Home Again

Finally arrived and its sunny!  Waiting for the twins!

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Hallelujah

Everyone should be born into this world happy
and loving everything.
But in truth it rarely works that way.
For myself, I have spent my life clamoring toward it.
Halleluiah, anyway I'm not where I started!

And have you too been trudging like that, sometimes
almost forgetting how wondrous the world is
and how miraculously kind some people can be?
And have you too decided that probably nothing important
is ever easy?
Not, say, for the first sixty years.

Halleluiah, I'm sixty now, and even a little more,
and some days I feel I have wings.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(Evidence)

With thanks to Panhala.net 

1949?

It took the two 63 year olds a while to figure out why their cake said 49.  They finally figured it out  in time to blow out the candles.

The Birthday/Anniversary Bash

Tonight the keeper fed us early and headed out into bad bad traffic for the annual birthday/anniversary bash.  She likes how small they are these days.  No hoopla, just dear friends with good food, great margaritas with nothing to prove. Anyway, tonight they celebrated 40 years of marriage times two married people, 45 years of vowed Jesuit life, 39 years of lay ministry and 63 years of life for two. If our calculations are correct, they were celebrating 290 years of some kind of life.  Not bad. We probably should have baked a cake for the keeper. But she doesn't really eat much cake.

Happy Birthday!

Happiest Birthday, Father President!

Long Life! Great Challenges! Much Joy!

More Treasures

We are happy that she has made more new friends these last years. We understand that this group is a lean mean liturgical machine and can make any kind of celebration elegant and ordered.  Besides, we hear they are very fun people.  And at least two of them have lovely cats.

Treasures

She was gone all day practically.  But she came home mentioning all of the wonderful new people she met from near and far --from Sweden, Great Britain, Italy, Ballard, Bothell, and even Wallingford. And then she mentioned the incredible Marilyn, who is an archdiocesan treasure, or perhaps a countess, who holds the stories of many.

At the Monte del Gozo!

Okay, the Monte was actually First Hill, and the Cathedral was a place of joy on this splendid feast of St. James, and although the keeper said she didn't see too many people crawling in on their knees, the joy was rich as they received their final stamps for making the journey and as they received their "compostelas."

The keeper showed us hers.  We were impressed.  Now, you know she is talking about doing part of this walk in Fall of 2013.  More petsitters for us. More knee surgery for her!

Outside, At Last!

Well, folks, we tried to communicate with you earlier, but for some reason the photos which the keeper shot on her phone and sent to our blog did not go through, but they explained her day (and consequently, ours) to you. So here's the short story.  She left us inside all day to go to a Region XII--that means lots of dioceses--Spanish Encuentro for Young Adults in Renton.  On her way to the church, she got stuck in a Seafair Parade in Renton.  She does not like Seafair.  So, imagine our keeper being stuck in front of a pickup truck full of pirates....not a happy picture. 

Once she got to the Encuentro and talked to all of her  good friends, and had some bad food choices for lunch--we think this means Cheetos, she  went to the afternoon session on threats to marriage, after which she tried to participate in a group dynamic that involved hand gestures and a song and dancing, at which point she headed to the bathroom to wait until it was safe to come out. If you know her at all, you know she only does dancing with hand gestures at weddings when she is holding a drink with an umbrella in it. 

So, guess what?  She came home earlier than expected, and declared that her vacation had begun!  That means we got to go out. Alice went birding, and I snoozed. 

Third Regional Encuentro

Guess where we are on this now beautiful afternoon! You are correct. We are patiently awaiting her return from some gathering in Renton. We are sending her sw ret signals to come home  early.

Sent from my Windows Phone

Happy Birthday, MKD!

Additionally, they were pleasantly surprised with the complimentary birthday Tiramisu, which is a trademark. They waddled back to their cars. She brought us no leftovers. And since the keeper bruised her ankle trying to finish the Camino with a blaze of glory, she can't really walk this off. We warned her about competing with herself. Did she listen? She should have stayed home with us. Maybe she will understand when she gets older.

The Favorite Spot

She was off and running once she got home from her office this afternoon. We really liked Reading Week because she stayed home.  But we digress. Tonight she met MKD for an early dinner at the great Pomodoro Restaurant on Eastlake. It was hopping. As well it should be. And Antolin, the owner and genius chef, was in fine form, providing hospitality, wine, and some entertainment.  They caught the Bananas Foster Show along with the neighboring tables.

Lighting Up Our Lives

We don't really need solar lamp posts, we have Cecil.  He can sit under the light of the moon and glow, and of course he lights up our lives all the rest of the time.  The keeper made me add this last part.

A Healthy Dinner for Us, at Least!

  We waited for her to come home and she came home early.  She felt a need to walk, and she walked a long way, thinking about a lot of things and praying for a young man on his way home to God. So, two hours later, she came home and fed us, finally. ( It's probably good she never had children because she barely seems to remember us, some days.) Then, she retired to the deck with food with fiber and a clear drink with limes in it, to look at the mail and read the latest news from ncr and Ocean Shores. She seemed happy to be missing both the Harley Weekend and the Psychic Festival down there. We got to stay out till it was dark and she carried us in.

THE INVITATION

The keeper has an old friend, actually 18 hours older, who is being installed as the 32nd President of a prestigious university this fall.  THE invitation packet came today. Cocktails and seminars and Masses and dinners and ceremonies and dances and parties and lions and tigers...Oh my!  Oh my, this will be fun! And a whole contingent of friends and family gathering to celebrate.  Oh my! We believe we will have face time with a house/cat sitter again while she is having fun in the East.

