Straight from the Container

On Alki Beach.

Mt. Baker behind the Space Needle. This is actually what you can see from the top of our street.

Alki Beach.

Alki Beach.

Dave admires Mt. Rainier.

It’s the kind of weather that suddenly makes you realize why you live in Seattle. Cloudless skies, 70 degrees, so clear you can see clear to Oregon. Of course, this would be the week we’re actually in Michigan! But the truth is, aside from the mountains, the weather is much the same here. So it will even out.

UPDATE: Kind readers have reminded me that Mt. Baker is in Washington. I really needed a vacation!

Sofa says, “Have a good week everybody. Mary and Dave have left me with Megan and Mark, and they are spoiling me so I don’t want Mary and Dave to come back right away. They are now going to vacation without getting on the Internet. You can come over to their house and bring me treats, though. I like bacon and cheese.”

How I found Kasmira’s site, I do not know. I do know that I want her style! Right now! Actually, she’s very inspiring — I love that you can spot the same shoes and skirts in different outfits. I also love that she’s from Cincinnati, my hometown.

Trust me — very few people look this good going to work in Cincinnati. That’s not a dig, that’s just reality. Conservative town.

Myself, I work from the couch these days, so here is my usual uniform:

Thanks Kasmira for the long-distance inspiration! (Your house is cute, too.)

My pal Uncle Beefy had a very fun meme where you create a “shaken not stirred” long drink of “who are you” based on real and imagined characters in popular culture. Says the Beef, “Who do you think would best sum you up at the end of a Cuisinart session? It can be any number of people or characters that you want.” I could not resist this challenge, so I have created the mary-t-ni. This is a very bitter and neurotic drink. But it tries hard to make you laugh.

Jules from Diva, Lindsay Weir, Scout Finch, Harvey Pekar, Angela Chase, Alvy Singer, Gloria Steinem

Try as I might, i could NOT get the Gloria portion of my personality to step in line with the rest of the rogue’s gallery. This is actually fine with me. It’s time i let the gorgeous, fearless, equality-demanding part of Mary T take over. Now make me a drink!

P.S. I insanely love how she wore her glasses stems over part of her hair!

Every year we travel with my husband’s family to a little lake near Traverse City, Michigan. There we spend a blissful week wading in the lake, staring into the water, and searching for Petoskey stones. This is a much more fun endeavor than you might imagine, because when you find a good one, you really find a good one. You feel for a second like you’ve won the lottery. When Petoskey stones are shined up, they look somewhat spectacular. Local Traverse stores will find them, shine them, and sell them to you, but it’s so much more fun to hunt for them on your own.

Dave decided this year to experiment with some of the tiniest stones we managed to uncover, casting them inside his resin rings. The results so far have been pretty fantastic. We’re going to shop them around a few of the shops and galleries we frequent in Traverse and Sutton’s Bay to see if we can get some takers, but if you like them, let me know, and I’ll see what I can do.

Of course, there are still other designs in Dave’s Etsy shop — just no Petoskeys there yet. This one is my favorite right now — it includes beach glass from Alki Beach (which is a treasure trove of tiny beach glass — lots of beer bottles must break on Alki).

I am very much looking forward to my treatment in business class.

Remember that little post about my crazy-blind purchase of business class tickets? Delta has already done something I find suspicious/that is completely different from when I am a lowly coach passenger. I just got an email so smarmy I feel the need to wet-wipe my hands:

We’re reconfirming - so you don’t have to!

Want to change your seat, or find out what movies will be shown on board? It’s just a click away. And don’t worry, we’ll send you a friendly reminder when it’s time to check-in.

Yeah, I’m a copywriter; I know some ad agency person wrote that. But still! The email goes on to encourage me to join the Crown Room Club. Ha, that’s not going to happen. Unless I stay up very, very late while blogging and tap into that 24-year-old aged rum our friend Kevin brought us as a thank-you when he recently stayed with us for a few days. (Now that Kevin knows how to treat a host right!)

