationalism bad? Is Mexico’s socio-political tradition compatible with ours, or not? And, do Democrats revere our bill of rights, or is it just a Monopoly card for them – something to get them out of jail free, a property on Boardwalk, or a win in the next election?
From my liberal Democratic friend’s responses, I gather that so long as the target is America, so-called nationalism, immigrants’ cultures, and even our beloved "human rights" are ready pawns in the Left’s electoral games. But, turn the light onto other nations, other cultures, and other, non-American modes of jurisprudence, and suddenly all are sacrosanct, immune to scrutiny, and taboo.
Perhaps it’s her London School of Economics degree, or her Princeton education, or her tenure inside "the Torch’s" New Jersey political schemes, or her failed marriage to a black panther in the sixties, I’ll never know. But, with every shot of Tequilla, my arguer began to sound more and more like Edward Said, only she bandied about her version of his "Orientalism" to defend illegal immigration from scrutiny and not suicide bombings. Small difference, I know…but she is an East Coast Democrat. And there’s time a plenty to man the ramparts for Islamist terror later on.

Whales whales

There have been a few dead whales in Puget Sound lately and the worst fear for a property owner is to have one end up on their beach, with summer headed our way. I saw this video on Dori Monson's blog and had to share.

Toothless in Gig Harbor

Our little missy lost her first tooth a couple days ago. While she's busy shedding teeth, Jacob has 4 brand new front teeth. I think shedding is much more fun as you get popsicles and a visit from the tooth ferry instead of a soggy shirt heavy with drool.

Maritime Pier

At last the city is getting serious about a maritime pier for all the folks who work and play on the water. The city already owns the land next door to the Tides Tavern, where the "People's Dock", the town's only public ferry landing was located years ago, now they own the "Stutz Fuel" property next to it . It is a good site as it has deep water even at low tide. Let's hope things work out so work can get started. Yippee..at last !!!!

Pacific Bully

The Pacific Bully ran aground yesterday in the Huntington Beach area, near the river jetty in Newport Beach, California. There are some shallow areas with the current in that area. Luckily it was quite calm and luckily they got her off safely at the next high tide. As for any damage, I haven't heard.

She is part of the fleet that fishes for squid in southern Cal.

Something completely different.

Sweet Ingy

My gosh...there is nothing more precious that grandchildren and here I am with my sweet Ingy. We had a fun 70th birthday party and the best part was having all my family members present.

Just for fun...listen to these darling kids and look at their wonderful teacher. Let's hope we can keep music in our schools.

And give this a listen....such a sad, sweet song. It was used in the 1990 PBS miniseries, The Civil War. Maybe you recognise it.

T'was the 18th of April

As you can see, the number is 70 and the day is my birthday. I had always wondered if I would make it to the year 2000 and it seems I am still going strong so who knows how many more birthdays I'll have before the party's over.
I do know being active and having fun makes for a very good life and so far so good. This was a bit of the fun that took place this week. I called it "don't scare the children" !!!!

Flying High

Did you ever see a shinier engine in your life?

After a complete overhaul, the engine was finally lifted and lowered back to it's home yesterday. The son of a friend of mine has a crane business called Champion Crane and he did the lifting and lowering. Now the job of sliding from the hatch into the engine room and reconnecting begins. Hopefully when all is said and done, it will purr like a kitten.

Bulkhead

Lots of blocks and gravel have been hauled in since I last walked here.
At the top you see just the old foundation, the house was torn down to make room for new. The side of the old net shed is to the right and where you see gravel, that used to be the driveway for the 4 small cabins and shed that sat along the water's edge. It will be fun having a new project to check on occasionally.

And for fun...here is a video of Seattle's Flash Mob...the daughter of one of my flute player friends took part in it. What a hoot.

Gone

The Skansie home is gone and now, so is the basement. Now we wait to see what will take it's place. I'm betting on two homes...one on the original spot and one below on another wonderful lot that can be accessed from the lower road.

Driftwood House

Yesterday the northwind blew and we froze, today the northwind barely blew and we were finally warm.
Daddy took the girls to the beach and the afternoon was spent rounding up driftwood for a house. Could life get any better??
I see Bergen is wearing her new blue and white checkered skirt. She put in an order while here the other day so granny measured, made a pattern from waxpaper, then cut and stitched the skirt in a matter of minutes. The hardest part was deciding the fabric from the piles of material I have smooshed in my stash. She was thrilled with her new skirt and I thrilled to be rid of one piece of material.

Desert Nuns

Wow...talk about fortitude !!!! The sisters of Our Lady of Solitude in Phoenix, AZ are building a chapel in the desert at their monastery. From what I read, it looks like they are happy to accept any kind of help, physical or monetary. You go girls !!!!

Also, prayers for Poland.So many of their leaders lost.