Dinner al Fresco

Tonight we all got to eat outside.  She lit the tree candles and we got to sample the grilled chicken and vegies as the half moon rose on the rosy sky. Cecil added ambience by throwing up a huge hairball.

Fruit!

The tomatoes will be ripe about the time the keeper turns the house and us over to the house and petsitter! But we also picked another bowlful of berries. She will eat those. Well, it was really the keeper who picked because we lack opposable thumbs. We guess you knew that, though.

Feast of St. James ( on the sanctoral calendar)

Today is the day on the calendar to celebrate St. James.  However, the keeper and friends will observe the feast on the weekend.  But it was a day of journeying. This morning she left us for a very sad funeral of a widowed mother who left two children behind. The mother had journeyed to Mexico for a low priced (and unnecessary) medical procedure and died during the procedure. Now her children journey as orphans. Her parents journey heartbroken.  The funeral was sad, and the presence of a contingent of armed guards with a brother in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs in the back, weeping, didn't help much either.  The keeper bought some sunflowers on the way back to the office. St. James, bless all who trek through such travail.

Christmas List

Just in case any family members read this, now here's a gift idea!

In the Garden

Sigh.  

The keeper remembers seeing a sign in a store, now closed, which she used to liked to frequent.  The sign hung on the front door and said, "This is a difficult store for children." She was surprised not to see any signs like that in the Garden.

The Glass House

The Glass House with the Needle in the background. Sigh.

Ikebana and Float Boat

They watched a film about how he floated most of the floats down the river a bit. Sigh.

Mille Fiori

Sigh.

The Trading Blanket Bowls

The keeper was not aware that Chihuly had the largest Pendleton blanket collection anywhere. He had some that the Pendleton people had never seen. He also designed some new ones for them. This is the one the keeper wants.

At the Chihuly Gardens and Glass

The keeper and her friend J had an artistic day. They headed to Seattle Center to se the new Chihuly Garden and Glass Gallery. They started with the Glass Forest .

Mike the Boy Lives!

This was a rather traumatic day for the keeper, not for us, because we were stuck inside all day. She attended three different churches and was supposed to attend a concert at the last one, but fled home exhausted. She went to a church she used to lead which has become a shell of its old self, and she wanted to support them. She saw old friends but she felt their loss and fear.  Then she headed to Spanish Mass where she met a family living in a van and another whose son is in detention.  She tried to support them.

But she wasn't prepared to hear that her little brother who is 5 years younger in California had a heart attack and was being operated on in the afternoon.  They had just gotten back from some weeks in Greece. Thank God he was at Scripps La Jolla. She found out he was doing pretty well before she sought refuge at the cathedral.  She found comfort but didn't have any more juice to hang out or talk to others. She hopes the concert was grand. She is even happier her brother, who also likes cats, will live. She spoke with him. And they laughed. He didn't have any mystical visits with dead loved ones and he didn't see his life parade before him. But she told us that the realization of sibling mortality is sobering, to say the least. 

Evening Stroll, Dachshund Hunting

So, you may be asking, as we were, "What happened to Reading Week?"  She told us that she read a book on Vatican II on the ferry and later on the deck tonight, and there still is time tonight. But she also worked on her Camino goals and did a grand stroll through the neighborhood and helped a neighbor look for his little black dachshund, to no avail. She did see a skinny cat and some great lilies, though.

Edmonds Station

The Edmonds train station is charming, and sometimes the train even is able to carry passengers north and south. The ever occurring mudslides block the tracks and everyone has to take the bus.

Sunshine on a Plate

The keeper took the ferry to have lunch with some former parishioners and friends from Ohio who have a condo in Port Ludlow.  They had a lovely long lunch. Austin ordered Sunshine on a Plate, a special version of Eggs Benedict. Next time she will go up to Port Ludlow to stay at their amazing place.

To Kingston Town!

What a beautiful day to walk on the ferry!  Meanwhile,  we had to leave our deck perches and come inside.

Just When You Think...

It started off as a very quiet morning.  It was wet  We stayed inside. The keeper read. And read. And read. I snuck out to sleep in the covered area of the side yard it was so boring inside.  At approximately 20 minutes to three I was whisked into my crate and next thing I knew I was in the car with the keeper heading someplace.  She made soothing sounds. They didn't help. As soon as she carried me into Northgate Veterinary Clinic I started howling.  I am always afraid that I may be rejected again.  It's an abandonment issue. But they poked and prodded and took blood and gave me shots and a new toy and then we came home. I am feeling a little groggy now. I recall hearing something about feline dentistry. No way.  But I am happy and relieved I wasn't abandoned. It's a silly fear, you may think, but I carry those wounds from my last keeper. But when I am in my clear mind, I can't imagine this keeper leaving me. She needs my warm and loving personality.

The Keepers and the Kitties

What an amazing foursome! We hope someday they will visit us.

La Caminata

After a delicious pasta dinner, they took a paseo out on the Chief Sealth Trail to check out the sunset... Exquisite!

Off to the House of Tom and Hairy

She went out to dinner at a storybook house filled with color, books, art, and 2 very cool people. And two very cool cats, Hairy and Tom, with whom we have exchanged posts. We understand she brought them some of Cecil's catnip, and they ate it up.  You're Welcome. We also understand they are very beautiful and playful. No, we are not jealous. We are secure in our identities.