A note to everyone that, yes, once again we’re vacating — we are flying to Michigan (IN THE LAP OF LUXURY!) on Saturday and not back until July 5. (But we have a large dog and capable housesitters, so don’t be entertaining any notions of relieving us of our valuable yard waste and recyclables collections.) I have fab-u-lous posts scheduled for next week, however!!! So stay tuned! I know you’re panting with excitement…

And in case you haven’t noticed, I don’t post on weekends. Ciao!

P.P.S. I keep getting stressed out over comments but please, y’all, don’t stop commenting. It’s only my frayed nerves of the past month or so that makes me think everyone is out to get me when you’re just trying to make me laugh. Mommy really needs a vacation!

That was then. This is now.

I just left an EPIC comment over at Properly Salted (new blooooog) and what the hell — might as well just recount it here.

Last year the Fremont Solstice Parade was the highlight of my year — fabulous day, great company, excellent seats front and center near the parade’s beginning. It was really the first time I felt truly like moving to Seattle was EXACTLY the right choice. So you can see why I made plans to go this year with friends, including leaving two hours early to allow ourselves time to drive to Ballard, bus it to Fremont, take up our curb residence, etc.

As Hemingway once said, the road to hell is paved with unbought stuffed dogs. Here’s the comment I left at Properly Salted (who incidentally was obviously better situated at the parade than I):

I am so annoyed by this year’s parade. First, my crazy family was in town so half of them refused to go (nekkid people!!! no!!!) So there was this complete cluster-eff of trying to figure out how to get six people to Ballard where they would not be sullied. Then when we left at 10, we got caught in INSANITY of traffic as the Alaskan Viaduct was closed down for the damn Race for the Cure. Took us an hour to get from West Seattle to Western Ave.

By the time we got to my friend’s house, it was too late to catch the bus from Ballard to Fremont, so we had more c-f-ness while we figured out who was going to drive where. So we finally made it to Fremont, parked illegally (and got a ticket, of course — I know we suck but we were really just over the edge of one of those “do not park north of here” things but I don’t blame them). Then we got there SO late we couldn’t get a good spot to watch, and we were at the tail end so half the bikers must have dropped out much earlier. So we saw a lot of milling about but not much activity on that end. And a few things over the tops of heads. But not much.

Such a disappointment compared to my front-row seats of last year.

*cries*…

(Management acknowledges that all families are crazy, includes herself in that equation, and recognizes that moms did not want to take teenage boys. Got it.)

I love this woman.

Perhaps you could buy the Plush You! book.

Hooray for the Lab! Kristen Rask and other fine folks will be discussing the new Plush trend at tomorrow’s Lab at Velocity Art and Design. Now, you know I love the Lab, so I really encourage you to make it out. It starts at 6 and there’s always a lot of great people, some light, yummy food, a bit of wine, and my new obsession: Dry Soda. I would have mentioned the Lab sooner but I was dealing with the family trip that just ended. Thank you, Seattle, for making today so insanely gorgeous so that we could walk the Bubba at Lincoln Park and forget 1) how many places I had to drive the past week (read: everywhere) 2) how many decisions I had to make (read: every one) (okay, there were two or three I didn’t make) and 3) crying in the car after saying goodbye to my mom. (Too personal?)

Buy me a free drink tomorrow at the Lab.

Because, you know, I just used up all my money on the family visit. And we’re leaving again for the vacation from our vacation on Saturday. In any case, Polite Society now has an online store, and I pulled off a few things that struck my fancy. I have expensive taste.

Celeste Lace Neck Top

Ingenue Camisole with Circle Detail

(Both those tops would look hideous on me but I like them anyway.)

Square Neck Dress with Embroidery (Only available in size 4 and 6, though — are you kidding me?)

Okay, now I’m annoyed with your size-ist policies, Polite Society. No more linkage for you.