According to the flight manifest, these were aboard:

Lech Kaczyński, President of Poland
Maria Kaczyńska, First Lady of Poland
Krystyna Bochenek, Deputy Speaker of the Senate
Bishop Mirosław Chodakowski, Orthodox Ordinary of the Polish Army
Leszek Deptuła, member of the Sejm
Grzegorz Dolniak, member of the Sejm
Janina Fetlińska, member of the Senate
General Franciszek Gągor, Chief of the Polish Army General Staff
Grażyna Gęsicka, member of the Sejm
Przemysław Gosiewski, member of the Sejm
Mariusz Handzlik, Undersecretary of State in the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland
Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, member of the Sejm
Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last President of the Polish government-in-exile
Sebastian Karpiniuk, member of the Sejm
Vice Admiral Andrzej Karweta, Commander-in-chief of the Polish Navy
Janusz Kochanowski, Polish Ombudsman
Andrzej Kremer, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
Janusz Kurtyka, Historian and president of the Institute of National Remembrance
Tomasz Merta, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
Aleksandra Natalli-Świat, member of the Sejm
Piotr Nurowski, President of the Polish Olympic Committee
Maciej Płażyński, President of the Polish Community association
Bishop Tadeusz Płoski, bishop of the Military Ordinariate of the Polish Army
Krzysztof Putra, Deputy Speaker of the Sejm
Andrzej Przewoźnik, Secretary-General of the Council for the Defense of the Memory of Struggle and Suffering
Fr. Ryszard Rumianek, Rector of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University
Arkadiusz Rybicki, member of the Sejm
Sławomir Skrzypek, President of the National Bank of Poland
Władysław Stasiak, Chief of the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland
Aleksander Szczygło, head of the National Security Bureau
Jerzy Szmajdziński, Deputy Speaker of the Sejm
Jolanta Szymanek-Deresz, member of the Sejm
Anna Walentynowicz, free trade union activist, member of Solidarity
Zbigniew Wassermann, member of the Sejm
Wiesław Woda, member of the Sejm
Edward Wojtas, member of the Sejm
Paweł Wypych, Secretary of State in the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland
Stanisław Zając, member of the Senate

Remembering JPII in Poland

Ross House

Well whatta ya know....it looks like the "Ross" house is being restored instead of demolished. It's located on the water in "Milville" and the owner must have a gazillion bucks because he has already done oodles of work on the dock, now it looks like he's starting big time on the house. The owner is handicapped and gets around in a spiffy electric scooter so I am sure he'll make it a breeze in which to move about. It will be fun watching the project as it progresses. I'll post pix as it goes along.

Skansie/Goldman Home

What a shock it was yesterday to drive up Soundview and see an excavator ripping up the shrubs and trees surrounding the back of one of my favorite homes. I was hoping they were clearing a path for movers, but today as I drove past, the house was gone and all that was left was the foundation and tons of dust, blowing in the wind. If that wasn't bad enough, I also noticed that a house that used to sit on the bank at the old ferry landing , just a block away, met the same fate while we were away.

The woman who used to live in this house was from the U.K. originally and traded teaching positions with our home-ec teacher at Peninsula High for a year. While here, she met someone, married and Gig Harbor became her home. She was a very talented seamstress and when my sister married, she made the pattern for her dress from a picture sis had seen in a magazine. I think sis did the sewing, with a little help from all of us as it had what seemed like miles of handsewn ribbon on the skirt.

The house was so warm and inviting, inside and out and it is becoming more and more difficult to watch the changes in the little town where I have spent most of my life.

Purdy Bridge 1926

M D Boland took amazing black and white pictures of the Gig Harbor area and this one is of an earlier Purdy Bridge, around 1926. If you look closely, you'll see the towers supporting the lines from Cushman Dam. My how things have changed in Purdy.

Red Rooster Cafe

There is soon to be another eating establishment in the harbor. It will be on the waterfront in Milville: the older, historical part of the harbor. They are hoping to open by May 1st with hours from 7 to 7 and it's to be called Red Rooster Cafe and collectibles. I don't know about the collectibles, but let's hope they have just the thing the public can't live without. I also heard rumors of gluten free foods.

Milville doesn't allow the sale of liquor. If one wants to imbibe while dining, they will have to bring their own. To be quite honest...that would work for me. Maybe a cork fee, or in my case, a screw off the cap fee, and you're on your way, on the deck above the water in the warm northwest sun. We can dream, can't we ?

Here's something altogether different than food and wine. I wonder how many of us would be as smart if both our folks were engineers.

Point Dume

When on our trip to southen CA. we spent one day at the beach. The spot Len's son chose was Point Dume at Malibu. He chose that location because it's beautiful, easily accessible, and because there has never been a time he's been there that there hasn't been a "star" sighting. The location is used in many movies and I think he said, was where Baywatch was filmed.

Len's grandkids live in the Chicago area and were lucky enough to be entertained by a whale just off the beach in the waves. We still don't know why the whale was so close to shore, but figured it was finding a meal.

The location was special to me because my kids fish near there occasionally and I hear them mention Point Dume as they come and go. It was a wonderful day in the sun and we were so grateful to the young folks for hauling us along.

It's us

Len's son captured a frame of us as we watched Ellen come up the aisle.